Youth movement grows in real estate groups

Long Island Business News
by David Winzelberg

February 16, 2011
When he was a 30-something commercial real estate broker, David Pennetta was recruited by a mostly grey-haired real estate organization looking to rejuvenate its group with younger members. A dozen years later, Pennetta is the president of that group called the Commercial Industrial Brokers Society, and lately he’s been doubling efforts to inject some youth into it.

CIBS has about 350 members, but fewer than 10 percent are younger than 40. So the group recently created an associate board member level to give its younger members a say in planning meetings and an enticement to fork over the $150 yearly membership fee.

Call it self-preservation or a need to stay relevant, but the CIBS effort to get younger is part of a larger movement in an industry traditionally led by the older and more experienced. Other real estate organizations have launched campaigns to make it easier to recruit younger members. The Long Island Real Estate Group cut its $350 annual dues in half for younger members and formed a sub-group called New Generation in 2008. And last year, the Long Island Board of Realtors founded its Young Professionals Network to provide a platform for its younger real estate agents and brokers.

It’s become harder for real estate organizations to sign younger members since there are less people of any age coming into the profession. There were 110,177 real estate licenses issued in the first 11 months of 2010, according to the New York Department of State, which is more than 15 percent fewer than the 129,147 licenses given in the first 11 months of 2008.

Attorney Bram Weber of the Weber Law Group in Melville, one of the founding members of LIREG’s New Generation two years ago, said new blood is getting tougher to find, especially on the Island. “A lot of young people don’t come back to Long Island after college until they’re well into their 30s because it’s so expensive to live,” Weber said. “There’s a limited number of that age group here.”

Weber added the sluggish market has made things more competitive among those in real estate and established professionals are less likely to share business, which further discourages newbies from sticking with real estate as a career. “Real young guys struggle,” Weber said.

Of course, it helps when you have family in the business, as do the three under-40-year-olds on the LIREG executive board. Mark Kaplan from Kabro Associates, Scott Burman from Engel Burman and Weber, all have successful fathers who preceded them in the real estate development field.

The residential sector has also been youth-challenged. Liz English, president of LIBOR, said real estate has largely been a second or even third career for people leaving other professions or looking to supplement their primary incomes. But the profession is on the verge of big changes. Lately, more young people starting out are looking to make real estate their sole livelihood, English said.

LIBOR’s chapter of the Young Professionals Network is geared toward those people, English said, and helps them get acquainted with the behind-the-scenes workings of the larger organization. “Traditionally they haven’t been involved at the board level,” English said. “We are seeking to change that.”

Kate Koplinka, a 28-year-old real estate broker for Coldwell Banker M&D Good Life in Moriches, heads the Long Island chapter of the YPN. The goal of the group is to create a more welcoming environment for young people considering real estate as a career, Koplinka said. Fewer than 15 percent of real estate sales agents and brokers are under 40 years old, according to the National Association of Realtors, and Koplinka thinks they can get younger. NAR founded the youth network in 2007 and there are now chapters in 43 states.

“People don’t really know how much opportunity there is in the industry right now,” Koplinka said.

Getting younger members isn’t just important for perpetuating an organization. Pennetta said it helps the group keep in touch with the latest industry happenings. “We need people who are up to date with brokerage law, ethics and economic development,” he said.

CIBS started its Next Generation Committee two years ago and brought two younger members - Kyle Burkhardt of Colliers International and Jenna Pollock of CB Richard Ellis - onto its executive board at around the same time.

“Part of the problem,” Pennetta said, “is that older brokers are deciding what younger brokers want. We want to give them a say.”