2018 Ohio REALTORS President's Sales Club

Linda Armstrong - PSC1
James Ashton - PSC5T
John Bauer - PSC1
Jennifer Behnke - PSC5
Joanne Berardi - PSC2
John Berger - PSC1
Joy Berquist - PSC2
Janice Betz - PSC1
Phillip Bolte - PSC1
Angie Bonnell - PSC1
Victoria Borger - PSC2
Robert Boukissen - PSC1
Monica Camerata - PSC2
Debbie Conte - PSC1
Gerald Corona - PSC7T
Jennifer Craig - PSC5
Ann Dowell - PSC1
Leslie Dundore - PSC1
Nancy Dunlap - PSC1
Michael Dziak - PSC1
Kathryn Eirons - PSC5T
Richard Elsasser - PSC1
Brad Everett - PSC1
Britny Focht - PSC1
Marcia Focht - PSC1
Ronda Gearheart - PSC1
Theodore Greene - PSC1
Diann Hamons - PSC1
Tonia Harris - PSC1
Janet Herzog - PSC2
Cheryl Hetrick - PSC1
Mike Homan - PSC1
Lisa Horman - PSC1
Christina Hormell - PSC1
Mary Howard - PSC2
April Hull - PSC1
Thomas Jagucki - PSC1
Thomas Jagucki - PCS2
Mary Anne Jeffrey - PSC1
Diana Johnson - PSC1
Tomi Johnson - PSC7
Kelli Jones - PSC1T
William Jones - PSC1T
Kathleen Joy - PSC2
Faith Kastor - PSC2T
Gwendolyn Kelley - PSC5T
Cynthia Klein - PSC1
Jonathan Konz - PSC1
Steve Lehmann - PSC1
Teresa Lonsway - PSC1
Steven Mack - PSC1
Denise Manning - PSC1
Corasue McIIrath-Flint - PSC2
Charlene Meyer - PSC2
Jeffrey Morgan - PSC1
Kim Mulholland Becker - PSC1
Amy Northrop - PSC1
Kelli Overmyer - PSC1
Leonard Partin - PSC1
Anna Piacentino - PSC2
Stephan Pitzer - PSC1
Jaime Polter - PSC1
Alishia Poorman - PSC1
Patsy Postma - PSC1
Sean Pugh - PSC1
Kyler Recker - PSC5
Margaret Redmond - PSC2
Kelli Reis - PSC1
Sara Riesen - PSC2
Fonda Risner - PCS2
Jamie Ritchie - PSC1
Robert Routh - PSC1
Norma Schaechterle - PSC2
Donna Schoonmaker - PSC2
Jill Schroeder - PSC1
Randy Schroeder - PSC1
Bryan Schube - PSC1T
Marcia Shockley - PSC1
Shannon Smith-Hartzell - PSC1
Tammy Steinle - PSC1
Heidi Stephey - PSC1
Lisa Strode - PSC1
Jill Swaisgood - PSC1
Frank Van Dresser - PSC2T
Pamela Vogel - PSC5
David Wallace - PSC2
Christopher Wechter - PSC1
Connor Wechter - PSC1
Cheryl Wendt - PSC2
Annette Wilcox - PSC1
Kimberly Wood - PSC2
Sharon Woodson - PSC2
Stephanie Yarbrough - PSC5
Theresa Zilles - PSC1

Level of Recognition Key: (A "T" after the code indicates member is part of a team)
PSC1 = Achievement (1 Mil) ($1.5-Team)/PSC2 = Distinction (2.5 Mil) ($3.75 Team)
PSC5 = Excellence (5 Mil) ($7.5 Team)/PSC7 = (705 Mil) ($11.25 Team)

MAY 2016 CEO Report

The last month has a busy time at the Association with events, committee meetings and travel to both OAR, and NAR meetings.

On April the 26^th MLS chair Scott Myers, Connie and I meet with representatives from Zillow to bring us up-to-date on RETSLY which is in essence their version of ListHub. They are trying to get MLS’s to allow them a feed to establish their product. UPSTREEM, AMP, RETSLY, and TRESTLE are all topics that we will need to become more educated on in the next few months.

The Charitable Foundation held its first fundraising event on April 27 and they were able to collect over $6000 in donations. The entire event was a success with a larger than expected attendance. The inclusion of local chef’s to be the judges was well received. The foundation is on its way to making money for their endeavors.  

On May 3^rd thru 5^th I attended OAR’s Mediation Training Seminar along with Tammy Steinle held in Columbus. The instructor for this class was Bruce Aydt, who helped establish NAR’s program. This class fulfills NAR’s requirement to be able for local Boards to offer Mediation to its members.

