Posts by "Kathy Howe" Kathy is licensed in both AZ and (inactively) in HI. She has taught GRI in both states and is currently owner/administrator of how2educate LLC (http://how2educate.com), a continuing education school in Sedona, AZ. Kathy lists and sells as the designated broker for how2arizona real estate (http://how2arizona.com), and she consults with brokerages, writes, produces, and teaches courses in real estate throughout Arizona. She is a member of NAR, AAR, PAR, SVVAR and AZREEA.

My classroom is abuzz about whether or not to join in the statewide sharing of data of our listings. It’s to be an integral part of the AAR “Integrated Business Services Platform.” All the data in one MLS system. And for those of you who are members of ARMLS, you know and love FlexMLS. Listing Book, Noisy Neighbor, to name but a few…

So why would anyone NOT want to share their data?

Some of the negative reasons I am hearing:

“We’ll lose our market share.”

“Agents from the Valley will come up here and sell our listings.”

“Our area is different.”

“There could be hundreds of people going through our properties.”

“We’ll have to share our commissions.”

“How much control will we have?”

And then there are those positive reasons:

“Great! We can have a first-class MLS.”

“Our listings will sell faster with more agents showing them.”

“More showings and sales will bring down the ‘days on the market.’”

“I’ll pay anyone who brings my seller a buyer!”

“Wow! Listing exposure all over the state.”

“I told my sellers about this, and they wondered why we hadn’t done it before.”

As you might guess, I’ve left out many comments, and I have paraphrased a few comments to temper the tone or change the choice of words.

Let’s take these issues one at a time.

Does the Arizona Department of Real Estate give a license for a particular area or a particular specialty? Only for cemetery plot sellers, and of course, business brokers have some additional requirements.

Selling outside of our expertise…a huge issue. But is selling a house in the Village of Oak Creek (as an example) any different than selling a house in Anthem? Or the Arizona Biltmore? Of course, there are “issues” with any community, and HOAs can be drastically different in their rules and regs. But are there really issues that make selling property so different that we should limit a licensee’s ability to do so?

When I hear some of the negative reasons for not wanting a statewide MLS, I am reminded of the subagency days when we all represented the sellers. For those of us who are aged enough to remember those days, we remember how many agents thought buyer broker representation would be the ruin of our REALTOR® way of life. Actually, we became better agents, and we learned to better represent our clients. That’s the issue now. How we represent our client(s).

If we don’t go with a statewide data sharing or statewide MLS, are we giving our sellers the best exposure possible? Are we showing our buyers ALL the listings that might fit their needs?

What is our purpose as real estate agents? Maybe each of us needs to ask ourselves: “Who do I serve?”

Think about it…

AAR has put together an awesome array of member benefits that few state associations have offered their membership. Climb aboard…celebrate the delivery of services.

Posts by "Kathy Howe" Kathy is licensed in both AZ and (inactively) in HI. She has taught GRI in both states and is currently owner/administrator of how2educate LLC (http://how2educate.com), a continuing education school in Sedona, AZ. Kathy lists and sells as the designated broker for how2arizona real estate (http://how2arizona.com), and she consults with brokerages, writes, produces, and teaches courses in real estate throughout Arizona. She is a member of NAR, AAR, PAR, SVVAR and AZREEA.

Kathy, Ricardo Bueno (@Ribeezie) of Diverse Solutions and ARMLS mime

Most things in life can be a headline to a writer.

The whole article is another story…

Thursday, April 8th, a fellow ARMLS member and I attended the ARMLS TECHNOPALOOZA in Mesa, AZ. Yvonne Richard and I drive down from Sedona often for classes and refer to these treks as “road trips”…a time to gossip, catch up on real estate, talk golf (need to play more) and share stories. Girls will be girls!

On the way down to Mesa, Yvonne made the statement that “every transaction has its story.” True. Could make a great post…h-m-m.

On the way back to Sedona, it was “What were you thinking?!”

We were so energized by TECHNOPALOOZA that we laughed almost all the way home. Much of the time we chuckled at the comments we heard during the sessions.

Exhibit Hall at TECHNOPALOOZA

Got stories? Let me hear some of them. Please share. Short stories…

From an educator’s perspective, we hear many things that give us pause. Just a few recent ones…

What were you thinking?

From an agency C/E class:

The discussion had been on the difference between dual agency in Arizona and designated agency in other states.

“Questions?”

Student in the front row: “When are we going to cover the other kind of dual agency?”

