Would it surprise you to know that the number of local Realtors® constitutes one of the largest employment groups in the Tri-Cities region?  

A pretty good measure is the Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors® (NETAR) membership. The most recent count is 1,935 members. Add in the number of support personnel at real estate offices who are not agents, and you can see how the total employment number puts real estate in the ranks of the region’s top employees. As such, those Realtors® are an important part of the overall business-to-business economy.  

They provide value that accounts for about 16% of the local economy with the sales and leases of properties and land, and they are also consumers of products and services that help drive the rest of the local economy.  

They are consumers for things like internet service, car purchases, and rentals, business supplies, photography and marketing services. The list goes on and on. The point is, Realtors® are important to the overall economy in both the service and value they add through real estate transactions and as consumers of local business products and services.  

In the recent Small Business Week column, I pointed out that the most current Census count lists 401 real estate, rental, and leasing firms in the NE TN – SW VA region monitored by NETAR.  Here’s what some of that real estate landscape looks like. 

Most local real estate firms have fewer than five employees. Many – if not most – Realtors® are not employees of the firms where they hang their license. They’re entrepreneurs and nonemployer businesses.   

The IRS describes nonemployer businesses as “small firms – like real estate agents and independent contractors” who meet the standards as a business, but don’t have any employees. They’re one-person enterprises. They account for almost three-quarters of all businesses and contribute about 4% of the economy’s overall sales and receipts data. There are 3,154 of them in the Tri-Cities Combined Statistical Area (CSA). They range from medical and technical positions to house-cleaning or small lawn services. Nonemployer businesses are not included in the counts of businesses from the Economic Census or County Business Patterns.   

Locally, real estate professionals account for a little more than 10% of the region’s nonemployer businesses. But that doesn’t include real-time conditions. The Census reports lag by a year to a year-and-a-half. Typically, the number of Realtors® declines when the market softens. But so far that hasn’t happened here. The total keeps increasing. Some of them are full-time Realtors® whose sole role is real estate. Others are the new breed and their role as a Realtor® is one of several of the individual’s revenue sources.  And, many are active real estate investors. 

Area real estate firms with employees had an annual payroll of about $70 million in the current Census count. Last year, the revenue attached to the region’s nonemployer Realtors® was $238 million. But there’s a lot more to the economic impact Realtors® provide.   

Residential sales alone had a volume of almost $2 billion last year. Sweep in the economic multipliers identified by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) economic researchers and the total balloons by another $1 billion. And that doesn’t include vacant land sales and commercial real estate transactions or deals that were not listed on the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS).   

Overall, real estate accounts for about 16% of the state and local economy, and almost all the heavy lifting is done by firms with fewer than five employees and the nonemployer businesses.   

According to the Business Journal’s Book of Lists, the region’s three biggest employers (Food City, Ballad, and Eastman) have about 37,500 workers. The two-year-old count of nonemployer businesses is almost 35,000.  

The region’s economy is seeing some impressive economic gains. Small businesses and real estate are a big part of those gains. NETAR was also the first local organization of its kind that recognized, embraced the economic benefits and efficiencies of regionalism to market real estate and represent its members.