May 13, 2021
Member News




CORE
Next Week - Food Drive for Flemington Area Food Pantry: CORE’s Community Outreach Committee is excited to be holding a food drive to benefit the Flemington Area Food Pantry.
  • Where: CORE’s Branchburg office - 3461 Route 22 E Building B, Branchburg, NJ 08876
  • When: May 17-21, 10 am - 4 pm
  • A list of recommended donations can be found here. Cash donations can be made here. Thank you for your support!
This is the first of three food drives that CORE will be holding throughout the year to support each of the counties in our Association area: Hunterdon, Mercer, and Somerset. 

CORE Circle of Excellence Awards Parking Lot Pick Up & Virtual Event Awards will be available for pick up at the CORE Branchburg office on Tuesday, May 25 and at the CORE Trenton office on Thursday, May 27. All offices are urged to have someone pick up the awards for your office.
A virtual awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, June 3. Click here for additional details about this special event.
Local 
Mercer County: No car? No license? No problem! NJ 211 is coordinating free rides to confirmed vaccine appointments through the United Way Worldwide Ride United and Lyft program. You get: 
  • Free ride available to and from confirmed vaccine appointments
  • Free ride to second confirmed vaccine appointment 
  • Available statewide, wherever Lyft operates.
  • NJ 211 specialist can arrange the rides.
  • Individuals with foldable wheelchairs or walkers can be accommodated. Personal aides welcome to ride along.
  • No eligibility requirements other than a confirmed vaccine appointment and vaccine site
>>>Dial 211 and schedule your ride today!
 
Somerset County: Online Auction of Surplus Property May 12-19 Residents are invited to take advantage of the upcoming online auction of surplus property. Items can be inspected May 14 & 15 at South County Public Works Facility. The auction will start at 9 am, Wednesday, May 12, and begin to close at 7 pm. Wednesday, May 19. Learn more. 

Metro: Council Considers Racial Bias in Home Appraisals The Philadelphia City Council recently held a hearing to examine racial disparities in residential appraisals and the impact on Black homeownership. During the hearing, the National Fair Housing Alliance's general counsel Morgan Williams explained how appraisal bias “‘locks in’ the legacy of racial discrimination, preventing values from rising.” Read more. 


Continuing Education (CE)

Avoid the $200 Late Fee for Licensing Renewal The NJ Real Estate Commission has waived the $200 processing fee (late fee) until May 31 and has extended the current CE cycle to complete all NJ CE requirements until July 19. All real estate licensees are required to renew their license for the new term beginning July 1. Agents are urged to talk with their brokers regarding to submitting the renewal fee to the NJ Real Estate Commission. Licensees are also required to complete the Qualifying Questionnaire prior to renewing their license.

Check Your CE Credits Log into your PSI CE Tracking System account to verify that you have met all of the requirements to renew your license.

CORE CE FAQ Access the FAQ here.

SUPRA

Safety Feature Available in SUPRA eKEY App It allows agents to set up an alert in the app, which, when pressed, sends a text or email out to a set group of people with a pre-saved message. This feature would be helpful when an agent is at a showing and feels unsafe, needs a reason to get away, or needs someone to be aware of their situation. When this alert feature is held, it automatically notifies someone to call you. Watch the video.


Webinar

Learn How to Expand Your Earnings in Rentals This Summer New Jersey Realtors Member Perks Partner, RentSpree, is hosting a free webinar on Thursday, May 27 at 11 am to help you expand your earning potential with rentals this summer. Four Realtors from New Jersey will share why they find value in rentals, strategies for turning a renter into a sales lead, how to leverage technology for rentals, and more. If you can’t attend the webinar, don't worry. Register anyway to automatically receive a recording. Register here.

Unity Bank Center for Business & Entrepreneurship: Let’s Talk About It -Turning Confrontation into Collaboration at Work Paul Marciano, PH.D., author of "Let’s Talk About It: Turning Confrontation into Collaboration at Work", asserts that dysfunctional relationships - both personal and professional – are largely caused or exacerbated by people’s unwillingness to have critical conversations and/or lack of skill in doing so. It is filled with ready-to-use sample scripts, real-world scenarios of common workplace disagreements, and proven psychological methods for diffusing conflicts effectively. Fee: $95 (includes his book), Tuesday, May 25, from 8:30 - 10:00 am. Register here.


