President's View—A New Start in 2021

Some time ago, my friend and Past President Gary Large said to me, “you’ve done really well in real estate, but now it’s time for you to give back.”

I didn’t know what that meant at the time, and like I’m sure many of you can relate, before I decided to volunteer my time, I had a preconceived idea of what it meant to be apart of the Realtor® organization.

But I took Gary’s advice, I became involved with myboard and, over time, I realized that it was not, like I hadassumed, about gaining business, but rather gaining andmaintaining relationships.

And when I think about the past year we’ve had, wheneverything was stripped away, relationships were all we hadto survive on.

Those relationships were critical in sustaining ourindividual businesses through an incredibly challengingmarket; they were vital in securing our right to continueworking when our colleagues from other states were unableto; and they were fundamental in keeping us sane as wetook stock and pivoted, like every other industry.

When the world changed overnight, we reacted immediately—and so did our members with huge increases in engagement and responses from all segments of our almost 58,000-strong membership. That engagement will be necessary to help fight some of the steep challenges that will face us in 2021.

Every other president before me has faced their share of challenges, and this upcoming year will be no different, but I promise I will take those challenges on thoughtfully, with the membership in mind, and the leadership team as my counsel.

I think that my leadership team will be fundamentally important to me this year because, as an independent commercial broker owner, I will need to rely on their expertise more than ever. As I reside and lead in my professional niche, they lead in theirs and I take their wisdom and advice to heart.

I promise that, as I have done my whole life, I will continue find the positive in every situation, and always look toward the future without forgetting where we have come from.

I thank my wife, Marianne, and my daughters, Kelly and Katherine, for their love and support, my dear friends in the Realtor® world who have guided me this far, the past presidents for all their knowledge, my local board— North Central Jersey Association of Realtors® —for the opportunities I was afforded, and my past and current leadership teams for their friendship and support.