Social issues, not industry chaos, will guide agents at the ballot box

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Last month, with the election nearing, Inman raised a question: How are Realtors responding to this year’s presidential race?

In the search for answers, Inman turned to data from the U.S. Federal Election Commission, which tracks monetary donations to political campaigns and political action committees (PACs). Inman specifically looked at FEC-documented donations that Realtors made between mid-March and October.

The initial findings from this investigation were surprising: Despite the real estate industry having a right-tilting reputation, Realtors at the national level actually contributed more money this election cycle to major Democratic causes than to their Republican equivalents. That’s the opposite of what happened in 2020. So, the answer to Inman’s question appears to be that, at least, the most politically active Realtors are responding to this year’s election cycle by becoming more split, and blue, than is perhaps popularly understood.

But that raises a series of other questions. Why is this happening? And is the state of the real estate industry a major factor in Realtors’ political activities?

Inman reached out to industry leaders to get their thoughts, as well as to the Realtors who made the largest political contributions over the past seven months. One of the most notable takeaways from these conversations is that the once-in-a-generation tumult of the last year — including things like commission litigation — does not appear to have translated into political spending among Realtors. At the same time, the political donors who spoke with Inman cited social issues, or concerns about Trump, as their top priorities this election.

Ryan Weyandt, CEO of the LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance, captured this sentiment when Inman reached out to gauge the political pulse of the industry. As he sees it, “the reality is that we (America) are no longer living in a single-issue society.”

“So many Realtors and so many lenders are nothing more or less than small business owners when it’s boiled down,” he continued. “And, like so many of us, the financial, economic, and society concerns that the general public expresses interest in are no different than the issues that real estate industry professionals track and heavily weigh in election cycles.”

Policy specifics and Realtor skepticism

Though issues such as commission litigation and battles over Clear Cooperation barely came up in interviews for this story, Weyandt said Realtors do have policy interests. And in that context, he was not surprised that Democrats brought in more money from Realtors than Republicans.

In an email, he said that such an outcome “isn’t shocking at all when only one candidate has shared anything close to a financial, economic, or housing plan with the public.”

“Vice President Harris has not only shared details of an economic plan, but has leaned into the importance of housing (commercial and residential) and its role in the American economy and overall wellbeing of our population,” Weyandt said in an email. He contrasted Kamala Harris’ policy proposals to those of Donald Trump, which he said have not been substantive.

Real estate coach Dr. Lee Davenport similarly said that Harris has made more specific policy proposals on issues related to housing than Trump. She pointed to housing affordability as an issue that appears to be on many Realtors’ minds this season.

However, Davenport also said that during recent travels to talk with real estate professionals in different parts of the country, she’s encountered some skepticism about Harris’ ability to actually bring her plans to fruition. The vice president’s down payment assistance program, for example, is not a new idea and has “been on the congressional books for the last four years, and it has not gotten out of the introduction phase.”

“So it’s almost, I hate to say, pie in the sky,” Davenport said when asked about agent sentiment regarding the candidates. But that doesn’t necessarily mean agents are turning to Trump in response, she added.

“It might be that they think neither candidate has any real grasp on what will help the real estate economy specifically,” Davenport added.

This observation bears out Inman’s previous findings.

Aside from the fact that Realtors donated more to major and nationally focused Democratic causes, Inman’s analysis also revealed that this year’s contributions fell about $1.4 million short of equivalent donations in 2020. The lower donation total could be a result of many factors, including potentially a slower real estate market that has driven some people from the industry and left many of those remaining with less discretionary income to give away.

But Davenport’s point, coupled with the lower donation numbers, also raises another possibility: That Realtors are simply less engaged this election than they were four years ago.

Following the money

As Inman previously reported, the database of donations shows that thousands of self-identifying Realtors made political contributions between mid-March and mid-October. But looking just at the top spots on the list sheds light on the priorities of the most politically motivated donors. Collectively, the top 25 contributions on the list add up to $891,609.

