Bright Lights in the Economic Night: Ron Phipps's February NAR Entry

Bright lights in the Economic Night

This past week was a turning point. This week, Richmond Virginia was my port of call. Virginian Realtors are tenacious and gracious. Challenge does not dissuade them, it emboldens them. And yet, they do not loose any of their grand sense of hospitality. The meeting in Virginia went well for the Association, Realtors, and their legislative Agenda. All ten of their bills were approved by the State Legislature. It was turning out to be a great week.


Then two bright stars lit the night: First, Charles Macmillan NAR President and Dale Stinton, NAR Chief Executive Officer, introduced the Right Tools, Right time initiative. It is brilliant concept: For over 100 years Realtors, with the effective stewardship of our professional staff, have invested in the Association Reservoir. As a result, the Association has significant resources: tangible, fiscal, human, and strategic. The Leadership Team with the concurrence of the Finance Committee approved the NAR plan to put tools back into member and Association hands to provide assistance through these difficult times. Tools will be delivered to Realtors and Associations, (local and State), to provide direct benefit during these times. I was reminded the old Chinese proverb: Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life. We are re-tooling and re-teaching our membership. We are lighting up the darkness with not just hope and compassion, but rather the tools to help our members actually survive. It is as if we are letting water out of the Association reservoir to make the electricity to power our Realtor business and light, heat our homes. It is the right program at the right time. It maybe viewed as one of the most pivot decisions for our Association in the past twenty years.

With star shinning brightly, the Congress finally approved the economic stimulus package to send to President Obama. What is amazing is that we obtained three of our four goals: Rates are 150 basis points below where they were a half year ago. Conforming loan limits have been reset at the higher 2008 numbers. The 7500 credit was increased to 8000, (we had hoped for 15k), and there is NO repayment provision. By every measure we met those three goals. The final element, the prohibition of banks in Real Estate is still being pursued.

It these two stars were not enough to lit the night sky, we are about to hear the next phases of the Administration Housing Recovery plans. We have not had a lot of light in this economic night, but now we have two North stars to help us navigate out of the darkness and into the life.