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The issue of private-property rights has always been an important focus for the Winston-Salem Regional Association of Realtors.

"It really is to protect the rights of people to sell property as well as their rights to buy property or to lease property," said Glenn Cobb, the trade association's governmental-affairs director.

Yesterday, U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, was the guest speaker during a monthly breakfast meeting of the association's Realtors Commercial Alliance division at The Hawthorne Inn.

Foxx said that the most important thing for the federal government to do is to provide for the nation's defense and provide for its families.

"That is where our emphasis ought to be, and we ought to stay basically out of people's way," she said speaking before a group of about 55 that included commercial real-estate brokers and elected officials.

Foxx said that maintaining property rights is integral to everything that people do in this country.

She advised real-estate agents to get informed and involved at the local level because local government typically has a lot of authority over zoning and other issues related to property.

She advised them to be proactive in protecting property rights rather than being put in a position of being reactive after things are set in stone.

"So my suggestions to you all is that you go to those planning-board meetings, that you go to those county-commissioners meetings and city-council meetings," she said. "Stay on top of the things that are going on and have your input into what's happening."

Jo Caubre, the executive vice president of the Realtors association, said after the meeting that private-property rights are important to the association because there are elected officials who want impact fees and transfer taxes that affect the price of property.

"So it's very important that elected officials are aware of the issues that can affect homeownership," Caubre said.

Cobb, who also works for the Winston-Salem Home Builders Association, said that the goal is to make sure that policymakers, primarily in the Forsyth County area, know where the Realtors and home-builders associations stand on different policy issues.

Steve Fowler, a real-estate agent for Freeman Commercial Real Estate, said that Foxx hit home on the message of private-property rights.

"It's important that we continue the growth of expanding homeownership wherever possible," Fowler said.

He said he is concerned about zoning regulations. He wants to be sure there is fairness in terms of allowing people to do things with their property in ways that do not adversely affect their neighbors, and that neighbors don't adversely affect what the actual owners of property want to do with their land.

Ray Collins, the president of Collins Commercial Properties Inc., said that there is a high priority on "quality growth" in the local community.

"That's good and bad," Collins said. "It's a double-edged sword. Obviously we all want growth that's of a high quality in nature, that's good for the community and will stand the test of time. However, we need to be extremely careful that the pendulum doesn't swing too far in that direction and we become to restrictive to commercial growth."

He said that it's very difficult to get anything done in the local commercial arena.

"We need that commercial growth to balance out, and it needs to be a good balance of office, industrial and retail," he said.

• Fran Daniel can be reached at 727-7366 or at fdaniel@wsjournal.com