Your Federal Issues Sounding Board

The year has begun with a new president in Washington and many promises and goals. How much will be accomplished remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: President Obama and Congress are going to move quickly.

The California Association of REALTORS® must keep pace and respond just as quickly to issues and policy directions coming from both Washington and Sacramento. (Still, as I write this, our state legislators are deadlocked and they have not approved a budget. I am hopeful that when you actually read this, we will have an approved budget in place.)

C.A.R.’s Leadership Team is empowered to make policy decisions between the Association’s business meetings. This type of action, however, is rare, because the officers would prefer to have all policy decisions made by the board of directors, after being thoroughly vetted through committee. Given these extraordinary times and the flurry of legislation and policy being proposed by Washington and Sacramento, we have formed a Federal Issues Sounding Board, composed of the chairs of our policy committees; chairs and vice chairs of the Federal Issues Committee; chairs of the Legislative, Taxation, and Real Estate Finance committees; and several prominent REALTORS® from around the state. The Federal Issues Sounding Board’s role is to give the Leadership Team opinions and input regarding legislative initiatives that may impact our Association.

This is kind of a “kitchen cabinet,” if you will. We feel we have assembled a bright group to offer us insight in the various areas mentioned.

We also have formed an REO Presidential Advisory Group to explore some of the problems and issues surrounding REOs and short sales, which dominate many of California’s markets. This group will address everything from lock box issues and local governments’ fines to unethical behavior, and more. The group’s information-gathering efforts will help us, in the end, deal more effectively with some of these issues.

Can we influence some of the large lenders? Can we attempt to establish some protocols and uniformity in the market? We don’t know, but if we don’t try, we know we won’t succeed.

I am hopeful we can make a difference. With your help, we will!

James Liptak