This member-driven video series features REALTORS® across the country giving you their best advice on a myriad of aspects of real estate, from client relationships to technology and managing transactions.

Make Your Team More Efficient

June 7, 2018: So you’ve got a few agents on your team, and you figure you can split up the work equitably among you. The problem is it hardly ever works out that way. What can you do to manage your team’s workload and stress? The Joseph Bograd Team(link is external) of RE/MAX Elite in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., talks about the solutions their six-person team implemented to run more smoothly.

Staging a Bathroom to Sell a Home Faster

April 3, 2017: With the spring selling season upon us, you want to make sure every corner of your listing is show-ready for the rush of buyers. You know the bathroom can make as big an impression as the bedroom or living room, but how often do you go the extra mile to stage it just as perfectly? Home staging expert Tori Toth(link is external) has some simple ideas for making the bathroom a stronger selling point.

3 Ways to Check Your Ego When Prospecting

November 2, 2016: How many times do you use the word “I” when you’re talking to prospects? They might tune you out if you talk about yourself too much. Prospective clients care more about what you can do for them than your professional accomplishments or status as an agent. Leigh Brown, ABR, CRS, of RE/MAX Executive Realty in Charlotte, N.C.(link is external), offers her tips for checking your ego when engaging with prospects.

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

A more streamlined appraisal process won’t materialize until lenders and appraisal management companies understand the critical need for credible, independent data collection.

Key takeaways:

• In theory, hybrid appraisals promise to speed the appraisal process, provide opportunities for agents to earn fees for collecting data, and reduce delays.
• However, appraisers’ experience with hybrid assignments raise troubling concerns.
• Agents need to be aware of who’s doing data collection on their listings, avoid conflicts of interest, and be present during appraisal inspections.

What in the world is a hybrid appraisal? It’s a newish approach to appraisal in which a third party performs the property inspection and provides the information to the licensed or certified appraiser, who uses this information, as well as other data, to complete the appraisal. Hybrid appraisals could present new revenue opportunities for qualified real estate salespeople, reduce delays, and offer greater flexibility to appraisers. But work needs to be done to ensure this approach doesn’t jeopardize the quality of our work and the soundness of our financial system.

I first heard the term “hybrid appraisal” at a meeting of the National Association of REALTORS® Real Property Valuation Committee. This is where appraisers hang out. I’ve learned in my real estate career that it’s important to be in room full of people smarter than me, and that’s where I learned about a workshop hosted by the Federal Housing Financing Agency  on how to modernize the appraisal process. Conclusions from the workshop:

1. There are appraiser shortages in rural and high-volume areas.
2. It’s difficult to become an appraiser because of all the Appraisal Foundation requirements.
3. Emerging technologies are improving the appraisal process and reducing delays.

I was not drinking the Kool-Aid on the first item. I work in a rural area of upstate New York, where there are plenty of appraisers. However, it’s true that many competent appraisers in the area won’t accept work from appraisal management companies. That’s another story. On the second point, I agreed that entrance into the appraisal business is challenging. Changes are in the works; again, that’s a subject for another day. And regarding the final point, yes, I was excited for modernization of the appraisal process. (Bring it on! How about sharing the data that has been used for Fannie Mae’s Collateral Underwriter on my appraisal reports? That would be great!)

Then I heard it: hybrid appraisal, or bifurcation. The thought process behind this new approach is that my time is more valuable at my desk, researching and completing my analyses of market data, than in the field inspecting properties. I started calling hybrids “jammie appraisals,” since I could work in my pajamas and still feed my family. This might be my path to becoming a snowbird with half my time spent in upstate New York and the other half in sunny Arizona!

Disappointment Quickly Sets In

However, as I began a process of discovery, which included accepting hybrid assignments while they were being tested, I had more and more concerns. The first hybrid assignment I accepted was in 2019. It was for the purchase of a two-family property; I received a report with photos and data points. However, I did not have the name of the data collector, so I had no way to gauge the person’s credibility. If I am taking responsibility in this appraisal process, I need to know the source is reliable and credible and not biased.

Access and share “Your Home is an Investment—Know Its Value,” a resource from NAR’s Real Property Valuation Committee that describes the different types of valuation products, including hybrid appraisals.

Read the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Appraisal-Related Policies, Practices and Processes(link is external).

