As Realtors, we need to be concerned with more than just selling houses and earning a commission.
Realtors Helping Realtors
So excited that my article was picked up by Real Estate Marketing Magazine…
People often ask me why I give so much of my time to our real estate industry – participating on Boards locally and at the State level, on the State Line for the Women’s Council of Realtors, teaching classes to other agents, and being involved in the creation of community education events for all of the agents in the area.
As Realtors, we need to be concerned with more than just selling houses and earning a commission. We, as Realtors, have the opportunity to be the voice for our communities. To take the issues impacting our communities to our local board (Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches and Greater Ft Lauderdale), to Florida Realtors and ultimately through the National Association of Realtors – Political Action Campaign (RPAC).
Policies That Matter
Since the National Association of Realtors is the largest trade organization in the United States, we have a strong and loud voice. NAR, through funds from RPAC, advocates policy initiatives that promote and protect a strong real estate industry, which in turn provides for vibrant communities.
Some of the initiatives that Realtors have tackled and made an impact on nationally are the National Flood Insurance Program, Fair Housing and Federal Taxation.
Locally in Palm Beach County our voice was heard as we worked to protect homeowners with a 10% cap on increases of non-homestead property taxes. This initiative alone saved the taxpayers over $725 million. We petitioned for our local businesses with the first ever cut to business rent tax – we saved business owners over $61 million! There are so many other successes that have benefited our local communities.
Raising the Bar
The other main reason why I devote so much of my time to our industry is to help raise the bar in our industry. How do we do that? We help each other!
We educate each other, we learn from each other, we share information about communities, about loan programs, about contract issues, about local governance to name a few and all for the sake of delivering incredible value to our clients. We assist clients with one of their largest investments in their lives – we owe it to our clients to be the best we can possibly be!
We need to be professional. We need to be well versed and knowledgeable. We need to seek out answers when we do not know them. We need to be precise and we need to be caring and understanding. We need to be a resource for all things real estate and to my real estate friends – that doesn’t mean you need to have all of the answers – it means you need to surround yourself with a team of professionals, resources who you can bring in when needed.
We owe it to our industry, to our clients and to ourselves to continue to invest in knowledge and to share this learned information with each other so together, we can protect and help our communities.
It has been and will continue to be my great honor to serve in our industry.
