Golden Real Estate is a Realtor brokerage, meaning that all our agents belong to a local Realtor association and thereby are members of the Colorado Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors.
“Realtor” is a trademark, and only members of a Realtor association can call themselves Realtors. That’s also why Realtor, like Kleenex, should always be capitalized.
It’s estimated that only half of all licensed real estate agents are Realtors, but you have to be a Realtor if you want to work for us or any other Realtor brokerage. All the major franchises are Realtor brokerages, but there are lots of non-Realtor brokerages that an agent can join if he or she wants to avoid the $500+ annual dues to be a Realtor.
So what’s in it for an agent to be a Realtor, paying over $5,000 per decade for the privilege?
First of all, non-Realtors can’t work for a Realtor brokerage such as ours. They’d have to be independent or join a non-Realtor brokerage. Some brokerages, such as HomeSmart, Your Castle, and Resident Realty, have created both Realtor and non-Realtor brokerages with near-identical or identical logos and near identical names so that the average client or prospective client would have no idea that the agent they are speaking with might not be a Realtor.
I feel that’s deceptive advertising, which violates the Realtor Code of Ethics, but non-Realtors aren’t bound by that code. There are benefits to being a NAR member that wouldn’t mean much to consumers. More than that, however, I believe in “paying one’s dues.” All agents benefit from NAR’s lobbying on our behalf and for property rights in general, but only Realtors pay for it. Non-Realtors benefit from that lobbying but are, in effect, getting a free ride.
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