SEPTEMBER 2011 El Paso Realtor Magazine elpasorealtor.com 1

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1 SEPTEMBER 2011 El Paso Realtor Magazine elpasorealtor.com 1

2 Thinking about running for office? Don t miss this opportunity to get a head start Texas REALTORS Convention So you think you want to run for office? Saturday, September 10 9:30 10:30am, Room 17B Austin Convention Center Learn what it takes to become a well-prepared and effective candidate and how to execute a winning campaign. Realtor Party 2 elpasorealtor.com El Paso Realtor Magazine SEPTEMBER 2011

3 + PRESIDENTS REMARKS L I N D A B A S T R A W Monthly Update Is it my imagination or is this year just flying by? It has been an incredibly busy and productive year at the Association with many programs, speakers and education courses being offered. None of this would be possible without our Committee volunteers who invest so much of their time to further the cause of professionalism in our industry. I am grateful to all of them, including my Committee Chairs, and I am so appreciative of their efforts on behalf of the Association. This month everyone will be receiving their ballots for GEPAR s slate of Directors and Officers for These individuals will be guiding our Association during the coming year and not only would I ask everyone to assume your responsibility to vote, but please examine the slate of candidates. Take a moment to look at each person s qualifications and know that your vote counts! Your choice is what will move our Association forward to address the challenges and issues we are faced with. As we are all aware, school is back in session so I would ask that all of us obey the school zones and remember, no talking on your cell phones while driving through these zones. As parents, our times with our children also seem to fly by. It seems one moment they are babies, and the next, they are leaving to school, and then they are leaving the nest. G R E A T E R E L P A S O A S S O C I A T I O N O F R E A LT O R S P R E S I D E N T The upcoming Texas REALTORS Convention will be held in Austin, September 12th through the 14th. Come prepared to learn and be amazed at all the education and technology out there. We were fortunate to have TAR s Chairman of the Board, Dwight Hale, visit our Association last week for the purpose of conducting several Focus Group meetings. In addition, he spoke at our monthly meeting on Friday. Don t forget October 7th. The REALTOR Convention will be held at the Civic Center and I promise it will be awesome!!! Tickets will be going on sale shortly. - Linda Bastraw SEPTEMBER 2011 El Paso Realtor Magazine elpasorealtor.com 1

4 IMPORTANT REMINDERS GEPAR QUARTERLY BILLING SCHEDULE 3RD QUARTER BILLING 09/01/2011 Termination of office if members are past due w/active license. 4TH QUARTER BILLING 8/15/2011 Invoices posted to agents invoices ready to view & pay online 8/31/2011 4th quarter payments due 10/03/ Suspension and $50.00 reconnect fee 11/01/ Suspension of office if members are pastdue w/active license. 12/01/ Termination of office if members are pastdue w/active license YEARLY DUES WILL BE BILLED THE 1ST WEEK OF NOVEMBER, 2011 AND ARE DUE DECEMBER 31, 2011 E L PA S O R E A LT O R. C O M ASSOCIATION OFFICERS - Linda Bastraw [ President ] - Jennifer Stroh [ President- Elect] - Kenny Gross [Secretary/ Treasurer ] - Doug Hamilton [ Immediate Past President ] - Sharron K. Ramirez [ Chief Executive Officer] ASSOCIATION DIRECTORS - Caroline Camfield - Susan Craig - Mackie Sue Gilchrist - Andrew Haggerty - Douglas Van Nortwick 6400 GATEWAY EAST BLVD EL PASO, TX, (915) ASSOCIATION DIRECTORS Timothy Cantrell - Socorro Cochran - Jim Howard - Mickey Molina - Patti Olivas MLS BOARD OF DIRECTORS - Rick Snow [ President ] - Angel Ochoa [ Vice President ] - Jesus Barraza [ Secretary/ Treasurer ] - David Curiel - Art Moreno - Jim Howard - Robert Lozano - Frances Moran - William R. Stanton TAR Nominating Committee - Sonja Van Nortwick NAR DIRECTOR - Michael Bray The General Membership Meeting will be held October 7, 2011 at 12:00 p.m. at the REALTOR Convention which will be held at the El Paso Convention Center, Hall B. The results of the voting for Officers and Directors will be announced at that time. Remember, this is your Association! Make sure you vote either by Proxy or by Ballot on or before September 30, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. TAR DIRECTORS - Linda Bastraw - Doug Hamilton TAR REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT - R. Scott Kesner TAR TREPAC TRUSTEE - Elizabeth Leal POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT COMMITTEE - Al Jurado COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN - Kenny Gross [ Budget & Finance ] - Steve Carvalho [ Education ] - Alma Miller [ Fair Housing/ Equal Opportunity ] - Al Jurado [ Governmental Affairs ] - Socorro Cochran [ TREPAC ] - Angela Ochoa [ REALTOR / Builder ] 2 elpasorealtor.com El Paso Realtor Magazine SEPTEMBER 2011

