Firelands Association of REALTORS®

2020 FAOR Board of Director Candidates

Linda Armstrong, RE/MAX Quality Realty I’m privileged to have served for the past three years as a director for the Firelands association of Realtors and would be honored to be reelected. After serving on many committees and being involved in the community I’m confident I can be a valuable member to the Board. Committed to the highest of service I have been selling real estate for 33 years. I’ve received the following awards: The Ohio Realtors President’s Sales Club Award since 1992; REALTOR OF THE YEAR in 1996; Business Women of the year by the Erie County Chamber of Commerce in 2000; I was also inducted into the Firelands Association Hall of Fame in 2016. Most of all I love to help people with their efforts in finding their dream home, or selling their property so they can move into a new era in their lives, I absolutely love selling real estate. I’m grateful to have this career and my goal as a Director is to represent our membership with wisdom, professionalism and experience.

Phillip Bolte, Bolte Real Estate A fourth-generation Ohio REALTOR, Phillip earned his sales license in 1999 and his broker license in 2007. He is a 2001 graduate of Baldwin Wallace University with a BA in Business Administration. Phillip is past president of the Firelands Association and recipient of the Realtor of the Year Award as well as a member of the MLS and Forms Committee’s. Outside of Real Estate Phillip is a member of the Port Clinton Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Riverview Industries Board of Directors, member of the Port Clinton City Planning Commission and Commodore of the Port Clinton Yacht Club. In his free time, Phillip enjoys boating, golfing, anything Ohio State, the Browns, the Cavs, and spending time with his wife Jennifer and daughter Gianna

Janet Herzog , RE/MAX Unlimited Results Realty Janet Herzog is an Associate Broker with RE/MAX UnlimitedJanet Herzog is an Associate Broker with RE/MAX UnlimitedResults Realty in Tiffin. She is currently serving on the Fireland’sBoard of Directors in her third year, representing Seneca County.Running for another term, Janet hopes to serve as Secretary/Treasurer in the 2020 year.“I love being involved in the Board and networking with agents inother markets and brokerages. Meeting agents face to facealways helps transactions run smoother, and I feelcommunication is enhanced when you are able work with agentsyou see regularly.”“Active on the Golf Committee, and Professional StandardsCommittee, I feel it is so important to be involved in what is goingon in our industry community. I hope each agent will serve on atleast one committee during the coming years.”Licensed in mid 2012, Janet has earned the OAR President’sSale Club Award of Achievement from 2013-2017, and earnedthe Award of Distinction in 2018 and 2019.She has been married to Cary Herzog for 28 years, and they havetwo adult sons, Alex and Derek, two spoiled Morkies… Molly andShelby, and three granddogs, Pip, Oakley and Pepper!

Steve Mack, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Stadtmiller Realty Broker Associate at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Stadtmiller Realty. A Licensed Realtor since 2000 and have earned national designations and certifications including Certified Residential Specialist, Resort & Second Home Property Specialist, e-PRO, Certified Negotiation Expert and eCertified Marketing Specialist. Elected to the Firelands Association of Realtors Board of Directors in 2016 and have served on numerous committees including Community Service, Finance, Forms, Grievance, Legislative and Professional Standards.  Elected and served as the FAOR 2016 Secretary/Treasurer, 2017 President Elect, 2018 President and currently serving as Past President. Awarded “Realtor of the Year” for 2018 by the Firelands Association Board of Realtors.  Have attended all Ohio Realtors meetings and conventions since 2016.  Attended legislative conference/meetings in Washington DC in 2017 and 2018. Attended the National Association of Realtors Convention & Expo in Chicago in 2017 and in Boston in 2018. My professional experience beyond real estate includes business operations, personnel and human resources, customer service, contracting and high school and junior high swim coach. When I’m not working you can usually find me on Kelleys Island spending time with my wonderful family, my wife Julie and my kids Katelyn and Alex and our golden retriever Rylee.

Sara Riesen, Bolte Real Estate Sara Riesen is currently serving as our Ohio REALTORS District 2 Vice President and on the Executive Committee since 2017.  She has also served on Ohio REALTORS Communication Committee as Chairperson (2018).  She is currently serving as a State Political Coordinator for Bill Reineke. Sara has served as a Director on our Board for 2 previous terms and was our Board President in 2016.  She has served as our Chairperson of the MLS Broker Committee in 2018, and currently serving on the RPAC Committee, Professional Standards Committee, Legislative Committee for Seneca County and Finance Committee.  Sara has been a licensed REALTOR since 2002 and licensed Broker since 2010.  She has been married since 2001 and has tow boys, Braden and Jace.  She's currently battling her way through raising two teenagners and enjoys running, attending any of her kids baseball games, and is an avid Cleveland sports fan.

There are four (4) open Director seats beginning in January 2020.  You can vote for these deserving candiates at the Annual Membership & Awards on Tuesday, October 8th.

August 2018 CEO Report

Welcome back from our July break, hopfully you have been able to enjoy our summer weather. I will try to summarize what has happened since our last meeting in June.

June 27^th we held an Ethics hearing dealing with a complaint from a member of the public vs a REALTOR member. The conclusions of this case will be presented to the Directors today for approval.  

