On March 11, 2009, President Obama signed into law the FY2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act that permanently prohibits banks from entering the real estate brokerage and management businesses. In doing so, he ended the NAR’s nearly eight-year battle to preserve the separation between banking and commerce. This is a huge victory for all REALTORS®, one that has taken almost a decade to achieve.
Specifically, this new law permanently bans large national banking conglomerates from entering the real estate business by preventing the Treasury and Federal Reserve, by rule, order, or any other way, from opening the door to such activities. We have been fighting the banks’ entry into real estate for eight years and thus, this is an enormous win for REALTORS® and consumers!
Below, find Frequently Asked Questions about the newly signed legislation barring banks from any real estate related activities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Don’t forget to register for the Broker Sumit by next Thursday, March 26th, to receive your early registration rate of only $119. The Broker Summit is being held April 22-23 at the Inn at St. Johns in Plymouth.
For $119 you will be entitled to:
•
Welcome Reception with Debra Asher: Arriving on Wednesday evening, join fellow brokers at the Welcome Reception and learn from Debra Asher about
A New Generation of Real Estate Professionals, enjoy hors d’oeuvres, drinks and productive conversations with the best in the industry.
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MAR Update: The MAR Public Policy update with Rob Campau will get you up to speed on the legislative initiatives that are affecting our industry today.
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Building Profitable and Sustainable Brokerages in the New Market: The session from well known real estate speaker Jeremy Conaway, will help you change your practices to adapt today’s market and improve your brokerage.
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Broker Legal Issues: With MAR Legal Counsels Greg McClelland & Gail Anderson, this session will give you the opportunity to get answers to your legal questions in a personal format.
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Best Practices Lunch: A networking lunch where MAR encourages brokers to share ideas and swap solutions for brokerages today.
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An afternoon of knowledge sessions: A variety of topics including recruitment & retention, social networking, learn more about your business, and return to the office with ideas to implement immediately.
Take advantage of this value today, and register at the Broker Summit
Web site. Come together with your colleagues, and discover real solutions for real challenges today.
Register Now!
A reminder to all MAR members to update your Adobe software to the latest version, for optimal PDF downloads. After Adobe discovered a bug in their software in early February, it is important to update your version of Adobe to better use the program, and efficiently download PDFS from the MAR Web site, in addition to other Web sites. Adobe recommends users of Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9 update to Adobe Reader 9.1 and Acrobat 9.1. Adobe is planning to make available updates for Adobe Reader 7 and 8, and Acrobat 7 and 8, by March 18.
When retrieving PDF documents from Mirealtors.com, it is recommended to right click the link, then “Save As” to your desktop, then open the PDF in the most recent version of Acrobat Reader.
To find software updates for Adobe Reader, visit the Adobe
Web site.
With the help of McClelland & Anderson, we are taking the most commonly asked questions from our legal hotline and putting them in e-news. We will be featuring a different question each issue.
QUESTION: There is a broker that belongs to our board who I find has a very abrasive personality. There are a number of fellow brokers that have the same complaint. We wish to join together and not do business with this broker because we feel his abrasive personality is very unprofessional and reflects poorly on the rest of us. Can we do this?
ANSWER: ABSOLUTELY NOT. When competitors agree not to do business with someone, it is called a “group boycott.” Group boycotts violate antitrust laws.
Although individual experiences vary, if you aren't already an active user of these tools, here are some reasons why it's important to at least be familiar with social media.
1- Consumers are social beings.A
recent report by ComScore shows that social sites are growing exponentially. At the end of 2008, Facebook was one of the top sites with 200 million unique visitors. All this activity is a sign of connections being made and information being exchanged on social media sites. While this might be just friendly everyday chatting, in the long run you are establishing a connection and building them at a comfort level that may help you to stand out from the crowd. Whether you are observing, friending or tweeting someone - are you part of the conversation?
2 - Your friends and competitors are on social media sites.Talk about a
sphere of influence...social media sites are a good way to cultivate your networking base by engaging friends and competitors. The way this works is that your social media connections have followers who are likely to "tune in" to what you are saying. Alternately, someone in your network may mention you in one of their social media posts. This expands your sphere of influence and increases the number of people who are paying attention to what you are saying or doing. Imagine, the next time you are helping a client relocate- you may know the REALTOR
® to contact because of a connection made via a social site. That's not to say that you may not already have established that relationship via other mediums, but social media is simply one more opportunity.
3 - The media may be looking for you.Yes, they too pay attention to what's being said through social media. Keith Garner, VP of NAR ITS, pointed out that this is an important point to consider as social media grows. More and more media outlets are looking to interview local experts with specialties in different fields. One way they go about finding such experts is by searching the web and looking at blogs, for example. Here’s how one real estate professional manages his relationship with the media; the
Phoenix Real Estate Guy's blog page includes a tab called "
press room."
As you can see, the tools we use to communicate are evolving. What works for you? Only you can decide where social media fits in your business plan. Most importantly, stay informed about what social media sites have to offer.
The Michigan Association of REALTORS® is making Aflac's accident and cancer insurance policies available for association members. Aflac offers a distinct type of protection. Unlike traditional health insurance, we pay you (unless otherwise assigned) not the doctor or hospital. You control the cash benefits and spend them as you like to help with financial challenges an accident or illness could have to your standard of living.
Over 40 million people worldwide have chosen Aflac because of our commitment to providing customers with the confidence that comes from knowing they have assistance in being prepared for whatever life may bring.
These insurance policies are offered to members of Michigan Association of REALTORS®.