Inman News

30 August 2025

Real Estate News for Realtors and Brokers

In order to be as proactive as we can during the COVID-19 outbreak, Firelands Association of Realtors will suspend usage of the facility starting on Monday, March 16, 2020. The suspension will occur until further notice.

The Firelands Association of Realtors has been forced to postpone and/or cancel some upcoming events. We will be looking at dates to reschedule some of these events later in 2020. Below is a list of postponed or canceled events.

Wednesday, March 18th - Soup R' Bowl Reverse Raffle
Thursday, March 19th - Board of Directors Meeting
Wednesday, March 25th - Member Services Committee Meeting
Wednesday, March 25th - Forms Committee Meeting
Wednesday, April 8th - New Member Orientation

We thank you for your understanding. We will continue to monitor the situation and will follow the guidelines set forth by Governor DeWine in the future.  Please be safe.

Section 1.16 Clear Cooperation Policy 

Within one (1) business day of marketing a property to the public, the listing broker must submit the listing to the MLS for cooperation with other MLS Participants.  Public marketing includes, but is not limited to flyers displayed in windows, yard signs, digital marketing on public facing websites, brokerage website displays (including IDX and VOW), digital communications marketing (email blasts), multi-brokerage listing sharing networks and applications available to the general public.

Exclusive listing information for required property types must be filed and distributed to other MLS Participants for cooperation under the Clear Cooperation Policy.  This applies to listings filed under Section 1 and listings exempt from distribution under Section 1.3 of the MLS Rules if it is being publicly marketed, and any other situation where the listing broker is publicly marketing an exclusive listing that is required to be filed with the service and is not currently available to other MLS Participants.

MLS Participants must distribute exempt listings within (1) business day once the listing is publicly marketed.

The fine schedule for a violation of the Clear Cooperation Policy is as follows:

  • 1st offense is $2500.00
  • 2nd offense is $5000.00
  • Any further violations will result in review by the FAOR Board of Directors to impose additional fines and may result in suspension of MLS services.

DorisLee 2020The 2020 Scholarship Committee received several worthy applicants this year. The scholarship was awarded to Doris Lee of Port Clinton.

Doris is a single mom and eager to begin her career in Real Estate.  She was sponsored by Real Living Morgan Realty Group.  Broker Alex Johnson said that Doris has an incredible work ethic and is a self-starter and can think outside of the box.  All three of these characteristics fit so well into the Real Estate Industry.  Alex looks forward to seeing what Doris brings to the Real Estate Industry.

Congratulations Doris!

Only 10 percent of Ohio’s REALTORS have answered our “Call For Action” seeking passage of our top legislative priority – the Ohio First-time Homebuyer Savings Act (Senate Bill 139).

We CAN and MUST do better if we hope to have it successfully voted out of the Senate Ways & Means Committee. We NEED your help…here’s how:

  • Share with family, friends, and followers, like and comment on the Call For Action posts we currently have on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. The more you engage with our social media posts the more we can get the word out! Use the following links to access the posts:

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/OhioRealtors/

LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6638101875134607360

TWITTER https://twitter.com/OhioRealtors/status/1232335691159396352

INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/p/B8_xL21AOqh/?igshid=1s6giqyqp2sz3

  • Encourage your family, friends, clients and customers to respond to the Call For Action.
  • Ask your fellow REALTORS to answer the Call For Action.

Quarterly Special Assessments

  • 1st Quarter - January, February, March
    Invoices are generated in December.  Due by January 20th
  • 2nd Quarter - April, May, June
    Invoices are generated in March.  Due by April 20th
  • 3rd Quarter - July, August, September
    Invoices are generated in June.  Due by July 20th
  • 4th Quarter - October, November, December
    Invoices are generated in September.  Due by October 20th

Invoices are emailed to each individual Member and Broker the month prior to the due date. There are many offices that now require that their agents pay their own Special Assessments,  Check with your office to see how they handle the payment for these.  They have been invoiced at the same time and due at the same time.  If your office does require that you pay these yourself, payments by check can be mailed to the Board Office and postmarked by the 20th of the Month,  log on to the Member side of faor.com and go to "Pay Dues Online"  to pay via credit card or stop in during office hours.  The Office Broker or Designated Realtor is ultimately responsible to make sure that these are paid on time.

Annual MLS Participation Fees

Invoices are emailed to each individual Member and Broker the month prior to the due date. There are many offices that now require that their agents pay their own Special Assessments,  Check with your office to see how they handle the payment for these.  They have been invoiced at the same time and due at the same time.  If your office does require that you pay these yourself, payments by check can be mailed to the Board Office and postmarked by the 20th of the Month,  log on to the Member side of faor.com and go to "Pay Dues Online"  to pay via credit card or stop in during office hours. This is an annual charge of $130.00.  Invoices are generated in June and due by July 20th. The Office Broker or Designated Realtor is ultimately responsible to make sure that these are paid on time.

Annual FAOR, National Association of REALTORS & Ohio Realtor dues

Invoices are generated in October and payment is due by November 30th.  These invoices are emailed to each individual Member and Broker.  You are responsible for paying these fees. Payments by check must be postmarked by the 30th of November, payments via credit card can be made through the Member side of faor.com "Pay Dues Online", or stop in during office hours. The Office Broker or Designated Realtor is ultimately responsible to make sure that these are paid on time.  The fees for 2020 Dues were as follows:  FAOR was $175, National Association of REALTORS was $185 and Ohio Realtors was $200.  It is possible that any of those fees may be raised for 2021. 

The Office Broker or Designated Realtor is ultimately responsible to make sure that these are paid on time.

 Other Fees

Below are fees for new agents.  You have 10 days to take care of these upon receipt of their license. Applications are available for the different types of membership under Forms.

  • MLS Initiation Fee - $200
  • FAOR Initiation Fee - $150
  • Ohio Realtors Initiation Fee - $50
  • License Fee - $140 plus tax