PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Professionalism,
Engagement,
Personal Safety
Iam so honored to be writing you today
as the 2018 president of your Orlando
Regional REALTOR® Association. There
are about 14,000 of us now, and I take
very seriously the responsibility of keeping
our team of staff and volunteers laser-focused
on efforts to provide the educational
programs and benefits that make our lives
easier and more productive. Add in the benefit
suites provided by Florida REALTORS®,
NAR, and MFRMLS, and I believe that we as
REALTORS® receive an amazing value for
the dues we pay each year. However, ORRA
leadership will never stop trying to do more
without raising membership fees.
This year, I will be focusing on three
initiatives to provide you with more value
from your association. The first is professionalism.
The REALTOR® is going to go the
way of the travel agent if we can’t do a better
job of showing the consumer that we bring
value to the transaction. The day of being
the keeper of the data is gone. I challenge
each and every one of us to step up our
game. If you haven’t taken ORRA’s Excellence
in Professionalism - Gold Key Certification
class and earned the GKC certificate, do it
this year! (Visit the Education section of
orlandorealtors.org for upcoming dates and
registration info.)
My second focus is member engagement.
If you’re not involved in the programs and
benefits that we offer, you’re really missing
something! We will be reaching out to members
in an effort to learn just how we can be
better engaged with you. We will be asking
for a small amount of time from many of
you and for a greater amount of time from
others, but it’s all done so that we can listen
to you and hear what you want.
My last focus is REALTOR® safety. I know
all of us want to help people buy and sell
homes, but none of us should be willing to
put our lives on the line for it. If a potential
buyer or seller isn’t willing to send you their
ID; isn’t willing to meet with you at the office;
or isn’t willing to take whatever initial steps
you and your brokerage have determined is
necessary to establish a relationship, then
I would question whether you should be
alone with them in an empty house. There
are many ways we can be smarter agents
while serving as well as, or better than,
we ever have! You can find tons of safety
resources (articles, tips, procedures, policies,
presentations, and more) currently housed
on orlandorealtors.org. Keep watch for
additional safety programs and technology
offerings from ORRA as well.
Finally, I want to give a warm welcome to
Cliff Long, our new chief executive officer. He
is joining us from the Birmingham (Alabama)
Association of REALTORS®, and I am excited
to start my year as president alongside his
new ideas and fresh perspectives. I also wish
to thank 2017 President Bruce Elliott for the
huge amount of time and effort he put into
our association last year. He — along with
ORRA’s board of directors, ambassadors,
and more than 300 committee volunteers
— deserves my sincere gratitude for making
ORRA one of the country’s top 10 local REALTOR
® organizations in 2017 and for making
my path easier to navigate in 2018.
4 Orlando REALTOR® January / February 2018