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Fast Lane Learning - Season 4 Episode 5 · #HomeForAll Podcast

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: It is time to slow down for another episode of Fast Lane Learning.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: I am Kelly Moss, your host and communications director here at ACAR.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: We are taking this course turn by turn and excited to be talking today about the blind spots with the benefits provided to you with your membership in ACAR, Ohio Realtors and National Association of Realtors.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Fasten your seatbelts for Fast Lane Learning with bite-sized nuggets of info for those of you who don't always have time for our full-on 30-minute podcast.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And for those of you who are looking for some really fast, really significant information.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: This episode of Fast Lane Learning is going to be fast and wild, so buckle up and let's get going.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is an adult show and some adult language might occasionally creep into the conversation.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's time to buckle your seatbelts and get yourself prepared for some great real estate answers in a great short format.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Fast Lane Learning.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, welcome back, all of you.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being here.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to discuss benefit blind spots with Ashley Varner, ACART's Membership Services and Operations Manager.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back again, Ashley.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing today?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm doing well.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing okay.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing okay.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: So we have a lot to cover today.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's time we get started.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh sounds good.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Let's dive into it.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um referring to the title of today's episode, we're going to untangle what ACAR membership actually includes.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So let's start with underutilized or hidden benefits that are out there.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Can you speak to those first?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely I can.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um so a lot of what we do here at ACAR isn't necessarily going to be the benefits that you're most familiar with.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: Things like forewarn as a safety service, um, or things like our communications, our newsletters that are specialty publications, depending on the niche of real estate you happen to practice within.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: We do offer a bunch of other benefits that are somewhat underutilized.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: I like to go over these during our new member orientation sessions so that our newer members become familiar with them and have an opportunity to kind of maximize uh the benefits that they have here at the association.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: We offer everything from advocacy work on your behalf to protect the industry to scholarship opportunities and connections to specialty designations to help further your education and ultimately your career.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's a lot of benefits right off the bat.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: But that leaves us uh more to discuss.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: So let's um move into like certifications, designations, and the Harold L.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Clarich Scholarship Fund.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um many members never even think to take advantage of that scholarship fund.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: What can you talk for a minute about that?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: You can't take advantage of it if you don't know that it exists.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: So that's why it's super important to talk about it now.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about it at new member orientation.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but this is actually my favorite underutilized benefit that ACAR offers.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: So the Harold Clarich Scholarship is available to our members who have had continuous membership with ACAR for two years.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: And once you hit that two-year mark, you become eligible to receive the scholarship.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: It is a reimbursement scholarship and it's worth up to$500 annually.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: We do have a process for applying for the scholarship, but what the scholarship is reimbursing is the classes that you will take through the National Association of Realtors to receive professional designations and certifications.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: So this could be anything from being a certified distressed property expert to taking the SRES series.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Any of these are going to have a cost associated with the education provided.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: And the Harold Claritch Scholarship is a way to make this education piece more affordable and more accessible for our members to be able to continue providing great service to the consumers in our community and also make sure that they're constantly leveling up their knowledge.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: So it's available to you again once you hit that two-year mark of membership.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: We have an application for the scholarship available on our website.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: And it's good for up to$500 of reimbursement for those NAR certain designation courses.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe the scholarship also you can there's a there's a step where you can actually use it to pay for your uh pre-licensing courses as well.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and that's like the hidden benefit behind the hidden benefit.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um if you happen to know uh a pre-licensing student, um, someone that's interested in getting involved in the real estate industry, there is an opportunity to help use it to offset the cost of pre-licensing classes.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: So definitely check into that.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's available on the members tab of our ACAR website.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: Super double secret benefits.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: So okay, so we're about to take a quick turn to discuss advocacy.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Where um where does that fit into the benefits picture?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know advocacy does a lot of a lot of work, and you don't always align it necessarily with the word benefit.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so advocacy is arguably some of the most important, most complex work that we're doing here at the local level of the association.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason why this is super important to discuss is because it's not always visible member-facing work or opportunities for our members to see where this benefits them.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's some kind of upfront in your face things like our community outreach council run through our advocacy department, um, our RPAC committee.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so some of those more public-facing opportunities to see advocacy in action, but what you're actually not seeing is our staff members that are participating in meeting with our local officials.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: They're going to town halls, they are going to city council meetings, they are also participating at the state and national levels as well.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: But what they're doing is lobbying for the future of your industry.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: They are looking for opportunities to promote fair housing rights, they're looking for ways to promote ownership rights.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and they're also talking about how to eliminate barriers to home ownership and common sense zoning laws, too.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: One of the examples of this is um abolishing point of sale inspections across our service area, across ACAR's three county footprint.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, point of sale inspections do exist as a barrier to home ownership and something that um can certainly, you know, hold up the transaction process and you know keep a sale from being completed.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um another thing with our common sense zoning laws is making sure that there's an adequate supply of affordable housing.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: So our advocacy departments also, you know, examining laws at the local level.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: They're looking at that local legislation and then they're taking that information to our local legislators and talking about these very important issues that, you know, affect the real estate community and also affect the service providers that serve the real estate community.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the way that that ultimately translates to the local economies for the areas that we serve in as well.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we know that a housing market that is strong is an indication of a strong economy as well.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: So all of these things kind of lend themselves to building a strong real estate industry in our area and then to promoting the longevity of the industry as well.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's just not always um as as easy to recognize that those things are supporting you in your career.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and it's a long-term goal.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, last uh last but not least, and I'm gonna get a little further away from the mark mic before I do that again.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: So last but not least, let's tell our listeners about the affinity programs available to them.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: What are they and how can our members access them?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: So it's important to note that because you're a member at the local level, we are your access point to membership at the state and national levels as well.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: And Ohio Realtors and NAR offer a host of affinity programs to their members.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um when you're looking at benefits at the state and national level, we're talking about things like discounts on travel, uh access to discounted paper products, access to health insurance marketplaces.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um of my personal favorites is that we actually have access to GE appliances as a discount through NAR.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll be really honest with you, I recently replaced a few of appliances myself with the discount, and like my gosh, I had no idea that was available until I started poking around on the NAR benefits site one day.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I absolutely recommend take the downtime that you have and look into the kinds of offerings that OR and NAR have as well, um, just for discounts with brands that you're going to recognize.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing I also want to shout out too is that Ohio Realtors owns all of the forms now, uh real estate forms that you'll need to transact business.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: And that's one of the benefits too of being a member at that state level.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: They're providing you with these tools that are important to your business.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um and they're also going to be providing you with the legal hotline as well.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's going to be available to members and they'll be able to reach out and kind of run by some of their uh legal questions as they're performing and transacting business too.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: So important to keep it in mind.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and for all of that stuff, we'll do a real quick link for all of those in the show notes today.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um but obviously, as in we, you know, continue to say, everything that we're talking about in today's episode you can find on the ACAR website, uh AkronCleveland Realtors.com.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: And um, if you have further questions, obviously you can contact us here at ACAR.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that gosh, that was a lot to take in in such a short period.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, for those of you wanting more information, uh, yeah, check out those show notes and um links for everything that we talked about today.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So that means we have yet again reached our destination for today.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: I want to thank Ashley again for coming and being here and sharing all of her valuable information with you guys.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, please be sure to join us next week for our next installment of Fast Lane Learning.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: And until then, drive safely and keep your learning in the Fast Lane.