This Week Updates from NAR Annual Conference!

November 3, 2018

NAR REALTOR CONFERENCE & EXPO UPDATE

NAR ANNUAL CONFERENCE & EXPO!

N AR kicked off the REALTORS® Conference and Expo this past Thursday. During NAR 360, NAR leadership and staff welcomed thousands of members. The l eadership team provided a jump start on insight to what's trending and important on the hot topics list for these meetings and this convention. The new NAR Commitment to Excellence Program (or C2EX) launched at the Conference. C2EX will encourage our members to take a self-assessment and then provide the means to educate them and raise the bar on our professionalism across our industry in a consistent and calculated way.

LEGISLATIVE NEWS

THIS TUESDAY IS ELECTION DAY!

Voting is a right and a responsibility. It gives you a chance to choose your government leaders.

It serves as a platform that allows you to express your satisfaction or dissatisfaction with those is office. Voting gives you a voice on how your community, state, and country are run.

Opportunity Zones Proposed Rules Released

The Treasury Department released proposed rules for Qualified Opportunity Zones, a federal program created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017. The program incentivizes investment and development in distressed communities, designated as "Qualified Opportunity Zones" (QOZs) through tax benefits for investors. The proposed rules provide important clarifications for interested investors, including the type of gains eligible for tax deferral (capital only), how investments into Opportunity Funds made of both capital gains proceeds and non-gains funds are treated.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

NAR's Newest Partners and the Opportunities Within

The National Association of REALTORS® is not just a national entity - its presence and influence around the world make it a very international organization. Its reach is vast, and helps U.S. REALTORS® in ways you might not even realize yet. NAR had the great pleasure to add three more partners to our vast network - Georgia, Moldova, and Bermuda; along with a Memorandum of Understanding with Hong Kong.

TECH TIPS

NAR Members Receive 15% Boost to Their Marketing Strategy

High-tech advertising tools make it easy to reach local home buyers and sellers wherever they go online. Digital advertising is one of the most effective ways for a real estate agent to build brand awareness at the local level.

NEWS YOU COULD USE

realtor.com® Launches Agent Ad Tool That Follows Prospective Buyers Online

Realtor.com® has launched a new digital marketing program, Local Expert, that will follow prospective home buyers with ads across realtor.com®'s search pages and in their Facebook news feeds. The higher visibility through the online ads aim to help keep agents top-of-mind in their local market, realtor.com® says.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

ALL WRAPPED UP Holiday Giving Program

The Bergen Volunteer Center is proud once again to sponsor the All Wrapped Up Holiday Giving Program, which matches individuals and families in need with willing donors from the community. This program has proven an effective way to ensure that the neediest people are remembered at holiday time.

The Holiday Hotline officially opens Thursday, November 1, 2018.

At that time, Bergen Volunteer Center will begin matching donors with people referred by area agencies.