SCAOR At a Glance: Sussex County Delaware Weekly Real Estate Industry Newsletter

*** * * 2010 DUES ARE NOW LATE * * *** A second late fee of $50 will be assessed on December 1^st
*Pay your dues ONLINE at www.realtor.org. You must pay dues online, they are NAR generated. The following options are available online:* Electronic Check, Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express *** * * Checks cannot be accepted at the SCAOR office. * * *** Late fees started on Sunday morning, Nov 1, 2009 at 12:01 am.

So successful, it's being offered again.

FREE Credit Repair
non Credit Class.
Monday, November 30
1 - 2:30 p.m. at SCAOR

This non credit course helps REALTORS^® learn the new mortgage requirements, suggestions to assist buyers in re-building tarnished credit, and more!

Find out valuable tips to assist your buyers to increase their credit score . . . and bring more buyers to the table.

Register here >>

Absorption Rate Key to Successful Pricing

Telling sellers the price they want to hear may get you the listing, but it won't sell the home. Only pricing the listing right will do that, and the right price depends in large part on the current absorption rate in your market.

Here's how you find that >>

Don't Miss the . . .
The Sussex County Chapter
Women's Council of REALTORS^®
2010 Installation of Officers
at the Sussex Pines Country Club, Georgetown

This Thursday, November 19 • 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Special Guest Speaker:
Joe Purzycki, Vice President of Barclay Bank of Delaware

Cost: $30 per person:
Dinner, Cash Bar, and a Silent Auction

Registration & details at www.scaorstore.com >>

On November 5^th, Congress answered our call to extend and expand the homebuyer tax credit. Both the House and the Senate passed an unemployment insurance bill, which included an amendment to expand and extend the tax credit. The bill was then signed by President Obama.

NAR President McMillan has recorded a special edition of his President's Podcast, with details on the new tax credit, which took effect this Saturday, November 7. To listen click here.

Some new benefits under the Extended Home Buyer Tax Credit, which took effect Saturday, November 7:

If you or your client purchased a home between January 1, 2009 and November 6, 2009, please visit 2009 First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit at Realtor.org for new homebuyer tax credit details. For those purchasing between November 7, 2009 and April 10, 2010, please visit The Basics: Extended Home Buyer Tax Credit 2009/2010 at Realtor.org. These helpful resources and the comparison chart can be used when working with buyers to take advantage of the credit in the months ahead.

Once again, thank you for responding to the Tax Credit Calls for Action.
A victory for homeownership was achieved
because so many took action.

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Proposed Real Estate Licensing Changes
Read the proposed changes to Delaware real estate law and licensing at www.dpr.delaware.gov.

SCAOR has 2 items left at SCAOR and 1 item left at the Foundation Auction at Independence.

REALTOR^® A, who had made a number of residential and farm appraisals for Client B, a bank, was asked to appraise the real property of a corporation that operated two extensive industrial parks. REALTOR^® A made his appraisal of open land belonging to the corporation for future development. With respect to specialized industrial structures included in the assignment, he engaged the XYZ firm of industrial engineers to make a study of obsolescence and of current reproduction costs leading to conclusions. The report on this study was incorporated into Realtor A's appraisal report to Client B, without identifying the XYZ firm as a contributor to the report.

Sometime after the submission of the report, Engineer C, a member of the XYZ firm, was invited to speak on an appraisal panel arranged by the local Board of REALTORS^®. During his talk he used as an illustration some of the industrial properties that had figured in REALTOR^® A's appraisal report. Following the program, in informal conversation with Engineer C, REALTOR^® B learned of REALTOR^® A's action in incorporating the engineering firm's conclusions into his own appraisal without identification of the firm and its contributions to the assignment. REALTOR^® B then filed a complaint against REALTOR^® A alleging violation of Article 11 of the Code of Ethics. After examining the facts as set out above, the complaint was referred by the Grievance Committee for hearing before a panel of the Board's Professional Standards Committee.

At the hearing, REALTOR^® A took the position that he had not violated Article 11 because the essence of the appraisal assignment had been to exercise his judgment as an appraiser, and that he had not engaged any other person to exercise judgment in connection with the assignment. He had simply employed the XYZ engineering firm, he said, to make certain conclusions as to the extent of obsolescence in properties and as to the current cost of reproducing them. Conceding that he had incorporated the XYZ firm's report into his own appraisal report, REALTOR^® A contended that this material was only incidental, and that the essential appraisal function of arriving at a valuation was entirely his own work. He stated further that he had paid the XYZ firm for its services and felt that relieved him of any obligation to identify the firm in his appraisal report.

During the hearing it was established that REALTOR^® A had no previous experience in appraisal of industrial property, and that he had not disclosed this to Client B at the time he accepted the assignment.

Based upon your understanding of Article 11, what do you think the hearing panel concluded?
Find out in next week's At a Glance!