5 > EXPERT ADVISORS Ethics Article... I recently received a call from an agent who was showing homes to a buyer client and encountered numerous problems with one particular property. The home, which was new construction, showed that the property was vacant on lockbox with no other notes in the listing. Upon entering, an alarm went off so the agent called the listing agent. With the alarm blaring in the background, the listing agent began to chastise the buyer s agent telling the agent that he should have never entered the home because the listing said there was an alarm. When he told her the listing contained no such information, the listing agent proceeded to argue and state there was. Finally, the listing agent gave the agent, who had his clients present, the alarm code which deactivated the alarm. The clients of the buyer s agent liked the home, which did show PAO in the MLS. The agent called the listing agent and told them that his client s would like to submit a back up offer. The listing agent told the buyer s agent that the home was under contract and he could not submit a back up offer. The buyer s agent then told the listing agent that it was listed as PAO in the MLS, and the listing agent told the buyer s agent that did not mean he was entitled to submit a back up offer. First, PAO means Pending Accepting Offers which would allow the agent to submit a back up offer, which could also be done even if a property is in a pending status. The agent ed me a copy of the listing and nowhere in the MLS listing did it state that the home had an alarm that was activated and that special instructions were required to gain access to the property. To further make matters worse, the clients of the buyer s agent had seen the home already, and when asked if they had an agent who represented them, they responded that yes, they did have an agent. The listing agent then told the buyers that if they would work with the listing agent, and not their buyer s agent, the listing agent would make sure that their offer was accepted because the builder would do anything the listing agent told the builder to do. It is disheartening in our world of real estate to know that this type of skullduggery (I ve always loved this word which means a verbal misrepresentation intended to take advantage of you in some way or crafty deception, trickery, or a misleading falsehood ) takes place within our own ranks. It is agents, such as these, who give the majority of us who strive for professionalism a bad name. Later in the week, the same buyer s agent wanted to show a property and followed the instructions in the MLS which said to show. The agent called, received no answer, and then sent a text message identifying himself as an agent with his company name stating his desire to show the property that was listed for sale. Within about 30 minutes, he received a text back that said Wrong number. I m 10 years old. Obviously, the listing agent had inadvertently transposed some numerals in the phone number. While we can laugh at the response from the second situation the agent encountered, there is nothing to laugh about with the first instance that involved incompetence or oversight in the submission of the listing into the MLS, incompetence about what PAO means, and the blatant violation of Article 16 of the NAR Code of Ethics which states we cannot interfere with the agency relationship that exists between an agent and their client, and nor can we deceive someone into thinking they will derive benefits from discarding their agent to work with the other agent. SPECIAL ASSESSMENT/ROLLBACK TAXES We need to be aware of a policy being enacted by Central Appraisal District in regards to tax exemptions. An agent called me and asked me if I knew what a charge on the HUD statement was that was S T E V E C A R V A L H O, C R S SEPTEMBER 2011 El Paso Realtor Magazine elpasorealtor.com 3

6 S T E V E C A R V A L H O, C R S > EXPERT ADVISORS Ethics Article Continued... entitled rollback taxes. I told him it applied to properties with an agriculture exemption on them but he told me this was not the case on his property which involved an elderly woman who had passed away. Evidently the Central Appraisal District is researching all the cases involving probates that are filed, and if the property involves exemptions, such as Over 65 exemptions, the Central Appraisal District is using the date of death as the marker for eliminating the exemption. For a property that sells within a few months of the death occurring, the Title Company would prorate taxes accordingly. The situation I was referring to took months to probate due to the number of heirs involved, and then the home was on the market almost a year before selling resulting in a very steep assessment charged to the seller at closing on a very moderately priced home. On properties involving estates with an Over 65 exemption, caution the heirs that there very well might be an additional charge at the time of closing entitled Special Assessment/Rollback where the difference between the Over 65 exemption and an assessment based without the exemption will be charged to the estate. REVISED SELLER S DISCLOSURE STATEMENT GOES INTO EFFECT ON SEPTEMBER 1ST Three new items have been added to the revised Seller s Disclosure Statement which goes into effect September 1st. The three new items involve Liquid Propane Gas, A Single Blockable Main Drain in Pool or Spa, and use of any rainwater harvesting system connected to a property s public water supply. I welcome your questions and comments to: Steve@ SteveCarvalho.com G E P A R N E W M E M B E R E T H I C S I N S T R U C T O R I welcome your comments and questions to Steve@SteveCarvalho.com. 4 elpasorealtor.com El Paso Realtor Magazine SEPTEMBER 2011