From May 9th thru the 13^th I attended NAR’s Mid-Year and Legislative meetings in Washington, D.C. The week was filled with meetings, hill visits, and roundtable discussion groups. The meetings that I attended are as follows;

•      Congressional Impact and the 2016 Elections and Political forum
•      CMLS Brings it to the Table
•      Federal Priority Issues Briefing
•      The Race for the White House
•      Hill Visits with Bob Gibbs, Bob Latta, Jim Jordan
•      State of Ohio meeting with Senators Brown and Portman
•      MLS Policy & Listing Issues
•      FAOR meeting with Rapattoni
•      Supra Information meeting
•      Association Management Roundtable
•      Met with RPR to discuss data issues
•      The board kept NAR dues at $120 for 2017, and approved a three-year extension of the $35 special assessment that funds the consumer advertising campaign, and approved creation of a uniform communications platform for NAR's committees, advisory boards, and forums.
•      Engage in at least two activities per year that demonstrate how the association is the “Voice for Real Estate" in its market, and at
• least two activities demonstrating the association’s investment in the community.
•      Require six hours of professional development for volunteers who carry out responsibilities that would otherwise be handled by paid staff.
•      Offer, promote, or provide at least one professional development opportunity for members every year.
•      Annually certify that they have conducted an activity promoting REALTOR® safety.
•      Provide resources for or access to leadership development education or training for their elected REALTOR® leaders, and document those resources.
•      Include a voluntary political action committee or political advocacy fund contribution on their dues statements, unless prohibited by law.
•      The board decided to transition to a calendar-year compliance cycle for the standards. As a result, the next compliance cycle will last 18 months, from July 1, 2016, through Dec. 31, 2017. Watch for a complete list of updates at REALTOR.org’s Core Standards page.

The NAR policy changes that were passed are as follows;

Core Standards, among other changes, for the compliance cycle starting July 1, 2016, associations must do the following:

MLS policy

With concerns growing over copyright infringement, the board approved changes to the Handbook on Multiple Listing Policy to reflect the importance of MLS users granting the MLS the licenses necessary to store, reproduce, compile and distribute listing information. In addition, the board is taking steps to increase cooperation and information sharing between NAR and the Council of Multiple Listing Services, a professional trade organization for multiple listing services.

 Once again our leadership team did a great job of delivering our legislative concerns with our Federal Officials. We have many challenges ahead as the MLS data wars continue. I will continue to research and use our membership in CMLS to keep the Directors informed of the changes we will face for our MLS. 

Respectfully submitted,

David W Freitag RCE, CEO

RETS/IDX Fees

Firelands Association of Realtors®

2710 Campbell Street ~  Sandusky, Ohio 44870

Phone 419.625.5787 | 419.625.3802 | Fax 419.625.3442

www.firelandsmls.com | www.faor.com

Sara Riesen, President 2016 David W. Freitag, RCE, CEO

As part of our MLS continued efforts to ensure the security and relevance of your listings information the Board of Directors voted to institute a new policy in regards to RETS/IDX feed set up and annual maintenance.  This change will be two fold; first we will require a charge of $50 for any new RETS/IDX feeds; Second there will be an annual maintenance and review of all your office feeds that for a total annual $100 total fee.  Any IDX feeds that go through the Listings Syndication Manager are at no charge to the office and will not be required to be reported on this form.

The Board felt strongly that the fee structure would be held to a minimum and the amount is an attempt to help absorb some of the actual cost required to set up and maintain these feeds.  When filling out your annual form, please take time to ensure that all outgoing feeds are still attached to an actual vendor that you are still doing business with.

Again, thank you for your understanding.  Our main goal is to ensure that the MLS provides relevant, fresh, clean and safe data.  As technology continues to evolve we are working hard to ensure that our data remains accurate and safe.  Your cooperation and membership is greatly appreciated.

Window to the Law: Off-MLS Listings

January 2016 CEO Report

CEO Report to Board

The New Year has arrived and we have been busy with planning the calendar of events for 2016. President Sara has I have already started to visit our member's offices and we plan on taking 2 days each month on these visits. Our first visits were in Tiffin and we plan on moving to Fremont next. We also are planning on visiting affiliate member's locations this year.
Our Christmas party at Camden Falls was a great success. The attendance was over 100 and we were able to see members who have not attended the party in the past. The party for this year is going to be held at the Port Clinton Yacht Club.

The OAR winter conference was held from January 16th – 19th at the Easton Hilton. We had 8 members in attendance along with me and our Attorney. This year I am serving as the Chairman of the OAR Association Executives committee. As chairman I requested that our attorney handle the education program at this meeting. D.J. prepared a class on professional standards and it was very well received. I have had many compliments on his program, and I thank him for his hard work on this class.

For 2016 the focus is still on NAR Core Standards and raising the professional standards of our members. At OAR there was a mock commission dispute, and a mock Real Estate Commission hearing with the entire Ohio Commission present. I am happy to report that our Professional Standards process is one of the best in the State.
The AE committee also had a presentation form REALTOR.com on agent rankings and reviews. All brokers need to make sure that their agents sign in to claim and update their profile data. This profile is a no cost to our members, and should be encouraged by all Brokers. This will be a focus of advertising for 2016 from REALTOR.com this year.
There is a task force working at OAR on reducing the amount of State meetings down to two. The idea is to do away with the January meeting and to add time to the April legislative meetings and the Convention.

In other news, we received word from IRS that our Foundation has been granted tax exempt status. The next step is for the Directors to establish a board to oversee this endeavor. This was a long process to get to this point and now we should be ready to take advantage of additional donation possibilities.

We finished 2015 with a profit before depreciation and we were just over our budgeted revenue. We have already collected receivables from our members from unpaid 2015 items, and we have reduced our overall past due accounts.

Many of our Committees have not yet met, and our annual planning workshop will be held after the Directors meeting on the 21st of January. The goal of this day is to set goals for the committees to work on this year.

Respectfully submitted,

David W Freitag RCE, CEO