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NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
2004 Annual Report: Benefits of Membership

Knowledge Management

Through its publications and Web sites, including REALTOR.org,REALTOR® Magazine, and REALTOR® Magazine Online, NAR delivers and interprets information that helps members run their businesses more knowledgeably and effectively. And NAR partner Homestore.com helps REALTORS® market their services and listings to millions of Web-surfing prospects via REALTOR.com. Following are the NAR publications and Web sites that can help you become more successful in your real estate career.

  • REALTOR.org
    In 2004, NAR moved headlong into an ambitious redesign of REALTOR.org, the association's official Web site for members, with a goal of making the site more user-friendly in its design and information organization. The redesign remains ongoing, but several key improvements were achieved in the last year. Among them are: a better search function at the site powered by Google, the gold standard in Internet search; a new home page design that features special information for the site's various audience groups, including key business tools for each group; new second-level topic pages that are better organized and easier to navigate; and easier access from anywhere in the site to special member savings opportunities.

    REALTOR.org also introduced a new monthly e-newsletter in January 2004, REALTOR.org Essentials, to help REALTORS stay in touch with the latest and most useful information at the site. In addition, the site played a key role in promoting the Quadrennial Code of Ethics Training, offering NAR members an easy way to fulfill their ethics-training requirement.


  • REALTOR.com
    NAR’s national listing and marketing Web site, REALTOR.com, continues to dominate all Internet real estate property listings and consumer traffic categories. Throughout 2004, property listings remained constant at more than 2.3 million, with an average of 5 million to 6 million, unique visitors per month. Total visitors averaged more than 12 million per month, and views per listing skyrocketed in 2004 to an average of more than 600 per month. The continued increase in all Internet traffic metrics can be attributed to the strong continued support of REALTOR® organizations across the country—99 percent of all national MLSs participate.

    Under the leadership of Homestore CEO Mike Long and REALTOR.comPresident Allan Dalton, Homestore's relationship with NAR is as strong as it’s ever been.

    To drive more consumer traffic to NAR members’ listings, Homestore spent millions of dollars on portal agreements, including an agreement with AOL, the nation’s largest Internet service provider, and with Microsoft Corp. The latter makes REALTOR.com the exclusive provider of integrated home listings and REALTOR® directory content to the House & Home channel on the MSN network.

    In 2005, REALTOR.com will launch a new “Find a REALTOR®” functionality that will enable consumers to more easily find a REALTOR® to assist them with their transaction, while providing NAR members with enhanced opportunities to market themselves better to consumers. All 1 million-plus NAR members will be listed in this directory free of charge. Additional marketing opportunities will be available to members who choose to upgrade their “Find a REALTOR®” listing.


  • REALTOR® Magazine and REALTOR® Magazine Online
    REALTOR® Magazine, published 12 times per year, is NAR’s official magazine and continues to serve as industry’s publication of record and essential “business tool for real estate professionals.” In 2004, the magazine continued its high-profile annual features (The List Issue, “30 Under 30,” “Top 100 Companies in Real Estate,” the Good Neighbor Awards, and the “Cost vs. Value Report”) while also covering exciting new topics about the state of the industry (“How Real Is That Lead?” “Love That House!” and “What Consumers     Really Want.”)

    The magazine’s cyber counterpart, REALTOR® Magazine Online, features thousands of pages of online-exclusive business resources and tools, including online feature articles; expert columnists, covering architecture, technology, and sales; daily and weekly industry news updates; an HTML business tips newsletter; and archived articles from the print and online publications dating from 1996. New resources added in 2004 include Handouts for Consumers—en Espanol, a new “For Rookies” resource, a resource page for “Servicing Your Multicultural Clients,” and the “Your Health” portal for health information and articles, such as from NAR publications, reliable federal sources, and national nonprofit health organizations.

    As they do at every national convention, the print and online staff provided attendees at the November REALTORS® Conference & Expo in Orlando, Fla., with daily updates of convention activities and sessions through the REALTOR® Magazine Online e-mail news service and the REALTOR® Magazine Show Daily. The conference newspaper was redesigned in 2004 to make it easier to read and to provide a broader view of the conference.

    The magazine, Web site, and Show Daily were honored for excellence within the industry, garnering 20 industry awards in 2004.


  • REALTOR® Association Executive Magazine
    For executives of the country’s nearly 2,000 state and local REALTOR® associations and multiple listing services, NAR produces the quarterly REALTOR® Association Executive Magazine. From how to choose the right MLS software to how to put a spark in your education offerings, RAE is the definitive source of information for executive officers throughout their careers.


