President's message: What is next on the agenda?

Well that is it my loyal readers, this is the last of my articles as president of NH CIBOR. By this time next month I will have the title every president of non-profit yearns for... past president. And as we round Thanksgiving into Christmas and New Years I ask myself the question posed by the late John Lennon, "And so this is Christmas and what have you done?" So what has NH CIBOR and NECPE been doing and what is next on the agenda? NECPE has been busy. For those of you who are reading this, you probably already know that www.necpe.com is one of the largest commercial databases in New England with over 5,000 listings in Mass., N.H., ME and VT. But CPE this year has made a press to go beyond you, the commercial real estate professional. We want buyers and sellers to be aware. CEOs looking for space and CFOs looking to downsize. We want these people to be viewing the site to get more leads to our members. And we are getting there. Since this time last year the percentage of people finding CPE through Google and other search engines has grown over 3%. While this doesn't sound like much, we should also add in the fact that key words are becoming broader. Before people would find us looking for search terms like "New England Commercial Property," which is nice that they know who we are. But now because of enhanced search engine optimization, we are getting hits by key terms like "Commercial Property for Sale Portsmouth N.H." and "Commercial Real Estate N.H." This is huge for members looking to promote their listings outside the general brokerage arena. For next year, look for increased search engine optimization for terms like this as well as property specific searches like "123 Main Street for sale." Furthermore look for our member benefits to increase by increased links on local economic development pages such as current partners like Prosper N.H., City of Londonderry and the City of Manchester. More links like this will come and only members of CPE will have a chance to get their listings on these pages. This past year saw the legislative arm of NH CIBOR, NHAR and NAR busy as normal. In years past huge items were tackled in Concord such as the 1031 Exchange issue. As I drafted here earlier in the year, this year we took on such issues as eminent domain and alterations of terrain permits. With the looming "fiscal cliff" look for your dollars also to be spent to preserve the mortgage interest deduction in Washington. While this is a residential tax benefit, as we all know, if residential is stalled, that will push back on commercial in the future. Educationally CIBOR has been very busy in 2012. In addition to all of the great normal programming the education committee churns out on topics such as 1031 Exchange updates and commercial oriented CORE Courses, they also brought in a national speaker this year Rob Nahigian, who discussed the commercial real estate market from a macro perspective. Also, thanks to them and our communications committee we had NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun come to town and talk to us about what is going on nationally. Next year look for the trend to continue and also add in a mix of hands on webinar and in person training on the above mentioned NECPE so you can get more out of the site for you and your clients. Wine anyone? You may have noticed that the special events committee has cranked it up this year with a bounty of networking chances for our members and affiliates. You may have missed them all but from touring Pease Airbase to Seabrook Nuclear Station to the newly constructed LaBelle Winery; we had a great time at all. Look for more of these low cost high impact networking events for 2013. My time in 2012 has been brief, despite taking on a slightly longer Leap Year. Without the support of all of the committees mentioned above any many more committees and people, nothing would have been achieved. So as this is my last, you better save it, it may be worth it someday. I will be signing autographs for a modest fee.