The following is a keynote address from Dr. John Hayes the CEO of HomeVestors at the beginning of the current event on Capitol Hill. The National REIA group as an organizing body, along with NARHRI and HomeVestors are sponoring the day on the hill as an awarness campaign for law makers to take notice of investors as a group. I am not normally political in nature, but this is very important, if I were not over the limit according to my boss (read wife) on travel so far this year I would be there, but I will definitely be there next year.

[B]Delivered Tuesday evening, April 28, at the training session for participants of National REIA's Day on the Hill. [/B]
Take a moment to look around you . . . take a good look . . . and what you see here tonight is history in the making.

Ladies and gentlemen . . . all of you professional, residential real estate investors . . . thanks to you and your efforts, and your commitment to attend National REIA's first-ever Day on the Hill, we are on the eve of what may be the most important moment in our history as professional home buyers . . . never before has the United States Congress heard from us collectively, but tomorrow, when we take the hill, our lawmakers will take notice that professional home buyers are the backbone of America's housing industry . . . because of us – and not because of REITs, or builders, or large apartment complex developers, or even our much appreciated colleagues who belong to the National Association of Realtors,

we are providing affordable housing for Americans,

we are catering to the first time home buyers by creating below-market housing values for them,

we are rehabilitating neighborhoods and communities by refurbishing run-down and often-times ugly houses making them inhabitable and safe and keeping them on the tax roles,

we are preventing foreclosures by buying many properties before they are foreclosed on and by helping financially challenged sellers market their properties,

we are providing jobs for America's contractors and landscapers as well as title agents and lawyers and mortgage lenders, not to mention the advertising community . . .

we are buying building materials, appliances and accessories . . .

we are buying not one property every 7 years as does the average home buyer, but sometimes just one of us buys 7 properties in a month—my network of franchisees alone has purchased 1500 houses already this year, will spend more than $20-million in advertising and more than $5-million at Home Depot alone!

. . . but unfortunately no one in or out of our government has any accurate accounting of what we as a community of real estate investors is accomplishing financially or otherwise . . .

But since the 1950s the IRS has recognized that real estate investors support one of our country's largest cottage industries, and it's time, ladies and gentlemen, that this cottage industry stands up for itself and gets recognized and begins to get the credit that it deserves for contributing countless millions of dollars to our local and national economies.

That's why this event, this Day on the Hill, is so critically important and it could not occur at a better time in our history . . . at a time when the nation's focus, all of the media, all of the politicians, including the presidential candidates, countless economists and financial strategists are focused on the housing crisis, the credit crunch, and what it all means to the future of our country's economy.

But before we get ahead of ourselves take another look around . . . where are all of the investors? While no one knows for sure how many real estate investors there are in America, we know there must be hundreds of thousands including those who own one or two rental properties or an apartment complex, and those who own hundreds of single family houses, and all the speculators, too, even though many would argue that the speculators are more to blame for the housing bubble than they are to be credited for doing good – but let's set controversy aside – where are all the investors?

If this is all we have to fight our fight -- this year, anyway -- then let us be smart about it and demonstrate to the U.S. Congress that while small in number, we are mighty in our representation—and by the way, our collective voice, our vote, has meaning to the people we are meeting tomorrow.

And who are we anyway? The National Association of Realtors says that we are responsible for buying one of every five homes purchased in 2007 – that's 21 percent. And while that's down from 28 percent in 2005, it's still roughly 1.4 million housing units – mostly aimed at the surging rental market – and I am proud that my network of 220+ franchised offices bought 6,400 of those properties last year.

And just to be sure the Congress understands that we are not the controversial speculators, or "flippers" – that's a hard word for me to say because we don't use the F word at HomeVestors, the F word has a negative connotation in America and the term is misunderstood by media and politicians who believe it's illegal, so I caution you to be careful how you use it, too. Many of the people you talk to on the hill, especially staff members, believe that flipping is an illegal and immoral activity.

. . . But there's nothing illegal or immoral about what the majority of us are doing . . . half of our ranks told the NAR that we plan to hold our properties for a minimum of three years and as long as 11 years—we are not quick buck investors. Only 10 percent of the investors NAR contacted said they planned to sell their properties in less than a year.

Nor are we fly-by-night, risky, thoughtless opportunists . . . the median income of investors in the NAR study was about $93,000 whereas the median income for all home buyers in 2007 was $71,700. We are a substantial group of professionals who has chosen real estate investing as our profession.

