Rob Reuter
By Rob Reuter, YPN Manager
Since taking off in 2009, YPN posted a third consecutive year of increased membership numbers in 2012 adding 45 new networks and an estimated 10,000 new members for a total of 272 networks and 30,000+ members.
Here are more highlights from the past year:
YPN recognized three Networks of the Year in 2012: Seattle-King County for small/medium association, MetroTex for large association, and Illinois for state association. Seattle put on several very successful networking events including their “Death of Networking” event which drew major industry leaders to attend and serve on a panel. MetroTex has shown its ability to grow and sustain starting with 15 founding members in December 2009 to 42 YPN committee members and nearly 250 at large members. Aside from their monthly meetings, MetroTex hosts an annual phone-a-thon during which they raised over $6,000 in less than two hours for TREPAC in 2012. Illinois took home the state award for their “Border-to-Border” program during which the 2012 chair and vice chair literally travelled border-to-border across Illinois encouraging all local associations to create a network. The annual deadline to apply for the awards is August 31st.
Photo by Brian Copeland
For the third straight year, YPN chairs were invited to Chicago for NAR’s annual Leadership Summit in August, an event that’s generally attended by incoming association presidents and association executives. This year, about 150 YPN chairs made the trip and were asked to facilitate one of NAR’s Strategic Planning Committee’s REThink workshops for more than 1,600 attendees. They delivered in a big way and were praised by several members of NAR’s Leadership Team. We hope to be invited back to the Summit in August ‘13.
Moving into 2013, we’re pleased to announce that nearly 100 NAR committee positions have been given to YPN members this year, the highest it has ever been since NAR CEO Dale Stinton created the initiative in 2010 to appoint two YPN members to each NAR committee. The recommendation process for 2014 NAR Committees opens March 12th and closes May 23rd.
Also new in 2013 will be a third YPN session at the Midyear and Annual Meetings, in addition to the YPN Advisory Board meeting and YPN reception. We will be adding a 90-minute YPN roundtable session for the YPN attendees to get together in a business-type atmosphere and discuss various YPN and business-building topics. This session will be offered shortly after the YPN Advisory Board meets at each meeting.
During the 2012 NAR Conference & Expo, NAR’s Board of Directors approved several changes to NAR’s Committee Structure including the addition of a Data Strategies Committee, Consumer Communications Committee, and a Social Media Advisory Board. We hope to get YPN members involved with these groups moving forward. Also approved at this meeting was a Student Membership for the association in an attempt to reach a younger demographic. Many members of YPN have shown an interest in reaching out to this group, so YPN should play a major role in this initiative.
Finally, there are several other initiatives YPN hopes to be a part of in 2013, including growing the network globally, working with Second Century Ventures and their Tech Incubator Program REach, the REALTORS Property Resource® (RPR), and many others.
As you plan your network’s goals for the year, feel free to express interest in participating in any of the initiatives listed above. Have a great and successful 2013 and let’s keep riding the YPN wave into the New Year!
Rob Reuter
By Rob Reuter, YPN Manager
I think many of us who are part of YPN would agree that one of our goals is to bridge the generational gap that seems to have been created in our industry. I get asked all the time if there is an age limit for YPN or if there ever will be. My response has always been the same: YPN is for the young and young-at-heart real estate professionals.
With that being said, this blog post is in honor of our young-at-heart colleagues and you may notice a familiar theme that Jeff Foxworthy uses with his ‘redneck’ jokes (if you don’t know who Jeff Foxworthy is, you might be too old for YPN). So here’s a test of your young-at-heartness. Hopefully, you’ll get a nostalgic chuckle or two out of this:
- If you’ve ever referred to the MLS in BOOK FORM, you might be too old for YPN.
- If your business card photo is OVER 10 YEARS OLD, you might be too old for YPN
- If you’ve ever used a CAR PHONE to sell a house, you might be too old for YPN.
- If you’ve sold a home when people were still putting wallpaper UP, you might be too old for YPN.
- If you’ve sold a home when shag carpeting or wood paneling was IN STYLE, you might be too old for YPN.
- If you’ve sold a home when they were still using LEAD BASED PAINT in NEW construction, you might be too old for YPN.
- If your membership is not DECREASING the average age of a REALTOR®, you might be too old for YPN.
All kidding aside, how about a big round of applause for our more experienced colleagues and may you continue to enlighten us on how to become better REALTORS®.
Rob Reuter
By Rob Reuter, YPN Manager
I was recently approached by staff of REALTOR® Magazine and asked if I could start blogging in the YPN Lounge. I remember thinking to myself “cha right, have you seen my to-do list?” Well here I am and for my first blog in the lounge, I get to write about an exciting topic: the word REALTOR®. It is over 100 years old and many members, and even more of the motoring public, are still unclear of what it means (and how it is pronounced). I’ll admit that even when I was selling real estate, I wasn’t 100% sure on what it actually meant or how it could be used.
Websites, blogs, business cards…YPN Chapter names. Many of these are guilty of the misuse of the term REALTOR® and as the future of the real estate industry, we should all be fully educated on the meaning and correct use of it. To help get us started, here are a few guidelines for use on the Internet taken directly from Realtor.org:
1. The term REALTOR®, whether used as part of a domain name or in some other fashion must refer to a member or a member’s firm.
2. The term REALTOR® may not be used with descriptive words or phrases. For example, Number1realtor.com, numberone-realtor.com, chicagorealtors.org or realtorproperties.com are all incorrect.
3. For use as a domain name or e-mail address on the Internet the term REALTOR® does not need to be separated from the member’s name or firm name with punctuation. For example, both johndoe-realtor.com and johndoerealtor.com would be correct uses of the term as a part of domain names and jdoe*realtors@webnetservices.com and jdoerealtors@webnetservices.com are both correct uses of the term as part of an e-mail address.
4. The REALTOR® block R logo should not be used as hypertext links at a web site as such uses can suggest an endorsement or recommendation of the linked site by your Association. The only exception would be to establish a link to the National Association’s web site, REALTOR.org, or its official property listing site, REALTOR.com.
For a full understanding of the term REALTOR®, here’s a link to its location at Realtor.org: http://http://www.realtor.org/letterlw.nsf/pages/internetuse. So the next time you’re in line at the grocery store or hitting up happy hour and you hear someone say ‘real-a-tor,’ you can turn to them and say “it’s pronounced REAL-TOR and this is what it means.”
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