February 2, 2007

 

Check out our full Education schedule through April, available online.

We have seats available next Thursday for the required 3 CE in Ethics training.

To register for any of our classes online, click on the "Education Events!" icon when reading our newsletter, or simply visit our webpage at www.scaor.com. At our website, click on "Members" then "Class/Event Registration" for a complete list of classes.

This is a great opportunity for resident licensees to get their credits early. Thirty-four classes are scheduled including quadrennial NAR Ethics training. REALTORS^® must take the ethics training at least once every four years to retain their membership with NAR. Failure to complete the training is considered a violation of a membership duty for which REALTOR^® membership is suspended until the required training is completed. Training for this four-year cycle must be completed by December 31, 2008.

Non-resident licensees must complete 15 credit hours of continuing education no later than April 30, 2007. Delaware currently accepts elective continuing education credits approved by the Maryland Commission exclusive of any course relating specifically to Maryland laws.

View our full schedule and register here >>

 
SPANISH COURSE FOR REALTORS^® - BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!

SCAOR will be offering another Spanish course beginning March 1^st. Course fees are $105 including training materials. Diana Erney, a seasoned instructor with the University of Delaware will present the course each Thursday evening from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Students will receive 15 credits of continuing education upon completion. Click here for complete details and registration!

 

The ABR Designation course will be held Monday, February 5 and Tuesday, February 6 at Harrington ERA Realty Office in Dover. Course fee is $295, which includes continental breakfast, lunch, and first year's membership dues. This course is also an elective for the CRS & GRI Designations.

Please register online, or complete the attached form and fax to 302-734-1341.

 

We now have 21 SentriSecure Offices and the list is growing. A SentriSecure office only utilizes the SentriLock lockbox on listings. These offices will soon be featured on www.scaor.com as a SentriSecure Brokerage.

SentriSecure Brokerages as of 1.31.07

According to your lockbox coding on the InnoVia MLS System, we have a total of 974 combination boxes remaining on listings. The following report shows the numbers per office. As you eliminate combination boxes, you will be added to the SentriSecure Office listing.

Brokerages with Combo Boxes as of 1.31.07

 

Sussex County land use concerns - This is the year for the comp plan to be done; there will be five public hearings scheduled for 2007 for all parts of the county. The remaining meeting dates are as follows:

Tuesday, Feb 6th	6-8 pm	Selbyville Fire Company North Main Street, Selbyville
Thursday, Feb 15th	6-8 pm	Bethany Beach Fire Company Coastal Hwy. & Hollywood Street, Bethany

In addition to the public hearings, citizens can submit their comments, suggestions and ideas for consideration, via the Internet or by mail. County officials will incorporate all comments into the public hearing process of the plan's update. To submit comments electronically, log on to www.sussexcountyde.gov/compplan to fill out a form. Comments also can be mailed to the following address:

Sussex County 2007 Comprehensive Plan Comments
Attn: Mr. Hal Godwin, Assistant to the Administrator
P.O. Box 589
Georgetown, DE 19947

 

Existing-home sales eased in December 2006 but the year was the third-highest in sales on record, NAR says. Total existing-home sales, including single-family, town homes, condominiums, and co-ops, eased 0.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.22 million units in December from a level of 6.27 million in November. There were 6.48 million existing-home sales in all of 2006, down 8.4 percent from a record 7.08 million in 2005. The second-highest total was 6,779,000 in 2004. "It looks like we're moving beyond the low for the housing cycle last fall, and buyers are responding to historically low interest rates and competitive pricing by home sellers," says NAR Chief Economist David Lereah. "In addition, a tightening inventory of homes on the market is supporting prices." For more info, click here.

 

President Pat Vredevoogd Combs praised Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D- N.Y.) and Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) for introducing legislation that NAR believes would ensure that the nation's real estate industry remains competitive. The Community Choice in Real Estate Act, S.413, is cosponsored by senators on both sides of the aisle.

In a letter circulated about the bill, Clinton and Allard explain that allowing banks into the real estate industry would "upend one of our nation's most fundamental economic policies, the separation of banking and commerce, and put our economy at risk." The letter also notes that "allowing banks into real estate hurts competition and consumers. It will result in bigger banks, higher costs, and less consumer choice and service."

Earlier in January, Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) and Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) introduced the House version, H.R. 111. More than 100 House lawmakers are now co-sponsors. For more info, click here.

 

Rural areas with a population of up to 50,000 should be eligible for mortgage and other loan assistance under the Farm Credit Act, say NAR and the National Association of Home Builders in a letter to Congress. The Farm Credit System was created more than 90 years ago to provide credit to farmers and ranchers. While the large majority of lending under the program is used to finance small agricultural businesses, loans are also made to finance home purchases in rural areas. However, the Farm Credit Act limits the areas served under the program to those with populations of 2,500 people or fewer. This limit was set in 1971. Expanding the cap to 50,000 will allow the Farm Credit System to serve more rural communities and provide rural homebuyers with greater access to credit, NAR and NAHB say. For more, contact: Megan Booth, 202.383-1222.

 

Case Interpretation Related To Article 3-1

REALTOR^® A complained to his Board of REALTORS^® that procedures in the Board's Multiple Listing Service permitted REALTORS^® participating in the Service to evade their obligations under Article 3 of the Code of Ethics. His specific complaint was that, as exclusive agent of Client B, he had filed the client's property in the Multiple listing Service. Other REALTORS^® participating in the Multiple Listing Service had contacted Client B directly to make appointments to show that property and to transmit offers to purchase it, without his, REALTOR^® A's, knowledge or consent. When he objected to this conduct, the officers of the Multiple Listing Service had cited the MLS rule that held that placing property in the Service had the effect of listing the property with the MLS, and authorized the MLS to refer it to other Participants as subagents, who were then free to transmit offers directly to the client. REALTOR^® A's complaint emphasized that his objection was primarily to the rule of the Multiple Listing Service.

The complaint was referred to the Directors of the Board of REALTORS^® which asked the Chairperson of the Board's Multiple Listing Committee to attend a special Directors' meeting on the subject. At the meeting, it was pointed out that the contested rule of the Multiple Listing Service, which had not been submitted to the Board of Directors for approval, was in conflict with Article 3 of the Code of Ethics, and with the nature and purpose of the MLS itself, since the MLS did not provide brokerage services and could not function as an agent of sellers. The Multiple Listing Service was directed to rescind all procedural rules that permitted the Service or any of its Participants to intrude upon the agency status of any REALTOR^® holding an exclusive listing.

 

Did You Forget Paragraph 5?

Does this paragraph look familiar to you? It should. It's Paragraph 5 in our Standard Agreement of Sale.

5. RENTAL/ LEASE: The property ( __ is ) ( __ is not ) subject to an existing rental/leasing agreement. If the property is subject to an agreement, Seller must provide full accounting to the settlement attorney. See paragraph 31, Special Conditions and Terms.

Buyer(s) initial(s) ________________ Seller(s) initial(s) ______________________

Find out more in the Rookie Corner >>

 

 

© Copyright 2007 Sussex County Association of REALTORS^®
23407 Park Ave., Georgetown, DE 19947, USA
Phone (302) 855-2300  ~  Fax (302) 855-2319  ~  info@scaor.com  ~  www.scaor.com