The Nominating Committees have selected your GAAR & SWMLS Candidates for the 2025 Board of Directors Election.

Vote online Monday, October 7th - Sunday, October 13th.

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GAAR Board Positions Open

Director Positions & Candidates

• 4  Director positions for 2025-2026 (2-year term)

  • Rick DeVoss
  • Amy Neal
  • Jaclyn Staton
  • Brian Steudle

Officer Positions & Candidates

•  President-elect (1-year term)

  • Chris Venegas

• Vice President (1-year term)

  • Helen Chan
  • Joshua Price

GAAR Candidate Questionnaires

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Challenges Facing the Current Real Estate Industry:

Educating the public to our role in real estate transactions.

How Do You Feel GAAR Could Be More Relevant to Our Members?

We need to offer more opportunities for socializing and networking, and we could provide more free CE classes to encourage Realtors to come to the GAAR facility and become aware of the services that are available to them.

What Do You Feel Will Be Unique About the Next Two-Year Time Frame?

We will need to serve as guidance for our members as they adjust to the new rules as prescribed by NAR, and help them get used to representing buyers in every transaction with a written agreement that specifies what commission a Buyer's Broker will be paid.

Rick is running for GAAR Director, download his full answers HERE
View Rick's candidate video HERE 
 

Challenges Facing the Current Real Estate Industry:

Helping the consumer understand the value Realtors bring to the transaction should be our focus.  Also, raising the level of professionalism within our industry will help set a higher standard.  I believe we can improve the lens in which our community views Realtors and provide an invaluable service to the consumer. 

How Do You Feel GAAR Could Be More Relevant to Our Members?

I have learned so much from serving on the GAAR Board and think that the association does a great job of connecting with its members, staying focused on education, empowerment and encouragement.  By listening to our members we can explore new ways to meet their needs and implement changes that will improve the entire association and the service we can provide to the consumers. 

What Do You Feel Will Be Unique About the Next Two-Year Time Frame?

With the recent NAR Settlement, there will be a lot of education needed, not only to our members, but to the consumer.  My hope is that the Association will be in a position to help the consumer understand these changes, and be a trusted resource for all. 

Amy is running for GAAR Director, download her full answers HERE
View Amy's Candidate Video HERE 
 

Challenges Facing the Current Real Estate Industry:

Overcoming old "standards" of practice. 
Communication to the public about our value as Realtors. 

How Do You Feel GAAR Could Be More Relevant to Our Members?

I feel like having a larger presence in public events and housing events might shine the light on the value that GAAR members bring to the city and how many lives are impacted by brokers associated with GAAR. 

What Do You Feel Will Be Unique About the Next Two-Year Time Frame?

Trust and communication around the new NAR settlement. More transparency and more professionalism moving forward. 

Jaclyn is running for GAAR Director, download her full answers HERE
View Jaclyn's candidate video HERE 
 

Challenges Facing the Current Real Estate Industry:

Rising interest rates, inventory shortages, and significant rule changes.

How Do You Feel GAAR Could Be More Relevant to Our Members?

The association could offer more educational programs, networking opportunities, and digital tools to better support members' needs.

What Do You Feel Will Be Unique About the Next Two-Year Time Frame?

The next two years will see significant practice changes as a result of NAR's settlement.

Brian is running for GAAR Director, download his full answers HERE.
 

Challenges Facing the Current Real Estate Industry:

Aside from the obvious NAR Settlement, I think everyone is a little brain-dead. In Our metro especially, the Real Estate industry is grappling with housing affordability, and market volatility in the dynamic of turning to a buyer's market. The rising costs of housing have created barriers for many residents looking to purchase homes, making it increasingly difficult for them to enter the market. I have some people I worked with who waited and were priced completely out of the market. At any other time in history, this almost would have never happened in such a short time frame of the last 4 years. Market volatility adds yet another layer of complexity that I'm seeing sellers now facing. We as professionals need to make sure we are always on our toes ready to help educate the public on the most up-to-date market conditions.  confidence, leading to uncertainty and hesitancy in transactions. 

How Do You Feel GAAR Could Be More Relevant to Our Members?

One challenge that the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors may face is also one of the best parts of our association. We have so many members! With that, I think it's easy for many to fall through the cracks. So I think even the little things. Inviting fellow members and encouraging new members to be involved. I know many will say it's technology that's going to help this, but I think if we can help our members be more connected it can help GAAR as a whole come to light and be relevant to us once again.  

What Do You Feel Will Be Unique About the Next Two-Year Time Frame?

In the next two years, the GAAR will likely face unique challenges and opportunities in our metro. With the evolving market trends, and changing consumer preferences, the Board may need to adapt its policies and strategies to stay relevant and competitive. Additionally, factors such as economic conditions, housing affordability, and regulatory changes could impact the real estate industry in our metro. It will be crucial for the Board to anticipate and address these shifts effectively to support the growth and success of its members and the community as a whole. 

