I am very fortunate to be serving as the Chair of the National Association of REALTORS , Real Property Operations Committee. They are the committee that oversees the leasing and management of NAR’s buildings. Our association owns four buildings – our Headquarters on Michigan Avenue in Chicago along with the adjacent restaurant building on Rush Street, our DC Headquarters, and a bulk distribution center in Cincinnati that houses NAR’s lockbox company, Sentrilock. It’s a small committee of ten people, of which three of my committee are past NAR Presidents, two are past Treasurers, and the current Treasurer of NAR.
What has been interesting for me has been the exposure to other commercial real estate markets. It has been a great education and has helped me gain a better perspective on commercial real estate in Kansas City. For the past five years I have been extremely jealous of the Washington, DC office market. They had very low vacancy while also maintaining high rents. This was at a time that the rest of the country was in a commercial real estate recession.