By Ethan C. Nobles

Arkansas Realtors® Association

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LITTLE ROCK – National Association of Realtors® (NAR) President Pat Vredevoogd Combs said Realtors® can make a difference in their communities by getting involved in even the most local levels of the Realtor® organization.

Combs, addressing the Arkansas Realtors® Association Board of Directors at the Holiday Inn Presidential in Little Rock on March 1, said there are, essentially, three levels through which the Realtor® organization works – national, state and individual businesses.

Combs likened the Realtor® organization to a symphony and kicked off her speech to the ARA Board by divulging some relatively obscure trivia. She pointed out that February – Black History Month – had come to a close and mentioned that the first African-American woman to compose symphonic music was from Little Rock.

Florence Beatrice Price was born in Little Rock in 1887 and she published the first of her over 300 symphonic works when she was just 11-years-old. Combs said Price’s “Symphony in E Minor” was the first such piece by an African-American woman to be performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

“What is so amazing to me about symphony music is the level of collaboration that is required to perform it successfully,” Combs said. “Each musician can master her or his own instrument, and every section can master the harmony for a given piece of music. But, that’s not enough. Everyone must work together perfectly to produce a symphony the way it was intended to sound.”

She said the Realtor® organization works in much the same way and Realtors® have something to master at each level of the association. Realtors are maestros in their individual businesses, talents are brought together at the state level to strike a chord on issues that affect the local Realtor® community and the Realtor® organization at the national level leverages the powerful state harmonies to conduct advocacy efforts on a wide range of issues.

“If we want to achieve a symphonic success, we need to perfect our performance at all three levels,” she said.

Combs laid out three advocacy goals that will require the collaborative efforts of Realtors® to be successful – increasing affordable housing, protecting consumers and addressing professional challenges.

As for increasing affordable housing, she said individual members can master reaching out to more clients – minorities and others who may not think they can qualify for a home. Meanwhile, state associations can bring members together on the issue by sponsoring an NAR-sanctioned At Home with Diversity course or working to create a housing opportunity program through by working in conjunction with groups such as the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp.

Combs said state associations can also get in touch with other organizations to develop innovative initiatives and apply for grants to help pay for them.

Nationally, the NAR is working to influence key legislation and regulation, she said. Some of the efforts the NAR is engaged in involve discussing the modernization of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) with federal Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alfonso Jackson.

Also, she said the NAR is working to increase the FHA and conforming loan limits as well as pursing other initiatives such as an affordable housing fund and tax credits.

Combs’ comments were timely indeed as April is Fair Housing Month and a wealth of materials centered on the anniversary of the 1968 Fair Housing Act can be found at the NAR’s Web site at www.realtor.org.

“If we all do our part, our melodic voices will help guide more people home,” she said.

The NAR is knee deep in initiatives to protect consumers, and Combs said individual Realtors® need to help with that goal, too. The NAR has published both a DVD and a brochure aimed at cracking down on identity theft and has published brochures to help explain to clients the benefits and risks of various loan products. More information about those materials can be found on the Internet at www.realtor.org.

She said state associations are encouraged to get involved with the effort to protect consumers by bringing members together through events such as a Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) course and making sure members adhere to the Realtor® Code of Ethics. For more information about RESPA, visit the NAR’s Internet site about the topic at www.realtor.org/respa.

Nationally, the NAR is working to bar the mixing of banking and commerce and encouraging Congress to strengthen anti-predatory lending legislation and regulations. Also, the NAR is supporting the availability and affordability of residential and commercial property insurance by pushing for the funding for and updating of the National Flood Insurance Program’s flood maps and working to ensure that insurance is affordable in disaster prone areas.

Of course, the NAR is also actively working for the passage of the Community Choice in Real Estate Act. That act, if passed by Congress, will permanently bar financial holding companies and national banks from engaging in real estate brokerage or real estate management activities.

The NAR has pushed for the legislation since 2001 when the Federal Reserve Board and the U.S. Treasury Department proposed rules allowing national bank conglomerates to engage in real estate brokerage and management. The NAR’s position on the issue is that national bank conglomerates, if permitted to engage in real estate brokerage and management, would have an unfair competitive advantage and inherent conflicts of interest would result.

The third goal, Combs said, has to do with addressing professional challenges.

“We must strike the perfect chord on key challenges facing our profession, including changes in the real estate market, the dynamic world of technology and – of course – the need for affordable health coverage,” she said.

On a national level, the NAR is working to pass legislation that will make affordable health insurance available to self employed Realtors® and firm employees. Also, she said the NAR is working with industry partners to push for technology standards to help Realtors® provide faster and better service to their clients.

Also, the NAR is spreading the word that consumers should look for a Realtor® to help them navigate the changing market through the association’s Public Awareness Campaign. That campaign features ads – located at www.publicawarenesscampaign.com – that can be customized for free. On a related note, both the statewide Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Springdale-based Morning News have run those ads as a service to the Realtor® community in Arkansas.

State associations are also encouraged to take advantage of the Realtor® Action Center so that all members can easily let their voices be heard on key issues such as health care legislation. The Action Center can be found at www.realtoractioncenter.com. Meanwhile, technology and resources are available to members at the NAR’s Center for Realtor® Technology, located on the Internet at www.realtor.org/crt.

Combs ended her speech by saying that the NAR is committed to helping its members.

“American composer Virgil Thomas once said, ‘I’ve never known a musician who regretted being one. Whatever life may have in store for you, music itself is never going to let you down,’” Combs said. “Well, in my more than 30 years in this business, I can tell you that I have never met anyone who has regretted being a Realtor®.

“No matter what is in store for this business – and we all know it has ups and downs – one thing is certain. The Realtor® organization is never going to let you down.”