Asheville Board of REALTORS^®

-          Currently the Association has 10 months of reserves in the operating account totaling about $600,000.

-          There have been, as of today, 1438 membership renewals.  The association budgeted for 1395.

-          There have been 45 new members and the association budgeted 60 through May.

-          Currently ABR owns two commercial building with a total market value of close to $3 million.  Old office to be placed on market as soon as possible.

A Look Back

2001 – Both ABR and ABRS were in financial straights.  Both entities high sky high accounts receivable and were borrowing money to pay bills and make payroll.

The REW was losing money since the inception of the for profit entity in 1992 it had not provided a dividend to the non-profit parent.

Aggressive actions were taken to right the ship.

            David West took over as EO

            Untangling the NP and FP sides and formalizing the relationship based on legal foundations and IRS code.

            Staff was reduced significantly as well as expenses were drastically cut.

Due to excellent leadership and a continued increase in membership the financial situation of the association became viable and thriving.

By 2005 membership numbers had increased to 1375 and ABRS cut it’s first dividend to ABR in the amount of $267,000.  It was also this year that the BOD directors with a recommendation from the finance committee started holding cash resources with  UBS.

            Directive low risk – Equity and  Fixed Income Assets

One of the purposes of ABRS is to cut dividends back to the parent company and every year since 2005 it has done that.     2005 - $267K

                                                            2006- $62K

                                                            2007 - $660K

                                                            2008 - $85K

                                                            2009 - $200K

Important to note that the significant dividend in 2007 was due to the fact that the REW sold its services to the Piedmont Association of  Realtors and made a significant profit.

Questions about the total $ in holdings in the UBS account.

            In real money between the two entities we invested a total of $2.4 million dollars.  At it’s highest point the assets were worth $2.6 million and when we cashed out of the market our holdings were worth $2.2 million.  We lost $200,000 of our initial investment (8%). We lost $400k from our highpoint (17%).

NCAR lost $900K or about 31%.

In 2006 the BOD recognized that our assets were such that they had to find the best way to allocate these resources in a manner that was in keeping with the mission statement of ABR and not in violation of the associations non-profit status.  Based on that the BOD moved to create a task force made up of members of the association. The BOD was advised by its accountant that the money that the Association had would be an issue if it did not make a plan for the resources.  That year the Resource Allocation Task force was convened and in early 2006 they reported back with their recommendations.     

1)      Purchase a new office

2)      Offer a voucher to the members

3)      Reduce REW rates by 5-10%

4)      Try to find opportunities to impact affordable housing

It was also recommended that the BOD find a way to offer low cost CE’s to its members.

The new office was purchased this year.

The rebate was a great idea however it was murky as to how the association could give a voucher in this way.  However in lieu of the voucher program the BOD covered several increases in NAR and NCAR increases in member dues totaling $150,000.

In Jan of this year the BOD moved it’s holdings from advisement at UBS to Stanford Financial based on issues with UBS was having at the time.  In early Feb our assets with Stanford were frozen along with all other Stanford investors.  In late March those holdings were released and the purchase of the new office was consummated.

Important notes:

No losses were incurred to the associations assets managed by Stanford Financial as a result of the Federal freeze on the account.  The association did lose roughly 13% of it’s total investment based on the losses in the market over the past year and a half.

 ABR has not increased member dues in five years.  NAR and NCAR have both increased their portion of member dues several times in the past three years.  ABR covered those increases for two years at a cost of $150000.

REW is not supported financially by ABR or membership dues in any way.  The REW operates solely on the advertising sold.  If you do not advertise you do not support the REW.

Tax forms are always online and can be found at www.guidestar.com   Outside of those financials, any other financials can be received with proper request to the ABR BOD per the rules and regulations of the association.

CE’s are available through the association at a considerable savings as compared to local RE schools.  Moreover, the more members that take advantage of the “in-house” CE’s the better the opportunity for reducing those fees.