Fundraising Talking Points
Fundraising Talking Points
• Realtors make many business investments –cell phones, cars, computers, MLS fees, errors and omissions insurance (images here). They’re investments you rely on in your business. However, some Realtors® overlook one very important investment in their real estate business. That investment is RPAC. • The Virginia REALTORS® Political Action Committee – RPAC for short – is the way Virginia Realtors® can act together in influencing legislation and regulation that affects real estate and property rights in our state and nation. RPAC helps elect candidates who think like we do, who understand the challenges of running a small business, paying self-employment taxes, and defending oneself against frivolous lawsuits. RPAC is NOT a charity. Rather, it’s a necessary investment in your business, a kind of insurance policy against bad legislation and regulation. Furthermore, RPAC is non-partisan in its support for candidates. It’s all about policies, not parties. • Think of it as you would purchasing stock in a company. You choose the stock because you expect some prospective benefit; you see some potential for economic gain. When you invest in a company, you boost its bottom line, and as it flourishes, you benefit as well. RPAC invests in pro-real estate candidates who then invest their time and energy on your issues –– the issues that help or hinder your real estate practice day-in and day-out. • Basically, RPAC protects our business by working to make real estate affordable, to make the transaction less complicated for consumers, and to protect the rights of property owners. • RPAC is essential in making sure our REALTOR® priorities remain in front of our elected officials. It’s our best means of making sure officials hear the REALTOR® perspective in their deliberations. It gives us a seat at the table. • As a Virginia Realtor®, your input is essential in ensuring that RPAC supports the best candidates for office at the local, state and national level. We always want to know what you think about the political races in your area and which candidate is best for real estate. You can offer that input directly to VAR, or via your local Board of REALTORS®. Your local Board, in turn, can convey your input to RPAC leaders about political races that affect your area of the state. • In open seats, especially –– races where there’s no incumbent –- local Boards of REALTORS® play a very important role in determining which candidates we should support. Without their local involvement, we’re at a serious disadvantage in knowing whether a candidate thinks like we do and is supportive of small businesses and property rights. • The actual contribution decisions in statewide races, legislative races and judicial races, are made by your State RPAC Trustees. They’re Realtors® just like you who donate their time and political savvy to oversee the nuts and bolts of your PAC. Think of them as you would your stockbroker –- they’re helping manage your RPAC investment in a way that will bring desired results. Because they come from communities like yours and share your interests, you can trust them to make on-target contribution decisions that are good for real estate. • Overall, your RPAC Trustees consider three things in determining which candidates to support: • We don’t support a candidate just because he’s nice or well-liked. There’ve been times in the past when a Delegate was liked by the Realtors® in his district, and yet he’d been voting just opposite their position on legislation that affected them. That makes for some hard choices, and requires us to do a good job telling our members exactly why we choose to support the candidates we do. Otherwise, local Realtors® could go out and vote against their own business. • Your RPAC Fair Share investment provides returns in three places: in your hometown, at the State Capitol, and at the Federal level in Washington. • The return you get from your RPAC investment isn’t just the appreciation of elected officials. The real return is good laws that help you do business better and protect your clients and customers. Here are just a few of RPAC and National RPAC successes in recent years: • In recent years, RPAC and your state and national REALTOR® Associations have save you and your clients and customers literally thousands of dollars – an extraordinary return on your Fair Share investment… • When you look at what VAR and RPAC have done legislatively for our business, you just can’t help but see it as an exceptional investment. I wouldn’t want to imagine where my own business would be without it. • It’s essential that Realtors® invest in RPAC, because every year, we find ourselves going up against foes in the legislature who are better funded and more powerful than we are. The only way we’ll win on the issues that are important to us is by having members who understand the value and benefit they receive by giving to their PAC. It DOES make a difference. • That’s the challenge before you today. Consider making a business investment that’s every bit as important as your cell phone, your car, or your computer. By investing your fair share, you’re paying the premium on an insurance policy that will result in a better climate in which to do real estate in Virginia. Make your pledge now. Because your profession depends on it.
o The candidate’s committee assignments
o The candidate’s voting record on REALTOR® legislation
o Input from local Realtors® and the local Board of REALTORS®
(list here)
Print this!