NOTICES:
GTAR/NORES Members: Help Your REALTOR® Family in Moore
In last week’s meeting, the GTAR and NORES Boards of Directors voted to contribute $5,000 to the GTAR Foundation for OAR’s Oklahoma Housing Foundation REALTOR® Disaster Relief Fund; monies from the fund will be distributed to REALTORS® in Moore and other impacted areas who lost their homes in last week’s tornado. Confirmed so far: 16 REALTOR® homes were completely demolished, at least 20 homes were majorly damaged (unlivable, but still standing in parts), and at least 12 REALTOR® family members have lost homes. The REALTOR® Disaster Relief Fund is administered by the Oklahoma Housing Foundation, which is a non-profit charitable fund administered by fifteen Trustees to provide financial assistance to REALTORS® whose personal residences or property has been destroyed or damaged by natural disasters.
You can help too! Through June 17, the Board of Directors will match donations made by members up to an additional $5,000. You can write a check, payable to the GTAR Foundation (please indicate Tornado Relief in the memo field), and either bring it by our office or mail it to P.O. Box 470603, Tulsa, OK 74147. Or, donate online by credit card: Go to tulsarealtors.com, and click on DONATE button on lower right side of home page. (All donations are tax deductible.)
April 2013
Home Sales Stats Now Available
http://www.tulsarealtors.com/stats/
2013 Backpacks for Kids Campaign
GTAR’s eighth annual Backpacks for Kids campaign is in
full swing, and your help is needed. In the last seven years, GTAR’s Community
Relations Committee, with your support, has raised $85,000, and given over
1,500 backpacks to children in need. We are very aware of the challenges
in our community right now and the financial demands that face everyone. This year’s goal is to raise $17,500 to
fund 350 backpacks (each backpack costs approximately $50 to fill); to
date, $6,606.03 has been raised. The
deadline to reach the goal is June 30. To date, $ has been raised. We are grateful to you in advance for
any donation you make to this effort—no donation is too small, and all
donations are tax deductible! Click Here for Donation Form
June 8
Homeownership
Event
Housing Partners of Tulsa,
Inc. presents “I’m Coming Home”; 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. at the Tulsa Area Housing
Authority office (415 E. Independence).
A step by step roadmap by industry professionals on purchasing your
first home. For more information on the event, call 918-551-5200. Housing
Partners also has booth space available and is looking for donations. They are
asking those who want booths to contact Heather Martin Quintoro at
918-581-5907, and bring either a food donation or a door prize in lieu of a booth
fee. (This is not a GTAR event.)
June 12
Cloud CMA Demos at GTAR
Join us at GTAR for this special event and see why tens
of thousands are using Cloud CMA to deliver high impact, eye catching reports
with data right from your MLS! Cloud CMA is a proud product partner of GTAR, and is among the most exciting
technology products for real estate in 2013. Cloud CMA uses your MLS data and
blends it with community and lifestyle information from multiple data sources
on the Internet to create custom MLS reports for buyers, sellers, and prospects.
These live demos are FREE to GTAR members, and will cover the many aspects of
creating a winning CMA, as well as awesome Buyer Tour Reports, Property Reports
and flyers in seconds. Click Here to Register
June
15
Credit
Clarity Saturday
Do you have a client that
needs their credit checked? What does your credit report
say about you? Come find out, June 15, 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Hicks Community
Center (3443 S. Mingo). Presented by The Alliance for Economic Inclusion for
Northeastern Oklahoma, this community event is open to everyone. Free
one-on-one counseling, free credit reports can be pulled on site through www.annualcreditreport.com or you can bring your own
credit report that is less than 60 days old. Many exhibitors will be available
to help you meet your financial and/or home buying goals. (This is not a GTAR event.)
EDUCATION &
EVENTS:
Upcoming CE Classes at GTAR
Don’t wait until
the end of your three-year licensing period to start working on your CE hours.
As CE classes are scheduled, information and registration will be available on
tulsarealtors.com; from the main Member
Services page, simply click the red Education
bar. If you are a Class Pass Holder, please register for Class Pass eligible
classes by emailing education@tulsarealtors.com or calling
918-663-7500.
June 6: Understanding the URAR Appraisal Report
9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.: In this encore presentation, Bob Bryant will discuss the
URAR form in detail with emphasis on the new guidelines established March 2012.
