The American Real Estate Association, an industry trade group founded by Mauricio Umansky and Jason Haber, is launching its membership program.
On Thursday, Umansky and Haber announced that the trade group is rolling out its membership plan for 2024 and 2025. Up until this point, the association has been self-funded by Haber and Umansky. But in the announcement, they noted that in order to further expand the group’s influence and reach, it would need to collect dues from members.
“We’ve been busy behind the scenes these last few months building the foundation for your new trade association,“ the announcement read. “During this building phase, we also began ramping up our advocacy efforts, starting with the successful push for changes at the VA to help protect our veteran home buyers.
“We are currently expanding our advocacy efforts and working around the country on key policy issues that affect your business. As you know, our new trade association is a non-profit, exclusively for the benefit and betterment of America’s real estate agents.”
The association is offering two membership tiers: a basic membership and a founding membership.
Basic membership costs $20 for the remainder of 2024 and all of 2025. Additionally, it entitles members to $20 off their 2026 renewal and 20% off all events the fledgling trade group hosts through the end of next year.
The founding membership costs $1,500 and covers membership dues for the next 10 years. The association said this membership tier was created in response to agent suggestions. According to the announcement, founding members will be recognized on the trade group’s website and will receive invitations to exclusive events.
Prior to this launch, the trade group had not been charging membership fees.
“We couldn’t be more excited to be on this journey with you,” the announcement stated. “Thank you to the thousands of agents who have already signed up on our website, emailed us, called us, and private messaged us with words of encouragement and support. We look forward to welcoming you as a member and to working toward the change we all wish to see … together.”
Haber and Umansky launched the American Real Estate Association in January as an alternative to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). As of early April, the association had 3,800 members. NAR reported that its membership count remained above 1.5 million at the end of May.
