Realtors® are a visible force in so many ways. Have you ever thought about that? As professionals, we touch so many in our communities each day. We connect and often facilitate between the consumer and the home inspector, contractor, electrician, plumber, lender, attorney, etc. Plus, many of us get involved in town government, schools, and other volunteer organizations. Because we touch so many people in our daily lives, our actions speak volumes in our communities. Our opinions are valued and often sought because we connect with so many.

Now take it a step further. As the Realtor® Association, our individual voices amplify as one. We are one of the largest business organizations in the state of Massachusetts, and nationally, the world’s largest professional association. As a Realtor®, you are part of this powerful organization whose primary purpose is to protect private property rights. Your voice is heard through the organization on countless issues that impact those rights and preserve them. There is no better example to illustrate that voice than the extension and expansion of the Homebuyer Tax Credit.

Through the Realtor® Political Action Committee (RPAC), grass-roots lobbying, and the Broker Involvement program, our voice helped to pass that legislation. The near-unanimous support on Capitol Hill was thanks to us. By contributing to RPAC—your political action fund that supports candidates locally, statewide, and nationally who are pro-Realtor®—you fueled the fire. By answering NAR’s Calls for Action, either directly (because you’ve signed onto it through the Legislative Action Center) or through the Broker Involvement Program, where the principal broker provides company agents with a direct link to lawmakers, you spoke to your legislator and contributed to the near unanimous support of the Homebuyer Tax Credit extension and expansion passing. This was only the beginning.

You need to bring it back to your communities where you are heard every day when you are working with clients and customers. In this issue’s feature, “2010 Financial Playbook” (found on page 18), we’ve given you more details on the Homebuyer Tax Credit and other timely financial tools to pass along to the consumer. We want to make sure that everyone knows the incentives available to buy a home now. The Tax Credit gives us a great opportunity that we should use in any way we can in the next few months.

The program that MassHousing has developed, one of the first in the nation to monetize the credit for first-time homebuyers, can be coupled with the Tax Credit to help us ignite the market. Marealtor.com is stocked with great information on the Tax Credit, including marketing pieces that can be downloaded for you to print and share with consumers.

We speak volumes; with the tools provided to us by our Association at all levels, and because of our success in helping extend and expand the Tax Credit, we can spread the word and jumpstart both the economy and the housing market.