By Max Fischer, Chair, Commercial Member Services Committee
I had prepared early and had this entire article written as a rough draft back in early March, and then the Stay-at-Home order hit on March 22. As I read through the title I had chosen and the content I had written, it all became a bit irrelevant. The changes that have occurred in our society over the past month have been staggering. I hope when we come out on the other side of this we will all take some perspective and think about how we want to be in our business and personal daily lives. Do we really want to spend our valuable time and energy dealing with people who only look out for Number One? Is the discount of buying items from China worth the loss of control of the manufacturing capacity that we once had in the United States? We as citizens have a lot to think about in the coming months and years. I hope we can all take a look at each other across that closing table in the near future and realize that relationships matter more than ever. I am trying to do my small part to help Columbus REALTORS® build up those relationships that are so important in our industry. Even though I work in commercial lending and am not a licensed real estate agent, I take a lot of pride in this industry and will happily help you in any way that I can.
The main charge of your Commercial Member Services Committee over the past several years has been to increase the number of high quality service providers on our Commercial Preferred Vendor List. These vendors can provide much-needed services to our commercial members. A special thank you goes out to my predecessors Tim Norris, Dan Sheeran Jr., and Christine Beckman, their leadership of the committee over the past three years has built up strong momentum for growth in our Commercial Preferred Vendor List. When I started on this committee three years ago, there were three vendors on the list. Now there are eighteen vendors and we have a solid pipeline of new vendors to vet over the next eight months in 2020!
If you have a vendor that has provided excellent service for you on a property or in helping get a commercial real estate deal to the closing table, please don’t hesitate to send ideas to me at[email protected]. I will gladly present them to the committee, and our wonderful Columbus REALTORS® Staff Liaison Brandi Mrugacz will set up a time for him or her to give a short presentation at a committee meeting. We want our Preferred Vendor List to include the best and the brightest, and we consider our commercial members to be the best source of referrals when it comes to finding great service providers.
Because I also serve on the Commercial Education Committee and see some overlapping interests between Commercial Education and Commercial Member Services, we spend a small portion of our Member Services meetings discussing ideas for future classes. The intent is to consistently think of new and exciting ways that we can provide value to our commercial members. Some ideas we’ve recently discussed for classes include Drop & Swaps, Cost Segregation Studies, Economic Development, Tax Credits, Campus Real Estate, and Area Commissions.
An important part of our mission is to approve new commercial agents for membership on a timely basis. After we approve an agent, his or her application is sent to the board for final approval. We take this task very seriously and ask that you fill out your application in its entirety. The better the information we get, the more informed of a decision we can make.
Meetings and classes for Columbus REALTORS® and CCIIR (Columbus Commercial Industrial Investment REALTORS®) are my two favorite places to network with people every month. We are very fortunate in Columbus to have a thriving real estate industry where professionals can work together to get deals to the finish line. I see these real estate professionals every time I attend an event for Columbus REALTORS® or CCIIR, and I am so grateful for the friendships and camaraderie that have developed over the years. I would ask you to consider CE just the gravy when you spend your valuable time at a class or a meeting. The real substance is the networking and relationships that you develop with people that may be at the same closing table with you in the coming years.
Thank you to all of my fellow committee members who sacrifice their valuable time every other month for our meetings. It’s an honor to serve on this committee with you, and I look forward to us becoming a part of growing the commercial membership in the coming years. Our commercial membership dropped in 2019, we need to all be a part of getting the message out that being a commercial member of Columbus REALTORS® provides a great value.
Our committee meets at 11a on the first Tuesday of every other month. Our meeting schedule is posted on columbusrealtors.com, please feel free to visit anytime. We are always looking for new ideas from our commercial members.