Fannie Mae requires all reports submitted to them for purchase to be compliant
with these guidelines. The additional guidelines, Uniform Appraisal Dataset
(UAD), pertain to how the URAR form is to be completed. OREC approved: 3 hours required
HOT CE credit. (Class Pass Eligible)
June 10: A Residential Transaction: ‘For Sale’ to ‘SOLD’
1:00-4:00 p.m.: This new
course will explore the processes involved for taking a listing from “For Sale”
to “Sold.” Ann Lloyd will review the complete “selling” process, evaluate
pricing considerations, analyze marketing strategies, discuss negotiating
techniques, and examine the transaction participants’ roles in the closing
process. By the end of the class, you will have expanded your knowledge of all
aspects of a real estate sales transaction, and have a more thorough
understanding of how your role as a real estate professional is monumental in
delivering a smooth and successful transaction; OREC Approved:
3 hours elective CE credit. (Class Pass
Eligible)
June 13: REALTOR® Ethics, 1:00-4:00
p.m., Kathryn Jones; req. PSC CE; no cost (registration
required)
June 26: What RE Professionals Need to Know About Taxes
1:00-4:00 p.m.: This new
course is not designed to make a real estate agent a tax accountant, but
it is designed to make a real estate agent aware of the rules and documentation
requirements that are part of their everyday business and life as a real estate
agent. Bill Zumwalt, CPA, will show
agents how they must be in compliance with the IRS and the Oklahoma Tax
Commission or they could lose their license; how to treat hiring an
assistant—are they an independent contractor or an employee?; review what
constitutes an office in the home, and how to properly document this deduction;
explain options available with regard to vehicle expenses, and what is needed
to document business usage; meals and entertainment documentation and rules;
determine the best type of entity for their real estate business; keys to
reduce their tax liability, and much more! OREC Approved: 3 hours elective CE credit. (Class
Pass Eligible)
June
18-19
CRS
201: Listing Strategies
Presented by OK CRS with instructor Jackie
Leavenworth, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Quail Springs-North
Oklahoma City. Learn how to use your MLS to create pricing visuals that will
prepare the sellers to position their homes to sell quickly, and much more.
Please call Cindy Manchester with any questions or email TulsaHomeBuzz@gmail.com. Click Here for Info and
Registration Form (This is not a GTAR event.)
'No-Travel' Site Selection Course
Learn the principles of site
analysis and how to recognize and project demographic growth trends and demand
in a no-travel course on site
selection
presented by the REALTORS® Land Institute. The goal is to help you
find the best sites for your clients and increase your income. The class begins June 3. For more
information, call 800-441-5263.
'No-Travel' Class Looks at Eminent
Domain Law
The REALTORS®
Land Institute is hosting what it calls a hybrid "no-travel" class on
eminent domain law starting June 3.
The class will cover the constitutional roots of eminent domain, and state and
local law, among other things. For more information, call 800-441-5263 or
register at www.rliland.com/no-travel-courses.
Renewable Energy
Project Land Issues Webinar
The REALTORS®
Land Institute is hosting a webinar on the growing field of renewable energy
project development and the importance of site selection. Land Considerations: Keys to
Renewable Energy is June 5, and will feature
experts on renewable and alternative energy projects. For more information,
call 800-441-5263.
MLS NOTES:
Upcoming Computer Classes
Pre-registration is required; space is limited to 14
per class. For more information and to enroll: log on to tulsarealtors.com,
click the red Education bar on the Member Services page, then click Register
for Classes. All classes are held in the GTAR Computer Lab, unless otherwise
indicated.
Fusion 2 (Hands-on): Tuesday, June 4, 2:00-4:30 p.m.
Fusion 3 (Hands-on): Thursday, June 6, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
GOVERNMENT/LEGAL
ISSUES:
3% Cap Bill Introduced in the Senate
A bill crucial to
maintaining affordable mortgage financing by addressing a problem in
regulators' Qualified Mortgage (QM) rule was introduced in the Senate last
week. "The Consumer Mortgage Choice Act," s. 949, by Sens. Joe
Manchin (D-W.V.) and Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), would address the 3 percent cap on
points and fees in the QM rule's "ability-to-repay" provisions. A
companion bill was earlier introduced in the
House. The
legislation is particularly important to real estate firms with affiliates and
small and mid-sized lenders and mortgage brokers. Without it, up to half of the
loans lenders make would not meet the qualified mortgage test and would either
not be made or would have to be made by large lenders who do not have to count
the same items in their fees and points calculations under the test.
