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Seeking Headquarter House
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Make plans now to participate in the
7th annual Spokane REALTORS® Open House Weekend - April 29th & 30th!
This event kicks of the new buying/selling season and offers a great opportunity to bring exposure to your listings and business.
Our first task is to select a headquarter house for the event - a listed residence, close to town, with easy access and parking - where media representatives can get event information and photos, and where association members can get supplies through the weekend (contest entry forms, REALTOR® balloons, etc.).
The headquarter house we used last year (pictured above) sold quickly as a direct result of the exposure it received during our event.
If you have a listing you would like to offer as this year's headquarter house for the Spokane REALTORS® Open House Weekend, please send address, photo, and brief description to Tony Byrne via email here.
Deadline to submit your listing for consideration is 9 a.m. on Monday, April 10th.
Meanwhile, start thinking about this (optional) event-specific marketing opportunity offered by our friends at The Spokesman-Review:
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HomeDrone Takes Off in Spokane
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The Spokane Association of REALTORS® convened the first enterprise drone conference in the Pacific Northwest, last week - also the first by any real estate association in the country.
One of the sessions was a panel discussion: Drones - Then, Now, Next. Pictured above, left to right: Michael Dement-Myers, Federal Aviation Administration; Kara Rowe, North by Northwest Productions; JD Claridge, co-founder and CEO of xCraft; Joseph Williams, Washington State Department of Commerce; moderator, Ryan McNeice, SpokaneTalksOnline.
Set designed and staged by Home Staging Works.
See the video that opened the conference (still image above), created by FlightLogic, online here.
The SpokaneFPV (First Person View) hobby fliers joined us at the Spokane Convention Center (see video above) to show their skills and demonstrate that drones can be fun, too. Their sky arena, created for this event, was the first installed inside a Spokane Public Facilities District building.
The event kindled several news reports on drones and their commercial use in U.S. airspace:
Read the article in the Inlander, online here.
Read the article in the Journal of Business, online here.
Spokane Public Radio's
Doug Nadvornick attended the conference and interviewed
Joseph Williams from the Washington State Department of Commerce - one of our guest speakers - about the potential of drones for business in our state.
Hear his report online here:
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Rural Water Law Rewrite
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More construction would be possible in rural areas if lawmakers can agree on a way to rewrite Washington's water law to address a recent Supreme Court ruling critics say keeps families from building their dream homes.
Jim Camden writes more in his report from our capitol, this week, in The Spokesman-Review, online here.
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Broker Liability Series
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NEW!
Overconfident Sellers +
Over-eager Buyers =
Broker Liability
Washington REALTORS® Legal Hotline lawyer Annie Fitzsimmons continues her Broker Liability series this week.
In this second video of the series, Annie talks about the risk associated with listing brokers giving advice to sellers that it's okay, or even a good practice, to prohibit buyers from conducting home inspections.
She also touches on the elimination of the information verification language in one of the last paragraphs in the boiler plate purchase and sale agreement and what this means for broker liability.
See the 10-minute video online here:
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The Danger of Prohibiting Buyers From Getting Inspections
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The Voice for Real Estate
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NEW!
NAR looks at a scam hitting Florida real estate professionals in which cyber criminals have created a fake real estate group in an effort to collect fees.
The video also looks at the return of Gen Xers to the market after being hard hit by the foreclosure crisis, Congress' effort to reform and reauthorize federal flood insurance, and the Trump administration's review of an environmental rule NAR would like to see revised.
See the seven-minute video online here:
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The Voice for Real Estate #64
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WR Spring Business Conference
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The 2017 Washington REALTORS® Spring Business Conference will be held at Suncadia Resort in Cle Elum on April 12th-14th.
Details on the Spring Business Conference are online here.
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WR Business Symposium
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The 2017 Washington REALTORS
® Business Symposium is proud to announce nationally recognized speaker
Jackie Leavenworth will be spending the day with us and sharing her knowledge, energy, and passion for real estate.
Jackie will present two of her most-demanded classes:
Negotiations: The Games People Play, and It's a Price War to the Door.
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WR Legal Symposium
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May 24th
The 2017 Washington REALTORS® Legal Symposium
gathers leading real estate attorneys in Washington to share current legal issues affecting the industry & to help our members to stay out of trouble!
This year, we have;
Annie Fitzsimmons, Justin Haag, Lars Leste, Doug Tingvall, Chris Osborn, Jeannie Simpson, and
Mark Schedler.
