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Beth Wanless

Beth Wanless • Tax Reform & Resources of Illinois REALTORS®

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How is the current political climate going to affect tax reform, and what does that mean for your buyers and sellers? Also, did you know that you have access to a trove of tools to help your business courtesy of the Illinois REALTORS®? We speak with Beth Wanless who lobbies on your behalf and protects your interests. Our most timely episode to date!


Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:15
Hello, and welcome to keeping it real podcast, the first podcast for real estate agents made by real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your host through the show. And today on the show, we’re doing something a little different. We normally highlight realtors, and who have had success and in the specific area, and we interview them and find out exactly what they’re doing and hopes that you can learn from that and maybe even replicate what their behavior is. So you can get those same results, but did today, we because of the current climate around some of the potential tax changes that are going into effect. And we wanted to find someone who’s on the front line working for you, to help you understand exactly what’s going on out there that you can communicate to your clients. So today we have Beth Wanless from the Illinois Association of Realtors, she is basically a lobbyist for you, making sure that your your needs are being met, and that your voices are being heard with various parts of the government. And we talked a lot about how the potential tax law change or rather the potential tax changes that may be implemented shortly how those would affect realtors, and how those affect developers and buyers and sellers. And also, we talked about a lot of the resources that the Illinois Association of Realtors has for brokers that you probably don’t know exists. These are, you’re already paid for these as part of your dues to your local MLS. And you have access to some really wonderful tools. And so Beth is going to talk about some of those tools so that you can utilize them to of course, you know, better meet your client’s needs. So without further ado, I’m going to launch into our our interview and I hope you find it very interesting. Oh, I’m sorry, one last thing. If you haven’t yet visited our website, which is keeping it real pod.com You can go there and stream all of our previous episodes. You can also of course, subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, anywhere podcasts are served. And listen to those episodes. Also, if you have someone that you think we should be interviewing could even be yourself. Are you somebody who always wanted to hear how they built their business or what they’re doing in a specific area? You can let us know right on our website. And we also have, of course, a Facebook page too. But visit keeping it real pod.com and let us know any feedback you have. We would be curious to hear it. We want to make the show better and better just for you. By the way, as you as you’re listening to this interview with Beth, if you’re curious about how do I actually meet some of these government employees that are working on my behalf for my industry? Well, they have an event every once a month, every first Tuesday. So the next one if you’re listening currently, the next one is coming up August 1 But it’s the first Tuesday of every month it is at the National Association of REALTORS building. Also Chicago association of realtors office which is 430 North Michigan on the eighth floor, they do quotes called Coffee with your GA D which is government affairs directors. So this is a place where you can go you can learn what the government professionals are doing for you on your behalf Have some coffee, get an update to on all things public policy in Chicago and Cook County this is free for all members. So Okay, enjoy our interview.

Today on the show, we have Beth Wanless, who is the local government affairs director and regional manager of member outreach with the Illinois Realtors Association. Beth works in the Chicago office and works also with the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation district among other elected officials and community members about this experience on both the federal and the state level. She was a congressional intern for a former US Representative from California and an intern for the former attorney general of West Virginia native Ohioan. Beth was a senior staffer for an Ohio House of Representatives Majority Whip, I still have never figured out exactly what the majority whip is. But um, maybe you can explain that at some point. Before returning back to the policy world. Beth was a research analyst in a corporate development group of private investment for a private investment firm in Chicago. She graduated from Denison University I’ve been to Denison and from also from Northwestern. Beth has lived in Chicago for more than a decade and currently resides in Ravenswood with her husband and two young sons. So welcome and thank you for being on our podcast.

Beth Wanless 4:48
Well, thank you so much. I’d really happy to be here.

D.J. Paris 4:51
That is a really impressive introduction and resume tell us how did you how did you get moved to Chicago or how did you it seems Where are you from originally, actually,

Beth Wanless 5:01
Oh, great question. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, big Buckeye fan. So I hope, a good company.

D.J. Paris 5:08
And you went and you went to college, like 30 minutes away. That was as far as you got.

