November 01, 2025

Bill Evans is a 30-year member who has served in leadership roles with the Austin Board of REALTORS®, Texas REALTORS®, and NAR. He wasn’t involved in TREPAC for the first decade of his career, and today, he’s RPAC’s top all-time investor. Here’s how that changed and why he says 100% agreement with every supported candidate isn’t required to invest in the PAC and your profession.

We can make a difference

When I decided to become more active in my local association, I heard my colleagues expressing frustration with governmental affairs. I sat in on some meetings to see how I could make this better. Getting involved in TREPAC was a piece of that. Once you start, it’s hard not to stay involved.

Perfect agreement isn’t required

Some of our members criticize the elected officials TREPAC endorses. To that I ask, how long have you been married? Do you agree with everything your spouse does? Probably not. But you’re still committed to the relationship, right?

You aren’t going to agree with everything that our endorsed legislators say or do. I, too, disagree with some of their positions. But TREPAC has a very narrow focus on supporting property rights, REALTOR® interests, our profession, and our association. That’s what makes us strong.

The important part? Start!

Broad participation is just as critical as the total amount raised each year. If you’ve never invested, I suggest you sit in on one of your local association’s TREPAC committee meetings. That will help you to better understand TREPAC and why participating is so important.

You can start at any level. Remember, every member now in the RPAC Hall of Fame had invested zero dollars at one point. There are lots of ways to invest, too: auctions, local, state, and national events—all kinds of ways to participate.

We want to be the source

I saw how important it was for my local association and Texas REALTORS® to be the go-to source for information when our elected officials have questions about real estate. They call us—ask for our advice and counsel. Legislators want to know how their positions affect constituents. During the early days of COVID, real estate was included as an essential service because of the relationships we had formed through TREPAC.

We’re strengthening the REALTOR® voice

We’re successful as a PAC because of our grassroots participation and culture here in Texas. We have strong volunteers. Nationwide, REALTORS® are effective because every elected official has involved REALTORS® living in their district. They know we’re knowledgeable about issues, and that we vote.

We’re helping clients without them realizing

Clients don’t recognize that REALTORS® are watching out for them and their interests as property owners. We work hard behind the scenes to support legislation that helps them and defeat legislation that could harm them. We need to tell clients that story.

We’re helping ourselves, too

We’ve helped lower property taxes, reduce business taxes, cut red tape, and so many other big wins. I’d hate to think what our business lives would be like without our PAC and grassroots involvement.