$8,000Tax Credit news and Google Scraping…what a week it was
May 17, 2009 by Monika McGillicuddy
Filed under General R.E. Information
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.
Real Estate Summit in DC
May 13, 2009 by Monika McGillicuddy
Filed under Blog
Jay and I are attending the annual REALTOR mid year meetings in DC this week and one of the events that we participated in yesterday was a day long Real Estate Summit which was all about ” Advancing the U.S. Economy” .
The information exchanged was incredible. We heard from people like former Representative Harold Ford, Pat Buchanan, Dr. Robert Reich, Secretary of HUD Shaun Donovan and Alan Greenspan to name just a few.
The over all message was that we are entering into a recovery period but everyone was cautiously optimistic. Many talked about home pricing and reiterated the fact that it will be a good long time before we see any kind of major appreciation.
The market movement we’ve seen in Southern NH is also shared by many other states and while real estate has picked up 
the word at the summit was more changes need to happen, especially within the banking industry, short sales, tax credits and housing incentives were heavily discussed.
The information we received is worth reading and REALTOR magazine has published an excellent report which I have linked below.
