Louisiana Real Estate Agent and Appraiser Industry-What The Numbers Tell Us

By Robert Hand
July 18, 2014

Louisiana Commercial Realty LLCUntil this report, there has not been an analysis of the real estate agents and the appraisers in Louisiana. This report provides a snapshot of both industries and examines who is number one and where they do business.

How Many Real Estate Agents Are There?

There are 13,438 licensed real estate agents in Louisiana, but where they are located will surprise you. The location of real estate agents does not match up identically with the location of the home buying public. For example, New Orleans has the most licensed agents but does not have the highest population count unless you add in Metairie. Shreveport is the 3rd largest agent count in the state but has the 5th highest agent count. The table below compares the ranking of agent count to population.

Table of Agents and Population

Agent Ranking

Population Ranking

1 New Orleans BATON ROUGE
2 Baton Rouge NEW ORLEANS
3 Shreveport METAIRIE
4 Metairie LAFAYETTE
5 Lafayette SHREVEPORT
6 Lake Charles MANDEVILLE
7 Kenner SLIDELL
8 Bossier City LAKE CHARLES
9 Monroe COVINGTON
10 Alexandria BOSSIER CITY
11 Houma DENHAM SPRINGS
12 Marrero KENNER
13 New Iberia MONROE
14 Laplace WEST MONROE
15 Slidell ALEXANDRIA

Ranking Louisiana cities by the ratio of real estate agent count to population shows that Baton Rouge and Lafayette have the lowest agent count ratios while Denham Springs, Kenner and Monroe have the highest ratios.

 Chart by City of Agent Ratio To Population

Chart Chart Real Estate Count To Population

Chart Real Estate Count To Population

Broker Count

Agents must have their license held by a broker, as required by the Louisiana Real Estate Commission. The broker is held to a higher standard and requires 150 hours of classroom education in order to become licensed. There are 10,589 licensed brokers in Louisiana, located near the agent population, with New Orleans and Baton Rouge at 19% of the market. The top broker in the state is Latter and Blum with 1,163 agents, but they only have 8.6% of the market.

Table of Broker Count by City

NEW   ORLEANS 1288
BATON ROUGE 1284
METAIRIE 700
LAFAYETTE 563
SHREVEPORT 497
MANDEVILLE 389
SLIDELL 321
LAKE CHARLES 261
COVINGTON 259
DENHAM SPRINGS 233
BOSSIER CITY 224
KENNER 204

Who Is The Number One Broker In Louisiana?

LATTER   & BLUM HOLDING, LLC 1163
GBS PROPERTIES, L.L.C. (Gardner) 750
RED STICK PARTNERS, L.L.C. 206
K.W.E.J., L.L.C. (Keller Williams) 205
J. WESLEY DOWLING &   ASSOCIATES, L.L.C 204
TEC REALTORS, INC. 191
ACADIANA INVESTMENT GROUP,   L.L.C. 171
REALTY EXECUTIVES SB LLC 159
H.O.D.C., L.L.C. 138
PELICAN REAL ESTATE &   CONST., INC. 129
GROUP INTEGRITY, LLC 122
GROUP ONE REALTY, L.L.C. 118

 

The broker market is not only fragmented but localized, with differences in agent count within areas just a few miles apart, as shown in the table below which compares the agent count by broker for New Orleans and Metairie.

Who Are The Top 10 Brokers In The Biggest Market In Louisiana?

NEW   ORLEANS TOTAL COUNT 1288 METAIRIE TOTAL COUNT 700
LATTER & BLUM HOLDING, LLC 231 GBS PROPERTIES, L.L.C. (Gardner) 114
GBS PROPERTIES, L.L.C.   (Gardner) 204 K.W.E.J., L.L.C. (Keller Williams) 85
H.O.D.C., L.L.C. (Keller   Williams) 95 SPECIALIZED REAL ESTATE SERVICES, INC. 50
TEC REALTORS, INC. 42 LATTER & BLUM HOLDING, LLC 46
K.W.E.J., L.L.C. (Keller   Williams) 40 H.O.D.C., L.L.C. (Keller Williams) 23
P & M EQUITIES,   INCORPORATED 30 REAL ESTATE PARTNERS, INC. 22
WILKINSON & JEANSONNE,   L.L.C. 22 TEC REALTORS, INC. 17
DORIAN M. BENNETT, INC. 21 MARK O. RODI & ASSOCIATES, INC. 14
DOWN THE ROAD PARTNERS, LLC 21 REFERRAL ASSOCIATES OF LOUISIANA, INC. 12
LIMITED FUNCTION REFERRAL OFFICE, LLC 21 SRSA COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE, INC. 12

In the Metairie and New Orleans area combined, the top broker is actually GBS Properties, known as Gardner Realtors with 318 agents, compared to Latter and Blum with 277 agents.

