Posts by "Tom Farley" http://www.aaronline.com Tom Farley is the CEO of the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. He is the lead political strategist for the association. Tom has run or been involved in several statewide and local campaigns on behalf of the REALTORS® on issues ranging from taxes to land use. He is a member or sits on the board of directors of several organizations, including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Tax Research Association and the Public Affairs Professionals Association.

Will our industry direct its future or wait for change to move past us?

Volunteers and staff at AAR have been hard at work for several months developing two major projects: ARBI (Arizona REALTOR® Business Interface) and AZMLS (statewide MLS).

In August, AAR’s board of directors approved a plan to purchase ARMLS, a first step towards statewide MLS. However, the plans hit a snag in September when AAR received notice from SEVRAR that it would not sell its interest in ARMLS. Despite this setback, the momentum and enthusiasm for AAR’s statewide MLS keep growing, and we will continue to explore the options for moving this project to completion for the benefit of our statewide membership.

ARBI is a separate initiative from statewide MLS and is on track for a rapid development cycle. The data integration at the core of ARBI should result in significant improvements in efficiency for our members. You can read more about this project below.

AAR’s goal is to empower members to meet the challenges of tomorrow by harnessing the changes all around us today. Let us know what you think. Weigh in via the comments section below or email statewidemls@aaronline.com.

Tom Farley
AAR Chief Executive Officer

What is the Arizona REALTOR® Business Interface (ARBI)?

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words:

Click to view a larger version of this image.

Here you see a mockup of what ARBI might be.  While the final result will look different, this diagram illustrates key features.  The virtual pathways at the extreme right of the diagram signify the many possible two-way channels into the dashboard, including MLS and public records, digital maps, electronic forms, digital signatures, Realtors Property Resource™ (RPR™), transaction management, iMapp, broker back-office support, third party applications and more.

Behind the scenes, information from all of the key applications is merged and redistributed to eliminate endless re-entry of the same information and decrease errors.  Although completely unseen by users, this data-integration is definitely the most complex portion of the ARBI project.  You may ask, “Why hasn’t this happened sooner?”

AAR’s approach to providing meaningful business services is to offer “best-of-breed” products in terms of security, usability and value.  This usually means different vendors.  Each vendor offers its own portal for data integration, but that means 14 MLS systems with each of three separate systems equals over 40 individual integration projects!  It’s no wonder that it’s taking so long to get all of the information flowing back and forth. Plus, it gets even more complicated: today, if a member wants to purchase CMA software, a mobile or iPad app, there is no guarantee that the software will work with their local MLS or even worse, multiple MLSs.  Vendors must obtain permission from one or more associations and possibly pay additional fees.

This approach is outdated and is difficult for vendors and members.  Consider the dilemma faced with, say, a CRM (customer relationship management) vendor… dozens of expensive integration projects with different vendors for one state?  Not happening. Enter ARBI, the “traffic cop” for all the information. With ARBI, AAR can now leverage its clout with its vendors to push them toward developing for a single interface.

At this point, it becomes clearer why a statewide MLS with one vendor makes so much sense with ARBI – one vendor, one integration and all MLS data in Arizona flows!  A CRM or mobile marketing vendor would then be able to code for one standard and be able to offer an integrated product for nearly 40,000 Arizona REALTORS^®.  That said, ARBI is important enough to stand alone, which is why AAR leadership chose to put it on a separate development track.  ARBI has been funded and will be completed, regardless of the status of Arizona MLS.

ARBI gives you:

• A single place to start a transaction – saves effort.
• Information auto-fills into other applications – saves effort and improves accuracy.
• A single place to check status for everything – saves time and effort.
• One central place to get information you need from the broker, the association, industry news sources, even the Department of Real Estate – saves time and effort.
• One username and password – saves your sanity.

Where are we now?