Commercial Real Estate

NAR: Forecast Bright for Commercial Real Estate in 2021 Experts see gains for hospitality, retail, apartments, and industrial, but the work-from-home trend continues to be a factor in the office sector, which is not expected to rebound immediately. Read more.


MLS

GSMLS: Remine Upgraded to PRO for All Subscribers Garden State MLS has upgraded Remine service to the PRO level for all GSMLS subscribers beginning May 4. You can access Remine through GSMLS by navigating to Search -> Remine within the member's site. Training webinars on Remine Pro features are available now. Register here for a session that fits your schedule. The upgrade to Remine Pro increases the number of cart properties to 10,000, provides national public record data, enables Remine's Advanced Search, includes access to free contact data, Client Engage and more.
GSMLS: Coming Soon - Remember that Coming Soon listings in GSMLS require that a completed Coming Soon Listing Form be filed with the service within the required time frame. No showings of Coming Soon listings are permitted before the first showing date - there are No Exceptions to this prohibition.
  • If an Active listing is no longer going to be available for showings for a period of time, its status must be changed to Temporarily Off-Market. However, if there is only going to be a change in showing availability – for example, it can no longer be shown on Tuesdays and Thursdays - that type of change should be documented in the Special Showing Instructions for the listing. Note that changes in listing status to, and from, Temporarily Off-Market require the submission of a completed change form.
  • Fines for the failure to follow the proper procedure or failure to file the proper paperwork when the showing of a listing is to be postponed for a specified period of time are $200 for the first offense and $400 for subsequent offenses by the same agent.

New Jersey

NJBiz: Gov Murphy Approves Tax Breaks for Businesses That Received COVID-Relief Loans The hundreds of thousands of New Jersey businesses that received COVID-19 relief under the federal Paycheck Protection Program will not have to pay any state taxes thanks to a law Governor Murphy approved May 11. Read more. 
 
ROI-NJ.com: N.J. Drops $100 Fee to Certify as Small, Minority-, Women- or Veteran-Owned Business In recognition of National Small Business Month, NJ Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio announced that the $100 filing fee to become certified as a Small-, Minority-, Woman- or Veteran-owned business enterprise is being waived indefinitely. Read more. 


National
Wall Street Journal: Fully Vaccinated People Can Stop Wearing Face Masks, Physical Distancing in Most Settings, CDC Says Fully vaccinated people don’t need to wear a mask or physically distance during outdoor or indoor activities, large or small, federal health officials said, the fullest easing of pandemic recommendations so far. Read more. 

Inman: Community Mourns Real Estate Brokers Killed in Brokerage Shooting Maxine Quigg, 50, and Terence O’Brien, 53, lost their lives in an attack on the Watertown, New York, brokerage they co-owned last Wednesday. Read more. See NAR's Realtor Safety Resources here.

NAR Counters Biden 1031 Proposal President Biden’s recent tax proposal includes a $500,000 limit on the amount of deferred gain from Section 1031 like-kind exchanges. If the proposal becomes part of the official package that moves through Congress, it could present adverse consequences… Read more.

Wall Street Journal: Uber, Lyft to Provide Free Rides to Covid-19 Vaccine Sites The White House will announce a new partnership with ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft to make all rides to and from vaccination sites free until July 4, according to administration officials. Read more.

Realtors Property Resource: How to Find Sellers in a Low-Inventory Market Sellers are in high demand and the best way to find them is by farming for prospects through RPR. Read more.
NAR: How the Pandemic Spurred Cybercrime With many people spending more time online during the throes of the pandemic, cybercriminals took advantage of that additional dependence on technology to conduct an internet crime spree. The result was that 2020 was a record year for cybercrime …Read more. 

Real Trends: Small Things That Make a Big Difference in Winning Multiple Offers The winner in any competition usually does several barely noticeable, little things that ultimately make the difference in getting to the winner’s circle. Here are some of the little things in multiple offer situations that can help you achieve victory and avoid defeat. 

NAR: 5 Appraisal Topics Every Agent Should Know Appraisers are an integral part of the real estate sales process. It’s imperative that agents not only understand the fundamentals of the appraisal system but also follow the best practices for communicating with appraisers, especially while navigating today’s market. Read more




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