Latest Commonwealth thanks RPAC contributors
You may have noticed that this issue of Commonwealth has more than one cover. If you invested in RPAC in 2010, yours offers "Thanks for everything." (If you invested $99 or more it has a gold border to boot.)
And if you didn't invest? Let's just say the cover image isn't quite as friendly. If you didn't contribute in 2010, we included a handy envelope to get you started in 2011. For brokers, we even threw in a poster for the office.
Why invest? RPAC is the key to VAR's lobbying efforts at the General Assembly. It helps VAR ensure that the legislation we put forward on your behalf gets in front of legislators who think like we do: with Realtor® and property owner interests at heart. It's as simple as that. Investing in RPAC shows legislators that Realtors® care about the Virginia real estate market and home- and property owners' rights, and that we are watching the decisions they make. And that clout may be in doubt.
Still not sure if you can afford it? Watch the video below and learn how even a nickel a day can be the best investment you make for your business all year long.
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Comments
A question and a couple of points please:
What was the cost to members for the manhours, planning, artwork and production of four different covers (three for the RPAC message, one standard cover) for this month's Commonwealth?
I can sympathize with members who have been for a couple of years now financially stretched to make ends meet and their reluctance to part with even a nickel a day. Some Realtors have spouses that lost good paying non-Realtor jobs 3, 6, 9, 18 months or longer ago and still remain unemployed. The impact of losing a job includes loss of a home, loss of medical/dental insurance, loss of life insurance, loss of savings.
And, we all share the affect of rising costs related to transportation, marketing and advertising, dues, E & O insurance and general living expenses. Real estate companies are passing on their cost increases to their Agents and lowering commissions.
All of this adds up to making it very difficult to sacrifice further. And I object to the suggestion that making up the nickel is as simple as doing without Starbucks, movies, and popcorn. Granted there may be Realtors who can well afford the nickel a day but they are not the heart of your membership. They are the periphery so I would suggest that you find another means to make your message clear without spending the stretched dollars of the heart of your membership.
I can certainly understand Mr./Mrs. Newberry's concerns about the production costs of producing different magazines and maybe that could have been done differently to accomplish the same message goal. But I don't think the cost was significant when I look at the marketing I create and use. Most likely they incorporated some previously used components and were able to easily drop them in place and the printing costs probably didn't change.
As far as the suggestion to find other means of "asking" people to get involved and participate. The best way to get people to participate is to ask and break it down into simple terms. We do this every day by telling buyers to look at the monthly cost of their purchase, not the merely the total cost since they will likely never fully pay for it anyway. Perhaps that will be the start of our discussion for changing the 30 year mortgage diet that only we enjoy in the US, when the discussion about changing Fannie and Freddie gets serious.
I think without a doubt, whether we are doing well or not, WE ALL waste money every day on things that don't enhance, protect or impact our business. But RPAC is our clients-both buyers and sellers-own lobby where we are the conduit. It's unfortunate that special interest owns Washington and the politicians, but until it changes we need to be in the game. Because if they don't have their ear, someone else surely will. The contribution on a national level would be HUGE if every REALTOR in the country contributed. Last year over $6M dollars was offered by less than 30% of the membership. Fortunately the members who are doing well did contribute more than their fair share to help out our brother and sister REALTORS who couldn't. But we're talking about $20-$40 dollars PER YEAR.
If the members who did contribute more continued and 1/2 the REALTORS who didn't contribute donated just $20.00 we'd have over $10M to continue the fight for MID,Chinese drywall legislation, and numerous other issues that deeply affect our clients.
I would suggest to any REALTOR if $20.00 is the breaking point, they need to look at how well prepared they are to work for a buyer or seller. This business IS a business. It does cost money to make money. Suppose a buyer wanted to go look at homes and your gas tank was empty, but you didn't have any cash to fill it up. You get creative or get out the credit card. But if you sell them a house you paid yourself back for that tank of gas many times over. Same thing with a seller. Can you look them in the face and say I can't afford to advertise your home because times are tough? Not at all. You do what you have to for your clients and look for a return so you can reinvest in your business. Your clients will really appreciate it when you can call them and say you played a part in protecting their mortgage interest deduction and property values by contributing to RPAC on their behalf.