Posts by "Sage Dillon" http://www.aaronline.com Sage Dillon is the Communications Manager for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. You can find her on Facebook or Twitter.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user HarshLight

I brought my husband, mother-in-law and two kids along to Anaheim this past weekend so that they could do Disneyland while I did the National Association of REALTORS® annual convention. Because I was bringing the kiddos, I chose to stay at the Disneyland Hotel rather than a Hilton or Marriott.

It was my first time staying at a Disney property. I’ve been to the Magic Kingdom plenty of times, but growing up, my family generally stayed at a motel down the road to save money. Why pay more when all you’re going to do is sleep in the room, right?

During the convention’s general session, I was fortunate to hear former Disney CEO Michael Eisner speak. He had two main messages: practice creativity in a (financially responsible) box and don’t be afraid to micromanage.

Eisner was promoting micromanagement? Yep, that’s correct. But what he calls “micromanagement,” others might call “attention to detail.” He talked about how nothing was too small to escape Walt Disney’s notice. He would pick up litter as he wandered the park—the guy in charge setting a priority on cleanliness that is still evident at Disneyland today.

When I checked in to the Disneyland Hotel, the kids had not yet arrived. As I unpacked my bag and tidied up, I kept finding Mickey Mouse everywhere. He was subtly in the tiles of the bathtub. His familiar white-gloved hands held the lights by the mirror. His distinctive ears swirled in the carpets. A Mickey treasure hunt for my four-year-old son, I thought with delight!

As I passed the nightstand, I noticed that the lamp had two switches. A tiny Tinkerbell pointed to one of them. Intrigued, I hit the switch. The wooden headboard, carved with the familiar Disney castle, suddenly lit up with stars and fireworks as “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” started to play in a music box tone. Magic!

I couldn’t wait for my kids to arrive. The four-year old found all the Mickeys, with a little help from Grandma, but I saved the best for last. When I lit up the headboard, my nine-month-old cooed and reached out for the stars. And my son’s look of wonder was so heartfelt and intense that it nearly made his mama cry.

That headboard was our night light, and the wonder of turning it on and hearing the music play lasted throughout our stay. The motel down the street is a cheaper place to rest your head, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But this past weekend, I discovered the value of Disney’s fanatical attention to detail. That kind of magic is hard to resist.

What do you do in your business to enchant your customers? What is your signature service? It may be time to let Disney work his spell on you and inspire you to find your own magic.

(Want to see the headboard in action? It’s on YouTube, of course.)

Posts by "Sage Dillon" http://www.aaronline.com Sage Dillon is the Communications Manager for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. You can find her on Facebook or Twitter.

In an effort to help you reduce your risk, AAR’s Risk Management Committee has put together a new webpage intended to bring possible scams or fraudulent activity to AAR members’ attention. Below is one example of a scam to watch out for. For more information about scams in our marketplace, visit the Scams & Frauds page.

A FOREIGN BUYER TRANSFERRING FUNDS TO U.S.

Submitted by Jerome King, Designated Broker, Long Realty Company – Tucson, Arizona

Agents continue to get inquiries from alleged buyers outside the country with requests to purchase a property. The inquiries often appear, in the words of one agent, “too good to be true.” The alleged buyer often requests the name and email address of an attorney. Please do not provide the name/email of an attorney without that attorney’s expressed permission and understanding. This seems to be a gambit these guys like to use to appear to be legitimate.

James Robertson, Jr., an experienced commercial agent, has helped me understand what information is needed to present to a possible international buyer and what we should require before we begin working on such a buyer’s behalf.

James explains that there are important federal laws to observe, and this buyer is probably in no position to perform. For example, JP Morgan Chase, China Bank in LA, Deutsche Bank, Barkley’s Bank and others have international cash transfer departments.

You should first refer this buyer to one of these institutions to have the currency transferred and converted to US currency. The bank will do the federal notifications and prepare it for transfer to the escrow company when instructed. If there are any taxes due or disclosures needed, the banking institution will do this as part of their fee, which is usually 2 to 5%. There may be a waiting period for seasoning of the funds, which may take as long as 90 days, depending upon what country it is coming from and how much cash is in the transaction.

Some banks were requiring the transferring entity to buy a liability policy on the transfer, covering the banks loss margin, if any, and fraud. This could be as much as 500 basis points.

Bottom line: Only do international deals if you really know what you are doing and always verify that hard funds are in a legitimate escrow account before you start to work with an international buyer. A scammer will disappear when you insist on this process of transferring funds first.

If you are aware of a possible scam, please send it to scamalert@aaronline.com for possible inclusion on the new page.

Posts by "Sage Dillon" http://www.aaronline.com Sage Dillon is the Communications Manager for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. You can find her on Facebook or Twitter.

For more photos, scroll down to the slideshow at the bottom of this post.

