REALTOR® WEEKLY UPDATE
Weekly Update on PGPCNPREALTORS.com
July 16th, 2009
To view this newsletter online, please click HERE.
Breaking News!
Contract Class – Monday July 20th, 9am – 12pm. Do you know what each paragraph in a sales contract means? "Your knowledge of the contract protects the buyers, the sellers and you," says Nancy J. Riley, a Realtor for more than 30 years, 2007 FAR president and a member of the state's Taxation & Budget Reform Commission. She says “If you're not clear about a contract, talk with your broker or take classes through your local association”. Do not miss this FREE educational opportunity, taught by our very own Bill Perrault. RSVP to david-logan@comcast.net to reserve your seat today!
FREE Hands-On MLS Training! Courses include “Design Web Page & Capture Leads”, “iMapp: interactive tax and mailing labels”, “Tools: MongoFax, RatePlug, ShowingTime and MLX Wireless”, “Creating a Professional CMA”, and “MLXChange Advanced” and more. Classes are HANDS ON with laptops provided. Click HERE for class schedule, additional details and to reserve a seat, space is limited!
Calling all Golfers –Save the Date September 12th, Kingsway Country club. The Association’s 3rd Annual Golf Tournament to support our High School Scholarship Program. This is a great opportunity to hit the links for a good cause and enjoy a day on one of Southwest Florida’s most beautiful courses. We are looking for teams to play and Business Partners to sponsor, please email David-Logan@comcast.net for more details.
Upcoming Events – Mark your calendar for two following events:
General Membership Meeting – July 24th 12pm. FREE LUNCH. Email l.pizarro@comcast.net to reserve your space today!
Happy Hour Social – July 28th 5:30pm, FREE FOOD, PRIZES, LOTS OF FUN click HERE for details. Email David-Logan@comcast.net if you would like to attend.
FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK!!
Karen Rolland, President
My Fellow REALTORS®/Members,
July 12th-17th, Florida Association of REALTORS (FAR) is kicking off the "Welcome Home Week" promotion introducing many tools to help us in this market. For more information about "Welcome Home Week," the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit, the Florida Homebuyer Opportunity Program and other homebuyer resources, go to the Homebuyer Center on FAR's website at www.floridarealtors.org . There are media tools, pdf files, and radio spots available there to help you get the word out about these programs. Time is running out because all transactions must be closed by November 30, 2009 to receive the credit for this year.
Also being kicked off this week is the new foreclosure study and website. To date, there are literally hundreds of sites that have information about foreclosures, but the initiative being undertaken by FAR will look at foreclosures from all angles, including the human side. They have a new website www.FloridaFaceofForeclosure.com where the public can actually input the experiences they or someone they know have had with foreclosure and how it has affected them. The intent is to look at the statistics, the demographics, and the human side of the foreclosure crisis. FAR’s goal is to become the prime resource on foreclosure data and information focusing on the consumer. The ultimate goal is to be able to monitor the statistics and different areas and to try to prevent foreclosures in the future through working with the legislators. We truly have the benefit of being part of one of the most progressive state associations in the country and I really hope you have taken the time to take advantage of all of the benefits offered through www.floridarealtors.org.
Next week Friday is the General Membership meeting. Please plan to attend as Jennifer Thompson-Kersting will be with us from MFR to review the recent changes on MLX relating to the Transaction Desk interface. I participated in the Webinar that was offered last week by MFR and I encourage you to attend one soon. It will truly save you a lot of time keying in redundant data and ensuring accuracy! Also being discussed at the meeting are the various reports you can access from the MLX and an explanation of how they can work for you and your business. We will providing you with an update on the Welcome Home Week (mentioned above) and introduce you to the various free materials being offered by FAR as part of your membership. Now is the time to be doing 1st Time Homebuyer Seminars to take advantage of the federal tax credit and the Florida bridge loan offer. If you aren’t familiar with it yet, you may want to read up on it and be sure to attend the meeting. Do you know what a “Call to Action” is? We will also be covering that. We won’t be having another meeting until September so I do hope you plan to attend. If you have not RSVP’d yet, email l.pizarro@comcast.net today!
