Marking PAR’s 100th Anniversary: Past President Greg Herb

Editor’s note: The Pennsylvania Association of Realtors® is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. As part of our Member Profile feature, we’ll be highlighting some of the Realtors® who have served as president of the organization.

Name: Greg Herb
Company: Herb Real Estate, Gilbertsville
Years in real estate: 40 years
Local association: Montgomery County Association of Realtors®
Year served: 2009 president

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give your younger self?
One of the more valuable things I did before serving at the local and state level was to talk to the associations’ past leaders. I gained a lot of insight from their experiences and most importantly, their knowledge. I asked simple things like, “What you would do differently?” and “What advice would they give me?”.  Certainly, you want to bring your own personality and leadership skills, but the knowledge gained from experience is priceless. I think I would do a broader outreach to gain a better understanding of the expectations of our members.

Why should agents get involved in their local, state and national associations?
I think it is vitally critical to be involved at your local, state and national levels. Volunteerism is one of the greatest rewards and most satisfying when you accomplish goals and help others. But moreover, you are giving back to an industry that has treated you well. You also have the opportunity to put your fingerprint on our industry and help shape the association and accomplish things that are good for not only members, but also for the consumers we represent.

What advice would you give someone who was thinking of moving up through the offices in PAR?
I would encourage them to be involved at the local association, to understand how their local association works, and then start volunteering on committees, task forces and other groups at the state level. Ask a lot of questions, do a lot of observing and listening. Then, if they believe the time is right for them, I would certainly encourage them to consider serving the state association and perhaps eventually as an officer. There is nothing more rewarding than volunteering and serving as a leader in the association.

What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in the real estate market since you started?
The biggest change I’ve seen in the real estate market – and that’s going back 40 years at this point – is technology. Technology has changed, shaped and formed our industry as we know with today. And the third-party aggregators have played a big role in why, how and what we do with our business today.

Do you think the environment or technology will have a bigger impact on real estate in the next 100 years?
I think at the end of day technology is going to rule the day. While the environment will continue to play a huge role and perhaps to a greater extent towards the end of the 100 years, technology is transforming how we do business today. And here’s the good news, no matter how sophisticated we get with that technology, the really unique position we have in our industry is that real estate is still a personal, one-on-one business with the consumer. Embrace a technology, embrace changes with the environment and move forward. It is still the person-to-person contact, our local knowledge and experience that really differentiates us and what we do to help our consumers.