Are you a broker owner or managing broker? Are you involved with NAR's Broker Involvement Program? 

This dynamic program provides you, the broker-owner, with a quick and effective tool to rally your agents on critical legislative issues affecting our industry.

The Broker Involvement Program offers you and your agents:

 A voice on Capitol Hill.
The program is an opportunity to bring a strong and united REALTOR® voice to Members of Congress. With over 17,000 broker owners and 450,000 agents in the program, the REALTOR® voice will be heard loud and clear.

 An easy-to-manage solution.
Nothing needs to be downloaded and there is no cost to the broker. NAR gives the broker-owner or managing broker access to the Broker Portal.

 Proven results.
Your online participation report will show you response rates on Broker Calls for Action are significantly higher. The message is from you, the broker, to your agents. Nearly 40 percent of all responses on the Broker Calls for Action are from agents in the Broker Involvement Program. Your agents listen to you then take action!

 Join now!

 2014 Broker Summit is in Atlanta on August 6th and 7th.

 Summit Agenda

 Printable Broker Involvement Program brochure (pdf)

I have quite an amount of information to share with the Board this month as the amount of activity has been quite busy. I will begin my report this month with a legislative update on Federal Issues that NAR is monitoring. With both the General Election and NAR Annual Convention under our belts, attention has quickly shifted to guiding NAR priority issues in Lame Duck session which started when the House and Senate returned yesterday. High on the priority list remain getting an extension of the Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Tax Relief, reauthorizing the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), and working to ensure that the Waters of the US (as overseen by the EPA and Army Corp of Engineers) are scientifically and responsibly defined. Our legislative contact Lindsay Shuba, keeps me informed on a monthly basis and she is quite helpful with any questions that I have in regards to Federal Issues. Please continue to watch for NAR Calls for Action and reply ASAP. Also encourage your fellow agents to become active on the issues.

FHA Programs

FHA 203(K) Monitoring

On September 26, 2014, the National Association of REALTORS®, along with the National Association of Homebuilders and the Mortgage Bankers Association, sent a letter to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in response to proposed changes to the 203(k) Rehabilitation Mortgage Insurance Program. The 203(k) program provides financing to renovate older and damaged homes. The coalition provided several recommendations to maintain the viability of the program and allow the revitalization of properties that might otherwise continue to deteriorate.

FHA Property Flipping Waiver

Read more …

My report this month is filled with meeting information from local, OAR, and NAR events and meetings.

On August 22nd I attended the Member Services and Awards committee. At the meeting individual awards we discussed, along with the location and menu choices. The staff will order the awards and finalize the event.

On August 25th thru 28th I attended the NAR Leadership Summit and new AE training classes. These sessions were held at NAR headquarters in Chicago. We had a welcome reception hosted by NAR President Steve Brown and RPAC Major Investors. I was able to have a few words with President Brown. He is extremely interested in Ohio, and he said he will help us in any way he could. The opening of the summit was a program with The Music Paradigm. This was a learning experience where a professional orchestra was seated among the crowd. The point of the program was to demonstrate how the parts of the orchestra, just like our members need to be on the same page in order to have a smooth finished product.

Steve Brown then spoke on the topic of The Time is Know. We are faced with many challenges and opportunities to move our associations forward. The main point that I came away was that we need to be mindful of the past but keep moving forward.

Keeping with the music theme the afternoon session was titled Presidents and Executives working in Harmony. The sub discussion focused on Presidents and AEs working on a strategic plan, planning the year with the Realtor Party, and Realtor Party success stories. There was break-out sessions that allowed Presidents and AE's time to discuss their goals and start to plan for 2014.

There was a panel discussion on leadership challenges in the 113th Congress. This was followed by a legal update presented by Laurie Janik, NAR general counsel and Ralph Holmen associate general counsel. The main points they hit on were problems that our industry is facing on off MLS listings. Both agreed that this could open up serious litigation due to sellers not having their property exposed to the full market. She warned that Brokers should make sure that they explain that they are not using MLS and to have sellers sign off on not entering listings to MLS.

The first day concluded with a discussion with NAR CEO Dale Stinton and NAR President Steve Brown. This was a question and answer program that was very frank. The future of NAR was discussed and it was recommended that all Boards have the same one on one talk between CEO's and Presidents.

On the second day we received a financial outlook and economic update. The presenters were Michael McGrew2014 NAR Treasurer and Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. Mr. Yun started his presentation with the fact that inventory is at a 13yr low. One large factor to this is the abundance of pocket listings. Mr. Yun stated that these do not serve property owners well. This is because you do not expose the property to all buyers. This could open Brokers and agents to liability issues, due to lower than market sales prices. He then talked about the fact that there is a 50yr low on new home construction. We need to see housing starts increase or we will have a persistent housing shortage. One factor in this is the price gap between existing homes vs. new construction. It is at about 30% and this is stagnating new construction. The forecast for 2013 is for a price increase of 7% and for 2014 5% of value.

