Because bad legislation is like a virus. It does not stay where it started, and by the time it reaches your market it is already in effect. REALTORS® get involved in advocacy and homeownership policy because we are the ones who see what a rent control bill, a transfer tax, or a change to the mortgage interest deduction does to a real family at a real kitchen table. If we do not speak for property owners and the people trying to become property owners, nobody with a license will.
I have done this work for a long time. I served as 2023 President of North Carolina REALTORS®, which represents more than 57,000 members. I am an RPAC Hall of Famer, I chaired the RPAC Trustees Fundraising Committee in 2018, and I served on the National Association of REALTORS® Federal Financing and Housing Policy Committee from 2012 to 2015. I have also run for public office three times. So when I tell you this matters, it is not a slogan.
This is the first thing I tell an agent who says they stay out of politics. REALTOR® advocacy is not about Rs and Ds. We care about how an elected official votes on issues that affect property rights and the stability of our neighbors. Your partisan affiliation matters to you, and it should. For the association, it does not. We work across party lines because that is who we are, and that is why elected officials from both parties take our calls.
Watch what happened with rent control. It started on the West Coast, then Oregon passed it statewide, then other states started talking about it. Agents in those markets who thought policy was somebody else's job found out otherwise.
Advocacy is the one place where you can protect your clients and your income with the same hour of work. When you help defeat a bad bill, every homeowner in your market benefits, and so does every future transaction you will ever close. When you help pass a good one, like flood insurance reform or first-time buyer programs, you create clients who could not have bought a home without it.
There is a second benefit. Advocacy makes you the agent who actually knows what is going on. When a consumer asks what the new law means for their property taxes, the REALTOR® who sat in the hearing has an answer. That is a competitive advantage nobody can copy with a marketing budget.
Give to RPAC, because that is how our voice gets into the room. Go to your state association's legislative day and meet your representatives in person. Read your association's policy alerts instead of deleting them. Volunteer for a committee. And when disaster hits, show up. I founded a nonprofit called Patriot Relief, which has helped families in western North Carolina hit by Hurricane Helene, and I serve on the REALTORS® Relief Foundation board, because policy and service are two halves of the same job.
Advocacy is how REALTORS® earn the right to say that by supporting REALTORS® we protect and advance the right of Americans to own real estate. That sentence is only true if we do the work.
RPAC is the REALTORS® Political Action Committee. It supports candidates from both parties who protect property rights and homeownership. Giving is how the profession's voice gets into the rooms where housing policy is decided.
No. REALTOR® associations work across party lines and evaluate elected officials on property rights and housing issues, not party affiliation.
Attend your local or state association's legislative day, read policy alerts, give to RPAC at any level, and join a committee. Leigh Brown served as 2023 President of North Carolina REALTORS® and is an RPAC Hall of Famer.
Fearlessly real and faith-driven, Leigh Brown is the Disruption Navigator guiding professionals from chaos to clarity with guts, grace, and a good dose of grit.
