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Abraham Lincoln that said, "When the legislature is in session, no man's life or property is safe."

This is true for your real estate business and carrer. PSF is not just for the people who have "made it" in the real estate business.

BrokerIPTV: Welcome to Broker IPTV and today I am privileged to have Michael Marcus here. Michael is the Colorado Association of Realtors State Chair for the Political Survival Fund. Michael, welcome.

Michael Marcus: Thank you very much Mark. It is a pleasure to be here. <read more>

BrokerIPTV : Hey, I have always wanted to... I have always had some questions about the PSF, the Political Survival Fund in and I get a lot of agents ask me... first of all, just what is it? What is PFS? What does it do? Why was it founded and how long has it been around?

Michael Marcus: Well it is been around for a long, long time, almost forever. Political Survival Fund basically is the realtor pack. It is the means for realtors to make voluntary contributions and to have through the joining of our forces create a voice that politicians at every level - local, state, and national have to hear.

BrokerIPTV : Here is what I get from a lot of my brokers and you probably get it too. Why should I give more money? Don't I give enough money through NAR and CAR and... how much more money do we need to fight for people's right to property rights?

Michael Marcus: It is a very good question and the answer lies in the definition of Political Survival Fund as a pack. It needs to be a voluntary contribution. So, there is no... none of the dues money can go for bad purpose. It is actually set up as a separate entity to separate our realtor associations, our other activities, and our tax exempt status has to be kept separate from our political activity in order to protect that tax exempt status. So, 70% of it stays locally and that means it is controlled by our local associations and the State association. The 70% that is kept locally is basically divided in half. Half of it goes for candidate support and then the other half of the money deals with valid issues. Valid issues such as we contributed $50,000 to the committee that was behind T-ReX[Phonetic] to help publicize, because we felt it was going to be good for real estate, good for the southeast suburbs, if we had the train lines and we have improved highways going into southeast Metro Denver.

BrokerIPTV : That brings up an important point is, I think a lot of... unfortunately, a lot of our fellow practitioners, whether they are part time or maybe they don't think of our profession as such no different than doctors or lawyers or even truck drivers, they all have political action committee money to lobby Congress and the Senate to do things that are working on our behalf and how many you think of our practitioners actually contribute money to the Political Survival Fund?

Michael Marcus: Unfortunately, it is a very low number. Last year, it was only about 15% of the realtors in Colorado contributed; because it is voluntary, the other 85%, basically got a free ride. It is sort of like when there is election, there is going to be a government elected, whether you vote or not. The question is, do you want to have a hand in or a say in who makes up that government? Who gets elected and by choosing the individuals or the parties that best portray your philosophies. I saw a quote once from Abraham Lincoln that said, "When the legislature is in session, no man's life or property is safe." Well, I don't know...

BrokerIPTV : Is that truer now than ever.... More so....

Michael Marcus: Absolutely and I don't know anything that I can do to help make people's life safe, but I certainly know what we as realtors can do to make our property and our neighbor's and client's property safer and that is not only to get involved in general in the government affairs activity of our associations, whether it is on a committee that is screening the applicants or the candidates for office, whether it is on a committee that is looking at the various valid initiatives and trying to decide which ones we are going to fund and to what tune, to the most basic, which is contributing to the Political Survival Fund which everyone can do, if you don't have time or the inclination. I mean we have our colleagues, the entire time that the legislature is in session in downtown Denver, the State Legislature, on a daily basis. Some of our colleagues are there testifying on our behalf through our government affairs committee again funded through Political Survival Fund...

BrokerIPTV : Right. So, what type of donations are you usually looking for? You know the average donation...?

Michael Marcus: I do. What we are looking for...if we raised a million dollars this year, that would be in round numbers an average of $35 from every single licensee, but I like to think of it as an investment. The same way as you invest in a car and a laptop and a cell phone and everything else that you invest in to make your business successful. This is one of the more minor dollar sums that gives you tremendous bank for your buck, because when you are buying a laptop, the whole laptop is yours, you have got to pay for the whole thing, but with this, it is your contribution and my contribution and everybody else's contribution coming together and it is creating a fund and a voice that cannot be ignored.

BrokerIPTV : Well, I think you answered... I think there are a lot of people out there that weren't aware or not aware of the fact that our national, local dues really has any... nothing to do with tax issues, property rights issues, etc., and all we have to ask ourselves is how many commission dollars have you made because people sold their homes and kept all the capital gains, how many commission dollars have you made since you did X amount of 1031's?

Michael Marcus: How many of us have sold a home? I have not had to... personally not had to pay capital gains, but how many of us own investment real estate and have done a 1031 exchange, but even beyond that as you said our clients do that everyday and if those clients went away because those tax deductions dried up, it would make a big difference in our lives.

BrokerIPTV : Well, very interesting Michael. Thank you. I appreciate you coming in and talking.

Michael Marcus: Well, thank you for you support of the Political Survival Fund and it was a pleasure being here.

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