Oklahoma REALTORS®
Oklahoma REALTORS® is proud to announce the recent promotion of Will Roberts as our Senior Director of Government Affairs! We sat down with Will to chat about the future of Oklahoma REALTORS® and his work in advocacy. Read the full Q&A below.
SHARE A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT EXPERIENCE AND WHAT LED YOU TO OKLAHOMA REALTORS®.
I’ve always been interested in politics and government and have a political science degree from Oklahoma State, but what really got me interested in and aware of how the government works was my time as a field representative for Congressman Tom Cole. Most citizens are not aware of the vast apparatus that is the federal government other than that it’s “big” and they also aren’t aware of how much the state government does. Whatever function you believe the government should serve, it will touch your life in some way as both an Oklahoman and an American. How we interact with our elected officials determines so much in both the public and private sectors, and how we feel about our nation and state is determined by their actions and our engagement with them, as well. It’s important to have the relationships to engage and interact with our elected officials in a way that gets our message through to them.
I was teaching school (U.S. Government) from roughly 2015-2021 and was interested in getting back into a role more suited to my previous jobs, and I had been introduced to Brenda Jones Barwick, who runs Jones PR in Oklahoma City (of which OAR is a client). So in speaking with Brenda about potentially doing something more public-facing, she recommended that I get in touch with leadership at OAR, and here I am.
WHAT MAKES YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT STEPPING INTO THIS NEW ROLE?
The 2025 legislative session will be my fourth year lobbying with OAR, and our team here has changed quite a bit over time. Obviously we had a great partner in [former Sr. Director of Government Affairs] Bryson Panas, and Jerrod Shouse is still a part of our team and so we will continue to work together. I love the legislative process and the relationships that you develop at the Capitol building, so to continue to work with our partners at the Capitol, our REALTOR® champions and other legislators, is very exciting to me. But more than all of that, we have a lot of opportunity as an association to shape the future of the industry and the new frontier of real estate. There are a lot of challenges in the housing market right now and obviously there have been some unexpected challenges on the national level, but in chaotic moments there is always opportunity to make changes that are beneficial and transformative in unexpected ways. The future of the industry and what it looks like is something that I’m excited to see happen and to help shape it for Oklahoma REALTORS®.
WHAT IS THERE TO LOOK FORWARD TO FOR GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR AND LEADING INTO NEXT YEAR?
As I mentioned before, we have the challenges that exist on a national level, so one of the big concerns for us moving forward will be to continue to work on the buyer-broker agreement and ensure that it is protecting both the buyer and the REALTOR® in the transaction. Those changes shouldn’t be enormous in terms of the practice of real estate, but it will further codify and clarify the roles and responsibilities of the parties involved on the buy side of a transaction.
On another note, we have been working on legislation to help to make homeowners’ associations more transparent and responsive in their dealings with homeowners, particularly people who have just purchased a home and need to be given the documents which will govern their property and what they are able to do with it. Homeowners associations play a critical role in how neighbors contract with one another and our focus will be on ensuring that the people responsible for the administration of an HOA are accountable to the people who live under their authority. As with any symbiotic relationship, it is a give and take, and the benefits of a homeowners association shouldn’t be outweighed by the detriments of unresponsive managers.
Finally, we have interfaced with several members of the legislature and the executive branch, and we are working toward language that will help with infrastructure in the state of Oklahoma. Infrastructure that is updated and provides the right services to people is absolutely critical to ensuring that Oklahoma remains vibrant, especially our communities beyond the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metropolitan areas. While the legislature has made huge strides to make targeted investments in Oklahoma infrastructure over the past couple of years, there is more that can be done to shore up those communities which have immediate challenges that can’t wait for legislative appropriations. A fund and concurrent commission that receives information from communities and targets the immediate challenges within these communities would go a long way to assist in projects that are waiting to be addressed by the legislature.
WHY ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT THE WORK YOU DO?
I remember being in college at Oklahoma State and being exposed to different people across the state more than I had ever been before; then working for Congressman Cole and having even more intense exposure in the southwest part of the 4th district. If you’ve been in this business for longer than a couple of years, you develop a passion for the whole state and the people in it. REALTORS® are obviously engaged in every community in Oklahoma and are also wholly committed to improving their communities and the state at large. I think we’re unique in Oklahoma in that we are all aware of the challenges that face the entire state, and we’re all leaning in to make the state as good as it can possibly be. There are certainly disagreements as to how to do that, but you can’t deny the people of Oklahoma’s passion for their state and how to make it better. You can see the transformations in Oklahoma City and Tulsa and the investments in our colleges and universities and be inspired by how much the state has grown and what it’s gone through. That’s the endearing part of being involved at the State Capitol building–politics is certainly interesting and entertaining, but the work that gets done when the politics is over is what makes our state better. To be a part of that is a great benefit of this job.
HOW DO YOU SPEND YOUR FREE TIME?
I play a lot of golf, and I try to spend as much time with my family as I can. Lately, I’ve been traveling a lot, and experiencing different cities and areas of the country is something that I’ve been able to do more and more. Similar to what I said earlier about meeting different people in Oklahoma, I think it’s beneficial from a political and from a personal standpoint to meet other people around the country and hear their concerns and the ways in which they live and realize that despite the rhetoric that is thrown around the country in 2024, we don’t live dissimilar lives. So engaging with people and trying to understand where they’re coming from is a passion of mine when I’m outside the state, and I think it helps me in my job back here, as well.
WHO DO YOU LOOK UP TO AND WHY?
My parents are people of great integrity and have always stressed that as a key to life, if not the key. Anyone that I think has that sense of honor and truth in their lives is someone that I think we should all look up to. We’ll all have disagreements about things, but if we’re approaching life in an honest and truthful way we can come to an understanding; I hope that’s how I approach my job every day in how I interact with our membership and with our partners at the state Capitol.