Have a great week and try to stay cool…not only the temp but also the temper; or, as my vet says “Wag More and Bark Less”!
Education Corner
Looking to Improve your Public Speaking or Leadership Skills? - Come join us for our next meeting of Toastmasters International on Wednesday from 7:30am – 8:45am, there is no cost to attend the meeting and you are not obligated to join, come see what this is all about. The club is open to REALTORS® and Non-REALTORS®, so invite your friends, neighbors, or co-workers. You will have the opportunity to see what a meeting is like and discover how Toastmasters can help improve your communication and leadership skills and network with other professionals. Remember, good communication skills are the keys to success in business and real estate! For more details or to RSVP for the meeting, please email David-Logan@comcast.net you can read more about Toastmasters on the web at www.toastmasters.org
All courses below are FREE to Education Passport members! Non- Passport Members – see details for cost.
July 20th – Contract Class 9am-12pm FREE Click HERE for details.
July 23rd – BlackBerry/Smart Phone Seminar 10am-11am FREE Presented by Verizon Wireless Zone. Click HERE for details.
Aug 26th/27th – 14 Hour Series need your Core Law or 14 hours for license renewal? Click HERE for details.
Sept 3rd – How to Run a Consumer Friendly Website 1pm-4pm 3 Hours CE Credit. Click HERE for details.
Sept 17th – Red Flags on the Waterfront 9am-11am w/Attorney & Waterfront Expert David Levin-FREE. Click HERE for details.
Where in the World Is…..
The following agents can now be found at…
Jessica Coleman – Allison James Estates and Homes
Penny Swift – Home Choice Real Estate
Sara Ferris – O’Connor Realty
Market Watch
Home Appraisal Rules Stir Industry Backlash - Less than three months after new rules for home appraisers kicked in, the real estate industry is in an uproar. Realtors, homebuilders, mortgage brokers and the appraisal industry itself all agree the rules are causing problems. Some are backing a bill in Congress to kill them. The new guidelines essentially put a firewall between lenders and home appraisers. They also ended the practice of lenders using their in-house staff for initial home appraisals and prohibit the use of appraisal-management companies owned or controlled by lenders. But since they went into effect May 1, the rules have created a slew of unintended consequences that critics say are causing delays in closing sales, or undermining sales because botched appraisals are coming in too low.” For the full story, click HERE.
Appeals Court Upholds “Save our Homes” - A Florida appellate court on Wednesday upheld the state’s “Save Our Homes” property tax provision in the constitution. “Save Our Homes” (SOH) protects full-time Florida homeowners from dramatic increases in property values. SOH, passed in 1992, capped property tax assessment increases on Florida homesteads but not on property owned by seasonal residents. The intent was to protect senior citizens on fixed incomes whose tax bills would have potentially skyrocketed with upswings in property values. Property values in Florida are going the other way now, but when voters put the amendment in the Constitution nearly two decades ago, values were skyrocketing, threatening homeowners with massive increases in their tax assessments. Click HERE for more details.
Group Urges Congress to Pass Catastrophe Insurance Bill - A group is urging Congress to enact a federal homeowners’ insurance program for natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires before the next one strikes, saying such events pose a serious threat to the economy.“It’s not if” there will be another catastrophe, said former FEMA director James Lee Witt, a co-chair of ProtectingAmerica.org, “it’s when.” The nonprofit coalition, which includes insurance companies, emergency responders and disaster experts, released its report Thursday at the National Press Club. For more information, click HERE.
