Dear Friends,
We write to you today on behalf of the Triangle Commercial Association of REALTORS® and Tacquire to thank you for your ongoing support, and to update you on the many milestones we reached over the last year. The achievements outlined herein would not have been possible without your feedback and involvement.
TCAR: In early 2010, the TCAR Board of Directors met with both TCAR members and non-members to strategize and prioritize the coming year with the goal of narrowing our focus to best meet member needs. Through this meeting we developed a strategic plan that served as our guide in 2011 and beyond.
Among TCAR`s top priorities in 2011 was providing commercial educational opportunities through our mandatory and elective updates, as well as through our partnership with CCIM. We also provided multiple networking opportunities, with Property Showcases held throughout the year and the annual TCAR Golf Tournament held at Hasentree in the spring. On March 3, 2011, we recognized Smedes York (Realtor® of the Year) and many other Triangle brokers at TCAR`s annual Frontier Awards Breakfast, held at Carolina Country Club.
Early in the year, we aggressively opposed an unforeseen NAR dues increase on a local, state and national level. While the national board overwhelmingly approved the increase, our efforts were not wasted. We sent a clear message to both state and national representatives that such steep increases in dues are unacceptable and will be met with aggressive action, and that we expect to have direct input into how the funds allocated to our area are utilized on our members` behalf.
As we do each year, we also focused on giving back to our community. Through our participation in the 2011 Joint Event, we helped to raise $10,000 for The Boys and Girls Club. More than 400 people attended the event. We will wrap up the holiday season on December 6th with a Christmas Toy Drive benefitting the Salvation Army.
We will soon complete our first full year of marketing TCAR and Tacquire with the help of Articulon, a well established local marketing/public relations firm. In addition to fee-paid services, Articulon donated their time and expertise via an in-kind sponsorship. Through our proactive marketing and membership recruitment efforts, we have thus far exceeded sponsorship goals for the upcoming year, and TCAR membership has held steady at approximately 585. This is a noteworthy achievement given challenging economic and market conditions that would typically result in attrition of members and sponsors. We feel strongly that the addition of member benefits such as Tacquire and the recently launched National Haves and Wants program played a significant role in helping us to maintain membership levels and increase visibility for our sponsors.
As most of you know, our primary focus in 2010 and 2011 was the development of a new, research-supported Commercial Information Exchange known as Tacquire. Our charge was to develop an affordable, accurate, easy to use system for our members. With the help of many of you, that vision became a reality in September 2010. Tacquire made significant strides in its first full year of operations, including a substantial increase in the amount of data in the system, as well as the addition of numerous enhancements. A summary of Tacquire`s 2011 accomplishments to-date follows below.
Tacquire: Tacquire exceeded both membership and data entry goals in 2011. Just one year after launching, more than 11,400 properties and more than 6,600 listings had been entered into the system. Over 5,000 sales comparables were also added, with all sales from 2010 forward being researched and checked against the deed.
To facilitate research efforts and increase exposure for member listings, we actively sought partnership opportunities with local economic development agencies. To date, five agencies have joined Tacquire and are using the Tacquire Link feature as the exclusive property listing search engine on their web sites. They include Wake County Economic Development, Raleigh Economic Development, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, Chapel Hill Economic Development and the Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce.
Through member feedback and weekly team calls with our CIE technology platform partner, eProperty Data, we combed the system, making adjustments and improvements as needed, and sought opportunities to roll out enhanced features at no additional cost to members. Examples include a new and improved generation of reports, including both property and analytic reports; FastFlyer, an automated flyer maker program; and a new iPad app to enhance mobile access for members. Investit Lite was launched to allow members to quickly and easily perform on-line cash flow projections and simple investment analysis, and a new Site Evaluator tool allows members to overlay logos for retail tenants onto aerials, print demographic and traffic count reports, and export imagery to Google Earth.
GIS information and parcel shape files were added for Moore, Hoke, Alamance, Guilford and Forsyth Counties, and an enhanced GIS Search Tool was incorporated into the system to streamline the search process.
And our work is far from done. Before the end of the year, tenant data from Dun & Bradstreet will be incorporated into the system, and new Office and Industrial Leasing Guides will be released to highlight broker listings and market share.
The support we have received from the Triangle commercial real estate community has been overwhelming, and Tacquire members are already seeing the benefits of a cooperative system. Requested enhancements have quickly been adopted, and listings are garnering scores of views per month, with the majority derived from the public side of the site.
In 2012, we look forward to working with our members and eProperty Data to introduce additional tools, including even more reporting options. Researcher Ron Dixon will continue not only to add new listings, but also to identify opportunities to enhance existing property and listing records with additional information, photographs, etc.
To conclude, we cannot thank current members and the broader commercial real estate industry enough for your support of both TCAR and Tacquire. Our long-term vision is to be the primary resource for commercial real estate information, not only for our local real estate community, but also for business owners seeking information on Triangle commercial real estate. In becoming the shepherds of our own information and our own future, we will all realize value through improved information, more streamlined research, and enhanced visibility. Our short-term success, which is dependent upon your support, can lead to even larger opportunities in the future, including our ultimate vision for a state-wide member owned system. The future is ours, if we choose it. We do, and we hope you will too. This is YOUR commercial association and YOUR commercial real estate information exchange.
Warmest Regards,
Shane Bull Board President, TCAR
Elizabeth Raiford Board President, Tacquire
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