You may have recently read that the Phoenix Association of REALTORS (PAR) and the National Association of REALTORS recently came to a settlement regarding PAR controversial “MLS Choice” membership option. As part of the settlement PAR will change the offering’s name to “Non-member MLS access”
From the Inman article…
“The new “non-member MLS access” offering “will eliminate any further confusion,” according to the statement, and will not give users access to the “Realtor” title. However, the non-member option will still give non-Realtors access to the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS), as well as some products and services. Phoenix Realtors has had offerings giving non-Realtors ARMLS access since 1996, according to the statement.”
At our MLS Reset event Rob Hahn gave a presentation which he called “The Quiet Part Out Loud”. In it he posited that if the Phoenix Association or REALTORS (PAR) was successful that other local association would follow suit. I have to admit I really didn’t follow the presentation and it wasn’t until our latest podcast episode that I really understood the strategy behind PAR’s offering. I blame my lack of understanding to the naming convention PAR decided to use, “MLS Choice”. The new naming, “Non-member access” made it even worse. But I’ll come back to that.
Basically as I understand it, due to the the 3 way agreement if someone new joins PAR their membership dues would look like the following:
Phoenix Assn. of REALTORS Dues: $135/yr
Arizona Assn. of REALTORS Dues: $175/yr
National Assn. of REALTORS Dues: $156/yr
Which is a grand total of $466/yr
Membership to ARMLS would be $468 on top of those dues.
What PAR has done is created a new membership level (see below) that includes a different set of forms (but still passes all the legal smell tests) along with free continuing education classes, FastStats, Supra access and listing media services:
“Non-member access” (formerly MLS Choice) Dues: $249/yr
That’s $114 more than a regular PAR membership. Which translates to an 85% increase in revenue to PAR. But here’s the kicker, a current or new PAR member would save, $217/yr if they signed up/switched to the new plan. That’s real money.
Now I apologize to those of you who have read Rob’s posts and seen his presentation and already grokked this, but I was completely gobsmacked once I understood this fact. Here’s what I mean…
PAR is actually promoting not being a part of the Arizona Association of REALTORS and the National Association of REALTORS as a feature, not a bug!
Let’s assume about 95% of the 10,000 PAR members are on the legacy plan, paying $135/yr. Which is around $1.3M/ yr. If they get 50% to switch to “Non-member access” plan, then their annual revenue will jump to 1.8M/yr. An increase of $500K! That’s almost a 40% increase in revenue.
We’ve all been worried about how associations would survive without revenue from the MLS. And it turns out the answer is to offer a membership plan that doesn’t include State or National membership!
But here’s the problem. Nobody will understand this if you have names like “MLS Choice” or “Non-member access”. Yuck! What do those names even mean?? You need better marketing if you are going to sell a plan like this. You need something sexy, and if you listen to the latest Industry Relations podcast you can hear Rob and I come up with the perfect name for this in real time.
Here’s a taste…