AAR’s annual Leadership Conference provides inspiring education for REALTOR® leaders at the state and local levels. This year was no exception. Jason Schechterle shared his empowering, positive story of triumph over adversity. (See beyondtheflames.com.) And Adorna Carroll, a dynamic association educator and facilitator, brought much needed clarity to governance and leadership issues.

In the post-event survey, we asked attendees to share their top takeaways. Here is a selection of responses (attribution given where known):

• “Flash mobs can happen anywhere. Incoming local association presidents are optimistic, hopeful and excited to help their communities and associations take advantage of opportunities in the coming year. And $.70 of every dollar for RAPAC stays in the state and is the cheapest form of insurance I can have for my business.” – Holly Mabery, 2012 AAR President, Sedona/Verde Valley Association of REALTORS®

• “All members have passion. Find out what their passion is.”

• “Have director liaisons for all of the different committees. This allows all directors to have a role in more than just attending a board of directors meeting once a month.” – Mary Roberts, Lake Havasu Association of REALTORS®

• “Construct a demographic study of the association’s members for the purpose of marketing to different levels of membership.” – Netta Salazar, Western Pinal Association of REALTORS®

• “Leadership should meet before the general board meeting.”

• “The importance of our fiduciary roles as directors and officers of both our local and state associations!” – James “J.T.” Tsighis, Tucson Association of REALTORS®

• “Focus primarily on that portion of our membership that is engaged.”

• “We are all in this together. We need to remember to run our associations like a business. We all have challenges, and in sharing, we just might find solutions to what is happening in our own areas.” – Linda Huffman, Southeast Arizona Association of REALTORS®

• “Members need to know the outcome, not the discussions or who said what.”

• “I like the idea of layering the board committees and having a director liaison oversee those committees. This helps the board of directors see who may have great potential to serve on the board in the future. Plus, it gets your board members more involved.” - Yvonne Coelet, White Mountains Association of REALTORS®

• “Minutes, notes and all devices brought into meetings (including phones, iPads, laptops, etc.) can be subpoenaed.” - Jill Knox, Tucson Association of REALTORS®

• “It’s about your members, not about you!” – Kathleen Murray, Kingman/Golden Valley Association of REALTORS®

• “Rethink the idea of having board members move through the chairs. Put the best person for the job in the position. Not everyone wants to be treasurer!”

• “Review documents and make sure we are following our bylaws.” – Lynn Butler, Douglas Association of REALTORS®

• “Have a member of the board sit down with every new member of the association to go over what the board does locally, at the state level and nationally. Plant the seed to have them volunteer at a later date.”

• “Jason’s story was inspiring beyond words. His spirit and ability to convey a ‘can do’ attitude to an audience was phenomenal.” – Dru Bloomfield, Scottsdale Area Association of REALTORS®

Thank you to all who attended and participated in these important sessions!

Posts by "Sage Dillon" http://www.aaronline.com Sage Dillon is the Communications Manager for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. You can find her on Facebook or Twitter.

NAR has announced existing home sales numbers for September 2011. Here’s the summary for the West:

Existing-home sales in the West fell 8.8% to an annual pace of 1.14 million in September but are 10.7% higher than September 2010. The median price in the West was $207,400, which is 4.5% below a year ago.

It’s interesting to see how the percent change in sales in the West from one year ago stacks up at different price ranges:

$0-100k     42.4%
$100-250k     16.4%
$250-500k     6.7%
$500-750k     2.2%
$750-1M     11.5%
$1M+     3.5%

Tell us about what you’re seeing in your corner of the market in the comments below.

Posts by "Sage Dillon" http://www.aaronline.com Sage Dillon is the Communications Manager for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. You can find her on Facebook or Twitter.

Image Credit: NAR

Have you heard the news? NAR’s bus tour will be moving through our state over the next couple of days.

Here’s the skinny:

Phoenix, AZ

Thursday, October 20
11am – noon
Phoenix Association of REALTORS®
5033 North 19th Avenue #119
Phoenix, AZ 85015

Tucson, AZ

Friday, October 21
8am – 10am
TAR weekly meeting at PF Chang’s
1805 E River Rd. Suite 100, Joesler Village
Tucson, AZ 85718

Mesa, AZ

Friday, October 21
5pm – 8pm
SouthEast Valley Association of REALTORS®
1363 South Vineyard
Mesa, AZ 85210

The bus tour helps raise awareness for NAR’s Home Ownership Matters initiative. You can follow the bus tour via the Home Ownership Matters Facebook page.

If you see the bus moving through your area, snap a shot and share it with us in the comments below or on AAR’s Facebook page.

Posts by "Sage Dillon" http://www.aaronline.com Sage Dillon is the Communications Manager for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. You can find her on Facebook or Twitter.

