History of Real Estate

What is the history of real estate and the real estate agent?

Most people who hear the words “realtor” or real estate agent, know to associate it with the purchase or sale of real estate. However, it’s a profession that’s only existed in its current form in the last hundred years.

As a point of reference, in the United States, the job of the “realtor” officially began in 1908 with the foundation of the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Back then, homes were a little different than they are today. Only% 8 had telephones and only half of all homes had bathrooms! In the beginning, most agents were also men. In 1913, the association brought forward the first code of ethics to maintain standards within the industry and any of its realtors, mostly men at that time. A fun fact is that as of 2018, 63% of NAR realtors surveyed said they consider the U.S. residential real estate industry to be dominated by women.

Why are there so many women in real estate? Women have been known to perform better in real estate due to their emotional understanding skills. That’s not why they’re dominant though. The industry became dominated by women as it was an early industry to allow women, allowing them to get licensed in 1978.

Agents complain that the work is difficult nowadays, but those complaining surely were not around before to see the beginnings in the industry. Even in my recent timeline as an agent, I can remember the days before advancements such as electronic signature apps. You may find this hard to believe, but there was actually a point in time when realtors used to have to go and drive back and forth when dealing with offers. Yes, we would have to get in our vehicles and drive back and forth to see the seller or buyer face to face every single time a counter offer came in. The adoption of electronic signature programs in real estate was a game changer for realtors. It gave us back control over our time. It enhanced our ability to harness one of our greatest resources without wasting it. I can’t even count the hours I have saved since DocuSign came to the market. That example is no different than many other examples of real estate’s advancement though. Before the Internet, agents used to also actually print off copies of every listing in the area to create binders that they could carry to show to prospects when they went door-to-door! Everything that we do now was once much much harder. We have no reason to be complaining. When I started real estate, even producing the three single pieces of marketing material I use in my business were five times more expensive. Because of the accessibility to online technologies such as Canva, production costs have reduced significantly because we used to have to actually pay a designer for each and every single design. Photo shoots for homes used to be thousands of dollars and some of my earlier luxury listing videos were upwards of $5000.

When you look at the industry’s history and evolution, real estate has never been easier to do. Anything to do with real estate is now more accessible, more user-friendly, more affordable and even easier than ever before.

This little history recap should also help you appreciate just how easy it is to be in real estate these days compared to before. With all of the advancements and tools you have available to you now, there’s no reason to not to be succeeding at your real estate game.