This past spring, when a bill called the ‘Buyer Beware Act’ was proposed in the Arkansas statehouse, the state REALTOR® association sprang into action to defend its members and their ability to serve their clients: Arkansas’ home-buying and -selling public. Using the REALTOR® Party’s Advocacy Everywhere program, it issued a Call for Action that spurred a barrage of opposition messages to state legislators, and the bill was withdrawn in short order.
Chief Executive Officer Andrea Alford, who, as former director of the state’s Real Estate Commission, brings broad perspective to the issue, explains that HB1905 would have prevented real estate licensees from revealing the current taxable value of a residential property in MLS listings, instead having to direct clients to seek this information from the Office of the County Assessor. “The legitimate concern was that certain variables like the homestead tax and a tax-freeze benefit for homeowners 65 years and older meant that the tax value for any given property could differ wildly, depending on the owner. These discrepancies could result in ‘sticker shock’ after closing, and tax assessors would be the ones getting angry calls,” she says, “but the proposed remedy would have severely restricted transparency on taxable values, and placed unnecessary burdens on agents, their clients, and county assessors. It would have kept our members from fully serving their clients to the best of their ability.”
The legislation’s sponsor had made some noise about the issue, but was not expected to file a bill, when suddenly – she did.
Alford and Arkansas REALTORS®’ Chief Operating Officer Amy Hair were attending the AE Institute in Denver at the time. Hair notes that they were actually at a dinner when they learned that the issue had been brought to the floor. “We went to Andrea’s room to put the Advocacy Everywhere application together, and sent it off, just like that.” She explains that because of the state’s alternate-year legislative sessions, the association doesn’t have to issue Calls for Action very often, so they weren’t beginners, but nor were they regulars. “The process could not be easier: you fill out a form online, saying ‘here’s the issue, here’s our concern.’ Then you draft your message and hit send!” The call to the membership went out the following day, urging them to contact all state representatives except the sponsors of the bill, who had been carefully blocked by the proprietary software.
It went out shortly before the following day’s session opened: 10,512 emails and nearly 4,000 text messages to Arkansas REALTORS® and affiliate members. Within five hours, a whopping 781 people responded by contacting their representatives. “Let’s just say that we received acknowledgment that our work was effective, and the message had reached the lawmakers,” reports Hair.
After the bill was withdrawn, says Alford, she met with the county assessors to work out how the REALTORS® could help the existing situation. “They recognize that REALTORS® offer a valuable service, providing education to buyers and sellers, so they were very receptive to our outreach. To begin, we’ve invited the Arkansas Assessment Coordination Division and the Arkansas Association of Counties to speak at our upcoming state convention, for the benefit of all our members, and by extension, the industry.” She is excited by the opportunities for consumer education, too, especially with the number of new homebuyers getting into the market. “This is a public awareness opportunity we didn’t know existed, until the restrictive legislation was threatened, so that is some good that’s come of it. We have a new level of confidence working with members who have access to existing MLS information, and can also help find the actual taxable property values for prospective owners. We’re very grateful that the REALTOR® Party and its resources helped us get to this point.”
To learn more about how Arkansas REALTORS® is protecting transparency in the real estate industry, contact Chief Executive Officer Andrea Alford at andrea@arkansasrealtors or 501.225.2020; or Chief Operating Officer Amy Hair at amy@arkansasrealtors.com or 501.225.2020. Arkansas REALTORS® Rally Strong Response to Call for Action, Defeating Restrictive Statewide Proposal
August 2025
This past spring, when a bill called the ‘Buyer Beware Act’ was proposed in the Arkansas statehouse, the state REALTOR® association sprang into action to defend its members and their ability to serve their clients: Arkansas’ home-buying and -selling public. Using the REALTOR® Party’s Advocacy Everywhere program, it issued a Call for Action that spurred a barrage of opposition messages to state legislators, and the bill was withdrawn in short order.
Chief Executive Officer Andrea Alford, who, as former director of the state’s Real Estate Commission, brings broad perspective to the issue, explains that HB1905 would have prevented real estate licensees from revealing the current taxable value of a residential property in MLS listings, instead having to direct clients to seek this information from the Office of the County Assessor. “The legitimate concern was that certain variables like the homestead tax and a tax-freeze benefit for homeowners 65 years and older meant that the tax value for any given property could differ wildly, depending on the owner. These discrepancies could result in ‘sticker shock’ after closing, and tax assessors would be the ones getting angry calls,” she says, “but the proposed remedy would have severely restricted transparency on taxable values, and placed unnecessary burdens on agents, their clients, and county assessors. It would have kept our members from fully serving their clients to the best of their ability.”
The legislation’s sponsor had made some noise about the issue, but was not expected to file a bill, when suddenly – she did.
Alford and Arkansas REALTORS®’ Chief Operating Officer Amy Hair were attending the AE Institute in Denver at the time. Hair notes that they were actually at a dinner when they learned that the issue had been brought to the floor. “We went to Andrea’s room to put the Advocacy Everywhere application together, and sent it off, just like that.” She explains that because of the state’s alternate-year legislative sessions, the association doesn’t have to issue Calls for Action very often, so they weren’t beginners, but nor were they regulars. “The process could not be easier: you fill out a form online, saying ‘here’s the issue, here’s our concern.’ Then you draft your message and hit send!” The call to the membership went out the following day, urging them to contact all state representatives except the sponsors of the bill, who had been carefully blocked by the proprietary software.
It went out shortly before the following day’s session opened: 10,512 emails and nearly 4,000 text messages to Arkansas REALTORS® and affiliate members. Within five hours, a whopping 781 people responded by contacting their representatives. “Let’s just say that we received acknowledgment that our work was effective, and the message had reached the lawmakers,” reports Hair.
After the bill was withdrawn, says Alford, she met with the county assessors to work out how the REALTORS® could help the existing situation. “They recognize that REALTORS® offer a valuable service, providing education to buyers and sellers, so they were very receptive to our outreach. To begin, we’ve invited the Arkansas Assessment Coordination Division and the Arkansas Association of Counties to speak at our upcoming state convention, for the benefit of all our members, and by extension, the industry.” She is excited by the opportunities for consumer education, too, especially with the number of new homebuyers getting into the market. “This is a public awareness opportunity we didn’t know existed, until the restrictive legislation was threatened, so that is some good that’s come of it. We have a new level of confidence working with members who have access to existing MLS information, and can also help find the actual taxable property values for prospective owners. We’re very grateful that the REALTOR® Party and its resources helped us get to this point.”
To learn more about how Arkansas REALTORS® is protecting transparency in the real estate industry, contact Chief Executive Officer Andrea Alford at andrea@arkansasrealtors or 501.225.2020; or Chief Operating Officer Amy Hair at amy@arkansasrealtors.com or 501.225.2020.
Post a comment