Note: To follow is part 2 an excerpt of a radio show interview conducted by Peter L. Mosca, host of Income Property Investment Talk dot com, with Blaine Walker, 2010 Chairman of the National Association of Realtors Commercial Division and Chere LaRose-Senne, Managing Director of Commercial Member Services. To listen to the show archive or download an MP3, go to www.IncomePropertyInvestmentTalk.com/020310.

Mosca: From an association perspective, all the work that you do on a year round basis is obviously good for your members, but an additional big plus is the work that helps stimulate the market, yet that "l" word that sometimes gets attacked is lobby?

LaRose-Senne: Obviously with 1.2 million REALTOR members, the largest trade association in the country, our number one strategic initiative and this is for NAR overall for 2010 – 2012 is to focus resources to ensure and continue to strong flow capital into the real estate financing marketplace. It's really about pressure, continuing to keep pressure. We don't play whack a mole as far a legislative and regulatory issues are concerned and we certainly are able to react quickly. We have a full, strong staff of lobbyists and regulatory policy analysts in D.C. It's really about pressure and so many times letters like this where we are consistently keeping pressure and keeping the issues in front of those that need to be continuing to consider them. At times we will work on getting hearings in front of the appropriate committees. We also hold district meetings with certain targeted representatives of Congress where NAR and others from the Commercial Coalition Group will get together and really educate congressional members about what commercial real estate means to them and their district. Those are constituents, commercial real estate constituents who are meeting with their congressional members. It's pressure on all points and the National Association of REALTORS has government affairs directors and staff in every state, on the local level obviously all the way up to Washington. Continuing to keep that added pressure from a strong front is where we always see success and being able to really address these issues. It's really not going in super strong on one particular point as much as keeping that pressure across the board.

Mosca: How can listeners participate in this process? How can their voices be heard?

LaRose-Senne: Realtors absolutely know they can go to the realtoractioncenter.org. They can sign up for their calls to action and they can also donate to the Realtors Political Action Committee. For non-members, there is a wealth of resources on issues on realtor.org that are accessible to all. I would highly encourage them to go there and see what is it that we are doing and the types of issues that we are championing on Capitol Hill and of course across the states.

Mosca: Could you talk about Commercial Real Estate outlook, the research and reporting that's being done by you to help investors, realtors, and others within the industry get a better grasp for what's happening?

LaRose-Senne: Sure. The Commercial Real Estate Market Survey is produced by Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist. He oversees our commercial real estate research division. The Commercial Real Estate Market Survey is published quarterly. It measures activity in all commercial real estate markets so it's collected actually from our commercial members through survey. It then is collected and provides the overall membership of an overview of market performance, sales, rental transactions and the current economic challenges and expectations. That's all available on the realtor.org. Also, the Commercial Real Estate Outlook is published quarterly and it's an overview of the five major sectors of the commercial real estate market; office, industrial, retail, multifamily, and hospitality. It covers the nation's largest regional markets as well. That's also available on our research website. I don't believe you need a user name and password in order to access that. We do make that available to the industry overall. Those are two particular products that do come from our commercial research division.

Mosca: We talked advocacy, we talked business, and then the third item would be that knowledge, the knowledge that not only the commercial realtor possesses but that knowledge that does get shared within the marketplace. Can you talk about what that knowledge means to you as a REALTOR, what it means to the industry, and what it means to the consumer?

Walker: The commercial division of NAR is affiliated with some of the very best commercial real estate education programs in the world including CCIM Certified Commercial Investment Member Institute, IREM, which is the Institute of Real Estate Management, the Counselors of Real Estate CRS, the SIOR, the Society of Industrial and Office REALTORS and of course the REALTORS Land Institute. From that educational group, there are many courses provided to increase professionalism. NAR Commercial delivers knowledge on the latest issues, business practices and professional development. Some of the things we do are podcasts, webinars, and the RCA report that comes out quarterly as a publication mailed to all commercial members and that includes featured columns by our chief economist Lawrence Yun. He includes case studies; affiliate news and the latest tools and trends for business. We also have government meetings where advocacy initiatives are discussed and decided as well as emerging public policy issues. Of course there is the opportunity for networking with other commercial brokers and others from the commercial industry. Those are some of the things that we are doing to increase the knowledge of commercial real estate practioners as to what's happening in the marketplace.

Mosca: Quite surprisingly, we have yet to talk about technology as one of the benefits. We are a radio show that's online so obviously technology is important to us. It's important to every single business, every single industry. What would be the first thing that comes to mind in and around technology and what NAR Commercial is doing?

LaRose-Senne: Commercialsource.com. Commercialsource.com is owned by the National Association of REALTORS. It is a property listing Web site where anyone can list a commercial real estate property for free. We obviously have enhanced service packages in order to help you enhance the marketing of that particular listing and there is pricing for realtors that is certainly advantageous over anyone else. Everyone is free to use that. What's really important about that is there is obviously a lot of property listing websites out there and as far as what was important to NAR and making sure that we had an entrance into the market there, was not that it was an entrance into the market. It was really important that we did something for the members in order to create a commercial listings real estate platform built by realtors for realtors. This is about creating a place where it can utilize the listing platform and it's priced the way that it should be and it is supported by the National Association of Realtors in such a way to help create that benefit. The initial listing is free, including a photo. We do have proprietary applications with Commercialsource.com all developed by a company owned by the NAR called eProperty Data out of Gig Harbor, Washington so we are constantly developing new applications for that Web site. This really all comes from the feedback that we get from the REALTOR members and from the non-members as well. It's a place where you can also have listings placed there through your MLS. An MLS or a CIE can sign a data provider agreement with Commercialsource.com to have your listings automatically uploaded from those sources. One of the other really cool things is that everything on Commercialsource.com listings there are then, if you get permission to do so are then also uploaded to an investment channel on Realtor.com, the largest real estate website in the world. So, there are a lot of advantages to that particular website as far as marketing is concerned and you get those extra added benefits like the investment channel on Realtor.com.

Mosca: What is your golden nugget?

LaRose-Senne: We are going to continue to do what we do, we are very, very passionate about that but we always want members to know and non-members to engage us. We are here when you need us. We are even here when you think you don't need us. That's what we are here for, that's what their dues dollars are going towards, and again it is about that pressure. We are always out there constantly advocating on their behalf, literally everything from advocacy to business and digging up the best knowledge that we can.

Walker: If real estate is your business then politics ought to be part of your avocation. What happens in your local area, state and local, as well as the national level will impact your business. The laws that are enacted effect real estate and real estate ownership. Most people's wealth is tied up in real estate in the United States so we advocate for private property rights. Therefore, we would encourage those who are not members of the REALTOR organization and are practioners to give us a good look. Take a look at NAR and what it does and your local realtor organizations. The other thing is attitude. I think the thing that will help lead us out of this economic crunch is our attitude, have a positive attitude to look for opportunities, to invest in real estate where we can, and invest also in businesses in the United States through the Stock Market. Do your due diligence there, but also invest in good, strong companies and good, strong real estate opportunities. Those would be my nuggets.