About National Association of Realtors
• NAR is a professional trade group for the real estate industry founded in 1908, and is affiliated with local boards of realtors throughout the country such as Dayton Area Board of Realtors and Ohio Association of Realtors.
• The National Association of Realtors, with approximately 1 million members, is the largest professional trade group in the U.S.
• Members are designated “Realtors” and must adhere to the group’s code of ethics. Not all real estate agents are Realtors. Members include residential and commercial Realtors who are brokers, salespeople, property managers, appraisers and counselors.
SOURCE: National Association of Realtors website, www.realtor.org
About Steve Brown, of Irongate Inc. Realtors
• Thirty-eight years in the real estate business
• President and co-owner of Irongate Inc. Realtors, an independent real estate services company with 300 agents working from offices in Beavercreek, Centerville, Englewood, Kettering, Springboro and Washington Twp. Services include real estate sales, mortgage, title and insurance services.
• 2014 president, National Association of Realtors (NAR)
• Member of the Ohio Association of Realtors (OAR) Board of Directors since 1993
• NAR Director from Ohio in 1999, 2001 to 2003, and 2005 to 2012
• NAR Region 6 Vice President, representing Ohio and Michigan, in 2005
• Past president of OAR in 2002 and Dayton Area Board of Realtors in 1995
• Recipient of the OAR Vincent T. Aveni Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012
• Recipient of the NAR President’s Cup Award recognizing Brown’s work as the 2009 Vice President for Committees and the 2009 Vice President for Governance
• Recipient of the OAR Phillip R. Barnes RPAC Achievement Award in 2007 for “extraordinary” commitment to the Realtors Political Action Committee
• Recipient of various sales awards from OAR and Dayton Area Board of Realtors including Pinnacle of Performance, Award of Excellence, and President’s Sales Club. The “Pinnacle of Performance” is the highest sales award offered by the Ohio Association.
SOURCE: Irongate Inc. Realtors
Local real estate agent Steve Brown will be sworn in Thursday as the 2014 president of the National Association of Realtors, a rare opportunity for Brown and the Dayton area, his colleagues said.
Brown’s election also represents the first time in more than 20 years that an Ohio real estate agent will lead the largest professional trade group in the country.
Brown, president and co-owner of independent real estate firm Irongate Inc. Realtors of Centerville, will serve as president of the national group for one year. During that time, he’ll represent Dayton on a national stage. As president of the 1 million-member group, duties include advocating for legislative issues concerning the real estate industry, as well as strategic planning for the organization.
The inaugural ceremony is being held in San Francisco at the National Association of Realtors’ 2013 Realtors Conference & Expo.
“It speaks volumes first of all to Steve and his leadership, and secondly, for us it’s obviously a bright spot that Dayton is mentioned on a national level as he mentions he’s from Dayton, Ohio, in every speech,” said Gavin Blair, chief executive officer of Dayton Area Board of Realtors.
“It’s going to give a national spotlight on some of the issues at the forefront of the housing recovery that are going to talked about this year,” said Blair, who will be part of the swearing-in ceremony along with Robert Fletcher, chief executive of Ohio Association of Realtors; and Blair’s predecessor Jesse Livesay.
Brown, also a past president of the Dayton and Ohio boards of realtors, will be the first National Association of Realtors president from Dayton in the agency’s 100-plus year history. Eight other Ohioans have led the national association in the past, including Harry Kissell of Springfield in 1931 and J.D. Sawyer of Middletown in 1973, according to the Ohio Association’s records. Most recently Harley Rouda Sr. of Columbus was president of NAR in 1991.
The Dayton Daily News interviewed Brown about his new role.
Q: Do you have a flagship goal you want to accomplish as president of NAR?
A: "Certainly to keep the full court press on legislative, regulatory issues that would adversely affect property ownership. That would be number one. Number two, to make certain that there is affordable, accessible, sustainable flow of capital to the market.
“Our industry has professional designation programs that are already in existence. These represent very challenging studies and examinations. I want to promote those so that more of our membership secures these professional designations and becomes better informed in order to help the consumer.
“Also, sometimes the National Association of Realtors is thought of as a residential organization when in fact we claim to be the voice of real estate. That means commercial practitioners and land and farm agents, property managers. I want to make certain that we are meeting the needs of those members of our association in helping them better serve their clients.
“Another goal is to actually increase our international presence. NAR has a global outreach.
“We have a very unique business model in the Realtor association. It’s one of the few business models that’s based on competition, yes, but cooperation. As we list a property, we share that inventory with our competitors, but in doing so it makes properties more available. The consumer can find out all the information they need from any licensed Realtor in the market.
“To share that business model throughout the world, and also to raise the standards of professionalism and honesty and fair play in the real estate world would be another aspect of our business and certainly a goal that I would have in the coming year.”
Q: What does it mean to your career to be president of the national association?
A: "Certainly it's a great honor. Secondly, it's something that as time went on in my career, I saw the benefit of being involved in the Realtor organization. One reason, the Realtor organization and their rules and policies, whether it's pertaining to (Multiple Listing Service) rules, whether it's pertaining to professional conduct and professional standards and a code of ethics, those rules and regulations affect how I do business, how my company does business.
“I recognized early on that if I wanted to be a part of the shaping of my industry, I had to be a part of the Realtor organization.”
Q: How will you represent Dayton on the national stage?
A: "I'm very proud to be from Dayton. And certainly whenever I'm introduced, and even now as president-elect, I'm always introduced as Steve Brown from Dayton, Ohio.
“Dayton is not just great because of its past, it’s great because of its present and its future potential and if I didn’t believe that, I couldn’t sell a home here. I couldn’t sell a property, a commercial building here if I didn’t believe that there was a great future in Dayton.
“I think Dayton is in some ways representative of the country as a whole and when I speak I often refer to my experience here in Dayton and then there’s another aspect of all this and that’s because of some of the opportunities that I’ve had, I’ve been able to use local vendors from Dayton and I make a point of that. For example, I’m having our leadership team, our entire team, come to Dayton in late November to sit down and have a goal-planning meeting.
“The desires, the values that we have here I think are very reflective of our country.
“For many people in the country, Dayton would be the promised land of real estate because our housing values here are so much more affordable than they are in other parts of the country, so I brag about that. That’s a point that I often will say if you’re looking to grow your company, come to Dayton, Ohio, where the schools and public education is fantastic, where the community embraces all the good events and activities of life from sports to education to cultural events.
“All of those things are right here in our community and because of that I can go in any community throughout the country and share about what we do here.”
Q: How would you describe the state of Dayton's housing market right now?
A: "Dayton real estate is very stable. We realized we had a stability of value in 2009, late in the recession and every year our market gets a little bit better. I can tell you our company in sales is up 18 percent over last year.
“Now are we back to the days of the pre- Great Recession? No we’re not, but we have a good, solid affordable market with plenty of inventory.
“The reason why you’re seeing a drop in sales on a national basis or when they calculate the national numbers, there are some markets who are actually low on inventory and so low on inventory it’s causing prices to go up drastically in those markets and obviously it’s limiting the number of sales in those markets. The Dayton market is not like that.
“Secondly, the interest rates inched upward a little bit from about 3.5 percent to about 4.5 percent. Now they’re about 4 percent. Anytime you see an increase in interest rates, it will give pause to the market, but we are still in a very affordable time in our market historically.”
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