Each year, the HAR Board of Directors looks at the financial situation of the Association and uses forecasts of our membership numbers as a guide to determine what to do about membership dues. Proudly, the Board voted unanimously to maintain HAR dues for 2011 at their current level of $132 per year, which will be the eighth year in a row that dues have remained unchanged. During that same period, inflation has gone up nearly 18 percent—AND the tools and services that HAR provides to its members have increased enormously.
When you include the MLS subscriber fees with the HAR dues, you will find that the total is $17 less per year than 1998, which is when individual MLS fees were instituted. During that time, inflation has risen more than 35 percent, while total HAR dues and MLS subscriber fees are down more than 4 percent.
At the same time, HAR tools and services continue to keep greater Houston area REALTORS® on the forefront of the real estate industry. The HAR staff continues to work in ground-breaking areas to help you be as efficient and effective as possible in your business.
HAR’s Board of Directors takes the fiscal responsibility and good stewardship responsibilities very seriously to make sure that the Association is fiscally conservative and financially sound. HAR is a non-profit trade association so any money that might be made in one area is used to either offset your dues or to provide additional products or resources.
Another way that HAR’s Board makes sure that the dues are fair is by comparing them to other comparably sized REALTOR® associations. When you look at the 30 largest local REALTOR® associations in the country, HAR’s dues are about 23 percent less than the average.
Just talk to anyone who moves to Houston from another market/Association and ask them if they receive more benefits for their dues dollar from HAR than their former local association. We hear from them all the time about how amazed they are when they see what they receive as a member of HAR.
One important note about Association dues is that dues for HAR, TAR and NAR are all included on one billing statement, even though only a portion of that actually stays at HAR. While HAR has not increased dues for the last eight years, TAR and NAR have increased their dues from time to time. In fact, TAR has announced that it will increase dues by $5 for 2011. NAR has decided to maintain its current level for membership dues next year.
The 2011 dues statements will be e-mailed out to all members by the first week of November. You will be able to conveniently pay them online at www.har.com/dues. The deadline to pay is December 1, 2010, and if payment has not been received by December 31, 2010, then your membership with HAR will be considered cancelled and a reinstatement fee may apply. The easiest thing is to just pay your dues by December 1 and avoid all those pesky reminders from us.