We have a sense of urgency in bringing ARBI “to market.”  The design team has decided on a “rapid application development” approach that presents a usable product to members at the very earliest date.  This technique is increasingly common with development of all size projects.  In it, a quick prototype release and long, open beta period brings a usable product to market quickly, then allows user input to shape ongoing development.

As mentioned, ARBI refers to not only the interface (the user screen), but the underlying technology that makes it all work.  The project will probably be developed in stages, beginning with the user interface (pictured) with stable, but basic underlying technology and moving into a refined user interface refinements with deeper technology development to enable further features.  Most of the technology changes will be invisible to users – users will just see more and more features as the system develops.

ARBI funding has been approved and ten major developers (including MLS vendors, e-forms vendors, transaction management vendors and general application developers) have been contacted to assess their interest and capabilities.  The ARBI Workgroup is working through proposals and determining the best course of action.

Moving forward…

Actual development should begin before the end of 2011.  Depending on a number of factors, members may see an initial version by the end of June 2012.  As mentioned, the approach will be to release new versions rapidly over the first year or so, refining and enhancing ARBI based on real user input.

Posts by "Tom Farley" http://www.aaronline.com Tom Farley is the CEO of the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. He is the lead political strategist for the association. Tom has run or been involved in several statewide and local campaigns on behalf of the REALTORS® on issues ranging from taxes to land use. He is a member or sits on the board of directors of several organizations, including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Tax Research Association and the Public Affairs Professionals Association.

On Friday, September 9, 2011, the Arizona Association of REALTORS® received notice from SEVRAR that their board of directors met and voted not to sell their interest in ARMLS to AAR in order to create a statewide MLS.  WEMAR also met on September 9, but at the time of drafting this post, AAR had not learned of their decision on selling their interest in ARMLS. The Phoenix and Scottsdale Area associations have submitted their approvals to sell their interests in ARMLS to AAR.

Since word started getting out on Friday about AZMLS’s status, AAR has received a lot of support for continuing our discussions on this important matter.  President Fouts is out of town, and I will be taking a week off starting Tuesday after 19-months of working on this visionary project.  Upon our return, we will sit down with those that have asked us to continue our discussions.

Personally, I want to thank those that worked so hard in investigating and designing the AZMLS Business Plan.  You did Arizona and its members proud.  While we may not cross the finish line, no one can say that we didn’t leave it all on the field.

Posts by "Tom Farley" http://www.aaronline.com Tom Farley is the CEO of the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. He is the lead political strategist for the association. Tom has run or been involved in several statewide and local campaigns on behalf of the REALTORS® on issues ranging from taxes to land use. He is a member or sits on the board of directors of several organizations, including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Tax Research Association and the Public Affairs Professionals Association.

 To:     Arizona REALTORS^®

From: Duane Fouts, 2011 AAR President

Re:      NAR REALTOR Party Political Survival Initiative – Possible $40 NAR Dues Increase

The National Association of REALTORS® is proposing a new initiative – The Realtor® Party Political Survival Initiative. Have you heard the buzz???  This May, the NAR Board of Directors will vote on the proposal at the Midyear Legislative Meetings and Trade Expo.   The NAR initiative is designed to keep the Voice of Real Estate one of the most influential advocacy groups in America. Please take the time to visit the links below and educate yourself on the initiative.  To fund the effort, the REALTOR^® Party Political Survival Initiative proposes a dedicated dues increase of $40 for REALTOR^® Members.

To help provide you with the latest information and answer questions that have been raised, the 2011 NAR Leadership Team and 2003 NAR President, Cathy Whatley have announced that a live virtual Town Hall will be held on Wednesday, April 13th, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Arizona time. This will be an open discussion on the merits of this initiative to the membership.

To participate, register by clicking here.  Here are more important links:

• PowerPoint Presentation on RPPSI
• Learn more and provide feedback
• FAQs.
• More important background materials – resource page.

Please take a moment to register for the town hall and participate on April 13 at 11am.  Thank you!

