This content was created by Leigh Thomas Brown. This content was uploaded by Leigh Thomas Brown. This is a YouTube message titled "The Value of REALTOR Membership: Protecting Your Real Estate Business and Your Clients" (posted Oct 7, 2023) featuring North Carolina REALTORS® President Leigh Thomas Brown addressing members. It's a one-person address explaining why agents should maintain membership despite recent headlines about National Association of REALTORS® litigation and some broker changes, highlighting key member benefits (state-approved transaction forms, a legal hotline, advocacy successes such as banning predatory 40-year listings and protecting flood insurance), professional networking/education, and a call to stay engaged and contact her with questions.
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Hey, North Carolina REALTORS®! President Leigh Thomas Brown here, and I know that many of y'all are seeing little tidbits and snippets in the headlines about what's happening in organized real estate, especially when it comes to the lawsuits and settlements that are facing the National Association of REALTORS®. Now, several brands have made announcements that they will no longer require their agents to be affiliated with the REALTOR® Association. I want you to know why you you still want to consider being a member of the North Carolina REALTORS®. First of all, it's because currently there is a setup that if you're going to belong to one, you belong to three, and that's your local association, which for me is Central Carolina and also Salisbury-Rowan and Gaston and Canopy. So I belong to 4 locals so that I have access to the best of the best when it comes to the boots on the ground information. And you're also a member of your state association. So hey, North Carolina REALTORS® and you're a member of the National Association of REALTORS® Currently you can't belong to just one, you belong to all three. Now let me tell you what that means to you in terms of why you renew your dues. Sure, you may hear about not having to, and it is possible because the North Carolina Real Estate Commission gave you the public trust with that pocket card, and there are many agents out there who operate without being REALTOR® members. However, we do have some really nice benefits. The first one I would talk to you about is forms. When you want to write an offer or list a house, those forms that you have, that whole packet that's available in zip form, that's part of your state REALTOR® member dues. So if you are a non-REALTOR® member, you get to call a lawyer to come up with forms for yourself or your company or for each client as you go through one by one. That's going to cost you or your clients or both a lot of money. Our forms are updated by a diligent group of volunteer members, plus the Real Estate Commission, plus attorneys every single year to make sure that we are up to speed with laws and regulations and consumer behavior. So that's just one of our really big benefits. The second really big benefit we have at the state level, mm, that would be your legal hotline. If you consider that the average attorney charges $400 an hour, and you know, our attorneys are above average, just gonna say, and attorneys love to charge by the minute, which if REALTORS® did, y'all would all be super mega rich. But we don't. We get paid on occasion when something sells, but your legal hotline is available to you all the time. Most members who call the legal hotline call it approximately 6 times a year. That means if you're paying $400 an hour, let's just say it's 30 minutes worth of work, that'd be $200 every couple of months. So I can do the math really quickly and that's $1,200. That's way more than my REALTOR® dues. And even if you call one time, it's probably more than an offset to your REALTOR® dues. And if you're listening and you're thinking, Leigh Thomas Brown, I didn't know we had lawyers. Mm-hmm. We have Legal Hotline, y'all. It's one of our absolute best member benefits. Now, I could also list a blue million other things that are at NCRealtors.org, but frankly, those are the two that I need to operate my business safely, which is to have the good legal up-to-date forms that protect my clients, protect the consumer, protect buyers, sellers, and agents, and also to have that legal backing when I do have questions or if my clients have concerns about what's happening in a transaction. Now, I also want you to know that we have this advocacy piece of what we do as a trade association. We are the largest association of any profession in North Carolina, and what that means is we can get legislative priorities through. One of which this year was the ban on that 40-year listing agreement. As you remember, there was a company that was preying on people by calling and saying, hey, we'll give you some money and you just sign this listing agreement for 40 years. And then one day we get to make commission on you. And that is taking advantage of an uninformed consumer. And so as an association, we worked with the Real Estate Commission and with the State Attorney General, the governor, and the whole legislature. The whole pack of people got together and stopped that. That's the kind of work that we do. And if you're curious about what else advocacy does, we've also made sure that flood insurance has continued even in all the drama going on in D.C. We want to protect homeowners. And if you're thinking, but Leigh Thomas Brown, I don't live in a flood zone, spoiler alert, wherever it rains, it can flood. And so flood insurance is something that has been made available to people, whether you're in a flood zone or out of one, to provide an extra level of protection. And I could talk about this for days, but I want you to know that when you wear the R, you do get some benefits and perks that come with that. The last thing I'll tell you is that you have the benefit and perk of being associated with the top professionals in the business. Not that a licensee is not necessarily professional or that they not subscribe to the code of ethics, because they don't. And they might be ethical and they might be competent and they might be knowledgeable. But the people that choose to wear the R and that are REALTOR® members have decided to go next level with the way they approach the business. And if that's you, we want you to stay engaged and we want you to stay involved. And if that's not you, then we welcome you to come to our educational events and come to member convention that comes up in October here shortly, because this organization matters. We do work on behalf of the public. We keep costs down for you and for the public you serve, and all of that matters. Now, if you have questions, you can call me anytime. You can text me anytime. You can reply to this video because North Carolina REALTORS® matters, and I'm going to stay involved, and I hope you will as well.