Chris is running for GAAR President-elect, download his full answers HERE
View Chris' candidate video HERE
 

Challenges Facing the Current Real Estate Industry:

Education and sharing of correct information of the DOJ lawsuit and newly implemented rules are one of the challenges.

Assisting our clients in navigating these industry shifts while supporting our association’s members will be imperative. 

How Do You Feel GAAR Could Be More Relevant to Our Members?

Reach out to not only newer members but also to longer standing members or brokerages. Ask if their needs are being met and what improvements they would like to see. 

What Do You Feel Will Be Unique About the Next Two-Year Time Frame?

The Albuquerque real estate landscape may be changing as developers and industry needs adjust to inventory. Along with how brokers will be adjusting our business models and adjusting again if there should be additional rule changes will make it unique. 

Helen is running for GAAR Vice President, download her full answers HERE
View Helen's candidate video HERE
 

Challenges Facing the Current Real Estate Industry:

The largest challenge to our industry continues to be inventory. We need homes of all kinds and the ability to create them. This begins with intelligent policy making and planning at our local level. I believe that our leadership needs to be an influence in creating these plans and policies. 

How Do You Feel GAAR Could Be More Relevant to Our Members?

GAAR is absolutely critical in allowing the ability for many to run their own small businesses. GAAR informs, protects and educates its members so that the utmost of professionalism can continue to grow. GAAR is our ethics, grievance and professional standards entity, this is the gold standard that keeps our industry thriving. GAAR is one leg on a three legged stool. The stool cannot stand without all three, in cooperation with NMAR and NAR, GAAR's presence continues the dream of growth and home ownership at our local level.

What Do You Feel Will Be Unique About the Next Two-Year Time Frame?

I don't think it is unique because I think that this always should be the goal, but I think that in the near future it will be more important to be as educated and professional as it has ever been. With the recent settlement and MLS changes the value of a Realtor will be that much more scrutinized and the only way to overcome that will be to be the pinnacle of the industry. And we should all strive for this endeavor. 

Josh is running for GAAR Vice President, download his full answers HERE
View Josh's candidate video HERE

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SWMLS Board Positions Open

Director Positions & Candidates

• 1  Director position for 2025-2027 (3-year term)

  • Jeanette Raver
  • Michelle Smith

Officer Positions & Candidates

• President-elect (1-year term)

  • Teri Vasquez-Hatcher

• Treasurer (1-year term)

  • Belinda Franco

SWMLS Candidate Questionnaires

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Please share your experience, qualifications, skills, knowledge, and any other relevant information that would make you an asset to the SWMLS Board of Directors and SWMLS Participants/Subscribers.

Experience and Qualifications:

Deep Understanding of MLS Operations: Knowledge of how Multiple Listing Services (MLS) operate, including data management, compliance, and member services, is crucial. This includes understanding the importance of accurate data, market trends, and the regulatory environment impacting real estate.

Real Estate Industry Insight: Familiarity with the real estate industry, including current market dynamics, trends, and challenges faced by brokers and clients. This knowledge helps make informed decisions that align with the industry’s needs.

Strategic Planning and Innovation: The ability to contribute to long-term strategic planning, focusing on innovation and staying ahead of technological and market changes. This involves exploring new tools, services, and partnerships to enhance the value SWMLS provides its users.

Relevant Skills:
Analytical Thinking: Strong analytical skills to assess data, understand market trends, and evaluate the performance of various initiatives. This involves using data-driven insights to make informed decisions that benefit SWMLS participants and subscribers.

Problem-Solving: Identifying challenges within the organization or platform and developing effective solutions. This could involve addressing user feedback, improving system performance, or enhancing member services.

Communication: Clear and effective communication skills are essential for collaborating with other board members and SWMLS participants. This includes the ability to articulate complex technical concepts in a way that is accessible to non-technical audiences.

Leadership and Vision: Bringing a forward-thinking perspective that can guide SWMLS toward future growth and innovation. Leadership in this context involves setting the vision and inspiring others to work together towards common goals.

Commitment to Professional Development: Dedicating to continuous learning and staying updated on industry developments, technologies, and best practices. This ensures that SWMLS remains a leader in the MLS space.

What leadership skills do you bring to the role?

Leadership Skills:
Collaborative Leadership: Emphasizing teamwork and fostering a collaborative environment where different perspectives are valued. This involves building consensus and driving collective decision-making.

Strategic Vision: Provide a clear vision for SWMLS's future, identify opportunities for growth and innovation, and set goals that align with the organization’s mission.

