As a real estate association in a small college town, the Columbia Board of REALTORS® in Missouri is deeply connected to the community. However, the association doesn’t assume that residents are aware of the advocacy work performed on their behalf, says CEO Brian Toohey, RCE.
The association holds candidate forums before elections, sponsors charity events and routinely meets with community leaders. Toohey also writes a column for the local business newspaper, participates in a radio program, and composes a newsletter that includes updates on real estate trends and statistics geared toward policymakers and financial stakeholders.
“These really help our advocacy efforts by just keeping our name out there,” Toohey says. “Columbia has around 130,000 people, and it’s a very tight-knit community in a university town, so you run into a lot of people who are involved with the city and county. It helps that we’re able to have those one-on-one conversations.”
Real estate associations nationwide likewise are educating and engaging the community on vital issues. They’re ensuring that the organization’s policy positions are understood, while sharing the dollars-and-cents outcomes for property owners so they can clearly see how members of the association are working on their behalf.
Using the Levers Available
Local advocacy endeavors can get help from the National Association of REALTORS®. Its Consumer Advocacy Grant assists with efforts that demonstrate how associations are allies with homeowners.
For example, the West Hawaii Association of REALTORS® used the grant program in early 2022 to inform people that a critical building permit expiration date was looming on the island of Hawai‘i, threatening to force costly property upgrades and potential delays in sales transactions for the island’s homeowners.
The local association mobilized an intensive consumer education program to get the deadline extended twice. Meanwhile, the NAR grant helped fund mailers that connected property owners to a webpage where a video walked homeowners through the process to find and fix an open permit, according to a 2024 case study.
Association leaders must stay on top of machinations on the local, county and state levels or risk enduring damaging legislation, says Victor Gomez, government affairs director at Santa Cruz County Association of REALTORS®.
Over the years, Gomez has been involved with four major initiatives in Santa Cruz, Calif., including one preventing zoning regulations that would have restricted the heights of buildings. Gomez says he works closely with all stakeholders—including those on the opposing side—to help ensure reasonable compromises can be reached. That kind of thinking starts with a clear sense of purpose.
© Missouri REALTORS®
“We are in the business of protecting private property rights,” Gomez says. “That is our leading slogan as [professionals who are] REALTORS®. We are here to protect current and future homeowners, which includes renters. Our goal is to make sure that any impacts on them are limited.”
That approach requires being aware of all the levers that can be pulled to find reasonable outcomes, he adds. For example, Santa Cruz officials have proposed a ballot measure that would create a parcel tax and increase the transfer tax on properties that sell for more than $1.8 million, which Gomez says is the average cost of a home in the community.
When compromises couldn’t be reached with the city to prevent the measure, the association developed an alternative proposal that would cut the parcel tax in half and only apply a transfer tax for properties values at $4 million and above. By law, the association’s proposal had to include some level of taxes for it to be considered competitive, he explains. But the association’s proposal also calls for exemptions for people 55 and older and for commercial and industrial properties. And unlike the city’s proposal, the association’s measure would set aside money for the repair of a beloved community wharf that was destroyed by a storm last year.
To garner enough support to get its measure on the ballot, the association needed to communicate those details to various groups throughout the community, including renters, retirees, the business community and homeowners.
There’s still no better way of campaigning than actually going to a home.”
-Victor Gomez
Timing Is Everything
With the special election tentatively scheduled for fall 2025, the Santa Cruz association is reserving its big communications push for August. Gomez, who has been involved in numerous elections, says it is best not to start too early, and 100 days before an election has proved to be the best timeline.
“You don’t want to bombard people too far out from an election,” he advises. “We are not at that point yet. But we are putting together a strong public relations campaign to educate the community on why we have taken the position that we have taken and why they should care.”
Because this campaign includes competing proposals, he envisions flyers that will provide a side-by-side comparison of the measures and highlight that the association’s proposal calls for exemptions for people 55 and older, money for the wharf, and the lower tax rates.
Experience has taught him that knocking on doors is the most effective way to influence elections.
“There’s still no better way of campaigning than actually going to a home and holding that clipboard with the person’s information on it, although today it will be on your smartphone,” Gomez says. Direct mail can be similarly effective because you can target high-propensity voters.
More on That Personal Touch
When it comes to communication, the personal touch cannot be overstated, says Amanda Nemeth, director of local board relations and regional advocacy coordinator, Eastern Missouri, for Missouri REALTORS®.
As part of her job, Nemeth sets up weekly meetings between local association members and elected officials at the state capital. The meetings run from February through April when the legislature is in session. They are an opportunity for her and people from the local associations to get to know the decision makers, and the personal interactions often lead to follow-up discussions and relationships, Nemeth says.
For example, homeowners in the rural northern and southern parts of Missouri have more difficulty selling their homes because of the lack of broadband access, which makes the issue a statewide concern, Nemeth says. To get the word out about initiatives—advocating for rural broadband was a top agenda item for real estate agents in Missouri this year—the state and local associations share information and photos on their social media and websites, which often get reposted and shared by supportive state legislators.
“You would be surprised at how many of the representatives and senators want those pictures, so they can send them out to all of their constituents,” she says.
Constant Reminders
After an advocacy project becomes a success, associations should continually remind homeowners and other interested parties about what they accomplished, says Nathan Gorton, CEO of Washington REALTORS®.
For example, about four years ago, Washington REALTORS® was able to exempt real estate from a proposed state capital gains tax. In that situation, the association ensured that its members statewide were educated about the win so that they could inform their clients, particularly real estate investors who would see the advantages of the exemption, Gorton says.
“I think that it is important to not stop talking about those victories,” he says. “The fact that we exempted real property from capital gains is still as significant now as it was four years ago. Some issues have longer shelf lives than others, so continue recognizing the shelf life of a win and make sure you are talking about it until that shelf life expires.”
Additional advice he shares includes a tip that he learned from a background in politics: It takes at least seven touches to get a message across. People are busy, and they might not even look at the first communication.
“You have to reach out an average of seven times in different ways before people even start to hear the message that you want them to hear,” Gorton says. “We’ve really adopted that as one of our communication strategies.”
Communication tools include videos, newsletters and social media posts, and in-person visits to convey key talking points.
“We also think about who the biggest beneficiaries and cheerleaders on an issue will be,” he says. “We make sure that we are segmenting audiences and have a message that would appeal to each segment. Then the overall strategy is making sure we are using every communication vehicle possible.”
Spreading the Message
Communication efforts can also help dispel stereotypes about real estate agents, such the idea that agents only care about sales, says Gorton. To help boost community-building efforts—for example, the Columbia association puts a priority on volunteering with organizations like Habitat for Humanity—the association posts short storytelling videos on its social media and websites.
“The videos help with our advocacy efforts because they improve our image in town,” Toohey says. “We try to show the philanthropy and how the money we raise is donated to local organizations.”
Longer videos capture the entirety of association-sponsored candidate forums, he adds. About 75 or so people might attend the popular forums during election season, but when the videos are posted online, the reach multiplies.
“We open up the forums to the entire community, and we don’t just make it about real estate issues,” Toohey says. “That has added a lot of clout to our organization because people know we have probably one of the better candidate forums. And people running for office realize they have to come through us before they get elected.”
Finally, and most importantly, Toohey points out that it takes time to create goodwill in a community.
“It’s not something that happens overnight,” he says. “It’s something that you have to stick with and just keep doing year after year. It takes consistency.”
