The current United States real estate market is the envy of the world and yet it didn’t reach that status by luck or accident. This lucrative market is the result of 100 years of the combined efforts of real estate practitioners working together through the Local, State and National Associations of REALTORS to protect and promote private property rights. Organized real estate has created the legislative and financial environments necessary to effectively facilitate the sale of real property in our country.

The United States government recognizes the role the members of the National Association of REALTORS have played in the development of the real estate market. In 1992, the United States Agency of International Development (USAID) approached the National Association of REALTORS to assist in developing a system for the orderly transfer of real estate in the countries that comprised the former Soviet Union. As a result, NAR created the Eastern European Real Property Foundation (EERPF), to facilitate development of an organized real estate industry in those countries.

In March, at the request of EERPF, I traveled to Russia to help conduct two seminars for Russian real estate practitioners. The focus of the presentation was to facilitate the growth of regional real estate and appraisal associations through covering topics on Association Development; Membership Development; Building Training Capacity; Lobbying Techniques and Business Planning. My husband, Bob Dougherty (Deputy CEO of CAR) accompanied me and as a result agreed to be a co-presenter. We were teamed with Norm Flynn, a past president of NAR and a commercial broker in Madison, Wisc. Together we conducted seminars in Khabarovsk, located in far eastern Russia, and Irkutsk which is located in the center of Siberia. Each seminar was two days in length and required the use of a language translator. Nikoli Efremov, EVP of the Russian Guild of REALTORS also accompanied us and will do follow-up work with all of the participants.

Russian REALTORS are young, well-educated, computer literate and use the Internet daily. It is clear that they are beginning to understand the power of working through associations. For example, in Irkutsk, Sergey Gavirlenko, President of the Irkutsk Regional Union of REALTORS, is meeting with government officials on a regular basis to facilitate needed changes to improve market conditions.

In the two cities where the seminars were held, each with a population of around 600,000, the housing stock consists of mostly condominium/apartment complexes. Single family housing is more common on the city edges or in the country. Houses are very small and in the country rely on wood burning stoves for heat.

By the way, if you are sitting back thinking that the value of the Internet for facilitating real estate transactions is overrated or that international real estate can only be conducted if you live in the big cities of the world, think again. A young real estate agent in Irkutsk told me through the translator that she had recently sold a house in Irkutsk to someone from the United States over the Internet. The real estate market today is global and we must continue to work through organized real estate to assure our growing and continued share of that market business.

By Darcy Dougherty, GRI, RCE, CAE, Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Association of REALTORS

July 1999 Illinois REALTOR magazine