At HAR, benefits aren’t just some ploy to gain new members or keep current ones. They also aren’t some “fringe” activity (like fringe benefits). They are the way of the Association giving back to the people who ultimately pay dues that support most of the tools and services provided.
Since the beginning of the year, HAR has rolled out the new parcel map feature on HAR.com, a new HAR widget for members to place on your own websites, a new and improved Listing Activity Report and moved HAR.com to a new hosting company that has improved our site performance and reduced the cost. We have hosted a successful national conference about the future of the industry, and we held a great Commercial Expo for our commercial members.
We have had winning elections for Association-supported candidates in towns all around the greater Houston area. We have also increased our social media exposure, with about twice as many fans on Facebook as the next closest local REALTOR® association page. (If you aren’t already a fan, then please go to www.facebook.com/HARFans to become one today.) We became the first MLS in the country with a historic home finder feature. We have also moved all of our e-mail communication to a new service that should help reduce the number of Association communications that land in spam filters and improve the overall design of the product.
We have new great-looking, free marketing brochures that you can print out on your own, and we have a newly-redesigned CMA report. We had a sold-out, two-day Digital Media Spring Training with social media experts from across the country.
And there is much more in the pipeline to come in the months ahead.
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There may be some other Associations that have slightly lower dues (HAR is still 25% below the average of the largest boards), but I don’t think anyone can deny that HAR provides market-leading tools and services to its members. One staff member of another large local REALTOR® association recently said that he considered his association to be a shiny silver star to HAR’s gold star in the industry.
How does HAR benefit our members? Let me count the ways…
For just about $0.36 per day, you receive all of these great benefits listed below.
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Many of the benefits that HAR provides to our members have been developed because of feedback from individual REALTORS® or brokers. If you have an idea for something that HAR could do or should do to help our members, please do not hesitate to let us know. We might not have the resources to do exactly what you want, but we will certainly try to address what issue is involved.
HAR is not some entity that is separate and apart from its members. We are what we are because of you, and we continue to need your involvement to help make sure that HAR continues to provide that gold-level of tools and services to each of you. The benefits are just the by-product of the great contribution that individual REALTORS® have made to the betterment of the industry for all our members.
