Let’s start with a bit of a chuckle courtesy of Leon d’Ancona of IMS Incorporated. “Money doesn’t always buy happiness. People with $20 million are no happier than people with $19 million.” Doesn’t have anything to do with this column but I wanted to set a lighter tone because with all the daily stresses of our industry, I believe we need to lighten up.

Take for example a CREA discussion group on LinkedIn, that other social network that no one understands. There are 6,393 members of this discussion group as of this minute and anyone can start a discussion. In late May, Alan Tennant, former CREA president and now EO of the Calgary Real Estate Board, launched an opening line: “I’ve decided I don’t like CREA’s new ad where the SWAT team startles the FSBO buyer in bed.” Alan then proceeded, in a very thoughtful way, to suggest there were better ways to present the value proposition of a Realtor.

Then all hell broke loose and what followed was a hijacking. From the left and right sides of the country, and I expect the political spectrum, we piled on to the idea like dogs on a pork chop. There were a great many “me too” endorsements, some all heat and no light pronouncements, a few put downs, but few more constructive than suggesting comparable commercials by people wishing we could be more like Telus or hotels.com.

Commercials are for those people who can’t find the customer. Newspaper ads are for those people who want to sit in the office and wait for the phone to ring. Drip email campaigns are the current version of these crutches. I learned a long time ago going out to find the customer is a lot more important than doing something to get them to call you.

With all due respect to the debate of how to get our message to the consumer, why not just tell them face to face? The vast majority of Canadians are not buying or selling a piece of real estate this year. They are on the sidelines watching the spectacle. That became obvious in the comments made online and by email in response to my July REM column where I offered my opinion that there are too many Realtors.

One commenter on remonline said: “The public in Toronto would be better served by having about 6,000 members of TREB rather than the current 40,000 plus. While we bleat about professionalism within ‘organised real estate’, all boards, associations and regulators benefit by increasing the numbers without regard for quality.”

Another wrote: “The membership numbers are driven by the newbie’s perception of a fast buck, the low-cost barrier to entry and the short timeframe (three ‘basic’ courses) to obtain a real estate license, and organized real estate’s greed and self-preservation despite its ostensibly ‘non-profit’ status and supposed mission to protect Realtor interests. I believe TREB had about 3,500 new members join in 2013 and 1,000 members leave. How can TREB, or any board, (or RECO) be protecting Realtor interests or the public interests by continually flooding the market with this kind of turnover and inexperienced/unskilled members?”

Somebody taught me a long time ago about turnover ratios in real estate, referring to the number of times households re-form and houses sell. Pretty easy to do with an overall housing count and sales statistics. Partly due to aging baby boomers staying in place longer, the turnover ratio has extended from one in five years to about one in eight years. If you don’t like that selection for your market, pick a number in between. But for illustration let’s assume for the GTA the population is five million, the number of persons per household average is 2.5, the Realtor count is 40,000 and the turnover is every eight years for all types of residential housing.

Here’s the math. 5,000,000 ÷ 2.5 = 2,000,000 ÷ 8 = 250,000 ÷ 40,000 = 6.25 households per TREB member who might sell or buy or rent real estate in any given year. Do your own math on the average commission and the number of members you know who achieve more than six ends per year.

The low number of ends per Realtor is repeated across Canada. Look at your board or association stats at mid-year. The Vancouver Island Real Estate Board publishes stats revealing its 953 members have an average of 3.7 units at mid-year. For all 2013 it was 7.8. A unit is half a sale, a listing or selling end.

But we are not alone in our over breeding. Too many teachers in B.C. Too many lawyers everywhere. Too many news channels. Too many religions. Too many teams in the NHL.

Not enough heroes.

So what do we do about it? Brian Buffini tells the story of his mother’s response when Brian was over-owning things he had no control over. “Get off the cross! We need the wood.”

But when you are in a position to do something, heed Teddy Roosevelt: “Do what you can with what you have where you are.”

Contact Marty Douglas by email at [email protected] . Follow or connect with Marty on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. He is a managing broker for Re/Max Ocean Pacific Realty in Comox and Courtenay, B.C. He is a past chair of the Real Estate Errors and Omissions Insurance Corporation of B.C., the Real Estate Council of B.C., the B.C. Real Estate Association and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board.