NAR President Steve Brown, accompanied by association staff, REALTORS®, and Christine Todd, RCE, CEO of the Northern Virginia Association of REALTORS®, spoke at the Peruvian real estate conference and expo in Lima in June.

The Northern Virginia Association is the National Association of REALTORS®’ ambassador association to Peru. Todd has visited Peru before and hosts delegations of Peruvian real estate professionals every year at NAR conferences.

“I arrange for them to visit our offices and several real estate offices,” says Todd. “I am always struck by how generous our REALTORS® are with their time, and the Peruvians are always eager to see how our MLS and lockbox system work.”

The Northern Virginia-Peru partnership started in 2007 when NVAR President Luis Lama, a native of Peru, asked Todd if she could help him gather educational material for the newly formed real estate association in Peru. “The leadership of ASPAI specifically asked for classes on how we market, sell, finance, and appraise real estate in the United States,” says Todd. “They wanted a code of ethics and to create an association that was respected by the media and governing bodies.”

NVAR’s current president, Mario Rubio, serves as the NAR liaison to Peru and, with financial assistance from NAR, travels to Peru at least once a year to attend meetings and offer guidance to the ASPAI leadership.

Before the ASPAI conference in Lima, Rubio and Todd visited the organization’s offices. “President Maria-Teresa Secco, who teaches the code of ethics to new members, gleamed with pride as she showed us their office and classroom,” says Todd.

Most gratifying to Todd is the progress she’s seen over the years as ASPAI has matured, she says. “Today I can say that along with their MLS, ASPAI truly is the ‘Voice for Real Estate®’ in Peru.”

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