First of all, I’d like to thank the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors (CAAR) for sending me to this year’s National Association of Realtors (NAR) Convention in Orlando. It was the first year CAAR sent the whole leadership team, and was extremely valuable in team building and preparation for dealing with our national, regional and local issues.
It was enlightening and inspiring to hear from not just the premier panelists in the most topical real estate discussions of the day, but to also hear from the most interested practitioners throughout the country. It’s clear that we are all dealing with similar issues but the local differences are what made it most interesting. One thing that was crystal clear is that the Central Virginia real estate economy weathered the real estate storm much better than most.
The panels and keynote speakers each day focused heavily on the economy, the recent election results, and the implications for changes in taxation and deductions. Talk of the Mortgage Interest Deduction always got a rousing commentary and it’s clear that NAR on down the line will be staunch supporters of its continuance as a key motivator for home buyers.
The most interesting break-out session I attended was on doing business with China. There was a delegation of about 40 Chinese Realtors, all dressed sharp in navy blue that spoke no English. We heard from the EO of the Chinese MLS, (there is only one), a Texas broker who specializes in US/Chinese real estate and a US/China relations expert. This was a great first step in understanding global real estate.
As CAAR’s 2013 President Elect, the governance roundtables were particularly interesting. Groups of leaders from similar-sized boards were grouped around a particular issue for about 30 minutes and then mixed and moved to another topic for a couple of hours. Each of us came away with several new ideas to consider. Again, it was evident that our association has fared well over the last five years. There were many whose membership had dropped 75%. Ours, only about 10%.
The Expo was amazing with every vendor imaginable putting on their best show for four days. It was hard to take it all in, but rest assured, today’s innovations are way ahead of last month, and I think you can count on it staying that way for quite some time.
It wasn’t all work. Universal opened one evening just for Realtors and there were more mature, dignified and entirely professional Realtors screaming, laughing and crying on the coasters..than just me.