The Florida Association of Realtors has formed a new for-profit subsidiary, Real Estate Industry Solutions LLC, to keep pace with ever-changing business demands, the group said today.
“This is a historic moment in the evolution of FAR,” said FAR’s 2005 President Frank Kowalski.
Other large state Realtor associations, including the California Association of Realtors, have established similar subsidiary companies.
The subsidiary will allow the Florida Association of Realtors to continue to concentrate on its core mission of serving Florida Realtors as a not-for-profit professional association and yet also meet the membership’s growing business challenges, Kowalski said.
The subsidiary’s board of managers held its first meeting June 29 and elected Jacksonville Realtor Cathy E. Whatley as chairman. A Florida Realtor since 1969, Whatley is broker-owner of Buck & Buck Realtors in Jacksonville. She served as president of the National Association of Realtors in 2003 and as president of FAR in 1996.
As a wholly owned subsidiary of FAR, REIS is responsible for developing and maintaining products and services that benefit Realtor members in their daily business activities, Whatley said. “Realtors bring important expertise and value to their customers and clients in the real estate transaction, and REIS will be exploring ways to provide enhanced tools that help agents and firms continue to achieve that goal.”
Members of the REIS board of managers are:
Executive Class – 2005 FAR President-Elect Mike Dooley, a broker with Illustrated Properties in Hobe Sound, partial term ending 12/31/05; and FAR Executive Vice President John Fridlington.
Realtor Class – Richard W. Cope, broker-owner of RCM Corp. in Clearwater, two-year term; Chip Boring, broker-owner of RE/MAX Realty Plus in Sebring, two-year term; Cathy Whatley, broker-owner of Buck & Buck in Jacksonville, three-year term; and Dale E. Peterson, broker-owner of Dale E. Peterson Realty in Destin, three-year term.
General Class – Gary Nagle, attorney for the Jupiter-Tequesta-Hobe Sound Association of Realtors, one-year term; Wm. Glenn East, association executive for the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors in Jacksonville, two-year term; and Alan Yassky, broker-owner of Rockland Realty in Spring Valley, N.Y., three-year term.
The Florida Association of Realtors is a real estate trade group with more than 125,000 members in 70 boards/associations.
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