Your Membership, Your Way - July 2010

SAVING YOU TIME

June sales report in 2:56 minutes. That’s all the time you need to view C.A.R.’s “June Market Update” presented by C.A.R. Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. Find this video on the home page of car.org, where you can hyperlink to it, upload it to your Web site, or e-mail it to your clients.

If you prefer the printed word, find C.A.R.’s “June Sales and Price Report” at http://www.car.org/newsstand/newsreleases/junereport/. Here, you’ll find additional information, including charts and graphs, regional data, and the Unsold Inventory Index by price point, that are not available in the above video.

Learn Smartphone tips and tricks on the fly at Mobile Jolt! These two 60-minute sessions at CALFORNIA REALTOR® EXPO 2010 will serve up java and apps. Bring your phone; we’ll supply the caffeine. For only $10 per workshop, you can join us for hands-on instruction and an introduction to the latest and greatest apps for your Smartphone (http://expo.car.org/workshops.html).

Tweet and Friend HAFA: Join C.A.R’s Certified HAFA Specialist community on Facebook and Twitter to learn from and share insights with HAFA expert Ray Mathoda and other REALTORS®. Participation is free. Join the Facebook Fan Page (Certified HAFA Specialist [CHS] at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Certified-HAFA-Specialist-CHS/108110262571299?ref=sgm or follow on Twitter (CHS_HAFA Specialist at http://twitter.com/HAFASpecialist). Learn more about C.A.R.’s HAFA Certification program(http://www.hafacertification.com/).

SAVING YOU MONEY

Brand-new seminars and free admission? That’s right, this year’s lineup of speakers and seminars at the CALFORNIA REALTOR® EXPO 2010 has been revamped and will feature a heavy emphasis on mobile technologies and social media. Admission is free to C.A.R. members, but registration is required (some events are ticketed and require a separate admission). The complete schedule for this Oct. 6-7 event at the Anaheim Convention Center is available at http://expo.car.org/index.html.

Foreclosures at your fingertips. A new distressed properties iPhone app from ForeclosureRadar™ lets you preview upcoming REO properties and access the status of foreclosure properties from your iPhone. ForeclosureRadar™’s iPhone app is free to ForeclosureRadar™ subscribers and is available for download through the Apple iTunes store. A special C.A.R. member-pricing discount allows C.A.R. members who purchase a ForeclosureRadar™ subscription to receive a 10-percent discount on the subscription and an extended trial period of seven days. Visit www.foreclosureradar.com/car or use coupon code “RADAR99″ at www.foreclosureradar.com.

Create your own personalized iPhone real estate app with AgentNTouch™. This app is designed to keep you top of mind whenever your clients think of real estate. Use AgentNTouch™ as a marketing tool to attract new clients, or give it to your current clientele as a speedy way to stay connected to you and your expertise. Free how-to AgentNTouch™ webinars are available throughout August at http://www.agentntouch.com/pages/page_content.php?cpi=2.

Let’s talk commissions. Join C.A.R. Senior Counsel Stella Ling for a Live Legal Webinar on the topic of commissions August 2, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Be sure to pre-register for this free event and to prepare your questions. http://www.car.org/legal/legal-live-webinars/

Save up to $384 on unlimited individual calling plans and up to $619 annually on family calling plans (talk, text, Web) from T-Mobile, a member of C.A.R.’s Member Advantage Program. T-Mobile is just one of many vendors and service providers that offer discounted pricing to C.A.R. members. Learn more at http://www.car.org/memberadvantage.

SAVING YOUR SANITY

Where was that article on Gen Y? If you are looking for a past article in California Real Estate magazine, look no further than the online searchable archive (http://www.car.org/newsstand/crem/past-issues/), accessible from your computer or mobile device. Searchable by subject, each issue is presented in a flip-through format that allows articles to be printed, downloaded and sent as PDFs, or e-mailed as hyperlinks.

Stay in your lane or make a left turn from the right lane at CALFORNIA REALTOR® EXPO 2010. This year’s event has four tracks—sales; innovations and trends, risk management; and REOs, short sales, and foreclosures—designed to simplify your itinerary-planning and help keep you on point. Of course, you are free to change lanes and attend any professional education session presented during the two-day event held Oct. 5-7 at the Anaheim Convention Center; admission is free to C.A.R. members, but registration is required.

SAVING YOUR TRANSACTION

Lenders… Can’t live with them; can’t live without them. C.A.R. is conducting a confidential survey of your experiences with the four largest lenders handling distressed transactions. The results will be used by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® to discuss the ongoing challenges REALTORS® nationwide are facing. Please visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2010lendersurveywebpagelink to participate.

While you were out at a listing presentation, C.A.R.-sponsored AB 1762 (Hayashi) was signed into law. AB 1762 makes clear that “unbundled” fees on “fee for service” contracts do not trigger the advance fee requirements enacted by SB 94 (Calderon) in 2009, which prohibits “cash up front” loan modification contracts. The enactment of AB 1762 ensures that listing agreements won’t inadvertently be swept up by the prohibition or require additional approval by the DRE.

Good-bye HVCC? Since the Home Valuation Code of Conduct arrived, C.A.R. and NAR have advocated for its repeal. Tucked in the Dodd-Frank Bill (HR 4173) is a clause that, in effect, eliminates HVCC. These provisions will strengthen appraiser independence and enforcement, regulate the use of broker price opinions (“BPOs”), set standards for pricing of appraisals and appraiser valuation model products (“AVMs”), and subject appraisal management companies (“AMCs”) to federal and state oversight.

While you were working an open house, C.A.R. negotiated amendments to AB 1919 (Davis). Currently, AB 1919 proposes to impose a $10 transfer fee on every real estate transaction to pay for the preservation of survey “markers” (aka monuments). C.A.R. opposes AB 1919 because it imposes a transfer tax disguised as a “fee” on all grant deed recordings, and not just those where survey monument preservation is ongoing and necessary. Stay tuned.

Brokers Snared in a Catch 22? You discover you have an unethical sales agent, so you dismiss the agent. Then, you ask, “If I report this agent to the DRE, am I, the supervisory broker, responsible for his unethical behavior, and legally culpable?” The DRE’s Broker Supervision Taskforce, which includes several REALTOR® members, recently adopted a new policy that states that the broker-manager will not be routinely subject to audits for corrupt sales people. C.A.R. and its REALTOR® representatives will continue to provide their expertise and assistance to the DRE in its development of additional broker supervision policies.