Government Affairs

Realtor® Association Advocacy Efforts Amidst COVID-19

By: Max Brandow, RASM Government Affairs Director

As states throughout America go into quarantine, your Realtor® associations at each level of government are making sure you can continue making the dream of home and property ownership a reality for your clients.

ADVOCACY DURING THE PANDEMIC: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

At the time of this writing, residential and commercial real estate services have been deemed essential in Florida. Florida REALTORS® made sure that our industry was able to stay working during these uncertain times. This is a credit to all our members throughout the years who have advocated and educated our state lawmakers on how important the real estate industry is to the larger economy. To find out the latest Florida COVID-19 news, head over to floridarealtors.org/coronavirus.

In the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act), independent contractors were included in not only unemployment assistance but also SBA loans like the Paycheck Protection Program.

NAR RESOURCES

NAR has a multitude of resources for you to check out and to research the different tools and assistance programs that may be available to you. Head over to nar.realtor/coronavirus to see everything that is in the bill that may pertain to you.

The CARES Act also has programs and assistance that may be helpful for your clients. Get familiar with these programs so you can be an even greater resource of information for your clients.

RASM UPDATE

RASM is still preparing for the election season. While COVID-19 has posed some unique challenges to screening and endorsing political candidates, we are still focused on making sure Realtor® champions get elected to public office. Your colleagues on the Political Action Advisory Committee are committed to making sure they do their due diligence.

Due to the uncertainty of gathering in large groups, this year’s annual RPAC Casino Night has been postponed for the time being. The RPAC Committee is currently researching a way RASM can resume fund raising when the time is right, while supporting our locally owned businesses who have been hit hardest by the statewide business shutdowns.

An RPAC auction consisting of only locally owned business items, services, gift cards, etc. is one of the ideas the Committee is workshopping. If you know a locally owned business that we could support through an auction like this, let us know! Email suggestions to max@myrasm.com. •