Adaptability: The ability to adapt to market, technology, and regulatory environment changes. This includes leading the organization through periods of transition with confidence and clarity.

What is the role of SWMLS and what are the challenges facing SWMLS moving forward?

The Southwest Multiple Listing Service (SWMLS) is an organization that provides a comprehensive database and platform for real estate professionals to list and access property information. This service is typically used by real estate agents, brokers, and other professionals to facilitate the buying, selling, and renting of properties. The role of SWMLS includes:

Data Aggregation: SWMLS collects and aggregates property listings from various real estate brokers and agents, providing a centralized database that makes it easier to access accurate and up-to-date property information.

Market Transparency: By providing a single platform for property listings, SWMLS increases market transparency, allowing buyers, sellers, and agents to have a clear understanding of market conditions, including pricing trends and property availability.

Facilitating Transactions: SWMLS streamlines the transaction process by making it easier for real estate professionals to find properties that meet their clients' needs, schedule showings, and manage other aspects of the buying or selling process.

Compliance and Standards: SWMLS ensures that all listings adhere to certain standards and guidelines, helping to maintain the integrity of the real estate market.

Technological Integration: SWMLS often integrates with other technologies and platforms, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems and real estate websites, to enhance the efficiency of real estate operations.

Challenges Facing SWMLS Moving Forward:
Technological Advancements: As technology evolves, SWMLS must continuously upgrade its systems to stay competitive and meet the changing needs of its users. This includes adapting to new software, data analytics tools, and mobile-friendly platforms.

Data Accuracy and Integrity: Ensuring the accuracy and integrity of the data in the MLS is crucial. Inaccurate or outdated listings can lead to client dissatisfaction and legal issues. Maintaining high data standards is an ongoing challenge.

Competition from Alternative Platforms: The rise of alternative real estate platforms and services, such as iBuyers and online marketplaces like Zillow, presents competition to traditional MLS services. SWMLS needs to differentiate itself and provide value that these alternatives cannot.

Cybersecurity: Protecting the sensitive data of clients and real estate professionals from cyber threats is an increasing concern. SWMLS must invest in robust cybersecurity measures to safeguard its systems.

Regulatory Changes: The real estate industry is subject to frequent regulatory changes, which can impact how MLSs operate. SWMLS needs to stay informed about these changes and adjust its practices accordingly.

Member Engagement and Training: Ensuring that real estate professionals are effectively using the MLS system is important for its success. This requires ongoing training and engagement efforts to help members fully utilize the platform's capabilities.

Market Dynamics: Fluctuations in the real estate market, such as changes in housing demand or economic downturns, can affect the operations and revenue of MLSs. SWMLS must be adaptable to these changes to maintain its relevance and effectiveness.

What is one thing you would like to change that is in the purview of SWMLS?

If there were one thing to change within SWMLS's purview, it would be to enhance the platform's data integration and interoperability capabilities.

Why This Change?
Increased Flexibility for Users: By enhancing data integration and offering more robust APIs, users would have greater flexibility to connect SWMLS data with various third-party tools and platforms. This could improve workflows for real estate professionals, allowing them to tailor the platform to their specific needs.

Streamlined Workflows: Better integration capabilities would enable smoother data flow between SWMLS and other real estate systems, such as CRM software, marketing platforms, and financial tools. This would streamline processes, reduce manual data entry, and minimize the risk of errors.

Enhanced User Experience: Providing more seamless integrations with popular real estate apps and services would make the SWMLS platform more user-friendly and adaptable to modern real estate practices.

Future-Proofing: As the real estate industry becomes more digitized, the ability to easily integrate with other technologies will be increasingly important. Strengthening this platform aspect will help ensure that SWMLS remains relevant and valuable in the future.

This change could significantly improve the overall efficiency and satisfaction of users, positioning SWMLS as a more versatile and future-ready platform.

Jeanette is running for SWMLS Director, download her full answers HERE
View Jeanette's candidate video HERE
 

Please share your experience, qualifications, skills, knowledge, and any other relevant information that would make you an asset to the SWMLS Board of Directors and SWMLS Participants/Subscribers.

My experiences with Chairing Compliance allowed me to also participate with the Policy Committee & experience SWMLS Board meetings when the more significant SWMLS changes were being discussed.  I think I have a vast knowledge of our MLS system, the accompanying technologies plus I bring an additional skillset & knowledge from the Pro-Standards committee.  

What leadership skills do you bring to the role?

The leadership skills I bring are the abilities to successfully chair committees within SWMLS & GAAR. I also actively teach market stats utilizing our MLS & affiliate technologies to the Realtors within our company at our company sales meetings.

What is the role of SWMLS and what are the challenges facing SWMLS moving forward?

