The current issue of The Buyer's Rep, the newsletter of the Real Estate Buyer's Agent Council, is announcing the organization has surpassed the 30,000 member mark just three years after having been absorbed by the National Association of Realtors.

The group was taken over in 1996 when the NAR agreed to pay the St. Louis-based North American Consulting Group, headed by partners Tom Dooley and Charles Dahlheimer, a reported $900,000. At that time, REBAC had only 6,000 members.

Dooley and Dahlheimer had purchased REBAC from its original founder, Colorado exclusive buyer broker Barry Miller, in 1993 for a reported $10,000. At that time the group had about 500 members.

As of publication of The Buyer's Rep, the organization announced it had 31,057 members. By contrast, the Certified Residential Specialist organization, formerly known as the Residential Sales Council, is the NAR's largest council with more than 40,000 members.

A competing group, the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents, began about four years ago and currently has about 400 members.

Although the value of the NAR's buyer agent subsidiary has not been disclosed, new members seeking the Accredited Buyer Representative designation pay $295 for the course if they take it on a home study video. That fee includes the first year dues. Annual membership renewal is $110.

Industry insiders widely credit REBAC's growth to the steady migration of real estate agents to the buyer side of the transaction. Others, however, say it is REBAC that has led that migration.

Companies that historically focused on the listing side of the business have begun seeing an increasing number of revenue opportunities on the buyer side of the deal, including guiding home buyers toward mortgages, title insurance, homeowner insurance and even things like landscaping, painting and other post-transaction needs.

All those revenue opportunities, however, depend on the agent's ability to capture the real estate buyer.

Tom Hathaway, president of The Buyer's Agent exclusive buyer brokerage franchise, an honorary lifetime member of REBAC who joined the organization in 1989, said the group had done much to promote the idea of buyer brokerage.

"REBAC represents the National Association of Realtor's acknowledgment that the future in real estate business lies with the buyer side of the transaction," Hathaway said. "I feel that NAR, having bought and promoted REBAC, will in the end have done more for the buyer agency movement than any other single action.

"REBAC has legitimized buyer agency in the minds of hundreds of thousands of Realtors who thought they had to list property to stay in the business."

Unlike the NAR's other institutes, societies and councils, REBAC does not have an elected president. According to its bylaws, NAR Executive Vice President Terry McDermott is the president of REBAC. The managing director, however, is NAR staff member David Martin.

In the past year REBAC also has added a management designation, the Accredited Buyer's Representative Manager, for managing brokers whose agents work extensively on the buyer side.

There currently are 20,649 holders of the ABR designation and 251 holders of the ABRM.

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Published: January 11, 2000

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