C21 Broker Christine Hansen on NAR moving forward

On today’s episode of RealTrending, we are joined by Christine Hansen, the broker-owner of Century 21 Hansen Realty, which has been serving the South Florida area for over 38 years. She is also the 2025 first vice president of the National Association of Realtors.

Today’s episode discussion focuses on what we can gain from not only our successes but also from our failures. Christine talks about the hardships and bankruptcy that she went through during the Great Recession, and what those experiences taught her about running her brokerage today. They also talk about the upcoming goals for NAR and its leadership team for the next year and the opportunities she sees for Realtors in this market.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• The goals of the 2025 leadership team are to keep NAR at the forefront of advocacy efforts.
• Realtors should showcase their value by communicating the challenges they overcome on behalf of buyers and sellers.
• Self-care, positive mindset, and gratitude are essential for overcoming challenges and living a fulfilling life.
• The future of real estate is in repurposing commercial spaces, and working towards affordability in home ownership.

Here’s a small preview of today’s interview. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

Tracey Velt: Can you share your story about going through The Great Recession? I think that there’s a lot to learn, and I think there are people going through that right now. So talk to me a little bit about what you went through and how you came out of it.

Christine Hansen: When the market crashed, I had never gone through failure. I’m like, I’m going to figure this out. I’m going to be able to get through this. When it got to the time where it was just too big of a monster, I had to accept the fact that I did have to file for bankruptcy.

I was holding on trying to manage paying these attorneys and trying to fight all the stuff that they were accusing me of because it was everything they accused me of was absolutely incorrect. They just kept trying to dig that I have hidden money somewhere. I was doing something wrong. And it finally got to the point where we went to a mediator who was a judge and the judge looked at me and he said, “Do you trust me?” And I said, “I don’t know who to trust anymore.” And he goes, “Well, I want you to resign and sign away every part of your company.”

And I sat there in this mediation courtroom and I signed away everything that I had been holding on to so tight. And that was when the victory came because the roof didn’t cave in. I was breathing. I was still me. I still had my experiences, my talent, my respect for my franchise, my friends. And all of a sudden I was empowered not to be afraid of external things anymore.

The RealTrending podcast features the brightest minds in real estate. Every week, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts share their success secrets, trends, and lessons learned navigating this ever-changing industry. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by Elissa Branch.