Anyone with a license to do so can help you buy or sell a home, but Realtors® come with much more than the required legal paperwork.

“All Realtors® are licensees, but not all licensees are Realtors®,” said Teri Spiro, president of the Greater Metropolitan Association of Realtors®, the largest local Realtor® association in Michigan, with more than 11,000 members.

“What sets a Realtor® apart is the fact that we must abide by a Code of Ethics and a standard of practice,” Spiro said. “We are held to a higher moral obligation than even what the law mandates. We set ourselves apart in that we recognize it is critical that citizens are able to have the highest and best use of their land. It is our responsibility socially to be able to assist regulatory bodies to understand real estate and housing issues, and to eliminate practices which could damage the public.”

Through collective political action on behalf of the National Association’s 1.5 million members,  Spiro said the nonpartisan Realtor® PAC “speaks with one voice and leads by example.”

“We are basically unstoppable when it comes to certain issues,” she said. “We lobby as a group. We go to D.C. every year and lobby our members of Congress regarding issues that are very important to homeowners.

“There’s no such thing nationally as the ‘homeowner PAC.’ There’s no group of people that a homeowner can join and lobby in their best interest,” Spiro said. “That’s what Realtors® do.”

Read the full article in the Birmingham-Bloomfield Eagle (pg. 18) or the Macomb Township Chronicle (pg. 9).