 

 The Appraisal Industry In Louisiana

There are 1,437 appraisers in Louisiana, broken into three licenses:

*Appraiser Trainees receive a license upon passing a test and completing 75 hours of training.

*Residential Appraisers receive a license upon passing a test and completing 3500 hours of training in no less than 2 years.

*General Appraisers receive a license upon passing a test and completing 5000 hours of training in no less than 3 years.

 

 Count of Appraisers In Louisiana by License Type

General 494
Residential 752
Trainees 191
Total 1437

 Louisiana General Appraiser Licensees Are Mostly Not In Louisiana

 

Of the 494 Louisiana General Appraiser Licensees, 265 (53%) are in Louisiana, 18 are in Mississippi, and 43% are in 22 other states. Texas has 126, or 25% of the Louisiana General Appraiser Licensees, with 55 (43%) in Houston and 27 (21%) in Dallas.

APR.CGA - Certified   General Appraiser License 494
AL 10
AR 10
AZ 3
CA 5
CO 2
FL 11
GA 14
IL 4
KS 3
LA 265
ME 1
MI 1
MO 6
MS 18
MT 1
NC 1
NJ 2
NY 1
OH 2
SC 2
TN 3
TX 126
VA 1
WA 1
WI 1

The Residential License count tells a different story. Of the 752 Residential Licensees, 93% are in Louisiana, and 97% are in Louisiana and Mississippi, with the remainder in 9 states.

 

APR.CRA - Certified   Residential Appraiser License 752
AL 7
CA 4
CT 1
FL 2
GA 5
LA 701
MS 11
SC 1
TN 1
TX 16
UT 3

Where Are The Appraisers In Louisiana?

Metairie and New Orleans are home to 99 Residential Licensed Appraisers (14% of the state total), with Baton Rouge the 2nd largest market at 68 (9.7%) and Shreveport in 3rrd place at 43 (6.1%). General Licensed appraisers are mostly in the New Orleans/Metairie area with 53 (20% of the state total), followed closely by Baton Rouge at 47 (17.7%), with Lafayette in 3rd with 17 then Shreveport with 15.

 

 Table of Appraisers by City and License

Certified General Appraiser License 494 Certified Residential   Appraiser License 752
LA 265 LA 701
BATON ROUGE 47 BATON ROUGE 68
NEW ORLEANS 28 METAIRIE 62
METAIRIE 25 SHREVEPORT 43
LAFAYETTE 17 LAFAYETTE 40
SHREVEPORT 15 NEW ORLEANS 37
MONROE 12 MANDEVILLE 33
ALEXANDRIA 12 SLIDELL 21

 

Where Are The Appraiser Trainees?

For the 235 Louisiana Licensed Appraiser Trainee Licenses issued, the top 10 cities are:

NEW   ORLEANS 24
METAIRIE 18
BATON ROUGE 14
SHREVEPORT 11
LAFAYETTE 9
COVINGTON 6
DENHAM SPRINGS 6

There are several trainees with more than one supervisor, so the number of actual trainees is 191. There are 17 (8.9%) trainees with no supervisor, which means they cannot complete their training and earn their license. Over half of the trainees have not earned their license in the three year minimum time frame, with 40% licensed as trainees longer than 5 years, 22% longer than 7 years and 15% longer than 8 years.

 

Chart Trainee Transition To Licensing

Chart Trainee Transition To Licensing

 

 The Coming Appraiser Shortage In Louisiana

The inability of Licensed Trainees to graduate to a Residential or General License stems from a low percentage of appraisers in Louisiana who utilize trainees to grow their practice. A recent study by the Appraisal Institute shows that on average, 49% of General Licensed Appraisers who perform commercial appraisals and 29% of Residential Licensed Appraisers utilize a full-time Licensed Appraiser Trainee in their practice. The percent of Louisiana Residential or General Appraisers who use a Licensed Appraiser Trainee is only 15%.

Chart Trainee Utilization

Chart Trainee Utilization

 

Who Is Doing The Training?

The study by the Appraisal Institute in June 2013, showed that 21% of commercial appraisers and 7% of residential appraisers utilized 4 or more trainees in their practice. Of the residential appraisers who utilized trainees, 93% employed 1 to 3 appraisers. In Louisiana, only two of the 966 appraisers in the state utilized 4 or more trainees, resulting in a comparison percentage of 0.21%.

Trainee Utilization In Louisiana Compared To The Average

Chart of Utilization Of 4 Or More Trainees

Chart of Utilization Of 4 Or More Trainees

 

 

Sources:

Appraisal Institute, June 28, 2013,  study by Appraisal Institute Research Department.

Census Bureau, 2010 survey.

Louisiana Real Estate Commission.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Louisiana Commercial Realty

Commercial Real Estate Experts
Robert Hand, MBA, CCIM, SIOR
robert@louisianacommercialrealty.com
Licensed in Louisiana & Mississippi
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