[Ed. Note: Student had a PhD.]

From a technology class:

The discussion and demonstration showed learners how to use their tablet PCs to get signatures and initials on the loaded purchase contract by using the stylus and having the buyer write their signature and initials directly on the tablet face. Demo done.

“Questions?”

Student near the front: “Is that signature legal?”

[Ed. Note: Ever signed for a UPS package delivered to your home?]

From a disclosure class:

The discussion centered on whether or not a seller needed to disclose the results from a recent home inspection report whereby significant latent defects were discovered.

“What do you think?”

Learner in the rear: “That information is confidential and one of the fiduciary duties you owe your seller.”

[Ed. Note: Back to the drawing board…]

From a prelicensure class:

The learner had taken the quiz at the end of the session, and we were reviewing the answers. A question on stigmatized properties asked if the seller had to disclose the fact that the house next door had been used as a “drop house” for illegal aliens.

Student comment: “I suppose if the seller’s house had been the ‘drop house,’ the answer would be ‘no!’”

[Ed. Note: And your answer would be?]

That’s all for now, people…

Kathy Howe

Posts by "Kathy Howe" Kathy is licensed in both AZ and (inactively) in HI. She has taught GRI in both states and is currently owner/administrator of how2educate LLC (http://how2educate.com), a continuing education school in Sedona, AZ. Kathy lists and sells as the designated broker for how2arizona real estate (http://how2arizona.com), and she consults with brokerages, writes, produces, and teaches courses in real estate throughout Arizona. She is a member of NAR, AAR, PAR, SVVAR and AZREEA.

Many of you use different contact management programs and are very happy with the whistles and bells they provide you.  This information is for those of you who want to simplify your lives.

For years Microsoft Office provided me with all that I needed for my business.  And, as my emphasis turned into keeping school records rather than drip-mailing clients; and later, when the Hawaii Association of REALTORS® scheduled me as a GRI Instructor for two of their modules, I found myself very comfortable using only MS Outlook for all my contacts.  Until I received an invitation to Google’s new gMail Beta…

April of 2004, Google sent out invites to people to beta test their new offering:  gMail.  Can’t believe I have morphed with Google over 7 years – we’ve grown up together.  So much so that I only use MS Outlook when I want to create a great signature.  While gMail has applications you can use for signatures, I still find it easier to do mine on MS Outlook.  Call me an “old dog”.

Fast-forwarding to the present, let’s explore the reasons I thing “gMail rocks”:

Priority Mail Inbox

Instead of writing about it, let the video tell you how it works

Yes, you can make “rules” in Outlook, but gMail really does do a better job of filtering spam, has a more simple search box, allows easier filing… forgive me, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Labels

One area where gMail does a great job is in filing by labeling.  When an email comes in from a client you check the box next to the email or if the email is open, go directly to “label” and a dropdown box will appear.  If this is a new file you want to create, type in the name for the file and click “create label”.  If you already have a file for this email, just scroll down the dropbox till you reach the file name you wish to use and click on it.  If you are ready to file the message, you then click on “archive”.

Files

To your left, as you look at gMail, you will find a list of your labeled files.  Easy access by clicking on one of them, or by the use of the search box you can bring up the emails in the file.

Search

This is one of my favorite components of gMail.  As a designated broker I’ve learned to save everything and am constantly looking in my digital files for information.  Sometimes I know who sent me the information and other times I don’t.  gMail will search the email addresses and the text.  It’s like searching Google itself!

See this video for particulars:

It’s awesome!  My life is searchable on gMail!

Threaded Conversations

This feature is to-die-for!!

When you’re working with a client, you can stack, stack, stack, and then go to the left side of your email browser and look to the top right side and find a menu of link choices:  “New Window”, “Print All”, “Expand All”, or “Forward all”.

For agents who still prefer paper files, you can “print” all at the end of a transaction and put them into your paper file.

For agents who are digital, you can print to pdf and save in your transaction file, or “select all”, “copy”, and “save as” to your digital transaction file.

There’s soooooo much more I can say about gMail; and if you come to the AAR Winter Conference in Prescott, I’ll be happy to show you more about gMail.  Join us!  Learn more about how to organize your life and your time.

Kathy Howe aka SedonaKathy

• Designated Broker:  how2arizona real estate LLC
• Owner/Educator/Administrator:  how2educate LLC
• Twitter:  @SedonaKathy
• Facebook:  www.facebook.com/sedonakathy
• YouTube:  www.youtube.com/sedonakathy