The role of our SWMLS is to create a comprehensive database of accurate information that all Realtor members and applicable affiliates can use in our local market place.  Of course some of the greatest upcoming challenges could come as a result of the recent NAR changes- ie. how does compensation affect the accuracy of comps for both Realtors & appraisers? I think we could face additional unknown challenges in reporting accurate data as a result of the settlement.

What is one thing you would like to change that is in the purview of SWMLS?

I believe SWMLS should improve the way the data is pulled and used in the Green Sheet.  The Green Sheet provided housing data to the public & our members, however, there's major inconsistencies which leads to inaccurate data. ie. Pull the July- 2024 Green Sheet, under "Inventory of Homes for Sale", look under "One Year Ago", "Detached" shows as 1312 (and hypothetically, this should reflect July 2023, Inventory of Homes for Sale, Detached).  Now, pull the Green Sheet released in July 2023- under "Inventory of Homes for Sale", "Detached" shows 1178 (hypothetically, shouldn't this be the same number as reported above?).  Why is there a discrepancy?  Why isn't the data from the past concrete?  What numbers should we be using to convey to the public & our members.  The Green Sheet is a valuable resource that our members use on a regular basis. I believe the Green Sheet should to be improved to reflect consistent, accurate data.

Michelle is running for SWMLS Director, download her full answers HERE
View Michelle's candidate video HERE
 

Please share your experience, qualifications, skills, knowledge, and any other relevant information that would make you an asset to the SWMLS Board of Directors and SWMLS Participants/Subscribers.

My greatest asset to SWMLS is my prior experience. When I first began to serve as a director, I think I spent the first twelve to eighteen months feeling like I was trying to drink a sip of water from a fire hose. It was at times overwhelming. Being consistent in my service has been a constant improvement in my skills and understanding of the technologies currently available as well as those potentially in the works for our industry. I also think the Associate Brokers I serve as a Qualifying Broker are an amazing asset. It enables me to have an even broader perspective, it's not just my experiences in my production, but also theirs and the questions and struggles they deal with that help me to be more well-rounded in our industry challenges and victories. 

What is the role of SWMLS and what are the challenges facing SWMLS moving forward?

SWMLS is constantly trying to evaluate the most beneficial technologies we can provide to our membership. This is a constantly moving target with technology being so fluid and constantly evolving. SWMLS works hard to spend membership dues wisely and negotiate contracts for these products as well as we can to make good on membership dues.  Our greatest most used product is our MLS itself. Many hours are spent and many committees are held to constantly improve the data the MLS provides to our membership as well as what the public sees. The most critical role we play is ensuring data is accurate and readily available to enable our members to cooperate and serve the public as best we can. This year an enormous amount of time has been put into the pending lawsuits to ready ourselves for the industry changes with as few hiccups as possible and I feel this will continue to be at the forefront for us for the next several months at a minimum as things become finalized and our industry adjusts to the newness and overcomes the unknowns. 

What is one thing you would like to change that is in the purview of SWMLS?

We are starting to see more multiple listing services join forces and expand their areas of coverage. I think we will see more and more of this over the country now that the offer of compensation is no longer a key point in the MLS. SWMLS has been conservative in budgeting as well as our approach to the lawsuit changes while we wait for everything to "shake out". We are perfectly poised to support smaller multiple listing services enabling all of us to do business on a broader more informed scale and grow our community. 

Teri is running for SWMLS President-elect, download her full answers HERE
View Teri's candidate video HERE

 

Please share your experience, qualifications, skills, knowledge, and any other relevant information that would make you an asset to the SWMLS Board of Directors and SWMLS Participants/Subscribers.

Volunteering on the GAAR Board of Directors for so many years helped me see how our association runs and brings value to our members. I have a heart for service to our industry and our community and I would like to continue serving our members and this time on the SWMLS side.  My leadership skills are still being developed as I learn and grow and this is one of the main reasons I started volunteering at our association -to gain as much insight and perspective so I could be the best REALTOR®️ I can be.  I want to continue to sharpen my saw by serving on the SWMLS Board alongside some of the best in our real estate family. My main goal is to continue to be a voice for our members through volunteering on the local, state, and national levels. 

What is the role of SWMLS and what are the challenges facing SWMLS moving forward?

The Role of the SWMLS includes ensuring data integrity and to bring best tools to our members.

The challenges facing SWMLS moving forward will be to enforce rules and rule changes. Our market is ever changing and the challenge is to keep up with changes and getting the information out to our members. 

I'm looking forward to having a new MLS Director (we will forever miss Richard Gibbens - insert very sad face). 

What is one thing you would like to change that is in the purview of SWMLS?

One thing that I would like to change about what is in the scope of SWMLS is having more training for members around MLS rules and MLS products. 

Belinda is running for SWMLS Treasurer, download her full answers HERE
View Belinda's candidate video HERE