(The top 25 spots actually only include 21 separate individuals because a few of those individuals made large contributions to more than one organization, thus earning them multiple places on the list.)

Of the $891,609 total, $288,236 went to Democrats or White House-focused and blue-leaning campaigns and PACs — so, things like the Harris’ campaign, political action committee ActBlue, or issues-focused groups such as the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, which this year has endorsed Harris.

Realtors who donated to such causes took 12 of the top 25 spots on the list.

Realtors who donated to Republican or red-leaning campaigns and PACs took 10 of the top 25 spots. However, thanks in large part to contributions from a single Florida donor — $187,500 to a Trump fundraising committee and $175,900 to the Republican National Committee — team red actually collected $558,672.

To be clear, Democrats still out raised Republicans among Realtors overall at the national level.

But these numbers do shed light on the priorities of a small group of the most politically energized Realtors. And within that small group, conservative Realtors were apparently more willing to give money than were liberal Realtors.

Realtors gravitate to social issues

In an effort to understand what is driving donations, Inman reached out to the 21 Realtors who occupy the top 25 spots on the list of largest contributions to individual organizations. The hope was to speak with people from both sides of the aisle. However, only three Realtor-donors agreed to speak with Inman, and all of them made contributions to Democratic causes. One Republican responded to Inman’s request, but only to politely decline to comment.

The first person to respond was Chris Yegen, CEO of the New York-based Yegen Companies. Yegen has donated to ActBlue, a PAC that supports Democrats, according to the FEC website. He told Inman that he donated because he views the “Republican Party as essentially ultra-conservative” and believes Trump to be “a danger to society.” When he spoke to Inman about a week and a half before the election, Yegen was optimistic that Harris would beat Trump.

Yegen had little to say about how working in real estate was influencing his political activity this season. He argued that both parties “have been overly protective of the industry,” and that the business “is strong enough to survive without the tax breaks they get.” He went on to note that he believes various local issues, such as zoning, have important impacts on real estate. But he did not point to any real estate issues at the federal level that had influenced his political involvement this year.

Mary Anne Fitch, a Hawaii-based Realtor with Coldwell Banker, took a similar position. She told Inman that Trump “is not fit to lead the USA.” She pointed to issues including Trump’s criminal conviction, his “relationships with dictators,” and “the events of January 6th” as issues that have motivated her to get involved.

According to the FEC website, Fitch has donated to the Harris Victory Fund. And like Yegen, she did not mention any specific real estate issues among her political motivations.

The third Realtor who agreed to speak with Inman made essentially the same points.

“To me, I vote social issues,” Houston-based Keller Williams agent Peggie Kohnert said. “I don’t vote my pocket book. It irritates me when rich people vote their pocket book.”

Kohnert has donated to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, according to FEC records, though she said that she and her husband have also made other recent blue-leaning contributions that likely wouldn’t show up yet in FEC records.

“What good is our money,” Kohnert added, “if we don’t use it to fight against Trump.”

This small sample is, of course, not representative of the entire industry, and it’s worth stressing again that Inman did set out to talk to top donors on both sides of the aisle.

But it’s nevertheless noteworthy that no one mentioned this year’s real estate upheaval — at least some of it in the form of government pressure from a U.S. Department of Justice investigation — in the context of politics. The experts Inman spoke with pointed to other issues. The Realtors who spoke out cited social issues or dissatisfaction with Trump as their motivators. And the top conservative donors were at the very least not enthused enough to speak out about their priorities.

Weyandt’s point, then, seems to be true of the most politically active Realtors: They aren’t acting on single issues, and their priorities track with the general public.

However, whatever their politics, one thing does appear to be true for thousands of Realtors this election season: They want to make a difference. Kohnert summed that sentiment up when asked why she would give money to political causes at all.

“It’s my duty to America, the land I love,” she said, “to make a difference.”

Email Jim Dalrymple II