As I write this, our advocacy efforts regarding the Wisconsin state budget are in full swing — lobbyists spending countless hours engaging lawmakers and their staff; members responding to Calls to Action, generating thousands of letters, phone calls and emails to their legislators; WRA leaders discussing ways to energize, publicize and fund these efforts; mobilizing coalitions; writing articles, memos, emails, and on and on. It is amazing to watch our advocacy machinery engage. 

But as I considered all this, I am reminded that those who are perhaps benefiting most from our advocacy efforts aren’t even our members. Surely our members benefit directly, but so do many others who don’t pay dues or practice real estate per se. That’s because the issues in which we invest so much human and financial capital directly help home owners and other property owners as much, if not more, than our members. These are the folks REALTORS^® helped buy and/or sell their homes and property — some recently and some many, many years ago — but whom we still serve through our advocacy efforts to preserve and promote accessible and affordable housing; to improve schools; to create jobs; to protect the environment; and to enrich the state’s overall economy. Our advocacy is their advocacy. 

Stop and think about that for a minute. We help people buy and sell homes and other property. In that process, there are a lot of other organizations and businesses trying to help consumers too. In recent years, we have seen tons of real estate data, listing information and a variety of related services offered on the web in an attempt to help consumers during the real estate transaction. Some of these companies and organizations are good, and some not so much. But they all have one thing in common — they are vying for consumers (and advertisers) during transactions. REALTORS^® are far different. While we certainly help consumers during the transaction, our advocacy efforts continue to help them long after the transaction is over. We help them day in and day out during the “ownership” phase of homeownership.

This is what we do and the others don’t.

Just looking at the state budget alone reveals the depth and breadth of these issues we’re fighting for that directly and indirectly benefit property owners in our state. These budget issues included:

• Reducing property taxes again, this time by moving the state forestry tax off the property tax and to the state’s general fund. This proposal involved no cuts in forestry funding, just a permanent $90 million per year property tax cut.
• Increasing K-12 school funding by approximately $650 million over the next two years, the most in a decade. Homeowners have long supported both lower property taxes and more funding for schools, and this budget provides both.
• Fighting to protect property tax credits for historic preservation and along with it leveraging private restoration investments, creating jobs and creating ongoing state and local tax revenues.
• Seeking major, sustainable investment in Wisconsin’s transportation network to improve economic vitality through investments in highways, bridges, local roads, airports, rail lines and harbors. 
• Creating a first-time homebuyer savings account designed to make homeownership more attainable by allowing people to invest and grow their money tax-free in order to save enough money for a down payment.
• Repealing the meritless rental weatherization program.

There are several dozen other issues in the budget bill that we care about, but I think this last one, the rental weatherization code, demonstrates my point well. In 1979, which is even before my time with the WRA, the state passed a law requiring weatherization of multifamily buildings to save energy and required state certification before the property could be sold or transferred. In 1985, which was my first year as the WRA’s chief lobbyist, the state established detailed rules for compliance. The WRA fought these implementing rules, demonstrating through detailed engineering studies that the rules were much more stringent than the original law, resulting in huge costs to property owners and those who rent from them. The Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations (DILHR) refused to change its administrative rules.

In response, the WRA sought, and helped pass, separate legislation to stop the agency from enforcing its proposed rules. Even though that legislation passed a Democratically controlled state Senate and Assembly, Democratic Gov. Tony Earl vetoed the bill, paving the way for the onerous rules to take place. Since then, the law has had questionable energy saving benefits, lax and inconsistent enforcement, and confounded numerous real estate transactions with confusing stipulations and a cloud of uncertainty. 

This law, which has become the costly failure we predicted, is eliminated in Gov. Walker’s current budget proposal. At this time, it looks like the legislature will agree with him, and us, and eliminate this ill-conceived law.

In fighting and failing to fix this law 30 years ago, we realized we needed more tools and more focus on our advocacy efforts, not just to protect ourselves but to also protect homeowners and property owners in Wisconsin. As a result of our loss in the 1985 legislature, the WRA decided — for the first time ever — to get engaged in the 1986 gubernatorial elections. We endorsed a little-known candidate for governor named Tommy Thompson and organized to help him win his race against incumbent Gov. Tony Earl. We’ve been improving and fine-tuning our advocacy efforts ever since.

Our evolving advocacy effectiveness over the past 30 years has been guided and energized by a vigorous pursuit of key real estate-related issues that benefit not just REALTORS^® but property owners as well. REALTOR^® services help consumers during the transaction, but more importantly, REALTOR^® advocacy efforts help consumers year in and year out after the transaction. That we strive to be their voice as well as our own, has made us more effective. We’ve grown our lobbying efforts in the legislature and in state agencies; improved our messaging to the public through the Wisconsin Homeowners Alliance; assumed leadership roles in economic development organizations like Competitive Wisconsin Inc.; aggressively pursued precedent-setting court cases through our Legal Action program; expanded our partnerships for quality real estate research with UW-Madison and Marquette University; and helped those who need it most through the philanthropic work of the Wisconsin REALTORS^® Foundation. These are all REALTOR^® advocacy efforts, and they help more than just REALTORS®.

So here’s the punchline: Unlike any other business, web portal or organization, we never stop representing buyers and sellers. Through our advocacy efforts, we’re defending and promoting their interests long after the transaction is done — when these customers and clients become owners. It’s a very true story but we don’t tell it well enough — yet. 

It’s what we do and they don’t.