Beth Wanless 5:12
Right? I would go to Ohio State Buckeye games on the weekends. So I was I was close enough to do that. But yeah, I grew up in Columbus, Ohio. My parents were not involved in politics or public policy, I just kind of fell into it. I thought it was fascinating. I’m a big history nerd. And I think if you’re a history nerd than politics, just as kind of a natural progression for you. I got into politics, they’re working in the Ohio House of Representatives. And then I don’t know what happened. I just was young and, you know, hungry for adventure. So I said, heck with it, I’m just gonna pick up everything I quit my job, gave my two weeks notice, excuse me, and then I moved to Chicago with no job, no job prospects, and literally two suitcases and my dog and found myself employed a couple of months later for the Crown family, and they were wonderful to work with. And then I realized that finance was not my, my forte, and then I wanted to get back into public policy. So I started working with the Institute of real estate management, which is a national affiliate of the National Association of Realtors. And it’s a funny story, I actually got offered two job offers on the same day, that makes me sound really, you know, extraordinarily wonderful. But it was just happenstance. And I am not extraordinarily wonderful. But one was in healthcare, and one was for real estate. And I remember saying to my boyfriend at the time, who’s currently my husband, that man healthcare, it’s it’s such a big industry right now with the Affordable Care Act passing in, there’s so much there’s so much room to grow in this industry. But I said to myself, I love real estate, and I love private property rights. And that’s just something that I could do forever. And it has really grown into a fantastic career. So a couple of months ago, I was working on an issue in Illinois rent control, which I’ll talk about later in a minute. And I was working with Illinois, real tours, and my colleague, Brian Berger, Tony, who I’m sure many folks who listen to this podcast know. So hey, why don’t you come work for us? So he, he invited me to go through the application process. And long story short, here I am. I just started June 1.

D.J. Paris 7:32
Oh, wow. You are new to the physician but not new to the not new to the type of position I guess. Right. So yeah, let’s talk a little bit about your your role. What do you do specifically at IR?

Beth Wanless 7:47
Great question. So I am the government affairs professional, also known as lobbyist. I know some people don’t like that word. But you know, that’s what I do. I lobby, the Cook County Board of Commissioners. And they also lobby the water reclamation district. My colleague, Brian does city council. So he works with all the older men and other community officials. But we are a pretty good team. Obviously, I’ve only been here for a couple of weeks. But I’ve known him before that. And it was just like, an excellent fit for me. And I was pretty excited to have the opportunity. Yeah, I

D.J. Paris 8:22
know, there’s a lot going on right now. And yet, let’s let’s jump into it. So what I know you wanted to talk a lot about some of the legislative moves that may or may not be happening. So to start, I don’t know, let’s I know, you had even talked about federal, state and local levels. I don’t know let’s Shall we start big to small start at federal and then sort of narrow it down? And just basically stuff that brokers would want to know. And how to plan maybe more effectively for their, their business in the upcoming year years, as well as what to expect from their clients and that sort of thing?

Beth Wanless 8:59
Sure. Yeah. So big to small let’s do federal first. Well, first things first, a real tours are always watching out for their members best interests. Excuse me, and Illinois, we have 14 Government Affairs officials. So literally every edge of this state is being monitored, to make sure that our members interests are being represented. And that’s the same thing on the federal level as well. I worked with the NAR policy staff pretty closely, and they are some of the most talented professionals in the industry. And I’m sure again, anybody who has spoken with them or worked with them knows that firsthand. So tax reform, tax reform, tax reform, I know this is kind of a boring topic. And I admit it’s not one that I’m an expert in Evan Lydiard is the tax guru at NAR but um, there are a couple of things that we are really watching, or I should say they are watching very closely. Tax reform has been on the forefront of both administration’s agenda when the Democrats and Republicans were running for the presidential seat, people were talking about tax reform while it has come into play. Now, obviously, there’s no legislation pending. But we are gearing up for that. So what does that mean? Well, we want to retain a 1031. Like kind exchange. And that’s a big one for commercial investors. It just allows the investor to defer emphasis on defer, they do pay. They do pay taxes on the gain of the sale of a property if they purchase a similar property. And we also want to retain them.

D.J. Paris 10:41
By the way, Beth, I’m sorry. Sorry, did Rob is that in danger of possibly going away?

Beth Wanless 10:47
It sure is, unfortunately, we have heard a lot of rumblings. And again, I have not been in contact with members of Congress since coming here very closely. So I have heard rumblings at 1031 will be on the chopping block. And that tool has been around in the revised code for I want to say almost 100 years. So that has been a tool for real estate investors since the 20s. And they’re saying that that’s they want to get rid of it. Both Democrats and Republicans have been talking about getting rid of that tax deductions. That’s a great question. So we want to retain that. We also want to retain the mortgage interest deduction, I’m sure

D.J. Paris 11:26
that’s the big one. That’s at least the big one that affects not just investors.

