Empower Yourself to Meet Your Clients' Needs
Dear SAR REALTOR®and Affiliate Members,
Back in June, we saw an abrupt increase in mortgage interest rates in response to financial market volatility that occurred as a result of higher than anticipated inflation numbers. This last week, we also saw an abrupt increase in mortgage interest rates, again thanks to financial market volatility after high inflation metrics and the Federal Reserve increasing the Fed Funds rate. To quote one of my lender friends, Conforming 30 year fixed mortgage rates took “a peak over the wall” at 7% and have since retreated back into the 6s again. I was a newer REALTOR the last time we saw these rates in 2006/2007.
September is REALTOR® Safety Month. A few months ago, I was doing a virtual showing via Facetime with one of my out-of-town buyer clients at a single family home. I opened the lockbox, entered the home and locked the door behind me, quickly looked around the house, and then called my clients to start the virtual showing. About 5 minutes in, someone started pounding on the front door. There was a very angry-sounding person outside demanding to come inside "because he left something in there". And the angry knocking and yelling continued. I did not open the door. And, because I had quickly done a tour of the house, I knew I could exit through the backdoor and through a gate to the alley. You can bet I got the heck out of there and drove away with the key with me. My clients witnessed the entire thing on Facetime and were terrified I would be harmed. And I was terrified I would be harmed! I called the seller and listing agent and apologized, and arranged to bring the key back later. And no, that angry knocker was not anyone known to the seller.
I am proud to let you all know that at our most recent SAR Board of Directors meeting in August, the board approved some significant modifications to the qualifying criteria to serve on the 
Can you believe the end of August is upon us? While we still have four months left in 2022, your association leadership is aiming for a strong finish to the year, is very much engaged in planning for 2023.
Local cities and counties in our region are implementing policies to shift from use of natural gas in residential homes to going ALL-ELECTRIC. "Electrification!" You have probably heard this word thrown around a lot lately -- but what does it really mean as it relates to our profession and our region? Well... it means A LOT. And I would strongly encourage you to attend the 
I am connected to many REALTOR® colleagues on various social media channels, and my feeds are full of real estate-related content. A really neat, FREE, and totally underutilized member benefit available from NAR is use of personalized social media content using the Photofy App.
Our upcoming main membership meeting on Tuesday, August 2nd at 9am is indeed the TRIPLE THREAT! This is one meeting you do not want to miss. First, as our new SAR CEO Jessica Coates starts this coming week our main meeting will be many of our members' first opportunity to say hello!