Posts by "Tom Farley" http://www.aaronline.com Tom Farley is the CEO of the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. He is the lead political strategist for the association. Tom has run or been involved in several statewide and local campaigns on behalf of the REALTORS® on issues ranging from taxes to land use. He is a member or sits on the board of directors of several organizations, including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Tax Research Association and the Public Affairs Professionals Association.

An Arizona Association of REALTORS® Project

Posts by "Tom Farley" http://www.aaronline.com Tom Farley is the CEO of the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. He is the lead political strategist for the association. Tom has run or been involved in several statewide and local campaigns on behalf of the REALTORS® on issues ranging from taxes to land use. He is a member or sits on the board of directors of several organizations, including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Tax Research Association and the Public Affairs Professionals Association.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Tom Raftery

It wasn’t long ago that I asked if you would e-sig. You responded quite emphatically… “Yes!”

That started a process in which 2010 AAR President Holly Eslinger and her leadership team of Duane Fouts, Holly Mabery, Jack Woerner and AAR staff began researching which company would be the best choice to provide AAR’s digital signature member benefit. We investigated several different providers, including EchoSign, eOriginal, Authentisign, DocuSign®, zipLogix Digital Ink™ and AlphaTrust. All of these companies are good companies with good products. We appreciate the time and effort each provided in answering our questions and providing responses to our requests for proposals.

In the end, AAR chose zipLogix Digital Ink™ to provide digital signatures as our latest member benefit. This benefit is provided to you as part of your current AAR dues and requires no monthly fees or annual contracts with the vendor.

This benefit will allow you to email your customers AAR forms to sign digitally–no printing, faxing or driving around town to get the forms signed. This new efficiency tool will reduce your costs, save you time and reduce delay. Your customers will also find this a time saver and convenient way of working with you during their purchase or lease. Everyone is going paperless!

We are currently working with zipLogix to ensure that this new member benefit works seamlessly with our electronic forms through zipForm® 6. We are also working to ensure that the product works in multiple browsers, that it is intuitive and that you can add documents that are not contained in your zipForm® library that require signature. Our staff is testing the product and suggesting changes to the vendor. Our target date for release is mid-first quarter 2011.

Two digital signature options will be available and integrated with AAR forms in zipForm® 6: zipLogix Digital Ink™ and DocuSign®. Digital Ink™ will be a member benefit paid for by AAR. DocuSign® requires you to have a separate agreement and pay a fee to the company.

With the addition of digital signatures as a member benefit, AAR is striving to help you and your business succeed. This latest benefit added under the Business Services Department at the association continues our efforts to help you go totally electronic and paperless. AAR Transaction Management through SureClose, AAR electronic forms through zipForm® 6 and now AAR digital signatures through Digital Ink™ —what could be next? Maybe the Arizona Integrated Business Platform? Stay tuned for more on that idea in a future blog post.

Posts by "Tom Farley" http://www.aaronline.com Tom Farley is the CEO of the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. He is the lead political strategist for the association. Tom has run or been involved in several statewide and local campaigns on behalf of the REALTORS® on issues ranging from taxes to land use. He is a member or sits on the board of directors of several organizations, including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Tax Research Association and the Public Affairs Professionals Association.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user dok1

The Arizona Association of REALTORS® (AAR) has received some inquiries on a piece of state legislation that went into effect July 29, 2010 and its possible impacts on certain real estate transactions that have a well. We have also received some questions as to why the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADRW) went the route of raising its fees or charging new ones. In short, the ADWR was one of many agencies that have experienced the effect of budget cutting at the Arizona State Legislature due to our state’s serious deficits. When you are dealing with a $3 billion plus deficit, there are going to be casualties.

ADWR’s budget has been cut from $21 million to $7 million and their staff has been reduced from a high of 236 to 95 full-time employees. In order for the ADWR to carry on some semblance of its regulatory responsibilities, SB 1359 was passed to help fund the agency in meeting its regulatory responsibilities. SB 1359 is expected to produce less than $2 million dollars annually as revenue to the agency.