7 DO YOU WANT TO RECOGNIZE SOMEONE IN THE COMMUNITY? DO YOU WANT TO SHARE AN ACCOMPLISHMENT OR JUST WANT TO GIVE KUDOS? Here s your chance. We want to publish it! Every month we want to showcase your accomplishments, share how you are making a difference in the community and show appreciation for all your hard work. Please submit your kudos to: Armando Rodriguez Communications/ Governmental Affairs Director arodriguez@gepar.org SEPTEMBER 2011 El Paso Realtor Magazine elpasorealtor.com 5

8 > ASSOCIATION EVENTS S E P T E M B E R Stories of Success - Learn. Grow. Succeed. GEPAR welcomed Ginger Kerrick, The first person of Hispanic heritage to lead Mission Control for NASA for this month s series of Stories of Success on August 19, 2011, where she communicated her success story. Lunch was sponsored by ACCENT HOMES of ANTHONY and First American Home Buyers Protection Corporation. REALTOR Food Drive. Throughout the month of August our REALTOR community came out to support those in need. The Greater El Paso Association of REALTORS would like to thank those REALTORS who donated to the West Texas Food Bank. Together we raised 792 lbs. of food and contributed $ elpasorealtor.com El Paso Realtor Magazine SEPTEMBER 2011

9 > ASSOCIATION EVENTS S E P T E M B E R City Councilman Dr. Michiel R. Noe Check Presentation On August 17, 2011 members of the Governmental Affairs Committee and the Leadership Team of the Greater El Paso Association of REALTORS meet with City Councilman Dr. Michiel R. Noe at Amigos Restaurant for his fundraiser. Board of Directors Regional Meeting On August 26, 2011 the Greater El Paso Association of REALTORS Board of Directors had a Regional Meeting with the Texas Association of REALTORS Leadership. Dwight Hale, Chairman of the Texas Association of REALTORS and Michael Detrick, 2nd Vice President of TREPAC gave an update on state issues that affect the REALTOR community. The Board of Directors also presented the REALTOR Emeritus award to five recipients: Steve Hicks, Reinaldo Martinez, Patt Robles, Victor Robles and Rudy Quinones. SEPTEMBER 2011 El Paso Realtor Magazine elpasorealtor.com 7

10 ELECTION OF ASSOCIATION OFFICERS & DIRECTORS The Nominating Committee announces the candidates running for GEPAR Officers and Directors. You will be voting for President-Elect & Secretary / Treasurer and for five (5) Directors. You may vote by Proxy and mail it back on or before September 30, 2011 or you may vote by Ballot in person at the Association office the week of September 26, 2011 through September 30,2011. Ballots are available at the Association office. All votes must be in by 5:00 p.m. on September 30, PRESIDENT - JENNIFER STROH Century 21 The Edge President Elect 2011 Secretary/Treasurer 2010 GEPAR Board of Directors Governmental Affairs Committee Education Committee TREPAC Chair 2005 Salesman of the Year 2005 Region 16 Rep. to the Political Involvement Committee at TAR PRESIDENT ELECT- KENNY GROSS ERA Prioirty One Secretary/Treasurer 2011 MLS President MLS Board of Directors GEPAR Board of Directors President, REALTOR Commercial Alliance SECRETARY/ TREASURER ELECT - ANDREW HAGGERTY Century 21 Haggerty GEPAR Board of Directors Budget & Finance Committee Governmental Affairs Committee Education Committee elpasorealtor.com El Paso Realtor Magazine SEPTEMBER 2011

11 2012 GEPAR BOARD OF DIRECTORS NOMINEES Caroline Camfield REALTOR Golden Real Estate GEPAR Board of Directors TREPAC Vice Chair 2011 TREPAC Committee Professional Standards Cmte TRLP Graduate 2011 Xiomara Kretschmer REALTOR Coldwell Banker DeWetter Hovious Professional Standards Chair 2007 Professional Standards Cmte Grievance Committee Rick Snow First Choice Realty Steve Carvalho REALTOR /Co-Owner RE/MAX Real Estate Group Education Chair 2011 Education Vice Chair 2010 New Member Ethics Instructor Sentrilock Task Force 2011 Strategic Planning Angel Ochoa Success Realty Vice President, MLS Board of Directors 2011 Secretary/Treasurer MLS Board of Directors 2010 Governmental Affairs Committee YPN 2011 Douglas Van Nortwick ERA Sellers, Buyers & Associates Susan Craig Craig Realty/E-Z Apt. Finders GEPAR Board of Directors TRLP Graduate 2011 Professional Standards Cmte Education Chair 2009 Danii Sedillo REALTOR Stanton Realty Education Committee 2011 REALTOR /Builder Cmte TRLP Graduate 2011 Strategic Planning Cmte President, MLS Board of Directors 2011 MLS Board of Directors Professional StandardsCommittee Grievance Committee TRLP Instructor 2011 GEPAR Board ofdirectors Grievance Committee 2012 MLS BOARD OF DIRECTORS NOMINEES The MLS Nominating Committee announces the candidate running for MLS Board of Directors. The MLS participants will be voting for two (2) Directors for the two year position. You may vote by Proxy and mail it back on or before September 30, 2011 or you may vote by Ballot in person at the Association office the week of September 26, 2011 through September 30, Ballots are available at the Association office. Jesus Barraza Barraza Realty MLS Secretary/ Treasurer 2011 MLS Board of Directors Barry Karch The Real Estate Power Houses Grievance Committee Ramona Marslender Mars Appraisal Assoc. Art Moreno The Art of Realty MLS Board of Directors 2011 Angel Ochoa Success Realty Vice President, MLS Board of Directors 2011 Secretary/Treasurer MLS Board of Directors 2010 Governmental Affairs Committee YPN 2011 SEPTEMBER 2011 El Paso Realtor Magazine elpasorealtor.com 9