Beth Wanless 11:31
But exactly it’s it’s a huge one. I’m not as familiar with this tax provision as a 1031 exchange. But I have learned very, very quickly that that is the number one priority when tax reform comes to the forefront that they want to protect. And we have heard from elected officials that they are going to retain this. But they aren’t in some ways, because the last tax issue dimension is the potential elimination of the state and local tax deduction. That’s really bad. It basically negates the mortgage interest deduction, right, it would hurt the states with the highest tax burdens, as they wouldn’t be able to deduct property taxes from their federal taxes. And since it’s a double taxation, like I said, a lot of elected officials in Congress said that MIT is safe. But by doubling the standard deduction that Americans can take, the lower their taxable income, the mid would be significantly less valuable. And that’s just because homeowners can take advantage of the mid if they don’t use the standard deduction, and instead, itemized deductions. It’s a little confusing, but rest assured our lobbyists in DC are working really, really hard to make sure that members of Congress understand how important these tax provisions are.

D.J. Paris 12:52
Is there a certain is is one of the parties more looking to in Illinois, at least, as far as the you know, either retaining or getting rid of the state and local tax? Is that a party issue? Or is it? Is it? Is it contingent upon other factors versus just whether someone’s a Republican or Democrat?

Beth Wanless 13:14
Yeah, it’s really contingent on a lot of factors. You know, retaining the 1031 like kind exchange historically has been a Republican issue. However, with the Republican in office in the executive branch and legislative branch. It’s kind of ironic that they’re targeting that. So it is there are a lot of things at play. I think a lot of constituents across many districts want to see change. And that’s what they’re giving them. And unfortunately, it’s at the at the sacrifice of our members and homeowners across the nation. So great question, but there are many, many factors at play here.

D.J. Paris 13:53
And what what do we what does your office think would happen? Should the state and local tax deductions whether they go away or whether they negate the mortgage interest deduction? What what do you guys project as far as how that affects homeowners who are thinking about buying or investors who are thinking about continuing to invest?

Beth Wanless 14:15
Right, right. I mean, it definitely causes pause for a lot of people who would otherwise be very much encouraged by that, by that tax provision, that tax tool, it helps lower income and middle income Americans afford their house payments, and afford homeownership. And as we all know, homeownership is a core sort of the community a lot of communities do well and thrive when people own homes. And when there’s, you know, home sales and activity. I when I was interviewing for this position, I I’m really good friends with an NAR policy staffer, and she was telling me we’re I don’t know what we were talking about. She was saying we’re kind of like arguing about something and she said, You know what, Beth? Real tours do not I buy and sell houses and flip them to make a buck. They buy and sell houses to build communities. And she believed that and so do I. And I believe that if these tax provisions are changed in a negative way that homeownership will not be what it is today. And it’s very important to retain that economic tool, because it creates jobs, it creates stability, it creates safety, so many things, so many positive things come out of homeownership, and the communities that have homeownership.

D.J. Paris 15:36
Yeah, thanks. That’s, that’s a really good answer. And let’s also let’s talk about rent control. You mentioned that earlier. I know that’s been on a lot of realtors, certainly on a lot of investors minds, but most of them are represented by Realtors as well. So what what, uh, what’s going on with rent control right now?

Beth Wanless 15:52
Well, rent control was introduced by a state representative from the city area Wilgus. Already, he I believe, represents Logan Square, and they have they have a problem with gentrification. Or so the constituents say, and how, you know, housing prices are increasing, rent is increasing. So he introduced a piece of legislation that would repeal the ban on rent control in the state of Illinois. And that’s actually when I got pretty involved because I typically do federal stuff. But when I saw that I was like, Oh, crap, you know, let’s, let’s see what’s going on. And I started talking to the Illinois realtors and trying to figure out what exactly this meant was this going to pass? There’s a ton of research out there, excuse me, that talks about how bad rent control is. And we’re not talking about just for the economy, but we’re talking about lower income Americans. And it’s a noble gesture, rent control. It really is. And I appreciate what they’re trying to do with that with that legislation, but it actually does the opposite. So it sort of creates a black market that really only wealthy renters can should know about. It doesn’t help anybody who needs the apartment. I think there was a study that was done with the American Association of economists, or the something like that, that NAR did a few years ago, and 93% of the economists surveyed in this group said that rent control lowers the quality and quantity of affordable housing. So if that doesn’t tell you something I don’t know, what does. I’m not an economist, but I have to believe what they’re saying is true. And, you know, we’ve seen other situations where rent control backfires. And it really just, like I said, creates a black market. investors don’t come in and build properties, because they don’t see that they can charge market rents. A lot of landlords can’t fix up a unit because they just don’t have the money to do it because they can’t charge market rents. A lot of problems with rent control. It’s it’s a huge thing. I’m not the state lobbyists, but I’ve been told by your lobbyists that they’re obviously going to monitor any other movement on a similar piece of legislation. Because it is such a big thing for our members. Not only our members but for renters and the people who need affordable housing.

