The National Association of Realtors, NAR, is about to have another controversial vote at the Sat board meeting.  It is called the REALTOR® Party Political Survival Initiative.  NAR has put 2 options out for the board of directors to vote on.  And in my opinion, they are both BAD options.

Don’t get me wrong, I think we need to do something and do something fast. I just believe NAR is CRAMMING something down our throats and it does not taste very good.

PROPOSAL “A”

NAR Dues to increase by $40.00 per year for each member to fund the program. Very straight forward.  But it is BAD timing for the members trying just to pay the light bill.

The Political Survival Initiative is estimated to cost $195mm over its first 5 years.  The funds will be accounted for separately to demonstrate that these are dedicated resources and will not be used for other operational purposes.

PROPOSAL  “B”

Eliminate the Public Awareness Campaign USD $35.00 Assessment and increase dues by $35.00. This would be great except they don’t tell you the details. The little secret they forgot to tell us is they will not stop running the TV spots... They will just use approximately $10 million of the reserves to pay for it and the $35 becomes hard and will not go away like the TV adds money would have in 2013.

This is from the budget:

Eliminate the Public Awareness Campaign $35 assessment and increase dues $35.  The funds will be accounted for separately to demonstrate that these are dedicated resources and will not be used for other operational purposes.

Provide $10 million from Operating Reserves in 2012 and $10 million from Operating Reserves in 2013 to shift the Public Awareness Campaign into a maintenance mode.  NAR would focus on radio and would reach 88% of its targeted audience of consumers aged 25-54.

Supplement the Awareness Program with core strategic assets built for this purpose.  These assets are actively performing channels and platforms through which we speak directly to consumers.  These include REALTOR.com, Real Estate Today radio, and HouseLogic.com, and NAR's Media/Public Affairs Department.

After 14 years the Public Awareness Campaign has achieved a 95% recognition by consumers of the advertising campaign, NAR, and the term Realtor. This is up from 70% five years ago.  It is proposed that after two years, starting in 2014, should the recognition level by consumers drop below 85%, the Leadership Team will be responsible for bringing a recommendation forward to improve and maintain the rating at 85% or better.

And if you read the NAR BLOG Real Town and find the results from their own survey, (82.3%) of all respondents voted ‘No’ to NAR’s Proposal A, versus 496 (16.3%) who voted ‘Yes’ in support. 49 (1.4%) participants were neutral and did not vote on this option.

The majority of respondents also opposed Proposal B, with 2195 (72.2%) voting ‘No’ versus 685 (22.5%) in support and voting ‘Yes’. 161 (5.3%) participants did not a vote to this alternative.

So this is why Houston has a PROPOSAL “C”

The Houston Association of Realtors Board of Directors voted to oppose both “A” and “B” and we came up with Proposal “C”.

Change the name of the $35 assessment for 2012 and 2013 from Public Awareness Campaign to REALTOR® Party Political Survival Initiative, with no dues increase.

This fund will expire in 2013...

This way, in 2013, we can look at the program and see what we need to do... STUDY how it works... Make the changes needed and make it better... Why do we need to rush into something that we know nothing about?

Stop the madness... I agree we have to work hard over the next few years, but let’s work smart and not throw good money after bad ideas.

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Remember, Danny Frank is a local Pearland, TX Real Estate expert! You can see my entire blog at:  http://www.pearlandrealtyblog.com