12 + NAR SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL H O M E S A L E S R E P O R T NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS Real Estate Trend Indicator For July 2011 Board: Greater El Paso Association of REALTORS State: Texas Date of Report: 08/15/11 10 elpasorealtor.com El Paso Realtor Magazine SEPTEMBER 201

13 + BY THE NUMBERS S E P T E M B E R C O M P A R I S O N 1 SEPTEMBER 2011 El Paso Realtor Magazine elpasorealtor.com 11

14 > MARK YOUR CALENDAR SEPTEMBER 1 8:30 am- RCA Weekly Meeting 9:00 am- WCR Holiday Inn 1:30 pm- Gov. Affairs Cmtee. Mtg. 2:30 pm- TREPAC Cmtee. Meeting 5 Office Closed 6 1:30 pm - Education Cmtee. Mtg. 7 8:00 am - Orientation 1:00 pm - YPN Meeting 8 8:30 am- RCA Weekly Meeting 9:30 am- Property Taxes Class 9 TAR Convention 12:00 pm- CIBA Luncheon 12 TAR Convention 9:00 am- Appraisals Course 12:30 pm - Toastmasters 13 TAR Convention 8:00 am- MCE OCTOBER 3 12:30 pm - Toastmasters 4 12:00 pm- CIBA Luncheon 1:30 pm- Education Cmtee. Mtg. 5 8:00 am - Orientation 1:00 am - YPN Meeting 6 8:30 am- RCA Weekly Meeting 1:30 pm - Gov. Affairs Cmtee. Mtg. 2:30 pm - TREPAC Cmtee. Mtg. 7 REALTOR Convention, Convention Center Office Closed 10 12:30 pm- Toastmasters 11 8:00 am- MCE 14 TAR Convention 8:00 am- MCE 9:00 am - Success Realty Meeting 15 8:30 am- RCA Weekly Meeting 11:30 am - Builder University 16 8:00 am- Texas REALTORS Leadership Program 19 9:00 am- Accredited Buyer Rep Course 20 9:00 am- Accredited Buyer Rep Course 21 9:00 am- Accredited Buyer Rep Course 12:00 pm - Budget & Finance Meeting 2:00 pm - Executive Cmtee. Meeting 22 8:30 am - RCA Weekly Meeting 8:30 pm - City Hall Visits 2:30 pm - GRI Mixer 12 8:00 am- MCE 9:00 am- Success Realty Meeting 13 8:30 am- RCA Weekly Meeting 12:30 pm- B of A Class 14 11:30 am- Builder University Desert View 15 WCR Bras for the Cause 17 8:30 am- GRI 3 12:30 pm- Toastmasters 18 8:30 am- GRI :30 pm- Budget & Finance Meeting 2:00 pm- Executive Committee Meeting 20 8:30 am- RCA Weekly Meeting 26 GEPAR VOTING 9:00 am- WCR Board Meeting 12:30 pm - Toastmasters 27 GEPAR VOTING 1:00 pm- CIBA Board of Directors 28 GEPAR VOTING 8:30 pm- MLS Board of Directors 29 GEPAR VOTING 8:30 am- RCA Weekly Meeting 30 GEPAR VOTING 8:30 pm- Board of Directors 11:30 am - Stories of Success (Tentative) 21 11:30 am- Stories Of Success (Tentative) 24 8:30 am- GRI 3 12:30 pm- Toastmasters 25 8:30 am- GRI 3 1:00 pm- CIBA Board of Directors 26 8:30 pm- MLS Board of Directors 27 8:30 am- RCA Weekly Meeting 28 8:30 pm- Board of Directors 11:30 am - Stories of Success (Tentative) 29 9:00 am- WCR Board Meeting 12:30 pm- Toastmasters G E P A R U P C O M I N G E V E N T S 12 elpasorealtor.com El Paso Realtor Magazine SEPTEMBER 201