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| 2017 REALTOR® Education |
CONTINUING EDUCATION
Quality of Education
through SAR/WR Education Instructors
Here is the latest class listing from your SAR - offering the best live and local continuing real estate education classes for 2017.
Click on each class title,
underlined in blue, to bring up a flyer for that class - suitable for posting in your office.
Register for these classes
online here:
Please be in touch with
Debbie at the SAR if you have any questions about these classes or your license education requirements, by phone at
326-9222 or by
email.
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SAR CALENDAR
Click on the calendar image below to see
the current SAR calendar showing dates and times
of classes, committees and events.
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April is Fair Housing Month
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April - next month - is
Fair Housing Month, a dedicated time when we bring special attention to the Fair Housing Act, part of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing because of:
* Race or color
* National Origin
* Religion
* Sex
* Familial status (including children under the age of 18 living with parents or legal custodians; pregnant women and people securing custody of children under 18)
* Disability
If you're involved in the sale and rental of housing, or mortgage lending, you are exposed to Fair Housing penalties under federal law.
Here are some resources to keep you in compliance:
Download the
2017 April is Fair Housing Month poster (pictured above),
online here.
Download the Fair Housing - Equal Opportunity for All booklet (24 pages, pictured above), online here.
Download the We do Business in Accordance with the Federal Fair Housing Law office poster (pictured above), online here.
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You are the Human Element
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The National Association of REALTORS
® reports 89 percent of home sellers used an agent in 2016 - on par with the previous five years.
At the same time, for-sale-by-owner transactions fell to their lowest rate - eight percent - since the association began tracking the data in 1981.
"Who is going to write a contract? Fill out a disclosure statement? Anticipate what's coming on the market?" asked association president
Bill Brown. "There's a human element to buying and selling a home that can't be replaced."
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2017 SAR Awards
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DEADLINE: April 21st
Nominations are now open for the 2017 Spokane Association of REALTORS® annual awards.
Awards available for nomination are: REALTOR® of the Year; Steve Flinn REALTOR® Achievement; REALTOR® Community Service; Affiliate of the Year; Partner of the Year; and Spokane's Citizen of the Year.
Winners will be announced at the annual SAR Spring Awards Luncheon
on May 25 at the Hotel RL River Inn
.
Download the 2017 SAR Awards nomination form, pictured above,
online here.
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WCR April Event
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The Spokane-Eastern Washington chapter of Women's Council of REALTORS
® invites all SAR members to its April event -
Thursday, April 6th -
Build your Business by Learning the Latest Trends in Building.
See the event flyer for more details (pictured above),
online here.
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Zig, Zag, Zog
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REALTORS® can relate.
You know it's "real' tor," not "real' ah tor."
You also know it's "Gun zag' uh," not "gone zah' gah."
When the Gonzaga University men's basketball team appears in the Final Four championship game this weekend, it would sure be nice if people could say it when we play it - correctly.
Spokesman-Review News Editor Rob Curley offers a Gonzaga pronunciation guide you can share with your out-of-town relatives and friends so they can say it like a local.
See his two-minute video online here:
Gonzaga pronunciation guide
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Volunteer at Children's Clubhouse
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The Spokane Association of REALTORS
®, through its REALTOR
® and Affiliate members, enjoys a special partnership with the Children's Clubhouse at Sacred Heart Children's Hospital.
Each month, members donate their time to watch over children in the Clubhouse while their parents and/or siblings
attend to medical needs.
With just a few hours a month, you can make a big difference in the life of a child who is going through a tough time.
SAR member Joe Garst shares what volunteering at the Clubhouse means to him.
For more information on volunteering at the Children's Clubhouse,
click here, or send an
email to Brenda at the SAR, or call her at
326-9222.
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| ListHub Report for January |
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| Market Activity Report - February |
The SAR Market Activity Report for
February is now online.
See the latest full report -
a member-exclusive product - and archived full reports -
online here.
See the February 2017 Snapshot Report (pictured above) online here.
See the 2017 Year-to-date Snapshot Report (pictured above), online here.
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Member Roster Update
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Click here to view the latest list of
MLS Subscription Waivers - approved by the Board of Directors.
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| Suggestion Box |
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Presented by your Spokane Association of REALTORS® 
See what's NEW at
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2017 SAR Leadership
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2017 SAR President
Jennifer Valerien
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869-3828
SECRETARY:
TREASURER:
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