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Florida Realtors FAQ
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DISTRICTS LOCAL BOARDS EMPLOYEES
1916
BIRTH OF OUR ASSOCIATION
FLORIDA Realtors®
Just The Facts
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE LARGEST STATE REALTOR® ORGANIZATION IN THE COUNTRY AT FLORIDAREALTORS.ORG
01/17/22
Who We Are
We advance Florida’s real estate industry by shaping public policy on real property issues; encouraging, promoting and teaching consistent standards for ethical practice and professionalism; and building on the efforts of local Boards/Associations to provide the information and tools members need to succeed.
Membership data as of April 2021 reveals 58% of our membership is female and averages 51 years old with 6 years experience. Throughout 2021, Realtors® closed over 528,000 sales with nearly $240 BILLION in dollar volume.
77% of our Realtor® members in Florida OWN THEIR PRIMARY RESIDENCE.
225,000MEMBERS STRONG
Florida Realtors® is working with the Florida Legislature to create the “Hometown Heroes Housing Program”
According to NAR’s “2021 Profile of International Residential Transactions in Florida,” there were $12.3 billion in international sales in Florida. The largest fraction of foreign buyers (46%) were from Latin America and the Caribbean. The top 5 countries of foreign buyers in Florida were: Canada, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela.
Florida Realtors® FAQ
Law & Policy
• Partnered with Communications on the Florida Realtors® Legal News, contributed articles, FAQs for Florida Realtor magazine • Participated in dozens of meetings for the revisions to the Supreme Court
Approved Residential Leases and also for the FloridaRealtors/FloridaBar
Contract and Comprehensive Riders. The 2021 versions were released • Conducted 60 legal updates, leadership training sessions and
Professional Standards programs at local boards • Administered the Education Foundation, Disaster Relief Fund, Silent
Angels and Homeownership For All charities. Assistance given for medical needs, storm damage; college scholarships to 175 students; and 9 grants awarded to 501(c)(3) charities who provide affordable housing Florida Realtors® PAC
Over 76,000 members contributed in 2021: • 126 Hall of Fame members, 128 President’s Circle • 1,067 Individual & Corporate Major Investors • Raised over $5.6M to help protect private property rights • All goals exceeded, with Florida Realtors achieving the Triple Crown!
Marketing & Communications
• floridarealtors.org: 4,502,859 annual page views, 1.3 million visitors • Florida Realtors YouTube Channel: 65,897 annual views • Earned second place in NAR’s recent “Legislative Victory” Video Contest • Coming soon: Photify! Members can custom brand our consumer-facing graphics with name and logo • Find rockin’ support materials for our 2022 theme, “Building Up
Business” at https://www.floridarealtors.org/buildingupbusiness • “Ragan Communications” National Competition Finalists: 1) inspirational video 2) internal communications video and 3) visual storytelling/print design Research
• Produced thousands of statistical reports for Florida’s counties, cities,
ZIP Codes and legislative districts • Delivered more than 60 presentations to member and stakeholder groups throughout 2021 • Published resource guide for brokers to instruct agents on applying market statistics to their daily business
TECH HELPLINE
725,000 MEMBERS
17 States & 65 Local Associations In The U.S. & Canada
OVER 113K CASES IN 2021
GRI 3,060 STUDENTS IN 2021
LEGAL HOTLINE OVER 80K CALLS A YEAR
COMMERCIAL BROKERS GET PAID Passage of two commercial real estate lien acts ensure brokers don’t have to renegotiate their commissions at closing.
Defeated an amendment that would have hurt an already ailing economy and local governments over growth issues.
2010
– LEGISLATIVE ISSUES –
MORE MONEY IN YOUR POCKET Repealed local business taxes saving sales associates $3.8 million annually. 2017
PROTECTING COMMUNITIES Successfully passed Amendment 2, saving property owners and their communities from a $700 million-plus tax increase. 2019
COMMERCIAL LEASES MADE EASIER Successfully eliminated the outdated Florida law that requires two people to witness the signing of leases longer than a year. 2021
2005
HOMETOWN DEMOCRACY DEFEATED
2012
CAPPED FEES Passed the firstever cap on community association fees for estoppel certificates. 2018
IMPROVING TRANSACTIONS Created new remedies for open/expired permits and enabled the use of online remote notaries. 2020
SHIELDING REALTORS® FROM LAWSUITS Passed a law that protects Realtors® from COVID-19 cases.
Public Policy
• Established new protections for Realtors® and their businesses from lawsuits resulting from COVID-19 cases • Secured a massive future reduction to Florida’s Business Rent Tax: from 5.5% to 2%, saving $1.2 billion annually for commercial leases • Passed legislation intended to help curb rising property insurance costs statewide • Successfully advocated for $1.84 billion for projects to improve
Florida’s water quality and address pressing environmental issues Professional Development
• 2021 student participation (or registration) in education courses: 34,066 • 2021 total classes presented: 2,750
Technology
• Trained more than 5,200 members on Form Simplicity, MLSAdvantage, and SunStats at more than 260 training sessions in 2021 • MLSAdvantage was used by more than 60,000 members, logging in more than 900,000 times in 2021 Global
• Building strong global relationships for members is an ongoing priority • Free virtual workshop by renowned author and speaker Terri Morrison • Premiered Florida Diversity lapel pins • Innovative virtual trade mission “What’s Cooking in Canada” included 37 real estate chapter association partners and 3 community partners • Partnered in virtual trade missions with CILA and provided multiple language translations • Earned 2021 NAR Global Platinum Award for the 5th consecutive year