Because Congress did not take action to extend the FHA and GSE mortgage loan limits, limits have declined in 669 counties in 42 states–including 9 of the 15 counties in Arizona–as of Saturday, October 1, 2011. Below are estimates from the National Association of REALTORS® on the decreases in Arizona.

View NAR’s full report on loan limit changes across the country.

Find out what you can do to encourage Congress to extend loan limits.

Posts by "Sage Dillon" http://www.aaronline.com Sage Dillon is the Communications Manager for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. You can find her on Facebook or Twitter.

I attended a great event yesterday put on by ARMLS and the Phoenix Business Journal called “Real Estate Forward: A Forum with the Facts.” Here are some of the highlights from my notes.

Ted C. Jones – Stewart Title Guaranty Company
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

“You can’t have a jobless recovery.”

2002 was the last time the market was “normal,” says Jones. It takes about 1.25-1.5  new jobs per new dwelling. Given that, we’ve got 3-4 years to go, maybe more. Other predictions: $5/gallon gas is coming in 3-4 years. Fannie and Freddie will exit jumbo loans in October. Interest rates are going up.

Mike Orr – The Cromford Report
RESIDENTIAL

“I’m often asked, Have we hit bottom? It’s like driving across Kansas and trying to find the lowest point.”

In 2005, no one believed that home prices would tumble, said Orr. Now people find it hard to believe that they’ll ever go up again. All of the data points are looking good right now–except prices. The market is not driven only by supply and demand but also by emotion. It can take a long time for the market to react to the influence of supply and demand. But the pressure is on prices to go up.

Scott Golba – Golba Group Residential Property Management
RESIDENTIAL RENTALS

“50% of homes in the U.S. are rentals. In the Phoenix metro area, the number is 34%.”

A lot of today’s renters are former homeowners who lost their homes, says Golba. These are good tenants to have because they are doing everything they can to rebuild their credit and buy a home again in a few years.

Stein Koss – Lee & Associates
INDUSTRIAL

“The momentum is changing.”

People feel like we’ve been at the bottom long enough and are ready to make some deals, says Koss. Phoenix is still considered a secondary market, as compared to Dallas or Chicago, but Amazon, Home Depot and the Home Shopping Network have taken space recently. You really need to have a story to move inventory; it can’t just be a commodity.

Phil Breidenbach – Office Properties Solution Group
COMMERCIAL LEASING

“We’ve gone through the five steps of grieving.”

We’re working hard, but a lot of the activity is busy work still rather than real action, says Breidenbach. A couple of areas are bright spots, including downtown Phoenix (which is heading towards a strong 5% vacancy rate) and the southeast Valley, with its knowledge-based economy.

Cam Stanton – CB Richard Ellis
COMMERCIAL (RETAIL) SALES

“Retail follows rooftops, so it has suffered along with residential.”

B, C and even A properties are in trouble with falling rents and occupancy issues, says Stanton. He’s focusing on doing business with lenders rather than investors–managing, leasing, appraising or selling. It will likely take 3-5 years to “flush the system.”

Nate Nathan – Nathan & Associates
LAND

“It starts with me.”

I called the bottom in March 2010, says Nathan during a very positive presentation about land sales. We should be out of lots by 2014-2015. “You have two to three years to buy land, and then it’s over.”

Thanks to the Phoenix Business Journal and Bob Bemis, Chris Heagerty and the rest of the ARMLS crew for putting together an insightful morning.

Posts by "Sage Dillon" http://www.aaronline.com Sage Dillon is the Communications Manager for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. You can find her on Facebook or Twitter.

AAR is working to incorporate more video into our communications with members. Are you doing the same with outreach to your clients?

Like most of the REALTORS® we support, AAR doesn’t have fancy video equipment or videographers on staff. Yet it is amazing what can be accomplished with some basic equipment and free online tools. Here’s how we put together our latest video (which, by the way, you should definitely check out).

1. Script It. We developed a script but knew it was just a guideline. It’s better to improv a bit—or even a lot—rather than read on camera. Of course, it will surprise no one that AAR General Counsel Michelle Lind knows her stuff and needs little in the way of notes.
2. Film It. We used our digital SLR still camera (a Canon EOS Rebel T1i) to shoot the video. The camera produces high quality video as long as you respect its limitations. First, once it’s focused, it’s focused. If Michelle were walking around in front of a group, we would have switched to our video camera. Second, unless we plug in a microphone, we need to shoot in a quiet spot. Her office was perfect. Third, we put the camera on a tripod. Shaky footage is nearly impossible to avoid when a person is holding the camera. Michelle did it in one take—naturally!
3. Upload It. We uploaded the video to AAR’s YouTube channel. It turned out to be a little bit longer than we had intended, so under Privacy, we marked the video as unlisted at that point. (When a video is unlisted, only those with the direct link can see it.)
4. Edit It. In an article on cloud computing in the June/July issue of the ARMLS e-zine Wave, I found a reference to the YouTube Editor. Though the editor launched in June 2010, this was the first I had heard of it. It couldn’t have been simpler to use. I read this YouTube help page and watched this video to get myself familiar with the product. Then I got to playing with it.

