Sustainability Highlighted at Georgia Realtors Conference
Last week, Georgia REALTORS gathered in Amelia Island, FL for their annual inaugural conference. This conference occurs in January of each year, and is an opportunity to celebrate and recognize outstanding leaders from the past year, and set the tone for the upcoming year. Several awards are given out and the conference concludes with a Board of Directors meeting on Friday. This year was no different, but for the first time provided multiple highlights and recognition for sustainability work already completed, and much more to come.
The first recognition for sustainability came on Wednesday, as Founder of Georgia’s first sustainability-focused real estate group, Christopher Matos-Rogers, was awarded the YPN Young Achiever Award. During the presentation, Georgia REALTORS’ 2022 President, Joey Tucker, read a long list of Christopher’s leadership in sustainable housing and successes in business as the reasons for his selection as an award recipient. This was the first time many of the 600+ in attendance had heard sustainability recognized and elevated to this level in Georgia. This would not be the last time they heard about sustainability during the conference.
NAR 1st VP addresses GAR Board of Directors
Two days later, at the opening of Friday’s Board of Directors meeting, the 400+ State Directors welcomed National Association of REALTORS 1st Vice President, Tracy Kasper. She will be NAR’s 2024 President. Tracy presented an update on NAR, which included covering the 3 pillars for this year’s focus; Safety, Stability, and Sustainability. The power of Tracy’s presentation was not just in saying the word sustainability, but her delivery and how she spoke on the topic. Tracy began with saying “When someone begins talking to us about sustainability, we often tune them out. But we shouldn’t. The people on NAR’s Sustainability Advisory Group are smart, and they have the answers to our biggest hurdles in the industry…affordability and lack of inventory.”
She spoke on sustainability for several more moments, delivering a powerful call to action and attention on the need to listen and collaborate with sustainability leaders in the industry. Tracy asked if anyone locally had been a part of leading sustainability efforts. Multiple Georgia leaders on stage pointed out into the crowd at Christopher Matos-Rogers who had been recognized just 2 days prior for leadership in sustainability. These events have provided leverage to take our awareness and efforts to the next level. Matos-Rogers Group is thankful for this support from our trade group’s leadership and are committed to continue leading the conversation in Georgia and nationally.