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How can I measure the return on my AAR dues investment? This is a fair question and is posed often to staff and officers. Much of what the state REALTOR® association does is carried out quietly and without much fanfare. The return, in many instances, is intangible: friendships gained, leadership training received, education and information obtained. These all contribute to a member’s “bottom line.”
However, there are some returns that can be measured. The following represents a conservative and partial picture of the monetary effect of the activities of the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. This list covers activities on the state level and does not reflect the substantial benefits derived from the local and national REALTOR® association activities.
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Speak Loudly and Carry a Big Stick
Several legislative initiatives and “fights” over the years have saved each member, based on a conservative estimate, $5,412 annually. These activities include:
- Drafted and passed a state constitutional amendment ballot measure that allows real estate licensees to draft or fill out and complete contracts related to a real-estate transaction without being an attorney.
- Drafted and passed a state constitutional amendment ballot measure that prohibits governments from charging a transfer tax on real property transfers.
- Repealed the poorly drafted and bankruptcy-causing anti-deficiency legislation (SB 1271).
- Required municipalities to provide water status in rural or non-active management areas of our state.
- Maintain continuing opposition to a state-imposed sales tax on services.
- Advocate reasonable water rights disclosure and availability.
- Said NO to SPAM. Prevented outside organizations from obtaining licensee email addresses from the ADRE.
- Got clarifications to the employer sanction law effecting independent contractors.
- Advocated against proposed unreasonable disclosure requirements outside the REALTORS® expertise requirements and expectations.
- Defend statewide right to display for-sale signs in HOAs.
- Achieved mandatory licensing of loan originators.
- Defeated onerous water legislation.
Helping You Manage Risk
Legal Hotline. If used just once in a year, the valuable Legal Hotline service provides an estimated savings of $475.
Standard Forms. These real estate forms represent an estimated savings of $428 per member per year based on the development and production costs if done on a company-by-company basis.
ZipForms. The ability to access standard forms in an electronic format provides an average savings of $99 annually.
Transaction Management. AAR offers the leading TM solution, powered by SureClose, as a cost-saving member benefit. AAR has negotiated down the usual $2,500 per broker fee to just $500—a savings of $2,000! In addition, there is no per-transaction fee (usually $15-25 per file), and members receive seven years FREE online file storage (usually $1.50 per file).
Additional Valuable Benefits
There are many other tangible and intangible returns, the personal annual value of which each member must evaluate. There are savings to be had from the http://www.realtor.org/realtor_benefits REALTOR® association discounts with companies such as Lowe’s, Dell, DocuSign or American Home Shield. There is the value of quick access to industry information provided by AAR’s website, Arizona REALTOR® Magazine, Facebook, Twitter and (coming soon!) an AAR blog. And there are reasonably priced, high-quality education and training sessions provided through the association.
Sounds Good, But What’s Coming?
While we are proud of the work we have done to date, we are focused on what we can provide as new member benefits in the future. Recently, AAR negotiated an agreement for a new member benefit called MLS Connect. We have several local MLSs participating and a few that are in the test phase. This new benefit provides integration of information from the MLS directly to ZipForms. We are also investigating the benefits of a statewide MLS, electronic signatures, Zipform integration into SureClose and web conferencing.
Our focus is to bring integration of the information used by our members into the tools AAR provides. Furthermore, we want to provide more up-to-date information in a quicker fashion by utilizing web conferencing and webinars addressing ever-changing topics that are challenging our marketplace.
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Tom Farley is the CEO of the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. Previously, he was the lead political strategist for the association. Tom has run or been involved in several statewide and local campaigns on behalf of the REALTORS® on issues ranging from taxes to land use. He is a member or sits on the board of directors of several organizations, including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Tax Research Association and the Public Affairs Professionals Association.
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