REALTOR SOCIAL NETWORKING, TRAINING UP

WASHINGTON (Realtor.org) – A growing number of Realtors are using social networking tools and obtaining training to better serve their clients, according to the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) latest member profile survey.

More than one-third of Realtors use social and professional networking sites, the survey found. Blogs, RSS feeds and podcasts are used by 17 percent of respondents on a regular basis, up from 12 percent in 2008.

Thirty-five percent hold at least one professional designation, up from 32 percent in 2008. The most popular is the GRI (Graduate, Realtor Institute), held by 20 percent of respondents, followed by ABR (Accredited Buyer Representative) at 13 percent, CRS (Certified Residential Specialist) at 10 percent and SRES (Seniors Real Estate Specialist) at 5 percent.
One quarter of the association’s membership belongs to one or more affiliated institutes, societies or councils. Eleven percent belong to the Council of Residential Specialists, 10 percent are members of the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council, 4 percent the Women’s Council of Realtors and 3 percent the Council of Real Estate Brokerage Managers.

NAR’s membership is currently at 1.2 million, about 60 percent of the nearly two million active real estate licensees across the country.

New SCAM Alert

Be aware of a new scam being played out on the internet.... Here's what we've had happen in Victoria recently....

Some unknown person(s) have been capturing photographs of upper-end homes that are listed for sale by a Real Estate company and posted on a web-site....(Our company web site, Realtor.com, etc.) They are transferring these photographs to Craig's list and the properties are being advertised for RENT...displaying the photographs. Persons interested in "renting" the property make all arrangements by email and a security deposit is required... by credit card. They are told where to pick up the key, usually at a Real Estate office... The credit card charge is processed overseas. Our Victoria office has experienced three such attempts in the past couple of weeks.... One person actually had their credit card charged for the security deposit and they showed up at our office looking for the key.

Just wanted everyone to be aware. jd

J. D. Simpson
Coldwell Banker The Ron Brown Company

Real Estate Institue Survey

For planning and scheduling proposes for the remaining calendar year the Real Estate Institute would like to ask you a few question regarding your mandatory legal courses.

Thank you for participating in our survey. Your feedback is important.

Please click the link below.

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB2297NV8XT75

Finally a solution to Appraisal Form 1004MC

Many appraisers if not all appraisers have recently been asking me questions about how to fill out the new Market Conditions Addendum or Form 1004MC. MarketLinx the company that provides the MLXChange system has recently developed a solution that should make filling this form out easy less time consuming.

First, you will need to download the Excel spreadsheet they are providing. This Excel spreadsheet will calculate many of the needed fields required by the 1004 MC form.

Click Here to Download the spreadsheet - save this to your computer

Second, you will need to pull the comparables from MLXChange. To do this,

• Run a search to return all comparable properties within the past year (using Status Date >12 months ago). The spreadsheet will calculate statistics for up to 1000 comparables.
• From the search results grid, select Export Data from the Action list and click the arrow button to open the data export page.
• Ensure that the All Records radio button is selected
• From the Data Export Format list, select Tab Delimited.
• Click Next.
• Select 1004 MC from the Select Export Grid Format list.
• Click the Include Column Headers check box to select it.
• Click Next.
• When prompted to open or save the file, click Save to open the Save As dialog.
• Select a location on your computer to save the file, and click Save.
• Enter the desired evaluation date in cell B3.
• Open the data export file that you saved to your computer earlier.
• Copy the contents of the data export file and paste them into cell A18 of this spreadsheet (Paste Here!).
• Copy the statistical data from the blue table into the Market Conditions Addendum (Form 1004MC) and perform analysis as needed.
  

I hope this solutions is a help to you, please contact me at josh@ccaronline.com for question or comments.

I will be having a short 1 hours class to go over this procedure May 28, 2009 here at the association office at 1:30 pm.