I communicated with the appraisal management company’s client, asking for the name of the data collector. That simple request turned into a mountain of problems, explanations and arguments—with me needing to educate my client on the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice. The result: I discovered the listing agent for the subject property was the data collector. Wait, what?! The listing agent is an advocate for the seller. How can I rely on data collected by a party who isn’t acting independently? If I were to do so, I would not be producing a USPAP-compliant appraisal report. I thought my client would understand. I stood my ground and mandated a third-party data collector. I even offered to have someone in my office complete the data collection. The AMC declined.

This appraisal took six weeks to complete. It would have taken one week if a traditional appraisal had been ordered and I had been able to inspect the property myself. The harm to the consumers on either end of that transaction was alarming.

Worse, I’ve since gleaned that my story is not unique, and this practice is still the norm. Stories I’ve heard from my fellow appraisers involve data collectors who:

• Were hired online, despite past criminal records.
• Report they are the appraiser and are given one-day MLS codes to occupied dwellings.
• Request repairs for maintenance items, despite the fact that they are not appraisers or home inspectors.

There is a valid public concern for these type of valuation products. Some states, including my state of New York, have taken action. Our AMC license law  requires AMCs to hire only licensed or certified appraisers, licensed real estate brokers, and licensed home inspectors. (Even meeting that requirement wouldn’t have satisfied my concern about biased data collection.)

Ensuring Safety and Soundness

I’m working to educate licensees in my market, because I recognize modernization in the appraisal process will continue, and I’m concerned for the safety of the public and our economic risk as a country.

In 2019, at the recommendation of the Real Property Valuation Committee, NAR’s Board of Directors approved a policy stating:

• Selection of a third-party property data collector should be based on criteria and due diligence that will assure proper training, liability coverage, and access to necessary data. The individual must be able to provide unbiased information, and there should be enforcement to ensure proper performance.
• There must be transparent disclosure to consumers regarding the bifurcated/hybrid valuation process.
• Accurate data obtained through uniform collection methods must be provided to the appraiser to perform a credible appraisal. The appraiser should be able to communicate with the property data collector as necessary. The appraiser(s) must have geographic competency to complete the assignment.
• USPAP requires the appraiser to determine the scope of work necessary for each appraisal. The appraiser must be allowed to provide supplemental information in the report to address aspects of the assignment necessary to comply with USPAP. All data provided to the appraiser, including the report, must be available for retention in the appraiser’s work file.

Takeaways for my fellow members who are selling homes:

1. Please ask what type of appraisal or valuation is being completed on your transaction.
2. Don’t accept a data collection assignment on your own listing.
3. Rather than providing one-time MLS codes, please meet the appraiser or data collector at the property.

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

More and more, investors will be looking at properties’ resilience as a measure of value—and developers are taking notice.

Catastrophic weather events not only make headlines but also raise red flags for potential investors and home buyers. Research suggests that the impacts of intensifying climate events are influencing real estate investment decisions. Residential pricing is reflecting growing public concern, and the effects could be even more pronounced for commercial values in vulnerable areas, according to a 2019 report from the Urban Land Institute and global investment management firm Heitman.

The report’s conclusions were based on interviews with institutional investors, investment managers, consultants, and other stakeholders. “Speaking to these leaders in the industry, it became increasingly clear that there’s an awareness of the impact on real estate, both in terms of damage and value fluctuations,” says Katharine Burgess, vice president of urban resilience at the Urban Land Institute. “For agents to be fluent in these issues and understand what risks exist and what types of design interventions can help is really important.”

Determining the level of risk for a potential buyer isn’t an easy calculation. When it comes to flood risk, for example, many of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s risk maps are outdated and don’t include sea level rise projections, says Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists’ climate and energy program. A 2018 analysis by the group predicted “chronic, disruptive flooding”—a term used to describe 26 or more flood events in a given area annually—in hundreds of U.S. coastal communities by 2045.

When Insurance Isn’t Enough

Insurance has long been the main safety net for property owners, but investors and managers interviewed for the ULI report say relying solely on insurance may not be sufficient. “There’s increased recognition that while insurance can protect against damage, it’s never going to protect against a fundamental change in real estate value,” Burgess says.