July 10th and 11^th we held our Put-in-Bay CE event with a good attendance. As always this is sponsored by First American Title and we thank them for this great event.

July 14^th thru 16^th President Elect Marcia and I attened the 2020 Ohio REALTORS leadership and planning meetings in Columbus. This meeting allows the new Presidents to meet their peers from the other Associations in the State, and share ideas.

July 17^th we had our change over to Cloud Magic from our server based system. We are still work out the bugs and hopefuly we will be completely trained by the end of August.

August 6^th we held the Bob Strayer Memoral Golf Clasic at Eagle Creek in Norwalk. We had a great turnout for this annual event. While the weather did not cooperate, we stil we able to enjoy some golf and a lot of networking after the event.

From August 11^th thru 13^th I attened with Marcia the 2020 NAR Leadership summit and Showingtime Executive Summit. We had great sessions and speakers. I will report on this information in my next report.

My final thing for this report is some news, the new Federal Housing Administration guidance on condo financing are expected to be released on August 15, 2019 by HUD and will go into effect in mid October.

New Federal Housing Administration guidance on condo financing will give affordability a boost. The rules, expected to be issued August 15^th, by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, will go into effect in mid-October.  Specifically, the new rules will:

1.       1.Extend FHA certifications on condo developments from two years to three years, reducing the compliance burden on condo boards.

2.       2. Allow for single-unit mortgage approvals—often known as spot approvals—that will enable FHA insurance of individual condo units, even if the property does not have FHA approval.

3.       3. Secure additional flexibility in the ratio of investors to owner-occupants allowed for FHA financing in a condo building

David W Freitag RCE, CEORespectfully submitted,

Authorization to Enter Condemned Dwelling in City of Sandusky

In order to enter a condemned dwelling in the City of Sandusky, the form below must be completed fully when entering a condemned property (for the purposes of showing the property) and must be kept on the REALTOR at all times. If found in a property without it, the REALTOR will be removed from said property.

  folder Click here for form

News from the Ohio Division of Real Estate & Professional Licensing

June 2019 CEO Report

It’s hard to believe, but we are halfway through the year. With all of the early year cold and the seemingly endless rain, the year has flown by. I hope that the damp weather has not slowed your listing and sales activity. Since our last Directors meeting, I have been busy making plans for the next half year meetings and events.

On May 31^st, I attended the monthly meeting of the Huron County Land Bank. The Land Bank is starting to receive revenue from the County delinquent property tax fund. The land band identified several properties to acquire that will be forfeited to the State of Ohio. The goal of the Land Bank is to help speed up the process of eliminating blighted property in Huron County.

I attended the Ohio REALTORS Association Executives meeting along with Connie, MLS Director held in Canton. Ohio REALTORS Staff conducts this annual event and includes selected speakers to allow Board and MLS staff from the State additional education opportunities. Our Speaker for day one was Don Klein, former CEO of the Nashville REALTORS. He discussed the role that Association Staff has in leading change. We looked at reasons efforts to change fail;

• Not Enough Sense of Urgency
• Not Powerful Enough Guiding Coalition
• Lacking a Vision
• Under Communicating
• Not removing Obstacles
• Not Creating or Celebrating Short –term wins
• Celebrating Victory Too Soon
• Not Anchoring Change in Board Culture

His message was that culture drives both success and failure. He defined two types of culture, constructive and defensive. He concluded that culture would either allow you to succeed or fail, even over strategy.

Another part of these meetings is vendor talks from sponsors. This year Realtor.com was a prime sponsor, and they talked about their new agent's success tools. They shared statistics showing the high amount of agents who still have not claimed their profiles. I have a two-sided handout that is available for Brokers to share with their agents.

Showing Time was also a sponsor and talked about some of their enhanced tools available for both Brokers and MLS to offer to agents. Some of the tools allow Brokers more details on showing activity.

The second day Ohio REALTORS Leadership and Staff explained some of the staff and proposed governance changes to the attendees. Attendance at this event satisfies one of NAR core standards in regards to staff education.

On Friday, June 14, Frank Corder, Steve Mack, D. J. & I represented our Board at the Manning golf fundraiser in Avon. This is an annual event, and we are a sponsor through Ohio RPAC. Both Senator Nathan and Representative Gayle Manning have been great supporters of REALTOR issues in Columbus.

On Tuesday, June 18^th I attended the Regional Council of Governments annual meeting. The COG is the group that allows the Regional Income Tax Agency to collect income taxes for member taxing authorities. As the Treasurer of Bellevue, I am a voting member of the Council. The staff gave updates on the effect of both HB5 and HB47. We also heard an update on the legal action taken by some of the Cities against the payment of Net Profits to the State.

And last but certainly not least I want to congratulate our new State Representative for the 89^th House District Mr. Douglas J. Swearingen. Steve Arndt held this seat, and he is resigning effective July, 31^st. The Speaker of the House put together a search committee, and six individuals applied. Part of the committee included Representatives Stein, Manning, and Reineke from our area along with two members from the southern part of the State.  D.J. has been a great assist to our Board for the past seven years. While he will not be leaving us totally, he will have a much fuller schedule. I know that he will do a fantastic job and will always do what is in the best interests of our area.

Respectfully submitted,

David W Freitag RCE, CEO