2017 Risk Management Exchange Highlights – Part 1

The Risk Management Exchange at the 2017 Arizona REALTOR® Convention was so popular, we started sharing this abridged transcription for members who were there and those unable to attend.

Scott Drucker: As the name of this breakout session suggests, we really want this to be an exchange of information. These four individuals are going to give us a lot of risk management information on both a national, state, local level.

All four serve on the Arizona REALTORS® 2017 Risk Management Committee with Evan Fuchs being the chair. We also have John Mijac, who is instrumental in the Tucson Association of REALTORS® (TAR) Risk Management Committee.

Then we have Holly Eslinger and JT Tsighis. Both serve on the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) Risk Management Committee. Holly is the current Vice Chair of that committee. JT also serves on the TAR Risk Management Committee and was chair of the 2016 NAR Risk Management and License Law Forum.

Serving on NAR Committees

Scott Drucker: Let me start with JT and Holly. Because we may have some folks here that are interested in serving on NAR committees, how did you both come to serve on the NAR Risk Management Committee and how does one go about applying for the Committee?

JT Tsighis: I first recommend that you read an article I wrote on how to become a member of a National Association of Realtors committee. Should you need it, I’ll be there to guide you through it, free of charge.

Holly Eslinger: There’s a timeline for all NAR committees. If you will follow this timeline and apply, that’s how you get started. It’s up to you. Nobody asks you to join. Nobody tells you what committees are available. You have to do your own investigation into what you have a passion for.

Scott Drucker: What are some of the issues that you’re dealing with on a national level?

Social Media, Emails & Websites

Holly Eslinger: One example. This is what we sent in this last year, as one of our issues: Lacks monitoring of social media, emails and websites, and client information not being secured in emails. There needs to be more education. Right now, what we are doing is we are discussing the pirating of information on listings.

Agents are pirating from other agents their listings on Facebook and LinkedIn, and putting it on their own sites. Then they are actually picking up the clients when the listing agent is the one that originally put the information on Facebook. This is an issue that has gone from Arizona to the National Association, and we are now talking about it. That’s why your input is so very important to us.

Elder Abuse

Scott Drucker: JT, I know you spent part of our last NAR convention talking about elder abuse. Do you want to touch on that and some of the other issues that you are working on from a national perspective?

JT Tsighis: The designated broker of Keller Williams Southern Arizona in Tucson is a member of our local risk management committee. She brought up the issue and emerging trend of elder abuse to our attention.

From that Tucson Association meeting, to the state, to national, NAR chose to feature the topic of elder abuse for their forum last year. AAR did what they do best and wrote a follow up on elder abuse and some of the things that would help you as an agent when confronted with this situation.

We’re not the in position to judge or evaluate the competency of our clients, but the articles provide helpful information and a full procedure to follow.

Scott Drucker: John, I know working with seniors is something that you spend a lot of time on in Tucson. What’s going on?

John Mijac: Our local risk committee spent a lot of time on this issue and because of our discussions, many of the Tucson Designated Brokers were able to disseminate valuable information to their agents.

Eventually, we came to the conclusion that what we needed to do was educate our membership in a deeper fashion. We put together an education program and put that out for membership in the form of a class.

Serving on the Arizona REALTORS® Risk Management Committee

Scott Drucker: Evan, if someone wants to become a member of AAR’s Risk Management Committee, how do they go about doing that?

Evan Fuchs: We have an application process where if you’re interested in joining the committee, what you need to do is go to AAR online; there are also policies about term limits, how long you can serve.

The issues that are addressed in Risk Management are things like forms, legal hotline, professional standards, legal issues — things that affect us in the field day-to-day. If that’s the kind of thing that you’re excited about, you should absolutely apply to come on the committee.

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