Justin Knoll, President of the Denver Board of Realtors talks about the ongoing merger discussions.
The Denver Board of Realtors, Jefferson County Association of
Realtors and the North Metro Denver Realtor Association are discussing a merger to
have greater strength, greater numbers and a greater voice. Interviewer: Today we are
talking with Justin Knoll, President of
the Denver Board of Realtors and Justin welcome to the show. Justin Knoll: Glad
to be here, thanks for having me. Interviewer: Thanks, well you are obviously in the news a lot, all of us REALTORSĀ® have been
hearing discussions about the Denver Board merging with one or more associations and I guess it's common knowledge now that the Jefferson County Association of Realtors,
North Metro and Denver Board
are going to merge and come together. Justin Knoll: Well
that's the talks that we're having right now and there is no secret in the past
that we have had these discussions with all of the associations throughout the Denver Metro area, but the Denver Board is pleased to be in
discussions with Jefferson County Association
of Realtors and the North Metro Denver Realtor Association. If this does go through and we do have a unification go through, it would
represent 5000 members and would be
the largest local association in the
state of Colorado. Interviewer: Well that would be
exciting for you know everybody involved, and I guess the next question from
somebody watching is well how soon will this happen? Justin Knoll: Certainly,
there is a lot to happen, there is a lot of things that can be in the mix here,
but we hopefully bring something by the end of the year, would be our hope. Interviewer: Okay and then as a member
of Denver Board like myself or
somebody who is in North Metro they
are saying to themselves, okay if we all merge that means we can all kind of
participate in everyone's events, is that right? Justin Knoll: Sure,
we want to maintain the culture of
each association and make sure that we actually mesh these things. One thing that technology has done for our community here and for Denver in general is really shrunk the
size of what we do, no longer are there neighborhood specific things going on. It's easy for us to jump in the car and be in
one of these associations or another in matter of time, of no time and really
we want to have that congruence here, that meshing of culture. So yes, we would like to do that and collaborate with information and resources. Interviewer: And you know for
the REALTORĀ® out there that's the primary
benefit for them right now. Justin Knoll: I
believe so, as so much is changing in
our world, so much technology is changing, we have to have a greater voice
when it comes to political things and by having a merger like this go through,
it really does give us greater strength, greater numbers, a greater voice to do
those things, to explore opportunities
that maybe we hadn't been able to do in the past. So for the members, yes I think it would be
very much a value added benefit. Interviewer: And I imagine, on
your side of the coin, by doing this, you are going to improve efficiency, lower cost, provide more services, am I right? Justin Knoll: Absolutely,
I mean redundancy is always an issue when you have competition. So we'd like to do that, but we'd also like
to be more forward thinking, not just stopping the bleeding but how do we progress quicker. So many things are thrown at us all the time
and we want to be able to not just adapt and change, but to be progressive and to
change with them, and then offer the members things that maybe their company
can't do anymore, which we are seeing where everybody is somewhat hunkering
down and contracting if you will. Interviewer: I imagine you've
got your executive board, and they
have their executive boards and you got to figure out who is going to be kind
of calling all of the shots that type of thing right. Justin Knoll: Yes
absolutely, that's part of the process is figuring out leadership from here and who is in, and where strengths really lie. One of
the things in this process has been finding out where strengths do lie and how
do we call upon those to make sure that we are put in the best position. Interviewer: Final two questions,
you know members are probably saying, okay where can I get more information and can I
participate in the discussion? Justin Knoll: Absolutely,
we really want our membership feedback
in this, and that's one of the things we're going to be doing coming up is really
engaging the members and being proactive about what, what would this
mean to you, what would you want from an association that's now this big and
this combined. We do want that feedback;
you could always contact anybody in leadership at any of the associations. We will be reaching out with focus groups and all such things, but
for information you can always hit our websites at denverrealtors.org and the North
Metro Association and the Jefferson
County Association their websites will also have that information. Interviewer: Justin, I wish you
much luck in getting this together, it's a big job. Justin Knoll: Absolutely. Thank you very much.
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