MARKETS & TRENDS
POLITICS
WHY REAL ESTATE IS AT RISK UNDER PROPOSED LEGISLATION Political Advocacy in the REI Industry
by Sherman Ragland
ly if you are a landlord) that “ox” is you and your business. History has shown that entire industries can and are destroyed by the simple stroke of a pen when new laws go into effect. While some groups attempt to fight these laws in court after the fact, it’s far better to “derail” or at least have input into these laws while they are proposed and not after.
Real estate has often been described as a “bundle of legal
very year in every state capital and every day in Washington,
E
rights,” which is why no industry is more at risk to the whims of politi- cians and their new laws than real estate. We’ve seen this play out just recently when politicians in Wash- ington, D.C. attempted to put forth provisions in a new Federal law that would decimate the self-directed IRA
D.C. and your local town, politi- cians get together to pass laws. The simple truth is that most Americans blissfully go about their day with no knowledge that elected officials meeting behind closed doors are in the process of “goring someone else’s ox” and oftentimes (especial-
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