D.J. Paris 18:28
Yeah, I’ve heard as of about a month or so ago, someone who was monitoring the or maybe it was lobbying directly was thought was confident that that might get defeated. But I don’t know if that’s beneficial.

Beth Wanless 18:46
Yes, yeah, it is dead. Although in public policy, we can never really count anything out because the 11th hour or something can always happen. But um, it is dead for right now. However, like I said, our lobbyists Greg and Julie down in Springfield, they are watching very, very closely to make sure that they’re educating the the members of the House and Senate in in Springfield about what rent control really does and what it doesn’t do. It doesn’t help housing affordability at all. So great question on that one.

D.J. Paris 19:19
And then lastly, let’s talk about the local legislative potential changes, you know, you mentioned or you you sent to me some information about recycling landlord tenant ordinances. Can you speak briefly on this?

Beth Wanless 19:32
Yeah, great question. So on a local level. This was before I came to Illinois realtors, but there was a city ordinance passed that basically requires landlords and condo association managers and HOA managers to it’s for four or more units. That’s important to notice. For more units or kind of association, you to post a sign about the source separated recycling law and source separated means one bin for plastic one bin for metal one bin for paper, a landlord must provide the recycling containers and posts a list of acceptable items. And they also must be maintained. So they have to be emptied and they can’t stink or anything like that. And then you also have to educate your tenants on recycling and how they participate. The violations are pretty hefty for it, they range from 500 to 1000 for the first offense, and then I think up to like 5000 bucks, so it’s kind of serious, you definitely want to stay on top of it. My my colleague, Brian burger, God did a fantastic job of working with city council to put a 30 day warning of non compliance in there. So there is that. But I would encourage all Community Association managers, all landlords to know what this law is, and get things straightened out because it’s, it can be pretty expensive if you don’t abide by it. Another issue that we are monitoring closely is the residential landlord tenant ordinance. My colleague, Brian has been working with city council on an amendment to the RL to regarding judicial discretion on security deposits. So a lot of our members tell me, hey, you know, the security deposit law here is just crazy. Like, if we’re one penny off on returning the money to a tenant, we have to pay two times the deposit amount plus interest, there’s no wiggle room at all. Unfortunately, there’s no judicial discretion. So judges have to give the ruling that the landlord or the property owner must pay that amount. In some cases, it can be 10s of 1000s of dollars for just one penny off in returning the security deposit amount. So my colleague, Brian is, like I said, working with city council to get a very, very, very small change to the ordinance, just so we can give judges some discretion. Because obviously, we do want bad actors to be held accountable for taking advantage of the system. So that’s a that’s a great one. And I’ve been a renter, almost my entire life. So I definitely understand the issue. But it’s it’s a little stretch right now. So we want the judges to have some flexibility and wiggle room there.

D.J. Paris 22:28
Perfect. Yeah, that’s the I hear that a lot, too. I know that there’s a lot of debate among well, not only the tenants but of course, the the landlords and and investors around what to do with security deposit, should they even have a security deposit or so they just started to move in fee, because the security deposits are so problematic, or can be problematic if it’s not done? You know, obviously, exactly right. Let’s talk about the different resources that realtors have that they might not know that they have with your organization. And there are a bunch of really important resources. So let’s talk about and I know this is one that sort of really important to our firm as well, which is the Legal Hotline, which I suspect most brokers aren’t super familiar with. And it’s an incredibly useful resource. And it’s, well, I You could argue it’s free, it’s part of your dues, but it’s certainly much cheaper than going out and hiring somebody for, you know, $400 an hour. Do you guys have a staff of attorneys whose job it is, is to basically man a hotline and answer any and all questions related to brokers transactions or clients? Right. I know we as a as a firm, contact the Legal Hotline, probably we have 550 brokers. So we have a lot of there’s a lot of always a lot of questions we could ask, but we call in just to make sure we’re doing everything appropriately and not missing anything. And we are we probably call a few times a week. But what you know, can we talk more about what they offer or why a realtor themselves might need to call the Legal Hotline?

