The Green Valley Ranch Resort and Spa just outside Las Vegas was the setting for the 2009 Region 11 meeting on February 22-24. Our 2009 Regional Vice President, Keith Kelley, ABR, CRS, hosted the event in his home state with Leadership from our six state region in attendance. Nearly 200 members and staff from the states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming attended the event.
Monday morning’s meetings kicked off with a breakfast buffet, followed by a panel of government affairs speakers which included Colorado’s own Rachel Nance, CAR Vice President of Public Policy and Chief Lobbyist. The other panelists were Tom Farley, CEO and Lobbyist for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®; Rocky Finseth, Chief Lobbyist for the Nevada Association of REALTORS®. The speakers primarily addressed emerging legislative issues in their respective states. Of particular import across the board, were revenue generators and consumer protection issues. In this tough financial climate, all the states seemed to indicate that government entities were struggling to raise new revenue in creative and sometimes onerous ways.
Laurie Janik, General Counsel for the National Association of REALTORS® gave an update on national legal issues. In particular, she updated us on the changes to NAR’s VOW policy and the importance of compliance by February 2009. A pdf file of Frequently Asked Questions can be found by logging in to http://www.Realtor.org and then using this link: http://www.realtor.org/wps/wcm/connect/d1ba94004cfa54349ceffe8d0a12d865/VOWFAQsUpdatedFeb092009.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=d1ba94004cfa54349ceffe8d0a12d865
Teresa McKee, Nevada Association of REALTORS® Legal Counsel and Curtis Bullock, Utah Association of REALTORS® Legal Counsel addressed their state issues. John Harrison, RPAC National Fundraising Chair spoke about last year’s amazing results, and stressed the importance of our voluntary contributions to address legislative challenges springing up on local, state and national levels.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman welcomed the group to Las Vegas at a Monday luncheon. Our keynote speaker was Dr. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s Chief Economist. His remarks included some positive news for our Region, including the fact that the Las Vegas market was one of the first in the nation to experience a housing crisis, but he expects will be one of the first to recover. He was positive about Colorado, as well, mentioning that we were not as damaged as the period post-9/11. He believes that recessions in the past were more influenced by interest rates than by job losses, which bodes better for this situation. Also, the credit explosion, not the housing bubble, caused many of our problems on a nationwide basis. Additionally, the 50 year low mortgage rates are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and savvy consumers will ultimately take advantage of them, creating a cautious demand.
Colorado’s State President, Amy Dorsey, CIPS, MRE, GRI, CRS, RSPS and CAR CEO Robert Golden, RCE, spoke about CARHOF (Colorado Association of REALTORS® Housing Opportunity Fund) and the success of the Foreclosure Hotline which provides assistance to consumers. Colorado is a leader in the nation with programs like these.
Kipp Cooper, Government Affairs Director, Las Vegas, spoke about the new Quality of Life graffiti-fighting program. With graffiti a large problem, they have enacted a multi-tiered approach to protecting private property rights.
Our Tuesday luncheon speaker was Marcel Bryer from Fannie Mae who spoke about challenges and opportunities in the present time and answered audience questions, many of which focused on handling of REOs and foreclosures.
Kay Watson was the spokesperson for the Ira Gribbon Workforce Housing Grants. Further information is found at: http://www.iragribbon.org Grant applications are due by December 10. Applicants must be non-profits. $5.2 million will go to this project. CAR hopes to obtain funding which will aid CARHOF.
Vicki Cox Golder, 2009 National Association of REALTORS® President elect and a member of our Region from Arizona, spoke about the new NAR “Right Tools – Right Now” initiative. This program offers members many free and reduced cost products. For more information, log on to www.realtor.org and use this link: http://www.realtor.org/prodser.nsf/RightTools/ToolsHome
Region 11 then held the traditional Caucus where we come together to attend to business issues. The six State Presidents introduced their respective Leadership teams and each spoke about key issues that had not already been covered.
Random Thoughts: Chris McElroy has been selected as the alternate to the NAR Nominating Committee for a two-year term. The group discussed our annual convention to be held this year in San Diego. “Chart a Winning Course” will be the theme and further information is available at: http://www.realtor.org/convention.nsf or you can follow updates (tweets) at: http://twitter.com/nar2009
In summary, there was a great deal of useful information packed into a two day period. It was one of the best Regional meetings I’ve ever attended, with excellent participation, provocative speakers, and lots of useful information.