OROVILLE – Local realtor Rocky DeVon, was named ‘Realtor of the Quarter” for the third quarter of 2015 by the North Central Washington Association of Realtors.
DeVon, of RE/MAX Lake and Country of Oroville, was also nominated for the Realtor Achievement Award and for Realtor of the Year, by the regional association.
“I didn’t even know that I had been nominated for anything,” said DeVon, who will be on an upcoming cover of RE, an industry magazine.
“Mainly they said that I won the award for working on helping the fire victims in North Central Washington for the last two years. I was sent to DC to report to the National Association in ay of 2015 on the Realtor’s Disaster Relief Fund.
“It was quite an honor, I was quite surprised,” he said.
That fund, which was supported through grants from the state and national realtor’s association, helped fire victims pay at least one month of their mortgage. DeVon a director for NCWAR, serves as the Okanogan Liaison. He is also a state director for the Washington Realtors Association. The national and state groups each gave $75,000 to the cause for the Okanogan Complex fire that ravaged the county for 43 days and became the largest in state history, surpassing the previous year’s fires which had also set a state record.
The realtor thought the money might not come through because it was requested so late in the year, but the associations felt it was a worthy cause. He said the regional association had originally asked the national group for $50,000, but national upped it to $75,000 and the state group matched it. He felt his and other members meeting with Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rogers and all the other U.S. legislators from the area was a big help in getting the national association on board with the Disaster Relief Fund.
“Our people are independent and they don’t ask for help easily, it took awhile for some people to realize they really needed some help,” he said.
DeVon has already done the interview for the magazine, but they will be sending out a professional photographer to take his photo for the cover.
About getting the cover, which most recently featured a man wearing a business suit, he said, “I’m just a worker bee, I just feel I’m out there doing what I’m doing. I’m not a suit guy, they’re probably going to get the real me.”
