Many of us are just back from a very productive week in Washington, DC, where Missouri REALTORS® were among the 8,000 REALTORS® in attendance at the 2015 REALTORS® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo.
Missouri REALTORS® met with our Congressional Delegation on the importance of FHA and housing finance reform to major tax issues such as maintaining the Mortgage Interest Deduction, 1031 Exchanges and property tax deductions. We also highlighted specific commercial real estate issues such as making permanent the 15 year depreciation period for leasehold improvements. Along with Joyce Thomas, I was very proud to be inducted into the NAR RPAC Hall of Fame at these meetings.
At the NAR Board of Directors meeting this past Saturday, May 16, Missouri REALTORS® Past President Elizabeth Mendenhall was elected NAR 2016 First Vice President. We are so proud to have leaders such as Elizabeth among our ranks.
The other big news of the meeting was the approval of a partnership between NAR and its wholly owned subsidiary Realtors Property Resource® and another company, UpStream RE, LLC. This partnership will create a data entry and collection system for the brokerage community using the RPR® advanced Multi-list platform (AMP™). The system will give brokerages a single place to input their listing data for distribution on multiple platforms online, including Realtor.com, local MLSs, and broker websites. The initiative will be funded using NAR operating reserves over 36 months, at a net amount not to exceed $12 million. The data entry system is explained in a video on REALTOR.org. Access that now.
The Board also heard a report from the Strategic Thinking Committee on the committee’s recently released D.A.N.G.E.R. Report, which covers 50 issues that keep brokers, sales associates, associations, and MLSs up at night, including loss of listing data control, new regulations, and dilution of the REALTOR® brand by substandard performance.
To see a full report on NAR Board of Directors actions, click here.
While we were in DC, our lobbyists Sam Licklider was closing out the 2015 Missouri Legislative Session. Thanks to Sam for an amazing job representing us in Jefferson City. You can see his most recent post on THE LANDING and more details are forthcoming.
John
CEO
Missouri REALTORS®