By Todd Shea
2023 President
Santa Barbara Association of Realtors
If you are like me, once you are coming close to finishing a project, you look back and wish you could have done better or done things differently. I am feeling a little of this as the year comes to an end. I really enjoyed the opportunity to lead, work with our staff, agents, and affiliates, and write these articles each week. But looking back, of course, I wish I could have done more, impacted more, and maybe not go to more meetings, there were plenty of those!! But what an opportunity to be a leader. I wanted the best for our association this year.
This year challenged me: Walking into a room in Washington DC to speak directly to our congress member about various Senate bills and legislation that affects our area or standing up in front of City Council to talk about the permitting process and tenant/landlord legislation, and with the architectural review committee, CAR and NAR legislative committees and high-level challenges and threats to our profession, while running our board of directors meetings with fantastic back and forth dialogue and discussion; people who are passionate about our association being the best it can be. I grew this year, as a realtor and as a person, and I thank you for that opportunity.
Also, as you should when you finish something, I was excited to reflect on some great successes this year. This year was challenging and if you are feeling like not much happened this year, I implore you to take out your phones, go ahead and take them out and go to your photos. Take a minute, after reading this, and just scroll through your photos. go through a couple of weeks, get back to a few months and even the year. Mine is filled with screenshots of things I want to remember and social media stuff, but more importantly, it is filled with amazing experiences, places I have been, impactful memories, and friends, family, and co-workers I have been around. I feel so grateful. I hope you do too.
We have done a ton of amazing things this year. I will be leaving a lot out but some memorable ones for me are:
NAR:
· Speaking on The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in support of the rescission of its proposed upfront fee to borrowers at the time of a loan.
· Speaking before the NAR consumer advocacy committee; was approved for a grant for our association.
CAR:
· Lobbying for more funding for the American Dream Campaign, from the $350 million spent in 11 days to another round of funding coming soon.
· Advocating for our members and bringing back all the hot tips and updates from legislative, to tech and everything in between. I am looking forward to continuing this next year as a CAR director.
LOCALLY:
· Working with staff and CEO Brian Johnson on a Leadership Playbook for our association. A living document to help incoming leaders and committees work better with staff, know their expectations and calendar, as well as see what positions are available to move up into.
· Began including video content in the SBAOR newsletter, and ‘Agents in the Wild’ social media campaign.
· Supporting YPN and establishing it as an official committee with events for new members, philanthropy and more. A committee I will be proud to be a part of next year to help it continue to grow.
· Working with Habitat for Humanity on two great clean-up projects, one on the streets of the Eastside and the other on a home on the Westside as well as SBAOR being recognized by Habitat as a mover and shaker this year. This means that not only financial contributions, but also physical work is being done by our volunteer Realtor and Affiliate Members.
· We Held our first Cross Brokerage SBAOR-sponsored member event with our successful Lawn Bowling competition.
· And I got to Speak to a ton of agents this year. This was one of the highlights of my year in hearing feedback, new ideas and talking shop with our local Realtors.
In looking forward, we are a strong community of incredible agents and affiliates, backed by a staff at SBAOR that is a well-oiled machine under the new dynamic leadership of Brian Johnson.
Thank you to Daniel and the rest of my Zia Group Team for supporting me this year. You all made it much easier, and I knew if I had conflicts someone from the team would step up and help.
To my wife: I appreciate you and love you. Thank you for your balancing things, and for your insight and support.
Michele Allyn: You are a very deserving president for next year, with all of your experience and volunteerism for years on boards and committees with NAR and CAR. Congratulations to you!
Two pieces of advice for next year: Be open to realtor/affiliate feedback and ideas. Actively search it out and connect with members. It is the best opportunity I have ever had to meet so many of our members. This was one of my favorite parts of my presidency.
Second: have a game plan. Take some time over the next few weeks and set some goals. Even if you don’t reach all of them, having a game plan helped me and the 2023 board stay proactive throughout the year.
Thank you all for reading my articles this year. Wishing you and yours a successful and incredible 2024.
Todd Shea is the 2023 president of the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors (SBAOR). He is a California licensed real estate agent with the Zia Group powered by eXp Realty here in Santa Barbara. He has served on and chaired several committees within the SBAOR and served on its board of directors. Todd can be reached at 805.453.7730 and todd@ziagroup.com or message and follow @toddshearealtor on Instagram.