National REIA President Jim Kilgannon outlined the need for us to build a unified voice in the industry (see article below). National REIA has engaged Management and Government Resources, Inc, and Lobby Works, LLC to help local organizations develop state legislatively-focused organizations. Over the last six months we have initiated the first phase of this legislative plan. In the first phase we have developed the materials necessary to increase, draw together, and in some cases create from disparate organizations, our unified voice. Furthermore, we will be gathering the materials needed to create a process and vehicle by which local REIA’s can effectively advocate for their members’ interest (and in some case preserve their very existence) at both the local and state level. This materially is presented at no cost to REIA member organizations as an incentive to work together and build a unified legislative presence in states where local organizations currently exist.
In this effort, we are asking for ANY legislative materials that locals, and in cases where state organizations already exist, state focused, legislative documents. These documents may range from testimonials before committees, to speeches, to legislative sections of newsletters, to letters to individual elected officials.
Please send as many of these documents in a digital format as soon as possible to charles@nationalreia.com. Additionally, if efforts can be documented as successful or otherwise, please do so.
National REIA recognizes that local organizations are the membership and supports the growth of state organizations solely for the purpose creating a legislative presence at the state capitols, partially in response to the broader agenda-driven attacks that have been spreading against our industry for the past couple years. Without a supported, systematic response by locals at their state capitol, many members will be out of business due to knee jerk reactions, uninformed legislators or in some cases, just plain bad legislation. Over the next couple years, MGR and LW will be providing training at National’s meetings and to some degree, be available for in-state training, as well providing additional materials, strategies, and ideas to strengthen local and state legislative efforts.
To participate in the National REIA Legislative Forum click here.
by: Jim Kilgannon, National REIA President 2006 & 2007
We need to do three things. First, we need to reemphasize the Codes of Ethics each of our Associations has created and expects its members to adhere to. (If your Association doesn’t have a formal Code of Ethics, contact our office at 888-762-7342, and we can help you formalize it, or give you a recommended Code of Ethics to adopt, or build your own from.) We need to shed bright lights on those people who inhabit the fringes of our industry so that they move on. Next, we must ‘professionalize’ what we do. And finally, in each of our respective states, we need to establish some way to monitor what is going on at the State Capitol.
Read more about Association Ethics by checking out the overview PDF Documents-Association Ethics Overview. (Member password required)
Making Your Voice Count -
We, that’s you, me, and everyone in your local group, along with landlords and investors who you know who haven’t yet joined your group, need to think about how we keep our industry thriving and here tomorrow. Ben Franklin, at the signing of the Declaration of Independence said, "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." The first brick in building the wall to stem the tide of over-reactive legislation is to join together. Aren’t our local Associations enough? I used to believe that too, until I thought about my ability to get the attention of a legislator on the other side of the state, or someplace where there is no local association to contact him. While my local representative would give me his attention because my vote is important to him, I’m unlikely to have any success with someone from 300 miles away.
Word Documents-Real Estate Investors are Vital to the Housing Market
State Lobbying Associations
Do State Associations work? Absolutely, State Associations do work. They not only prevent bad legislation, they help to get legislation we want to get introduced and passed, introduced and passed into law. I live inPennsylvania, which has some of the most Landlord unfriendly laws in place.Pennsylvania’s State Association,PROA (Pennsylvania Residential Owners Association, www.proassoc.org) worked for and got passed shorter eviction processes, and wage attachment. And,PROA has prevented lots of unfriendly legislation from being passed, or gotten legislation which was about to be passed modified, so that it wasn’t as onerous as it might have been otherwise because they are acting as that watchdog for the rest of us. If your State doesn’t have one, now is the time to act.
Legislative Manual information.
The Professional Housing Provider program, which started in Ohio, was adopted by National REIA to help groups educate and retain members. It has been one of National REIA’s, and the groups who have implemented it, more successful rollouts. Now, we are convinced that we need to move it up a notch, and to seriously consider moving toward a PHP designation which would have the weight of other professional designations, like CAM, CPM, RMP, etc. Why? I feel that without the distinction which a professional designation holds, we lose the credibility which having a certification brings. We are missing an opportunity when we stand in front of our Legislators, whether that’s in our smallest township, or at the State Capitol, to point at what we are doing, and say ‘…we are handling it, there’s no need to legislate that…’ Without that we just don’t have the credibility. The Wizard of Oz said “Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven't got: a diploma.”