Beth Wanless 24:09
Oh, gosh, um, let’s see. That’s a good question. So like you said, I think the best use of the Legal Hotline is just to ensure compliance. Because you do not want to do anything illegal, of course. But like you said, just calling to make sure that things are going smoothly that you’re doing the right thing. I’m not very familiar with what types of issues they they work on. I think just you know, licensed law compliance. Yeah, fair housing.

D.J. Paris 24:39
Yeah, any anytime a broker finds himself saying, I just want to double check, right? When it’s potentially a legal issue. I’ll give you a really practical example that we are constantly checking for our brokers, which is if they create their own marketing, for example, like maybe they create their own custom website, and we actually build custom websites for our brokers but some also then go off on their own and build their own. Or maybe it’s a specific flyer, that or some sort of digital marketing piece even. And, you know, it’s interesting because if if if a broker goes and tries to read the advertising guidelines, they’re somewhat vague, not super easy to follow. And there’s questions sometimes where you just want to double check to make sure do I need to I need the full firm office address? Do I need the firm’s phone number? I know I need my phone number. But do I, I know I have to name the firm. But do I have to say the actual physical location of the year things like that, and obviously, a realtor should should feel free to contact their own managing broker who should be somewhat knowledgeable. But if you want to double check, you know, the Legal Hotline is perfect for those kinds of things. And we are constantly sending over and here’s a piece of marketing that one of our brokers put together, is there anything unusual or an because some of you know that it is to some degree open for interpretation, a little bit of that of the way that it’s worded. So that’s a perfect reason to or if there’s a maybe in a dispute where someone’s having an issue, a broker’s having an issue with maybe the broker on the other end of the deal. And they’re just want to make sure that they’re not or rather, can I say this to my client? Can I, you know, that sort of thing. It’s an incredible resource, and it’s easy to get access. So sometimes people will say, Well, how do I find that? I mean, probably the easiest way is just Google legal hotline, Illinois realtor, or you could just go to the Illinois realtor website. And it’s right there. Very easy to find. Yeah, I’m

Beth Wanless 26:31
actually really excited to hear that you use it so often. I didn’t even know this existed until I joined the organization. And then I heard it, I was like, oh, surely that’s not for any managing broker. That would be crazy. That would be so much work, but it is it’s it’s a great member benefit and a resource that is like you said, it’s free. But I mean, it pays for itself and you know, one or two uses, so Oh my

D.J. Paris 26:56
gosh. And let’s let’s talk about Inman Inman News. So

Beth Wanless 27:02
yeah, that’s it’s essentially just a free subscription, the Inman select. So I have this handy brochure. But if you go to the website, which is Illinois, real tours.org. And then you click on the left side, and it says member benefits. See it is on the very bottom, if you’re already signed into your account, when you click on the link under Inman, you have free access, it’ll go like, Oh, please try this. And then it goes right into your free account. So then you register you sign up, and it gives you a bunch of information and news. And I think someone told me it was valued this subscription, and then select is valued at $220. So

D.J. Paris 27:48
Oh, yeah. Inman is an incredible source of of real real estate information. It’s probably the about the best source out there, or at least, oh, I mean, it’s certainly right up there, as far as you know, consistently, good content that’s relevant to a realtor, and they have just a lot of great, great content. So yeah, if you haven’t signed up for that, you have a subscription through the Illinois, you know, Realtors Association, and then let’s talk about lobbyists. And you’re on that team as well. You know, there’s, there’s a, there’s a 14 of you that are out to protect Realtors interests. And, you know, what, if realtors are looking to make their voices heard, you know, how would they go about making sure that they know what you know that you know, what they’re looking for and what they need?

Beth Wanless 28:37
Sure, like you said, 14 lobbyists, I don’t know any other association is as organized as Illinois. That’s not to say that the other realtor associations are not terrific. They absolutely are. But it really is a unique model. And I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on how Illinois does it. We have lobbyists throughout the state. So there, let’s see three in Springfield. And then there’s our boss, Mike, who kind of oversees all the local government affairs directors, or GADS or what they’re called. And if you ever want to contact somebody, or if you ever have an issue, I mean, they deal with issues every day, from city council to, you know, whatever zoning all kinds of stuff. If you ever want to contact somebody, go to the website, Illinois realtors.org. And then click on About us. And then you’ll see staff, and then government affairs staff, and it’ll give you direct access to any of us. And I will I’m even happy to give out my cell phone number. Because the way that we can do our jobs best is by hearing by members because we’re not practitioners. You know, I’m not out in field buying and selling homes. So I’m not seeing what our members are running into. As far as policy issues or legal issues or whatever. So please contact us. That’s the best way for us to do our job and to protect the members, the members in their industry. So I if you’d like I can give out my cell phone number. Anybody wants to reach me? Yeah, it’s 312-758-6644. Again, my name is Beth Wanless. All the gadgets are available at your disposal, we work hard, we work a lot of hours. And, you know, we just want to make sure that our members feel like they’re being represented. And obviously, we want to see projects through not only do we monitor stuff, but we need to move things. And we can really only do that when we know about it. And we can hear from your experiences. So good