The FAQ below was provided by our “Water Counsel” Sheryl Sweeney, Esq. with the law firm Ryley, Carlock and Applewhite in Phoenix. It should help answer some of the questions AAR has been receiving. We hope you will find this information useful in assisting your clients with their transactions.

ADWR Fixed Fee Schedule FAQ

1. QUESTION: ADWR’s fixed fee schedule refers to “well assignment” and sets the fee for such assignment at $120 per well (previously $10). Is a well assignment the same as the Statement of Change of Well Ownership addressed in Section 3 on DWR Form 55-71A (7/20/07)?

ANSWER: Yes. A well assignment and a Statement of Change of Well Ownership is the same thing for purposes of the fixed fee schedule.

2. QUESTION: The fixed fee schedule refers to a “statement of claim for a water right.” Does this refer to the Statement of Claimant form?

ANSWER: No. A statement of claim is a claim for a pre-1919 surface water right. A Statement of Claimant is a form filed in the general water adjudications.

3. QUESTION: The fixed fee schedule refers to “Assignment of Application, Permit, Certificate or Statement of Claim” and sets the rate for such assignments at $500. Does this include an assignment of the adjudication Statement of Claimant form?

ANSWER: No. The fee schedule does not change the fees associated with filing or assigning a Statement of Claimant.

4. QUESTION: An owner who files the original statement of claim for a water right pays a fee of $5. Yet when a change of ownership occurs and buyer and seller attempt to file an assignment of this claim, a $500 fee is charged. Why?

ANSWER: We do not know.

5. QUESTION: For a typical sale of real property, what ADWR fees do I need to keep in mind?

Please note that ADWR has not yet updated its forms to reflect the new fees but will still require the new fees to be paid.

Posts by "Tom Farley" http://www.aaronline.com Tom Farley is the CEO of the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. He is the lead political strategist for the association. Tom has run or been involved in several statewide and local campaigns on behalf of the REALTORS® on issues ranging from taxes to land use. He is a member or sits on the board of directors of several organizations, including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Tax Research Association and the Public Affairs Professionals Association.

© Copyright 2010 Jupiter Images

New Arizona laws that affect real estate will go into effect on July 29.  Many of the bills briefly summarized below are the result of meetings with REALTORS® across the state asking the Arizona Association of REALTORS® (AAR) for assistance on a great diversity of issues.  Those issues range from problems with homeowner associations and municipal water providers to new threats to homeowners’ equity by an out-of-state company using CC&Rs to collect private transfer fees.  AAR’s 2010 legislative effort was successful on these issues and more.

We are successful because we have volunteer members who give of their time and real-world experience to become part of our legislative committee reviewing several hundred bills every year introduced at the Arizona Legislature.  Success is boosted by the contributions made by REALTORS® to the REALTORS® of Arizona Political Action Committee (RAPAC), whose contributions support legislative candidates who protect private property rights and oppose candidates who want to ‘double tax’ small businesses through a professional service tax.  The final ingredient to our legislative success is our legislative advocates on staff here at AAR.

To assist your success in real estate, stay abreast of new laws and ordinances impacting your business by visiting your local, state and national REALTOR® association websites for information.  The bills summarized below can be viewed in greater detail at www.azleg.gov. Type the bill number in the upper right corner, and the site will bring up different versions of the legislation as it made its way through the process, You can also see voting records of your lawmakers.  Thanks for taking the time to read the legislation below so that you can be in the know.

2010 AAR Legislative Issues

HB2345: HOA; Condos; For Sale Signs – Homeowner and condo associations are prohibited from banning the display of temporary open house signs, except in common areas. Furthermore, they’re prohibited from regulating a property owner’s “for sale” signs that conform to the industry standards and are owned or used by the seller or the seller’s agent, nor can they require a particular sign.  Further, they may not regulate open house hours except for restricting the hours to after 8 a.m. or before 6 p.m. Nor can they prohibit display of “for lease” signs unless the association does not allow leasing of units.

