The 2006 Realtors convention in New Orleans - My Letter to the Times Picayune
Monday, November 13th, 2006Kudos to the National Association of Realtors for holding their 2006 Convention here in New Orleans as planned. There were a staggering 30,000 REALTORS in New Orleans over the weekend, so if you saw an unusual amount of cell phones on Bourbon Street, that might be why! In addition to bringing in much needed business to hotels, restaurants and shops, this convention also brought something else to the city - professional salespeople with a wide sphere of influence who can go back to their cities and spread the good word about how far we’ve come.
As a local REALTOR for New Orleans historic neighborhoods, I was thrilled to go to every day of the convention, chatting up REALTORS from California to London, telling them about the investment potential, the business potential, and, most importantly, letting them know New Orleans is a great home for people once again. They listened eagerly to all the great places I told them to eat, and most of them already had their New Orleans stories of funny things that had happened to them.
These days people move all the time, and when they do, 9 out of 10 of them call a REALTOR. Isn’t it great that New Orleans made such a great impression on 30,000 of the top selling agents in the world? Now, if someone tells their agent they’re thinking of selling their house and moving to New Orleans, or maybe Houston or Chicago, the agent can say, “You need to seriously check out New Orleans. We just had a great time down there.”
Conversations like that happen every day in thousands of cities across the country. It’s refreshing that some of those conversations will be in our favor! This is progress, a bit of good news we can celebrate, and it happened thanks to thousands of dedicated people who received no federal money. Not only did it not take a dime to get this great PR, but the REALTORS partnered with Habitat for Humanity to help rebuild homes here in the city. This was truly a win for our city and I’d like to thank the National Association of Realtors for making it happen.
Sincerely,
Helen Krieger, REALTOR
New Orleans, LA