D.J. Paris 30:48
question. And let’s end with a couple of to do’s that realtors can immediately engage in to get more involved or get more information. I know you’re talking about with

Beth Wanless 31:01
Yes, the realtor party mobile alerts are pretty cool. So if you’re listening to this, and you have a handy cell phone, or I should say a cell phone handy, text, realtor, r e a l t o r 230644. Again, type in the number 30644. And in the message area, put in real tour push son, and then it will sign you up for a mobile alert. So the last time the National Association of REALTORS initiated a call for action was I believe, last year in 2016. And that was for a bill hr 3700. I think it was the housing opportunities through Modernization Act. So a politician was talking to one of our federal lobbyists, and he said, You know, I know I see what this bill does, and it does good things. But we just want to know that your members care. So chief lobbyists went back and said, Let’s do a call for action. And so they mobilized this mobile alert that was sent out to cell phones and emails to 1.3 million realtor members. And I want to say they got 220,000 messages from Realtors across the country saying please pass this bill. What did they do? They passed it unanimously. I don’t know when the last time that happened in Congress, which all Democrats and all Republicans voted to pass something. But I have to say that that was quite remarkable and pretty exciting. So I know. Yeah, like I said, 220,000 people responded to this call for action. So it’s a simple way that you can get involved, you don’t have to do anything, we will send you the alerts. So if you can just text real tour, get the number, just make sure I’m giving it to you correctly.

D.J. Paris 32:57
30644, there you go. Yeah, text the word realtor to 30644. And they are not going to send too many messages once in a while. But it’s really critical. I just signed up myself. And then let’s, let’s end with talking about our pack,

Beth Wanless 33:14
or pack. So are basically just helps raise and spend money to elect candidates who understand the importance of the real estate industry, to the economy and to the community. The money is voluntarily invested in it’s very wisely used. So I’m a major investor, that just means that I invested $1,000 of my own money into our PAC. I personally really do believe in the power of our I believe in our PAC, I’ve heard a lot of stories on how it works on the federal, state and local level. And it’s it’s actually pretty incredible. I don’t think it’s the largest PAC out there. I don’t want to give you bad information, but it’s certainly one of the most powerful and the arkpak staffers are terrific. They work really hard at identifying candidates who understand our issues. And if you are interested in learning more or getting involved, please visit our PAC now.com It’s www dot our PAC now.com

D.J. Paris 34:21
RPAC

Beth Wanless 34:22
RP. Yes, RP ac now.com. And I should also mention if there are any magic brokers out there anybody listening who are interested in having me or a colleague, who maybe is closer to them come to your office, I will bring coffee and donuts and I will talk for 10 minutes and just tell you about these resources and tell you how to find them. I know it’s a little tricky over a podcast but I would be more than happy to come to you introduce myself and see how we can ensure that you’re using these terrific member benefits because they really are I mean worth their weight in gold. It’s incredible, like Inman and the legal hotline and we even have some forms on there that you can use like a sample office policy. So please, please, please, if you’re a realtor, remember, visit the Illinois real tours.org website and learn about what we’re doing for you.

D.J. Paris 35:19
And if you want to reach out to Beth directly, her email is B Wanless, which is B as in boy and then w a n l e. S S at Illinois realtors.org. And definitely, in particular, if you’re a managing broker and you’d like her to come speak, shoot her a message or really Beth’s very, very accessible she was and certainly, she works for you. So that is, she’s a wonderful resource and obviously, very open to to communication. Well, thank you very much for really appreciate your time. And thanks for working for us and helping to ensure that our our needs get met, you know, from a governmental level.

Beth Wanless 36:00
Thank you so much. And I just appreciate the opportunity to talk to everybody and I hope some folks reach out I would love to help anybody that needs needs a hand on anything.

D.J. Paris 36:11
All right, but Well, thank you very much, and thanks for being on the show. Thank you

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