The Maine Association of Realtors looks to be avoiding a large drop in membership despite lawsuits, allegations of sexual harassment and a blackmail-related resignation plaguing its national affiliate at a key time for the industry.
When Tracy Kasper resigned as president from the National Association of Realtors on Monday, citing she received a threat to disclose a past personal matter unless she left, it marked only the most recent scandal in a tumultuous year for the largest U.S. professional organization.
The Realtors group is facing multiple antitrust lawsuits and a U.S. Department of Justice investigation for conspiring to inflate agents’ commissions. Kasper’s predecessor, Kenny Parcell, stepped down from the president himself last August, just after employees accused him of sexual harassment in a New York Times investigation.
More than 26,000 realtors let their membership lapse. Firms including RE/MAX and Coldwell Banker, which are active in Maine, have abandoned requirements that their agents be members of the group. Though Maine saw a slight decrease in membership with the state group, agents here say they don’t see themselves letting their membership lapse.
“There’s no turbulence at the state level,” Paul McKee, who became president of the Maine association on Jan. 1, said. “That’s not really any of our focus.”
The Maine Association of Realtors is Maine’s largest professional trade association, and had a membership of 6,390 Realtors going into 2023, McKee said. That number has dipped 2 percent to 6,259, something McKee said is actually a smaller decrease than he was anticipating.
That’s because transactions are down, and prices are up. In December, the Maine association reported that home sales statewide were down 15 percent relative to the same month in 2022. The median sale price was up 12 percent. This leaves less room for smaller-time agents to carve out sales, something McKee suspected was leading to membership lapses.
Many Maine agents who are members said that they haven’t heard of any agents here considering leaving the group or starting up an alternative association. The national association maintains the valuable Multiple Listing Service database of home transactions and confers the title of Realtor to its members.
“This is all just coming to light now and getting a lot of media attention now, right, but we’ve been aware of these pressures on commissions and transparency for years,” said Harrison Wolfington, a real estate agent at Laflin & Wolfington Realty in Farmingdale. “Our business is not going to change because it’s already transparent.”
Most agents in Maine are Realtors, so any major movements away from the group would probably come from an agency and not an individual agent, Ann Cianchette, the founder of Maine Dream Properties at Keller Williams Realty, said.
“For me, personally, I don’t see this really affecting me because we have always had a conversation upfront with our buyers about how we are going to get paid,” Cianchette said. “It all boils down to training and communication. For a well trained, professional agent, it really should not disrupt their business.”
Once the antitrust lawsuits are settled, Cianchette was optimistic that the national scandal can lead to more transparency in real estate transactions that will actually benefit Maine agents and buyers in the long-term. Typical commissions on home purchases range between 5 percent and 6 percent, and they are often split between buying and selling agents.
McKee pointed out that the latest settlement against the national association out of Missouri — which found the group liable alongside two brokerages for $1.78 billion — only affects that state, but said the effects might be felt in Maine down the line as changes are made in how the organization approaches commissions.
“Will it have its ripple effects in the future?” McKee said. “Absolutely. We’re already seeing it now. It’s making people look at things differently from a different lens and say, ‘Alright, we need to change this or that.’”