Don't Get Caught Flat-Footed on MID
Though partisanship in
Washington, D.C., is at a historic high, that doesn't mean lawmakers won't take
on tax reform later this year, possibly putting the mortgage interest deduction
and other tax incentives important to real estate into play, said Jeffrey
Birnbaum, a long-time Washington journalist who captured the 1986 tax reform
battle in an award-winning book, Showdown at Gucci Gulch. Birnbaum and Rep.
Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) at the NAR Midyear Meetings in Washington last week shared the message that REALTORS®
must remain vigilant to protect their interests.
INFORMATION TO
USE:
April Existing-Home Sales Up but
Constrained
Existing-home sales rose in
April but remain below underlying demand because of limited inventory and tight
credit, NAR says. All regions are showing
strong price gains from a year ago. Total existing-home sales increased 0.6
percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million in April from an
upwardly revised 4.94 million in March. Resale activity is 9.7 percent
above the 4.53 million-unit level in April 2012. "The robust housing
market recovery is occurring in spite of tight access to credit and limited
inventory," NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun says. "Without these
frictions, existing-home sales easily would be well above the 5-million unit
pace. Buyer traffic is 31 percent stronger than a year ago, but sales are
running only about 10 percent higher."
Strong Fundamentals Shore Up Home Sales
Home sales are on a
sustained upswing, with solid gains in volume and in price expected for the
next few years thanks to improved market fundamentals. But whether the federal
government through its regulations and tax tinkering will derail further
improvement remains a question, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence
Yun said at
last week's Midyear Meetings in Washington.
Metro Area Home Price Growth Trend
Continues
Metropolitan area median
home prices continued to rise in the first quarter, with the national gain
showing the best year-over-year performance in over seven years, according to NAR's latest quarterly
report. The
median existing single-family home price rose in 133 out of 150 metropolitan
statistical areas, based on closings in the first quarter of 2013, compared
with first quarter last year, while 17 areas had price declines.
REALTORS® Get the Word Out on
Home Ownership
REALTORS® from
across the U.S. said "Home ownership matters" at the NAR Midyear
Meetings last week in Washington. Hear from them all in this 8-minute video.
Young Practitioners Share Thoughts on
Success
Young, successful
practitioners talk about how they succeeded even as the market struggled to
recover over the last few years in "Right at Home," the latest REALTOR®
Magazine 30-Under-30 video, or read the magazine coverage.
Free Consumer Content: Home Improvements
The latest free content for
your websites, blogs, social media pages, and print resources from HouseLogic's
REALTOR® Content Resource looks at home improvements that help
the bottom line.
$500 Allowance for Jeep Grand Cherokee
The 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee
is now in the lineup of vehicles available for the $500 cash allowance offered
by Chrysler Group LLC in partnership with NAR's REALTOR Benefits®
Program. The cash allowance can be added to most other savings incentives.
Before you visit your local dealer, view current incentives online, and read
through the complete set of rules and benefits at REALTOR.org/Chrysler.
Savings up to 40 Percent with FedEx
Office
Whether you need banners,
brochures, flyers, or business cards you can depend on FedEx Office, a REALTOR
Benefits® participant, for high quality printing of all your marketing
communication needs. When you enroll by May 31, you can save 40 percent on
core printing and copying, and save 30 percent on signs and banners, and other
services at FedEx Office. Enrollment is free.
COMMERCIAL
RE:
Multifamily Driving Commercial Real
Estate
Commercial real estate
investments globally rose 4 percent year-over-year. Yet the industrial, office,
and retail sectors are practically stagnant right now. A strong performance in
multifamily is essentially the only driver of overall commercial growth, economists said last week at the Midyear Meetings in
Washington.
MEMBERSHIP
APPLICATION:
Comments on the following REALTOR®
applicants should be submitted by REALTOR® members to the Membership
Committee, c/o GTAR, PO Box 470603, Tulsa, OK 74147.
Firm Affiliate:
The Real Estate Book of
Greater Tulsa, Designated Individual, Donna Murphy (First Publication)
Stillwater National Bank,
Designated Individual, Elizabeth Favell (Second Publication)
Weststar Pacific Mortgage,
Designated Individual, Teresa Eisenman (Second Publication)
