by Michele Gillis, Staff Writer
The Jacksonville Association of Real Estate Brokers, a minority trade organization, is looking to expand its membership.
JAREB was founded in 2010 by CCarter Realty broker Carla Carter and is the local chapter for the National Association of Real Estate Brokers which was founded in 1947 in Tampa.
"Two of the founding members were from Jacksonville," said Carter, the current JAREB president. "It is the oldest minority trade organization in the country. It was founded because of segregation when minorities were not able to be included in real estate organizations."
Times have changed and Carter said her group is open to everyone. Presently, there are 25 members here.
"Anyone can be a member. It's not just for minorities," said Carter. "We've never had just minority members. It's an organization for everyone and there is an opportunity for everyone to be involved. We would welcome a more diverse group."
Several members are independent brokers with small offices.
"When we group ourselves together, we become a bigger audience and we attract national speakers to come to us," said Carter.
The organization has a luncheon meeting every second Friday of the month from at various locations. They discuss new business items, current real estate topics as well as plan upcoming events, socials and philanthropic opportunities.
Contrary to the name, the members are not all brokers. JAREB is for anyone that is a real estate professional or that is affiliated with real estate including lenders, home inspectors, title companies and more. Their name was created to mirror the national name, NAREB.
But, membership in the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors is required.
"This organization is in addition to your local board membership, so it's not excluding, it's including," said Carter. "We typically have education and classes that NEFAR doesn't offer. We've had many classes that are unique to real estate and weren't offered anywhere else. Some of the classes included a hands-on property management experience, HUD housing, foreclosures."
Nationally, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are major supporters.
"They have the minority initiatives and interest in minority groups so they noticed that we didn't have a NAREB chapter here," said Carter. "They asked the national president of NAREB about it and he asked me to start a chapter, so I did. I had been a member of NAREB since 2003.
"With the banking institutions, they recognize the minority trade organizations and if you are involved in doing business with banks, in the form of listings or short sales, banks look at your membership.
"They will do outreach and education for the real estate members that they won't filter through our local real estate association. They will do short sale classes or other classes that they will do through their minority trade association relationships."