$8,000Tax Credit news and Google Scraping…what a week it was

Jay and I just got back home after a busy week in Washington DC where we attended the annual REALTOR midyear conference. It was a jam packed week for me as I pulled double duty, not only did I attend because it is something that I have done for many years and find of tremendous value but also because I am President Elect of the New Hampshire Association of REALTORS.

The week was full of educational sessions, business meetings and hill visits, some of which I needed to attend to fulfill my duties as President Elect but also many sessions that I wanted to attend because doing so benefited my business and added to my knowledge base.

About 8,500 REALTORS from all over the country attended the conference and it was also a great opportunity for us to connect up with many of our  Blogger and Twitter friends from around the country.

The midyear meeting this year held the first  Real Estate Summit: Advancing the U.S. Economy, which was a special day long session and one of the real interesting things that happened during the summit was that Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, announced Federal Housing Administration is going to permit its lenders to allow homeowners (I’m assuming they mean home buyers) to use the $8,000 tax credit as a down payment. That really shook up the crowd of at least a few thousand REALTORS attending the summit meeting.  Using the tax credit as part of closing costs will make a huge  difference to many buyers and I was pretty excited to hear him say that!

You can read the official report/summery at REALTOR.org Updated…there may be some flip flopping going on about whether or not one can use the 8k as down payment.  Stay tuned as I am sure there will be some breaking news on it soon. Updated…Using the tax credit as down payment is now officially off the table.

One other event that really meant a lot to us personally involved a REALTOR/MLS IDX issue that we first heard about when Paula Henry a fellow real estate blogger wrote about her site being targeted because of a so called “google scraping” charge levied against her by her board of  REALTORS.   So,  Paula Henry and fellow Blogger Jay Thompson, flew in to address the MLS committee in DC regarding Google being considered a scraping site.

Paula  talked about the interpretation of the antiquated MLS rule impacting her life and business and Jay spoke passionately on behalf of all real estate bloggers everywhere and more importantly the impact that this rule will have on sellers and buyers! It looked like a viable compromise was reached with the full support of the MLS committee to be presented to the NAR board of directors for final vote on Saturday.   As real estate bloggers this is something that will effect us and our sellers so we were very happy with the outcome of the MLS meeting.

Because I am President Elect of the New Hampshire Association I also serve as an NAR director and my vote would count…or so I thought.

Ultimately a director  of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Board of Realtors (MIBOR) made a motion to table or send the changes back to the MLS Committee for further study. Once a motion is made “To Table” there is no further discussion on the issue. The vote was close but ultimately it was sent back. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the Blogosphere and what comes forward in November when The NAR Board of Directors meet again.

You can read more on the REALTOR.org Blog

Did I say it’s nice to be home?

It is nice to be home and if any of you are ready to take advantage of that $8,000 tax credit/down payment please  give me a call I’d love to help you find a home.

NAR…Will they be looking at your digital pictures?

Sometimes the best thing about the house is the picture…Is that not true?

At the National Association of REALTORS convention in Vegas I attended the professional standards forum and committee meeting where among other things we talked about digital enhancements to listing photos.

I am on my second 3 year term as a State Representative serving on the committee and as a blogger I’ve been particularly interested in all the proposed changes to Article 12.

In DC this past May we talked about Blogs and including them in the scope of Article 12.  I wasn’t too excited about the potential of NAR touching my blog.

All spring and summer members participated via e-mail…comments for and against making changes were carefully considered by the working group.

We didn’t know what the recommendations would be and eagerly awaited the working group’s findings. Read more

Don’t touch my blog!!!

I posted this article yesterday on Active Rain a social real estate blogging site. So far there are 89 comments on the post. My first post back in June on the topic had 129 comments on it. So you can tell Blogging or anything to do with curtailing it is a hot topic for many agents.I love blogging and I was very interested, when this past May blogging was brought up at my National Association of REALTORS Professional Standards committee meeting in DC. My ears perked up and I watched and listened closely wondering where this was going. I was relieved when the topic was referred back to sub-committee for further study. This Nov 14th my committee meets again in Vegas and I’m sure the sub committee report will be interesting.

My article as it appeared on Active Rain yesterday….

Read more

NAR Looking at Blogs

NAR looking at Blogs…what say you??

After a few mishaps getting to DC I’m happy that I can report that on Thursday May 17th I attended my NAR Professional Standards committee meeting.

I love being on this committee and am in the second year of my second 3 year term. After 4 years the newness has worn off but this year I was really looking forward to this meeting as I knew Blogs would be discussed.

The first part of the meeting is the Professional Standards Forum, the forum allows all REALTOR members to bring up their concerns about the code and the enforcement process as well as sharing of ideas.

As we entered the ballroom this funky looking tall guy in a white suit greeted people, congratulating them on being ethical and then poking fun at them! It was funny to see and I knew immediately who he was thanks to AR member Mariana Wagner who posted about how to be a slimy real estate agent, I think the majority of the attendees had no idea who Ted Truitt was. I could hardly contain myself as I watched their reactions!

We spent about an hour and half doing the open forum and then the committee meeting started.

First off…We passed a new Standard of Practice prohibiting members from misrepresenting their status as members or designees of NAR’s Institutes, Societies and Councils. This is a good thing in my opinion.

Then we tabled the Internet-related issues…blogs to name a few until November.  The sub committee will be be looking at Article 12 to see if we need a broader more encompassing ethical direction guiding all forms of communication. They will also be looking at

1. A clearer definition of communications

2. REALTOR making anonymous comments on other REALTORS Blogs

3. REALTORS responsibility for monitoring/editing their own Blogs

4. REALTORS responsibility for Blogs run by licensees affiliated with them

5. Disclosure of time lag (hours or days) in posting comments to Blogs. Must the fact that a Blog is not run in “live time” be disclosed?

6. Posting unfavorable/unflattering (but truthful) comments to Blogs

I can’t wait till November to see what the sub committee comes back with. It should be very interesting and being a blogger I have very mixed feelings about some of this.

One thing I learned while in DC is that there are many-many people who have no clue what blogging is and surprisingly people in important positions who do not see any merit in blogging and will not encourage their sales associates to blog!

What do you think? Should NAR dip it’s fingers inside our blogs? Do we need NAR policing blogs? I think it’s going to happen no matter what but am curious as to my fellow bloggers feelings about this.

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