A Letter From the President

A Letter from the President

By Mike Inman, President, Kentucky REALTORS®

It has been a great privilege for me to serve as your 99th President, and to be able to preside over the celebration of our centennial anniversary; and what a year it has been! Just a bit over a year ago we began planning what we thought would be a year of celebration to culminate our centennial anniversary and planning the beginning of our next 100 years. There is no way we could have foreseen what this year would actually bring.

2021 ended with Kentucky REALTORS® coordinating a response to the horribly devastating tornadoes in Western Kentucky. On December 10th, 2021 a series of tornadoes blew through a number of our Western and South Central communities, including Mayfield, Benton, Dawson Springs, Princeton and Bowling Green. We requested and received a grant of $1.5 Million from NAR’s REALTORS® Relief Foundation (RRF) to assist displaced homeowners and renters in the affected areas. Much of the first months of the year was devoted to promoting the grant and processing applications for relief. We ultimately dispersed over $690,000 to help 311 families as they recovered from the disaster.

Several lessons learned from the administration of the relief funds resulted in changes to RRF guidelines for future grants. The lessons learned led directly to the creation of the Kentucky REALTORS® Relief Foundation and to the initiation of disaster planning for Kentucky REALTORS®.

Our 2022 legislative session saw the review of 109 bills with some impact or potential impact on real estate and private property rights. We were very happy to see passage of our signature legislation, The County Clerk Modernization Bill. For the first time in recent memory, we were able to assist in blocking more bills than we supported. Our relationship with our legislative REALTOR® champions has never been stronger.

In May, in National Harbor, MD, Kentucky REALTORS® was recognized for the 5th straight year for achieving the coveted RPAC President’s Cup. We also witnessed a record 10 members from Kentucky walk across the stage at the NAR Legislative Meetings and be inducted into the NAR RPAC Hall of Fame. During the ceremony, inductees from 2019, 2020 and 2021 were recognized, including many of our pastpresidents and leaders of KYR.

Our CEO departed on December 31st, and much of the early part of the year was focused on the search to find a replacement. Al Blevins spearheaded a search committee that engaged with a search firm and interviewed the replacement candidates. This search resulted in the hiring of Josh Summers from The Villages, Florida as our new CEO. Josh arrived just in time to engage with our members at the summer business meetings in Bowling Green at the end of June.

Josh arrived just in time to take the helm and manage the response to historic flooding that hit portions of 13 Eastern Kentucky counties. We again engaged the REALTORS® Relief Foundation to obtain a grant to support families impacted by the flooding. We received an initial grant of $500,000 (later raised to $750,000) and to date have assisted over 255 families. As we continue to evolve, and thanks to the creation of our 501c(3), the Kentucky REALTORS® Relief Foundation, we were able to receive and directly review and approve requests for housing assistance and relief. The implantation of online applications has made it easier than ever for the victims to apply for relief, as submitting paper applications during the tragedy in Western Kentucky was quite cumbersome for all parties. Our new full-time employee, Hathlyn Chapman, has worked tirelessly with a committee composed of Charles Hinckley, Brenda Gooslin, and Donna Gregorich to manage the review process.

As we end the year and transition leadership to a superb leadership team headed by 2023 President Elizabeth Monarch, we note that here is a sense of renewed energy, cooperation and optimism among our members. We can feel it and people outside the state are seeing it as well. Our reputation is growing in a number of ways. We are connecting like never before, within the state, across our NAR Region, and with NAR itself. Our interaction with the RRF has been much appreciated and recognized across NAR. The feedback we gave with the Tornado Relief led to direct changes in the program that impacted the Eastern Kentucky floods and Florida Hurricane relief efforts.

Finally, our advocacy and RPAC successes are firing on all cylinders. We end the year in an excellent position in terms of funds available to carry out our advocacy program, we have a strong relationship with the legislative and executive branches of state government, and with our congressional delegation. Our base in energized and focused as evidenced by a record year of RPAC fundraising and participation. For the first time in Kentucky REALTORS® history, we have become a half-a-million-dollar PAC.

It is exciting to see how far we have come, and it is even more exciting to look forward to where we are headed. We’re looking forward to Elizabeth Monarch being installed in December and serving as our 100th President. It has been eleven years since Kentucky REALTORS® had a female president, and we have the honor of being led by two consecutive female presidents for the first time in our history, as Elizabeth will be followed by Pam Featherstone. The future of our Association is bright with these leaders at the helm.