His next slide was titled Lies, Damn Lies, and Zestimates. He reported that Zillow, REALTOR.com, and like sites are costing Brokers too much money. He used the analogy of someone standing up at a football game. He said that someone in the first row stands up to have an improved view and soon the whole stadium is standing. He thinks that peer pressure is fueling the outside websites. He specifically talked about enhanced placement by agents. He feels this is an unnecessary expense to Brokers and agents. He also indicated that Zestimate's are off by 20% to 40% and this is causing confusion in the market place.

He detailed that the economy is rising by 4.5% and he hopes this is a sustainable recovery. One troubling statistic is that 1/3 of sales are recorded as cash sales. Underwriting is still too strict and because of this we have a lack of first time buyers. Purchase of rental property is on the increase and home ownership is flat lining. We are in danger of becoming a nation of renters and this will not raise wealth for the future.

In conclusion he felt that jobs were the long term answer and as an industry we should try to help in this area.

We had several other presentations from NAR staff and I would be glad to share those with you one on one if you wish.

The next two days were spent at NAR headquarters in new AE training. We met with most department heads and received information on how to make use of NAR's resources. This was a very detailed training session and I will not try to describe the details in this report. I did get to spend time with the three other new AE' from Ohio, Mike Valerino of CABOR, Gavin Blair of Dayton, and Jim Abele of Cincinnati. The new AE's from Ohio have all had experience in the industry and we all can help each other.

Upon my return on the 29th my mother passed away and I took the remainder of the 29th off. We were scheduled to be closed on the 30th and Sept 2nd for Labor Day and I took off the 3rd for her funeral. The 4th thru the 6th I spent catching up with work and preparing to attend the OAR convention and NAR Tech Edge.

Saturday the 7th the staff and I attended the NAR Tech Edge at the Hyatt Regency Columbus Ohio. This class included speakers from both Ohio and across the country. The event included the following topics, Content Strategy, Digital Identities, Photo & Video ideas, use of Social Media, new technologies. This was a full day and I feel that it is good for the staff to hear firsthand what the agents hear.

On the 8th I started with breakfast with Jamie Swigart, our Tomorrows Leader Today member. We discussed her day and I made sure she knew where to go. We met at lunch for the TLT luncheon. This was a good program to help new members learn about OAR. From 2:30 to 4:00 I attended the AE workshop. We had a presentation from Donna Garcia, HR Services Director of NAR. She explained some of the resources available to local Boards in regards to HR services. She also gave a presentation on Health Care Reform.

On the 9th I attended the RPAC Breakfast and the featured speaker was Jon Husted, Secretary of State. His message was centered on voting and registering people to vote. This is an item that our Board through the Realtor Party could get involved with. I will make a recommendation to our legislative committee to explore this issue. He also talked about redistricting and that we should try to reform this process before the 2020 census.

The Grand Session was next and the REALTOR of the Year winners were announced and brought on stage. Norma Schaechterle was FAOR's REALTOR of The Year for 2013. The Firelands Association was also mentioned as having achieved Excellence in Community Service. We were one of only two Boards mentioned. This is because of the outstanding work our Community Service committee has accomplished this year by combining with the REP committee.

I then attended the AE luncheon. This is an extension of our AE committee and allows the AE's to hear from OAR leadership, and make plans for the next year's meetings. We also discussed the change in location from Columbus to Cleveland. It is hoped that this will increase attendance.

In the evening I attend the Presidents Sales Club Dinner along with our Board Directors who were present. We had two tables of members at the dinner and all attendee's had a good time. This event is important for the Board to support.

On the 10th the CE session was conducted by NAR Council Laurie Janik and was mostly the same information that was covered in the presentation that I reported on from the Chicago NAR meeting.
The conclusion of the convention was the Board of Directors meeting. The annual election for OAR Treasurer was held and after three rounds of voting, Sara Calo was elected. This will make her OAR President for 2016. The budget was passed with a positive balance projected for 2014.

On the 11th we held our General Membership Meeting and introduction of Board candidates. We will be preparing the ballots and make all preparations for the annual election and awards banquet.
In conclusion, we have a full schedule of events for the remainder of the year. In the office we are making changes to our accounting codes in Rapattoni to correspond with our QuickBooks system. We will be setting up to have several days of help from Rapattoni to clean up our Magic system. This will be necessary to allow the IWS to work properly.

Respectively submitted,

David W Freitag CEO