The REALTOR® Party: Your Voice for Advocacy

As a member of the National Association of REALTORS®, you are also a member of the REALTOR® Party—the only advocacy group in America that fights exclusively for homeownership, real estate investment, strong communities, and the free enterprise system.

While you are working hard helping your clients invest in property ownership, and ultimately their future, the REALTOR® Party has your back.

Whether it’s city hall, the statehouse or the U.S. Capitol, our mission remains the same.  The REALTOR® Party speaks with one voice to advance candidates and public policies that uphold private property rights, real property ownership, strong communities, and a vibrant business environment.

In recent years, our local level activities have increased; REALTORS® have gained political clout through legislative victories in every corner of the country, and state and local REALTOR® Associations have expanded their community and political presence…all because of the actions of the REALTOR® Party.

At the same time, the REALTOR® Party has been working to prevent policies and regulations that harm our business and the real estate industry including property taxes, first-time home buyer savings accounts, sprinkler system requirements, rent control, and more.

How does the REALTOR® Party accomplish these things?
By supporting candidates who support our issues. By urging policymakers to support pro-real estate issues and running issue campaigns to support/defeat ballot initiatives, state constitution changes and more. And through member-driven community activities and involvement that make our cities and neighborhoods stronger.

RPAC, the REALTORS® Political Action Committee, and the REALTOR® Party go hand-in-hand.

Funded by voluntary investments from members like you, they work together to elect REALTOR® Champions, who help to advance issues that matter to our industry and the nation’s property owners and to build strong communities.

This partnership is what makes us a force to be reckoned with at the local, state and national level.

But the REALTOR® Party goes beyond supporting candidates with money. Once elected to public office, we are there to communicate with all elected officials on issues that are important to our industry.

More than politics, the REALTOR® Party is about community outreach and issue engagement, as well. Since REALTORS® usually live in the same communities where they work, they doubly benefit from improving their communities. That’s why it’s important that REALTORS® are active members of their communities and support issues that matter to real estate and our clients.

For example, our Placemaking Program helps to make public places and spaces better, or a place people want to go to.

This is an excellent way for REALTORS® and REALTOR® Associations across America to get involved with building community gardens, creating spaces for public artwork, installing park benches and much more. In 2017, GCAR received a placemaking grant and had a new bench installed at the Colonie Town Hall building.

The Placemaking Program is just one of more than 80 programs, services and resources offered by the REALTOR® Party.

Let’s bring the REALTOR® Party down to the basics—to what you can do as an individual REALTOR® to participate and make the REALTOR® Party strong. It boils down to three simple, but important words: Vote, Act, and Invest.

Vote
First, make sure you are registered to vote, especially if you have recently moved.  It may startle you to know that 15 percent of NAR members are not registered – that’s nearly 225,400 REALTORS!

Here in New York, 12.8 percent of REALTORS® are not registered–that’s more than 7,500.

Visit the NYS Board of Elections website for information on how to register to vote in New York.

And of course, don’t just register, vote!!! REALTORS® should be the biggest activists in any community.  Voting is the easiest way to make our voices heard.

In the last Presidential election, 73 percent of REALTORS® voted, compared with just under 60 percent of the general population.  Isn’t that great that REALTORS® are leading the nation?

Act
Second, get involved in our local association.  Serve on committees, participate in our advocacy and community outreach events.  We need you.

Also, make sure you are responding to Calls for Action from the National Association of REALTORS® and the New York State Association of REALTORS®.  Calls for Action send messages from you to your national and state legislatures about issues that are important to our business. There are one million REALTORS® across America, imagine how loud our collective voice would be if we ALL responded to Calls for Action.

And we’ve made it easy to do this through REALTOR® Party Mobile Alerts—our texting platform. REALTOR® Party Mobile Alerts will alert you to Calls for Action on your phone.

If you haven’t already, I want you to pull out your phone right now and sign up just text the word REALTOR to 30644.

Invest
Third, invest in RPAC.  Again, the REALTORS® Political Action Committee helps fund candidates that support our business on federal, state, and local levels.  That’s right!  RPAC has an impact right here in our own community.

Nearly one-third of our members nationwide invest in RPAC. That’s nearly 32 percent.

But we can do better. I hope you step up to the plate.

If real estate is your profession, then politics is your business. Thomas Jefferson once said, “We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”

The more participation you have in the REALTOR® Party, the stronger our collective voice.

It matters to your business. It matters to your clients.

You are the REALTOR® Party.

We need you to be involved.  Vote, Act, Invest to make the REALTOR® Party strong and effective. You can make a difference in our community and in our country.

You can invest at www.gcar.com/invest.