They Do More Than Sell Houses In Tooele UT
I'm talking about Chris & Berna in the Tooele office, they do more than sell houses in Tooele UT. Much more. They are good citizens.
They spend a lot of time doing things in the community that help make Tooele a better place to live. The 4th of July breakfast, the Easter Egg hunt for the kids, the Womens shelter, endless hours of planning commission & zoning meetings plus donated time for just about every charity Tooele County can muster. I guess you could say thats only fair since what they do is sell houses in Tooele, Stansbury Park & Grantsville UT.
Making a place better makes selling a home a lot easier.
And of coarse it helps get their faces "out there". The cynical might say "they give of themeselvs because it's good for business".
But not everything they do is so high profile.
As i was reading Chris's blog today about the job a few in our industry do each year, I thought of how fortunate we are to have folks like Chris and Berna looking out for us, and carrying our water at the State Capital each year, monitoring the lawmakers, spending long unpaid hours on the hill at the legislative sessions to make sure our property rights are maintained and the right of home ownership is protected.
This is what he had to say about it.
It's no secret that I'm a political junkie. I was raised to believe that
exercising the right to vote was sacred. I still believe that's true. However,
I also believe that civic responsibility doesn't end there. It took becoming a
Realtor many years ago to learn that part.
Let me preface this by saying that I'm speaking specifically toward life in
Utah . I'm not interested in debating the role of the NAR in my life as a
Realtor. Yes, I'm a National Director, and yes NAR drives me insane. However, I
think if all Realtors had to pick a State where it's good to be a Realtor, that
State would be Utah!
Back in 1997, I was asked to attend my first UAR 'Legislative' Committee
meeting. I attended in complete ignorance to what it was about. I was asked to
read a Bill on banning cell phone use in cars. We've come full circle, as we
have similar legislation this year as well!
At that time, we were a fairly ineffective group, with no real voice, no
influence, and frankly speaking, not much knowledge or understanding of the way
the political world worked. We'd look at a few Bills that might be related to
Utah Real Estate or land use in Utah, take a position, then get on the phone
with our legislators and try to sway them toward our position. Most of them were
cordial enough, if you could actually get them to take your call. Life today is
a bit different.
I'm writing this at roughly the half-way point of our 45 day Legislature. I'm
still on the UAR Legislative Committee. That committee now is filled with 45-50
political nuts with a total focus on our Statement of Policy, based around those
same things we fought so hard against a decade ago.
So, what's the difference?
The difference is one of approach. A decade ago, we started working hard to
elect people to office that already have the same fundamental beliefs we do
regarding property rights, land use in Utah, taxation on Real Property and Real
Estate regulations. We discovered it's more efficient to get our voice heard
that way, than to try to convince people to change their philosophy. What that
means is that almost a third of the 104 Legislators in this State list Real
Estate, development, commercial or residential building, or other Real Estate
related industries as their actual occupation.
The length of our reach is a bit longer too. Last year, we took positions on
over 100 different Bills. We were successfully on well over 90% of those Bills,
whether we were in support or opposition. We were 100% on Bills we opposed, such
as taxes on our commissions, transfer fees, and agent liability on undisclosed
meth contamination. This year, at the half way point, we are looking at over 50
Bills, with more added every day. We are batting 1000, and I believe that's
where we'll end up.
We aren't alone as an industry in how we approach the Legislative session.
There are many other groups that attempt to do what we do. So, why have we been
so successful? I think it's because we never ask for money! Seriously, our role
has evolved over the years to one of being an information provider. The
legislators know that what we give them, we believe in. They know that it will
be based on our beliefs, and that we don't waver in those things. They also know
we won't lie. Because, at the end of the day, it's about trust and
relationships. Thats taken more than a decade to build, and is really the key
to the whole thing. No big secret.
So, the next time you hear someone complaining that the Realtors have too
much influence in Utah, remind them of how much lower their property taxes are.
Remind them about how they don't have a transfer tax when they buy and sell. It
won't take you a decade to convince them, because the work's already been done!
We're half-way there for this year!
For helping to make our lives better, my hats off to Chris and Berna, they do more than sell houses in Tooele UT.