Real estate professionals are entitled to feel good about the fact that members of the general public appear to think more highly of them than they used to. Just how much more highly is, however, somewhat unclear.

A few months ago, in October, the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) issued a press release that began, "Public opinion of the nation's Realtors has reached an all-time high for the third straight year according to an annual tracking survey … ." The survey is conducted in order to measure the effectiveness of NAR's Public Awareness Campaign.

The Public Awareness Campaign is no small potatoes. Begun in 1998, it is a $20 million dollar per year effort, funded by a $20 yearly assessment of NAR's million-plus membership. During the past few years the campaign has purchased more than 4,300 spots on network radio and television, and cable. Significant print advertising is placed as well.

The Campaign has a number of purposes. These include increasing awareness of the differentiation between non-Realtor®l licensees and those who belong to the Realtor® organization. It aims to highlight Realtor effectiveness as well as ethics and professionalism.

Of significance was last year's finding that the proposition that Realtors "conduct business with ethics and integrity" received a 69 percent positive response, up eleven points from the year before. The previous year, the proposition that Realtors were "professionals you can trust" was up 5 percent from the year before.

Those are big numbers. Much bigger than the numbers contained in the release of results from the Gallup Poll's Survey of Honesty and Ethics in Professions, approximately one month after the NAR announcement. The Gallup Poll showed that 20 percent of respondents answered "very high" or "high" for real estate agents to the question, "How would you rate the honest and ethical standards of people in these different fields …?" Different questions to be sure. But 69 percent and 20 percent? That's a serious disconnect.

There's plenty of good news for real estate agents in the Gallup results. Not only have real estate agents gained three points over the past 5 years, but also they have "moved up the ladder," passing occupations that once were above them on the scale of ethics perceptions. In 1997 real estate agents occupied a 22nd percentile position in this ranking; now they are right in the middle with 50 percent below them. Since the year 2000, they have passed business executives, lawyers, stockbrokers, and both Congressmen and Senators. But still, how do we explain the substantial differences between Gallup's results and those from the survey commissioned by NAR?

Well, the polls are different for one thing. Gallup doesn't deal with the Realtor®/non-Realtor® distinction; it just asks about "real estate agents." Given, though, that the vast majority of active real estate agents are in fact Realtors, one would have to think that this couldn't have made much difference. That is, when people think about real estate agents that they know or have heard of, they are probably thinking about agents who are Realtors.

Another, perhaps more important difference is that the respondents in the NAR-commissioned poll are "qualified." That is, it only zeroes in on respondents who have completed a real estate transaction within the past year, or who intend to within the next twelve months. Perhaps this sub-group renders more informed reactions.

Still, the NAR numbers seem extraordinarily high. Were they to be transposed into the Gallup poll, that would put Realtors® as #2 in the ethically most highly-respected occupations. That doesn't seem likely to me, and I am one.

"Figures don't lie," they say; and that is true. But they sure can make you wonder.

Published: February 10, 2006

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Bob Hunt is a director of the National Association of Realtors and is author of the recently published book, "Real Estate the Ethical Way." A graduate of Princeton with a master's degree from UCLA in philosophy, Hunt has served as a U.S. Marine, Realtor association president in South Orange County, and director of the California Association of Realtors, and is an award-winning Realtor. Contact Bob at .