HB2371: Home Inspections – Swimming pools and spas are included in the list of items that a certified home inspector is to examine during a home inspection.

HB2450: Water and Wastewater Fees and Charges – Prohibits a municipality from refusing service or requiring payment for unpaid water and wastewater services from anyone other than the person contracted with the municipality.

HB2766: Tenant Notice; Foreclosures – If the landlord of a residential property of not more than four connected units that is under foreclosure leases a unit, the landlord must provide each tenant with written notice of possible foreclosure. Form of the notice is prescribed and includes, if known, the date, time and place of the foreclosure sale. If a landlord fails to comply with the notice requirement, the tenant may deliver a notice of breach of agreement and recover damages and obtain injunctive relief.

HB2768: Real Property Transfer Fee Covenants – Prohibits private transfer fees paid to developers or third-party companies on the sale of real property.  This legislation targets a specific and new type of transfer fee, not those paid homeowner associations. Government-imposed transfer fees are already prohibited by the 2008 constitutional amendment drafted by AAR and passed by the voters.

SB1219: Real Estate Licensee - Conforms the time a real estate license is valid to the time period for completing education requirements (two years).  It allows a licensee to cancel his/her licensee, defines business broker and requires a valid fingerprint clearance card before applying for a license.

Posts by "Tom Farley" http://www.aaronline.com Tom Farley is the CEO of the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. He is the lead political strategist for the association. Tom has run or been involved in several statewide and local campaigns on behalf of the REALTORS® on issues ranging from taxes to land use. He is a member or sits on the board of directors of several organizations, including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Tax Research Association and the Public Affairs Professionals Association.

In a previous blog posting, I asked what REALTORS® thought of the Arizona Association of REALTORS® (AAR) investigating the possibility of offering e-signatures as a new member service. The response was pretty positive, and thus we have moved forward with our investigations.

We have spoken to several vendors and have pricing from each vendor. We are currently testing two products for their respective ease of use, integration with our electronic forms, price, user interface and several other criteria. Testers include both AAR staff and members of the association. We may add a third vendor to the testing if they can bring a better deal. HINT…HINT!

Offering e-signatures is not an inexpensive direction for AAR. We are looking at costs for plans that provide a base level of envelopes/transactions plus reduced pricing for members to upgrade their plan to unlimited plans.

This is an exciting and worthwhile exercise for the benefit of our members and their clients. Stay tuned!!!

Posts by "Tom Farley" http://www.aaronline.com Tom Farley is the CEO of the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. He is the lead political strategist for the association. Tom has run or been involved in several statewide and local campaigns on behalf of the REALTORS® on issues ranging from taxes to land use. He is a member or sits on the board of directors of several organizations, including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Tax Research Association and the Public Affairs Professionals Association.

For a few months now, I have been speaking with REALTORS® about providing electronic signatures as a member benefit.  If enough members believe that this service would be valuable to them and their clients, we could explore, negotiate with a vendor and then provide this as a service to you.  This service could be provided in much the same way the Arizona Association of REALTORS® (AAR) provides forms through zipLogix to REALTORS® statewide. 

Photo Courtesy of DocuSign

Members working on short sale and foreclosure deals have expressed frustration that banks often do not accept e-signatures for these transactions. However, I ask that you consider the potential benefit of this service for “traditional” transactions today and going forward.  

There are several electronic signature vendors that I have contacted.  The one that most REALTORS® mention is DocuSign.  There are many electronic signature companies, such as EchoSign, eOriginal, Authentisign and AlphaTrust to name a few, that the association could partner with in providing this member service.  Here is a link to the DocuSign webpage for REALTORS®.  By providing this link, AAR is not endorsing this vendor’s services, but the webpage will give you an idea of what this type of service could provide. 

So my question to you is simply this…do you think that this would be a valuable service for AAR to provide to its members?  Would you e-sig?