  • REALTORSCommercial Alliance Report
     The REALTORS® Commercial Alliance Report is a quarterly newsletter focused exclusively on the concerns and needs of commercial practitioners. Each issue covers legislative news, industry trends, and research and statistics that will enable commercial brokers, property managers, and other commercial members of NAR to conduct their business more effectively. The RCA Report also provides regular updates on the activities of NAR’s commercial affiliates and RCA committees. Each issue is mailed to approximately 45,000 subscribers.

    Specialty Publications

    NAR produces a wide range of other specialty publications, including the online Letter of the Law for members with a special interest in legal developments and several Internal News Service e-newsletters for REALTOR® association executives, MLS directors, NAR’s Board of Directors, commercial members, and the nation’s top 300 brokers.

    Other Knowledge Resources

    Center for REALTOR® Technology
    The Center for REALTOR® Technology serves NAR members as an industry advocate, implementation consultant, and technology information resource. In 2004, CRT strengthened its member support through a number of new activities.
  • It increased publication of its two newsletters (circulation 2,832) to quarterly from twice a year. The newsletters help brokers, association executives, and IT staff working in the residential real estate industry stay abreast of new technologies. One newsletter, for practitioners and AEs, features easy-to-read, practical descriptions of how new hardware and software can assist them in their businesses. A second newsletter provides IT staff with hands-on guidance in implementing and troubleshooting new and existing technologies. The online newsletters also were modified to support audio. Other CRT publications include guides to Web-based mortgage calculators and wireless MLS applications.
  • It continued to publish annual REALTOR® technology and MLS technology surveys in 2004. Analysis of the responses shows REALTORS® continue to rely on technology in their businesses. Practitioners’ use of pagers fell expectedly, and MLSs’ adoption of the Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS) increased. (RETS standardizes the method that MLSs use to transport data to brokers and their Web sites, software, and databases.)
  • CRT contributed to the growth and acceptance of RETS with the release of three software packages: REX, a server; CART, a graphical desktop RETS client; and Retriever, which displays real estate data directly from MLSs and formats it for Web sites without requiring Web site owners to store data files on their system. In addition, CRT developed anti-scraping technology, such as NoScrape, which helps prevent unauthorized people from copying and stealing information and photos on real estate listings posted on the Internet, and reCaptcha, which determines whether a computer has been attacked by a remote computer programmed to capture private data.
  • It developed and delivered eight sessions for the IT track at the 2004 REALTORS® Conference & Expo in November. During both the Midyear Governance Meetings and annual conference, CRT provided wireless (hot spot) access for attendees. CRT also sponsored a conference blog with running commentary, featuring opinions and musings from industry leaders.
  • The REALTOR® Secure program, a best-practices certification that ensures MLSs have policies and procedures in place to protect real estate information and systems from internal and external risks, completed its first full year of operation in 2004. Almost 100 MLS operations became certified this year. Eight third-party consultants evaluate technology security for the program.
  • The National Institute of Standards and Technology, a non-regulatory federal agency that develops and promotes measurement, standards, security, and technology, reacted positively to the REALTOR® Secure program and will look to CRT in 2005 for feedback on guidelines it’s developing. CRT also sponsored the publication of Industry Security Guidelines, which forms the basis for the REALTOR® Secure program. Organizations that follow the guidelines help ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability during the real estate transaction process.
  • With the Houston Association of REALTORS®, CRT developed a Voiceover-IP application that reduces the time it takes for consumers to receive a response from their real estate practitioner.
  • More than 30 software developers now volunteer their time to CRT.
  • Through its outreach program, CRT presented technology topics at more than 15 REALTOR® or association meetings and conferences in 2004. This included presentations at several industry meetings for MLS operators.

    Information Central
    Perhaps the most active member outreach happens daily at NAR's Information Central, NAR’s customer service and support center. In 2004, Information Central received 80,000 e-mail messages and 150,000 telephone calls—that’s nearly 800 contacts a day (and an 18 percent increase over 2003). In addition to the call center, Information Central is home to NAR's library, the world's largest collection of real estate–specific resources; the membership records division; and the NAR archives, a history of vital printed material produced by the association during its 96-year history.

    Information Central is more than a knowledge warehouse and answer center. Its Virtual Library at REALTOR.org offers a variety of resources on specific topics tailored to REALTORS® 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Information Central's information specialists keep association staff, leadership, and members up to date on association and industry developments through specially researched Field Guides and can conduct custom research for callers, e-mailers, and Web surfers. The ProQuest database available to members through the Virtual Library provides unlimited, full-text electronic access to more than 1,700 business journals.

    Information Central staff boasts a 12-year average employment tenure with the NAR. This staff of experts is on hand to answer questions, provide assistance, and help locate information in an efficient and timely manner. Live services are available from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. C.S.T. Monday through Friday via Information Central's toll-free phone line (800/874-6500) and via Web chats at NAR’s Web site, REALTOR.org. E-mail: InfoCentral@realtors.org.