Written by Lloyd Sherman
Mission Creep
Over the past year, I have found myself in wonderment over the lack of push-back or resistance to the establishment of Village Homes & Land/POA by the realtor community. While many may see this as nothing more than the establishment of yet another broker in the area, the reality is that it represents something much larger. Originally presented as the vehicle to be used for the elimination of the POA owned lots, that objective appears to have been abandoned and has morphed into the transition of becoming a developer.
To begin with, one must ask why we needed another brokerage to represent the Village. If it were a private enterprise, it would be one thing, but this brokerage is an operating department of the POA.
What are some of the implications?
- All functions of Village Homes & Land is being funded by HSV property owner assessments.
- What that means is that staff is being dedicated to an unnecessary operation while infrastructure issues remain a major issue.
- It means that these POA employees are salaried where all other brokerages in the area are compensated via commission and based upon their performance.
- It means they have an unlimited marketing and resource budget to promote their agenda.
- Discovery Packages are basically an exclusive offering of Village Homes and Land and not available for use by other brokers, rental agencies or private rental programs other than by turning your client over to them for tour, etc.
- Village Homes and Land is the exclusive listing agent for Builder Guild members.
In some circles, this would be considered the forming of a monopoly. Using other people’s money (OPM) to conduct their agenda.
What would elimination of Village Homes & Land mean to the community?
There is nothing being done through this arm of the POA that couldn’t be absorbed by the existing broker network. Discovery Packages could be absorbed and managed through the HSV Visitor Center.
Why do I see this as mission creep?
It would mean all the resources currently being consumed by this function could be directed to infrastructure projects or increased targeted marketing activities. It would mean the hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of compensation, marketing
- In August 2018 a POA board member was distributing a document touting the accomplishments of the POA CEO. That document stated “Launched Village Homes and Land and Builders Guild and related location, regional and nation real estate marketing campaigns. Subsequently leading to the following year over year shifts in the Hot Springs Village real estate market.” Document went on to take credit for improvements to the real estate market due to these efforts. Probably important to note that Village Homes & Land was responsible for closing seven (7) sales in the entire year of 2018, which in the commission world would have generated about $43K in commissions.
- Another article in 2018 in an outside publication also indicated that the implementation of Village Homes & Land had resulted in the improved real estate market within HSV.
- At a recent Marketing Forum, once again credit was taken by the POA for a positive shift in the HSV real estate market, giving no recognition to the larger real estate community.
- The most recent example is a full-page article in the Living in Arkansas 2019 Relocation Guide which directs all leads to Village Homes & Land.
- The new POA website is nothing but an advertisement for Village Homes & Land, as well as the exclusive builders of the POA, ignoring both established brokers and builders.
Change of direction needed
While there is absolutely nothing wrong with what is happening with the Departments of Parks and Tourism and Retire to Arkansas, these activities should fall in under the HSV Visitor Center. Did you know? That a realtor is present at the Visitor Center every day of the week including Saturday and Sunday to be an Ambassador for those interested in seeing or moving to HSV? The POA’s job in marketing is to drive traffic to the Village, not to their own entity that takes business away from existing “for profit” brokerages.
Discovery Packages are also a good
Builders of the Guild have to list exclusively with Village Homes & Land and can’t participate in the program unless they make that commitment, thus restricting the marketing avenues of other non-Guild builders, and again providing a leg up for those builders on property owner assessments.
The HSV Board of Realtors should get behind such a program and play an active part in the role of expanding the marketing efforts to sell our little slice of heaven while protecting our member Realtor’s.
All information contained in this document is the personal opinion of Lloyd Sherman, HSV Realtor, and not affiliated with any business or organization.
Anonymous
03/03/2019 — 4:23 pm
This is a great article, Lloyd.
Anonymous
03/03/2019 — 6:40 pm
Lloyd, if elected to the HSV Board will you continue self dealing? You apparently are not familiar with Article 15 of the National Association of Realtors’ Code of Ethics or maybe you just ignore the portions that don’t suit you. No thanks-there are better choices!
Lloyd
03/03/2019 — 7:51 pm
Hello, anonymous! Maybe you can explain how my article is self-dealing. If you are a property owner, I have to assume by your comment that you are okay wasting our assessments on functions that can be done by others who are not on the payroll of the POA. I find that very confusing. Cutting commissioned realtors out of the process through using POA marketing resources seems like that would be self-dealing. As for other choices, you are right. Whether they are better is a matter of opinion. Standing up for what is right and implementing accountability is what I’m all about.
Rose Helphinstine
03/04/2019 — 1:38 pm
According to CARMLS Nicolosi at Remax there were 633 sales last year. Are you saying only 7 of that number were closed from sales through leads/agents of Village Homes & Land? It would seem that logic would dictate to eliminate or radically change the administration of the program. Do we know who specifically benefits from the funding of VH&L? I am not anti-marketing but when a program is failing and people are still being compensated via salaries then there is something that needs to be changed. You have identified areas of concern but I would like to know How you will contribute to providing ways and means to the solutions and if you are able to focus in multiple directions and not just in marketing/real estate.
Thank you.
Rose H.
Lloyd
03/04/2019 — 2:40 pm
Rose,
Thank you for your comments. I have an extremely varied background and have always been able to multi-task. Real estate is just a symptom of the overall problem. Many of us we not as engaged as we probably should have been until the CMP was rolled out the way it was. Once that happened, many people woke up. Then this last year when the budgeting process was going on, it became obvious that the current administration was not interested in putting pro-active marketing activities together to increase revenues and in the absence of increased revenues was also not interested in cutting costs. I have some DNA in my makeup but it was not my specialty. As a board member, my job would be to bring focus to the issue and let other highly experienced property owners help put together a detailed plan for adoption by the Board. As a part-time real estate agent, I pay attention to what is happening in that market, but my real issue with that subject matter is that it is an expense and drain to our assessments. We have adequate realtor resources to handle the volume. And yes, I am confirming the sale of seven (7) properties by Village Homes & Land in 2018; four (4) in 2017. Their charge was to jettison the POA owned lots as well as new builds. The sold 1 lot in 2018 and 1 new home. So my issue is that this is not a responsible use of our assessments. My background in corporate America and then running my own company of business consulting allows me to operate much like a GM needs to and thus focus and concentrate on many areas that need improvement. Nothing happens without marketing and then sales and that is why we are currently treading water. So yes, marketing is a biggie, but we are also top heavy and not taking care of our infrastructure in a responsible manner. I hope that answers your concerns but if not, you are welcome to reach out to me via email at lesherman1948@gmail.com and I will respond quickly. Thank you.
Jeanette Sherman
03/16/2019 — 4:48 pm
If you had been attending BOD meetings over the years, you would have hear numerous discussions during Mr, Twiggs tenure about what to do with the POA lots. It seemed as though the local realtors had no interest in marketing those lots, so the BOD and POA had to come up with a plan to get those lots sold. If you think the situation is different now, I suggest you talk to more realtors. They still have no interest in those lots. Why would they. They can make much bigger commissions selling existing properties. If you are interested in selling those lots, you can still do it.