Not all clients are worth a Realtor’s time - Real estate professionals should have a list of criteria a prospect must meet in order to become a client, taking into consideration the amount of time and effort that must be spent on each transaction. To avoid wasting time and energy, agents should gauge the buyer or seller’s motivation by determining when they plan to move; and they should find out whether they have the financial resources to close the deal by requiring buyers to provide a pre-approval letter from a lender or to meet with the agent’s lender. Agents should gauge whether the prospect has reasonable expectations, respects their time and expertise, tells the truth, and does not pose a moral or ethical compromise. Finally, agents must determine whether the prospect could become a satisfied client and whether the commission to be earned is appropriate for the time and energy they must commit to the transaction. Source: Realty Times (07/10/09) Zeller, Dirk © Copyright 2009 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688
MLS TIP OF THE WEEK
Searching the Map – MFR has been sending out notices for quite a while that they would be removing the MAP GRID FIELD, which was done as of July 7th. The notice dated June 27th stated:
“The Grid field has always been a required field when entering listings; however, when searching by grid coordinates, inconsistencies are frequently found due to the lack of a single gridding system used by all boards and associations. If you have saved searches where the Grid field is part of the search, the search will need to be redefined using another field for the location of the properties. If a search is not updated with a new location parameter (map area, zip code, subdivision, etc.) the search will generate a large number of results and will no longer be accurate for your customers. This will affect both prospecting as well as normal searches. MFR suggests using the map to outline the area(s) desired as you update your saved search and to create new searches in the future. If you run into any issues please do not hesitate to contact our top-notch helpdesk and we will walk through the process together! Thank you for your flexibility as we continue to improve the usability of our system.”
Please note that there are multiple map search functions still available in MLXChange, most of which are more accurate than the GRID FIELD. One way is to search by P-Area. These are pre-defined neighborhoods which our Association has programmed into your MLXChange. Areas such as “Deep Creek”, “Burnt Store”, “Punta Gorda Isles”, “Seminole Lakes”, and many more have been set up for easy search. To see detailed instructions as to how to perform a P-Area Search, click HERE(this information was previously in our Newsletter back in January)
The other option is to simply click on the SEARCH TAB and then click on the MAP TAB. From here you can manually draw the map area that you would like to search using a variety of mapping tools and shapes.
Please remember that the MLS is only as good as the quality and accuracy of the information that YOU provide. It is imperative that your listings are mapped correctly, if you are not sure how to map them or would like a refresher, please click HERE.
Real Estate Trivia
This Week’s Question
Question: Merriam-Webster has just released the 2009 update to its Collegiate Dictionary 11th Edition, with more than 100 new words. Are you up-to-date on modern vernacular? Do you correctly use terms such as “Carbon Footprint”, “Flash Mob”, “Frenemy”, “Green-Collar”, “Locavore”, “Staycation”, “Vlog”, or “Webisode”?
Answers: If you want to add these and other modern terms to your lexicon, then click HERE for the words and their meanings.
Last Week’s Question
Question: How well do you remember your manners? “There are those who say manners have gone the way of luxury trains and white gloves. But proper business etiquette can make you stand out like a pair of patent leather shoes in a row of sneakers. Take our courtesy quiz, adapted from the etiquette lessons in Letitia Baldrige's New Complete Guide to Executive Manners to see whether you're refined or rude.”
1. This is a proper introduction between your clients and broker: "Bill and Beverly, this is my broker." True or False?
2. When is shaking hands inappropriate?
a. When you run into someone you know.
b. When you say good-bye to the same person.
c. When you greet someone with an arthritic hand or a prosthesis.
d. When the other person is eating an hors d'oeuvre and holding a drink.
3. If you see someone you've met before but can't remember the name, you should
a. Move to the other side of the room or cross the street.
b. Say, for example, "I remember meeting you at that chamber of commerce function last month. I'm Julie Johnson."
c. Pretend you never met the person if approached.
d. Look busy by talking on your cellular phone.
4. You forget an appointment with a prospect. You should
a. Telephone your apology.
b. Send a note of apology.
c. Send flowers or other gift, such as fruit, wine, or candy.
d. All the above.
5.You're dining at your broker's house. The only course you need to wait for your host to begin is the main one.True or False?
Answers: Click HEREto see the answers.