I spent the latter part of last week near Staunton facilitating a two-day planning retreat with Harrisonburg/Rockingham County REALTOR® leaders. The committee did great work charting a course for their 380-member association for the next three years or so. While what follows here is only a draft at this point, but thought you might be interested in their strategic goals (I’ve eliminated the actual objective below for brevity’s sake).

MISSION (Why we exist):
HRAR fosters its members’ career success by providing services, training, and information that enhance their professionalism and credibility in our community.

ENVISIONED FUTURE (What the future will look like with the implementation of this plan):
• HRAR is truly seen as the voice for real estate in the Central Shenandoah Valley.
• The public views HRAR members as professional and competent community leaders.
• Members view HRAR as an irreplaceable business resource, are proud of their association, and are actively engaged in its programs and activities.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES (Our plan of work):
I. COMMUNITY ADVOCACY AND INVOLVEMENT / HRAR advocates for members’ and consumers’ interests through interaction with the public, policy makers, civic organizations and the media.
II. MEMBER PROFESSIONALISM AND CREDIBILITY / HRAR members conduct themselves in the highest professional manner and are respected by their peers and the public.
III. MEMBER COMPETENCE / HRAR members have the training and skills necessary to meet the evolving needs of today’s consumer and achieve business success.
IV. TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM / HRAR members are served by innovative technology tools that maximize their productivity and business success.
V. ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS / HRAR operates in an efficient, effective, proactive manner with a focus on delivering value to members and ensuring the association’s viability.

Find the complete draft here: hrar-draft-plan.doc

In coming weeks, they’ll be sharing the plan with their members and seeking input before they actually finalize and adopt it. Thanks and congrats to HRAR President Steve Hill for his leadership on this project.

A Richmond-area real estate networking group that started as a targeted opportunity for younger real estate agents to jump start their professional networking has evolved into something much bigger. Rapport has metamorphosed into a broad cross-section of real estate professionals from all corners of the industry: commercial, residential, lending, legal, associations, rookies and veterans alike. In less than a year of existence, Rapport is establishing itself as Richmond’s real estate social scene. In fact, it is not uncommon for Rapport to pull over 100 attendees for their parties, helping the Richmond area real estate community to come together. Their next event is being held tomorrow, Thursday, March 20 at 4:30 p.m. Visit Rapport’s website for details.

VAR staff and Rapport volunteers are discussing how VAR, with its statewide reach and Rapport, with its ability to quickly ramp up a critical mass of interested locations and attendees, might be able to replicate this success in other parts of the state. If you or your local association is interested in learning more, please leave a comment here or contact Ben Martin at (804) 264-5033.

I have been invited to offer a few comments on VARBuzz and appreciate the willingness for Scott and Ben to afford me a few inches of valuable space. These guys have really put themselves out there and it must be a very exciting time for the Virginia REALTORS®.

As to offering a bit of content related to today’s market conditions, we have been lauding the announcement that HUD has come out with some conforming loan limit caps which are actually higher than what was expected. There is even an appeal process, I’m told, should an area feel they have not gone quite far enough. So to those of you who seem to perennially reflect on how government agencies don’t work or don’t care - at this time, on this issue - these folks ‘get it.’ They’re trying to be part of the solution rather than the problem. So give ‘em a hand, you’ll be amazed at how well intentioned they really are!

Blogmaster’s note: Determine FHA’s new loan limits using their new interactive online tool.

Admittedly, our National Association has been taken a beating of late for its adjusting and re-adjusting (and re-re-adjusting) of its 2007 homes sales forecasts. That, along with the seeming “It’s Always Sunny in Real Estate” spin that many critics read into the latest iteration of its public awareness initiative, have gotten us to the point that many in the press and the RE.net are questioning NAR’s credibility, both as a distiller of housing industry economic data and a truth teller when it comes to what’s really in consumers’ best interests in today’s real estate markets.

While NAR (or VAR either, for that matter) is not above criticism, there are always (at least) two sides to every story. There are even multiple facets to the same story. And there are certainly multiple ways of collecting and analyzing data, and multiple, sometimes contradictory, conclusions that can be drawn from that analysis. I’ll not belabor the point, except to say this: In particular, I believe that NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun has gotten a bad rap for what some see as his too-rosy forecasts and well-spun public comments about the health of the real estate economy.

Thankfully, he now has a new platform for explaining himself and the inner workings of NAR’s econometrics, and it’s worth a read. It’s not a blog (yet), but NAR has begun to post commentaries by Yun at realtor.org behind the “research” tab. In particular, his recent post on some of the reasons for divergent home price trends is a spin-free, must-read.

I’m glad Lawrence is finding his voice. He’s a fresh, thoughtful, truth-telling asset to NAR. Would that more in the media (and, yes, the real estate blogosphere) were as thoughtful.

Now if they’d just turn his commentaries into a blog, we could all comment….

(I’m told Lawrence’s commentaries will be posted with some frequency at http://www.realtor.org/research, in case you want to bookmark it.)

This, from Seth Godin’s blog:

The posture of a communicator

If you buy my product but don’t read the instructions, that’s not your fault, it’s mine.
If you read a blog post and misinterpret what I said, that’s my choice, not your error.
If you attend my presentation and you’re bored, that’s my failure.
If you are a student in my class and you don’t learn what I’m teaching, I’ve let you down.

It’s really easy to insist that people read the friggin manual. It’s really easy to blame the user/student/prospect/customer for not trying hard, for being too stupid to get it or for not caring enough to pay attention. Sometimes (often) that might even be a valid complaint. But it’s not helpful.

What’s helpful is to realize that you have a choice when you communicate. You can design your products to be easy to use. You can write so your audience hears you. You can present in a place and in a way that guarantees that the people you want to listen will hear you. Most of all, you get to choose who will understand (and who won’t).

It’s an important point: miscommunication or failure to engage is pretty much ALWAYS the fault of the communicator, not the recipient/listener. As we association leaders strategize about how we can better communicate with and engage our members, it’s something we must keep in mind. If REALTORS aren’t reading / buying / wanting / benefitting from it – presuming what we have to offer is truly valuable – it’s likely because we’re not packaging / positioning / communicating it correctly.

– Scott Brunner, CAE

“Hello.  My name is Jeremy, and I was a cynic.”

I’m admitting in front of the world that when I first joined VAR five years ago, I was a cynic when it came to Association membership.  Groups I had been involved were riddled with problems; poor membership involvement, unclear directions, take your pick.  Membership in a trade association was, in my eyes, a waste of time and money.

Notice I said WAS.  This week, I’m at VAR’s Legislative & Education conference in Richmond and I’m admitting I’ve been  converted.  Today alone, I’ve  met with state Delegates and spoken at length about issues important to the real estate industry, had very honest and candid discussions with peers from around the state, and sat in on committee meetings that have inspired and educated.  I’ve got to tell you, I’m more and more impressed with this Association every day.  Things like VARBuzz.com and Ten Things To Know About VA’s Real Estate Market are helpful to us as agents, but they’re a small part of what’s happening here in Richmond.  Now that I’ve seen firsthand the vision VAR has for our Association, and the remarkable abilities of those here at the conference, I’m certain of it - VAR is setting the standard for real estate associations across the country.

Don’t believe me?  The National Association of REALTORS is here this week to watch and learn what your Association is doing, and they’ve certainly been taking a lot of notes.

Are you involved?  Beyond paying , are you getting involved at the local and state level associations?  If you’re not, you’re missing out.  I know I was.