Realtors list new

group name

More than 150 local real estate professionals gathered at the Broyhill Inn in Boone on June 17 for a general membership meeting of the group currently known as the Avery-Watauga Association of Realtors.

Changing their name to High Country Association of Realtors was the main item on their agenda and it was approved.

“The new name better reflects who we are and helps communicate what we do,” said Chris Coley, president of the association.

“Our new tagline, ‘All real estate is local, and so are we,’ sums it up.”

According to Coley, both the state and national associations of Realtors will need to approve the name before it becomes official.

During the business meeting, Carole Cox, president-elect, recognized two of the four 2008 scholarship recipients.

They included Watauga winners Aleena Boone of Sugar Grove and Johnny Page of Zionville. Avery recipients Noah Edwards and Kimberly Gragg were unable to attend.

Each received a $500 college scholarship based on the essay topic “The difference between a house and a home.”

“As good neighbors to the communities we serve, we as an association of Realtors give back through scholarships,” Cox said.

“It’s one of the special things we do.”

Through a karaoke fundraiser that followed the meeting, the group raised $1,655 for Realtors Political Action Committee, a part of the National Association of Realtors.

In North Carolina, these funds have helped defeat the land transfer tax, home tax, in all of the counties where the proposed tax was on the ballot.

The local organization is composed of more than 700 members in Watauga, Avery and the surrounding counties who maintain a marketplace where buyers and sellers can safely transfer property under the guidance of a professional held to standards of excellence.

For more information, visit www.awaronline.org.