The Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) is an international professional commercial and industrial real estate association based in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

It offers a professional designation (SIOR) to commercial brokers and other industry professionals. It has 3,400 members in 686 cities and 36 countries. SIOR designees can hold the following specialty designations: industrial, office, sales manager, executive manager, or advisory service. SIOR also includes associate members, who are corporate executives, developers, educators, and others involved in the commercial real estate industry.

Founding

SIOR was originally SIR (Society of Industrial Realtors). In 1939, the idea of forming an

organization An organization or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences) is an legal entity, entity—such as ...

for industrial

real estate broker Real estate agents and real estate brokers are people who represent sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and age ...

s began. The sequence of events can be summarized as follows: * Despite the continued growth of industrial real estate, industrial real estate specialists had little representation within the

National Association of Real Estate Boards The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is an American trade association for those who work in the real estate industry. it had over 1.5 million members, making it the largest trade association in the United States including NAR's institut ...

(NAREB). * Industrial realtors Frank G. Binswanger and David T. Houston Sr. made an effort to organize and coordinate industrial realtors across the United States and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. * They were able to gain sponsorship for the founding of Society of Industrial Realtors, and in the fall of 1940 at NAREB's national convention in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, the formation of a national body of industrial realtors was approved. One year and two months later, the US entered World War II. The society was instrumental in locating existing, and immediately available, plant space that could be used to produce defense, and later, war material. Over 200 brokers from across the United States and Canada surveyed suitable facilities and reported their findings to the War Department (now the

Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

SIOR Commercial Real Estate Index (CREI)

SIOR maintains the SIOR Commercial Real Estate Index (CREI) is a quarterly, attitudinal survey by market experts in the SIOR membership community. It is a diffusion index, a routinely used index for economic measures. The survey is based on the following topics in the questionnaire: * Recent leasing activity * Trends in asking rents * Trends in vacancy rates * Subleasing conditions * Levels of concession packages in leases * Development activity * Site acquisition activity * Investment pricing levels * The impact of the local economy on the property market * The effect of the national economy on the property market

Chapters

SIOR has membership chapters on a global scale. They are the following: * United States chapters * SIOR Canada- East, West, and Central Canada Chapters * SIOR Mexico- Mexico Chapter and the Juarez-El Paso Chapter * SIOR Europe Regional Chapter

References

{{real estate designations Real estate industry Professional titles and certifications Professional associations based in the United States Organizations based in Washington, D.C.