   I wanted to cut out about a minute. To do so, I dragged the video into the grey section at the bottom. I clicked the scissors icon, which shows up when you mouse over the video image, and edited out a bit at the start by dragging the vertical bar on the left a few ticks to the right. (The double arrows pointing in either direction at the top and bottom of the vertical bar are critical for editing in the tenths of seconds.)  Then I moved the bar on the right over to the appropriate spot. My first segment was ready!

   I dragged the same video into the grey section after the first and started to create the second segment. I did this a few more times until I had five segments of just the parts I wanted included in the final video. Then I fine-tuned things a bit using those top and bottom double arrows to stop and start at just the right spot and avoid over-obvious cuts. This takes time but is well worth it.

   Note: As I was using the native audio, I didn’t explore that part of the editor, but you can add a new audio track using this editor too.

   Voilà! I had a video. I gave the project a name (upper right) and hit Publish.

5. Annotate It. There were a few text notes that I wanted to add to the video, so I went to the video’s page (still unlisted at this point). I clicked Edit Video Detail at the top and put in a title and description. Then I clicked Edit Annotations and put the notes in the relevant spots within the video. With a little bit of practice, this was a cinch.
6. Launch It! After a quick once-over the final product, we were ready to make it public (Edit Video Details | Settings). We put it on the AAROnline.com homepage, shared it on our Facebook page and sent a link out via Twitter.

Are you wondering why I didn’t make a video of this process rather than write up an article? First, it was my first go, and I knew it would be too sloppy to share. Second, I personally like to have written notes on a process. Pausing and restarting a video in one tab as I do the steps in another tab doesn’t work as well for me. But then, I’m Gen X. Perhaps if I were Gen Y, I would be better at that?

While we’re talking YouTube, check out this article with some pretty clever YouTube URL tips from MakeUseOf, which our graphic designer J Thurston dug up. I have often wanted to share just part of a YouTube video, and this explains how to do it (among other things).

Bottom line: Don’t be afraid to tackle video. It’s not as hard as you think.

Posts by "Sage Dillon" http://www.aaronline.com Sage Dillon is the Communications Manager for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. You can find her on Facebook or Twitter.

Image courtesy of Flickr user joebeone

Question: Recently a lender refused to accept an electronic signature on a purchase contract and demanded original signature. Is this legal?

Answer: While e-signatures have been gaining momentum, some institutions still refuse to accept them–despite the fact that electronic signatures are perfectly legal! To get the deal done, you’ll have to conform to their rules for now. But don’t let that stop you from lodging a complaint once the process is complete. If they get enough push back, perhaps they will change their tune.

Here is a related article from REALTOR® Magazine that provides additional background.

By the way, AAR will be launching an e-signature member benefit in 2011. Stay tuned for the details!

Posts by "Sage Dillon" http://www.aaronline.com Sage Dillon is the Communications Manager for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. You can find her on Facebook or Twitter.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Calc-tufa

AAR General Counsel Michelle Lind and Risk Management Specialist Jan Steward have put together an article on the impact of wildfires and floods on transactions in which AAR’s residential resale purchase contract has been executed, but escrow has not closed. Here’s an excerpt for your reading pleasure:

Can either party cancel the Contract if the property is completely destroyed by fire or flood?
Yes.  If the property is completely destroyed by fire or flood, either the seller or buyer may elect to cancel the Contract by written notice delivered to the escrow company. (See Contract, Section 8b, lines 316-319).

What happens if the property is only partially damaged by fire or flood?
Pursuant to the Contract, the seller “warrants that . . . at the earlier of possession or close of escrow, the Premises will be in substantially the same condition as on the date of Contract Acceptance.” (See Contract, Section 5a, lines 163-168). The Risk of Loss provision in the Contract allows for cancellation only if the cost to repair exceeds ten percent (10%) of the purchase price. Therefore, if the cost to repair is less than ten percent (10%) of the purchase price, the Seller is obligated to repair the damage.

What happens if the property is undamaged by the fire or flood but the surrounding area has been destroyed?
After expiration of the inspection period, if the property is undamaged by the fire or flood and is in substantially the same condition, the buyer is obligated to close escrow despite the damage to the surrounding area. However, if the damage to the surrounding area is adversely affected, the buyer may not be able to obtain financing resulting in a failed financing contingency.

If you have not checked out the collection of legal articles on AAROnline.com, you really should. (Note: Most legal articles are password protected and available only to members of the Arizona Association of REALTORS®.)