News and Events
Saturday, March 16, 2019
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THIS THURSDAY - SIGN UP TODAY!
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Message from the President...
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Last week was the first milestone of our journey together as the Greater Bergen Association of Realtors. The strength of the Association comes from the participation and engagement of our members so I am proud that we had over 700 people attend the Circle of Excellence Luncheon. While we hold many wonderful events throughout the year, I believe that the celebration of the achievements of our members is one of the most important. In addition to the COE recipients, we also announced the first ever winner of the GBAR Rising Star Award, Steven Finkelstein, of Russo Real Estate - congratulations Steven! Thank you to all those who attended and thank you to our fantastic staff from both campuses for all their hard work in making the event a success.
At the Luncheon, I announced GBAR’s commitment to rolling out NAR’s
Commitment to Excellence
program. C2EX empowers REALTORS® to demonstrate their professionalism and commitment to conducting business at the highest standards. Over 100 years ago, REALTORS defined professionalism in our industry when they created the Code of Ethics. C2EX takes professionalism to the next level by enabling members to assess their expertise in areas ranging from customer service to use of technology. While you will be hearing more about this throughout the year, I encourage you to get started today at
www.c2ex.realtor
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Finally, I’d like to ask you to think for a moment about the future of our profession. While it easy for us to stay focused on the day to day aspects of our job serving our clients, it is vital that we look at the big picture of what is happening around us. As one of largest trade association in America, we are tasked with the responsibility of protecting the rights of homeowners and the real estate industry. We have to stand up against governmental overreach when the state and federal governments try to balance budgets by trying to eliminate the mortgage interest deduction or proposing a sales tax on our commissions. It is each of our responsibility to be involved and to invest in the Realtors Political Action Committee. RPAC is our collective voice, help make our voice loud and strong!
Your next opportunity to invest is this Thursday. The RPAC Committee will be hosting their first fundraising event. It is a Wine and Cheese Silent Auction. All funds donated count towards your RPAC investment. Come out for a good time for a good cause. Register at
bit.ly/rpacramsey
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COMMUNITY SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES
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Clean Homes, Clean Families with GBA& Bergen Volunteer Center!
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GBAR is partnering with the Bergen Volunteer Center for their annual "Clean Homes, Clean Families" initiative, part of their Mentoring Mom's Program. Consider donating cleaning supplies for local families in need. Your kind donations will keep clients and their homes clean and healthy!
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NAR Slams Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, Defends REALTOR® Value
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According to an op-ed published on March 3 in the Wall Street Journal, “When You Buy or Sell a Home, Realty Bites,” featuring commentary from Jack Ryan, co-founder and CEO, and Jonathan Friedland, head of Brand, Communications and Policy at REX, a real estate brokerage that uses big data and machine learning, agents are no longer worth their present commission fees because “most buyers do the work themselves, spending months on the internet identifying attractive neighborhoods and homes before calling a real estate agent simply to open the door.”
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State Rent Control Issue Takes National Stage
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Across the country, various state and local governments are currently considering – or debating – legislative rent control measures. However, these efforts are misguided. They do nothing to address residential construction deterrents like imprudent local zoning measures and high land costs. What rent control policies really do is help create political battles between landlords and tenants without addressing the root of – and possible solutions to – America’s housing affordability problems.
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Phaseout of LIBOR Could Impact Homeowners With Variable-Rate Mortgages
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The controversial London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is set to phase out by 2021 after an international investigation revealed that multiple banks were manipulating the rates for profit. Why does that matter for consumer loans? Although the benchmark, established in the ’60s, sets the interest rate at which banks can lend to each other, it’s also tied to an estimated $370 trillion in debt, with half of U.S. adjustable-rate mortgages secured to LIBOR, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
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RPR® Delivers a Competitive Edge for Agents and Brokers
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Realtors Property Resource® (RPR) makes hundreds of thousands of real estate professionals more productive by giving them easy access to extensive data available on properties across the U.S. The RPR® database tracks records on more than 150 million parcels, including past sales, tax and deed records, foreclosure and pre-foreclosure info, mortgage and lien data, local school information, neighborhood trends, and even voting records.
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