The incoming president of the National Association of Realtors gave an interview with the OC Register. Dick Gaylord discussed the issues facing the NAR, the glut of real estate agents, and other issues that he will be facing.

Gaylord will have a tough job as head of the NAR. The quantity of members will be decreasing from its peak in 2006, the tone and reputation will have to be rebuilt in the national offices as the organization took a cheerleading posture as opposed to a practical one, and the rise of the blogs will make it harder for the organization to get their message out clearly.

 But, for what it is worth, this is an interesting article with Dick Gaylord to his local paper and is worth a read if you are interested.  

Q: What challenges and opportunities will you face as president?
A: Continuing to work to increase affordable housing opportunities. Neighborhoods are stronger and more marketable when housing costs are within reach of the work force.
We always fight to protect the mortgage interest deduction, promote fair tax treatment on real estate, work to protect private property rights. We’ve always been supportive of greater consumer disclosure.
One of the things that we worked on this year and we’re going to continue to work on is enacting health insurance for small-business employees and independent businesses.
About a third of our members have no health insurance, and we believe, or NAR believes, that small business deserves the same rights to quality, affordable health insurance as big corporations and unions. So we support legislation to create small-business health plans.

Read the rest at the OC Register.

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