And we represent all age groups and nationalities . . . young investors, those under 35, accounted for nearly 40 percent of our sales in 2007 . . . African Americans accounted for 13 percent of investment purchasers, while only 8 percent of primary home buyers. Asians and Pacific Islanders accounted for 5 percent of all owner-occupant home buyers, but were double that – 10 percent – among investors.

While 59 percent of primary home buyers told the NAR that now is a good time to purchase real estate, 80 percent of us said it's a good time . . . we're optimistic about the future and 57 percent of us told NAR that we are very or somewhat likely to buy additional investment property in the coming 24 months, compared to just 44 percent of primary and vacation property buyers.

And one more distinguishing point about us for those who will continue to believe that we're merely out to make a quick buck off the backs of financially and sometimes emotionally challenged homeowners . . . the median price of an investor unit last year was merely $150,000, down from $183,500 . . . so for those who believe we're speculators, that we're churning properties for millions of dollars in profits, let's get the facts clear. We are hard working, professionally trained, honest, law-abiding citizens who will be largely responsible for the upswing that's going to occur eventually in our real estate markets across the USA . . . and we deserve the recognition -- and I dare say the thanks of our country -- beginning with our lawmakers.

Who benefits from our labors? Let's begin with America's laborers. They need affordable housing. In spite of 2.3 million homes that are vacant and for sale in the United States, the country still needs affordable housing, especially rental units for an increasing echo boomer population, those who are between the ages of 20 and 29, who rely on rentals

. . . and the millions of immigrants who lack the capital to purchase a home and who historically remain renters for 10 to 15 years before they can afford to buy a home . . . Where are these people going to live, especially if they want to live safely and affordably?

America's labor force is plagued by a lack of housing that is convenient to where they work, and once again, we, the professional real estate investors, are providing solutions to these challenges. Whether we own 1 rental unit or 1,000, we are part of the solution, so to those who oppose us, or to those who simply do not understand the good that we're accomplishing, I say: Stop standing in our way, stop over-reacting to the few who violate the laws that we uphold and support, and do not pass legislation that will make it impossible for us not only to provide more rental units and good, safe housing, but to help those who are plagued with housing problems.

It's easy for the country to get caught up these days in the housing hysteria – the media headlines are ominous, but let's keep things in perspective. At 5.1 percent, unemployment remains low today – even if it climbs to 6 percent it's nothing like the 25 percent unemployment of the Great Depression

. . . yes, we're losing jobs currently and that's contributing to the housing correction, but we also experienced a net increase of 25 million jobs in the last 15 years. We had 20 percent interest rates as recently as the 1970s, and today, Americans can get fixed rate mortgages at around 5.5 percent! And this we call a crisis?

Let's get our facts straight about mortgage defaults, too. The Mortgage Bankers Association's 2007 fourth quarter survey reported that foreclosures came to 2.04 percent of all mortgages – and indeed, many of them were owned by speculators seeking those pie-in-the-sky quick profits . . . but 98 percent of borrowers are not in foreclosure and only a small percentage of them are even late in making their payments.

In America, we thrive on crises and when we don't have one, we invent one – what would Nancy Grace and Greta do without crises? -- that's not to say that we aren't facing challenges in today's housing and credit markets, but again, let's not over react . . . it's up to us now – to this small group of investors -- to help our congressional representatives understand that they can rely on us, this representative group of investors, and countless more of us not present today, to help this economy grow again through real estate.

While no one can expect the average American home buyer who buys a home every 7 years to significantly impact the housing recovery, they CAN and SHOULD expect America's professional corps of real estate investors to get real estate moving again . . .

But we need some help. Don't tie our hands. Provide downpayment assistance programs for first time home buyers, come to the aid of worthy home buyers who are facing foreclosure, create paths that will allow responsible investors to continue to help solve our housing challenges by easing the credit crunch for us – we need access to capital to buy these properties. Last year, HomeVestors of America provided more than $150 million to our franchisees to buy properties and it's not enough – if we're going to buy more properties and preserve the values in our real estate, we need access to capital and we need the lawmakers and the credit community to hear us and respond favorably.

For Congress to get this message, we've got to do our part, not just tomorrow on the hill, but every day in our states and communities. We've got to set an example for all investors, we must be vigilant about cleaning up our industry, we should encourage people to belong to our professional organizations like National REIA and the National Association of Responsible Home Rebuilders and Investors, and local investor groups