However, ingenuity might, and that’s just what some architects, developers, and planners are counting on in their drive to future-proof properties—in other words, make them more resilient to punishing climate conditions. Burgess says developers are focusing on resiliency and sustainable planning to differentiate their properties for tenants. Respondents to the ULI survey cited “commercial success from talking about business continuity for buildings that are better prepared for hurricanes or reduced likelihood of losing power,” Burgess says.

Keeping Businesses Operating

One real estate professional who’s involved in the resilience movement is Mark Luke, GREEN, broker-owner of Mark Luke Real Estate, who also runs a construction business in Sioux Falls, S.D. He installs backup generators as a power redundancy and sump pumps to prevent basement flooding; he has also started selling solar panels after identifying solar energy as an underserved market.

Luke has been seeing more interest in these options because of the extreme weather conditions in South Dakota, which experienced historic river flooding and two intense “bomb cyclone” winter storms in recent years. One storms dumped more than 30 inches of snow in some parts of the state and knocked out power to more than 80,000 homes and businesses in the upper Midwest. The region is home to many food production companies and other industries for which business continuity is critical.

That’s why Luke is trying to encourage more of his clients to install backup generators. At least two, he says, would benefit from backup power. One owns a food processing business that needs to keep its freezers running. Another is a plastics manufacturer that incurs $50,000 in expenses every time there’s a glitch in the power supply. “There are all kinds of businesses that are reliant on power and need a backup generator in case things go haywire,” he said.

These extras don’t come cheap, though. Solar panels, for example, can cost a commercial enterprise hundreds of thousands of dollars and typically take six or seven years to pay for themselves, depending on the size of the building. (The average cost to homeowners is far less, but they’ll still wait years to realize the return on investment.) Alternatively, property owners may lease solar panels, but these financing arrangements can lead to complications when it comes time for the owner to sell. Backup generators also vary in price, ranging from $1,500 to $25,000 for a portable generator or as much as $125,000 for a large standby unit that can power a big building or medical facility. But businesses could see returns sooner than they might expect. “If your area was down because of a power outage, and you were able to stay open because you had some solar or backup power, what’s that worth?” Luke says. “That business might have been closed for a couple of days without it.”

Community-Level Change

While fortifying properties is an important future-proofing strategy, resilience also needs to happen at the macro level, says Emilie Mazzacurati, founder and CEO of Four Twenty Seven, a company that conducts climate risk assessments for corporations and governments around the world. She points to the community of Mexico Beach, Fla., where an estimated 80% of the structures were damaged by Hurricane Michael in 2018. “That’s going to affect the price of houses,” Mazzacurati says. “[The conversation] needs to be about more than investing in your own resilience. The community needs to be investing in resilience as well.”

The city of Somerville, Mass., conducted a climate change vulnerability assessment in 2016, and Craig Foley, GREEN, 2019 chair of the National Association of REALTORS®’ Sustainability Advisory Group, took part. Foley has been urging other real estate professionals to get involved on the local, state, and national levels. “Resiliency has to be part of the discussion—in terms of both resilient building strategies and resilient communities—as we start to move this ball forward,” says Foley, chief sustainability officer for LAER Realty Partners and founder of Sustainable Real Estate Consulting Services in Melrose, Mass.

It’s a conversation where lines can quickly be drawn, because even a small change in building codes can drive up costs and, thus, reduce affordability. At a gathering of the building industry in Louisville, Ky., in 2016, civil engineers proposed a modest code change to reduce the risk of roof loss in hurricanes, according to Insurance Journal. The measure was voted down, the Journal said, after homebuilders opposed it.

The answer, Mazzacurati says, is to create financial incentives, much like energy efficiency programs have done. “If you want your community and market to still be there and thriving in 10, 15, 20 years, it’s smart to talk about it now,” she says.

A Case for Riskier Investments

In cities like New Orleans, future-proofing is something of a pastime. The city is 14 years out from Hurricane Katrina, and many homeowners have rebuilt and fortified their properties with home elevations, storm shutters, stormproof windows, and subsurface draining systems. Federal guidelines require that newly constructed homes and buildings are constructed above the base flood elevation line.

Flood risk hasn’t scared away investors, says Liz Wood, SRS, broker-owner of Liz Wood Realty in New Orleans. Interest has been high since Katrina, and Wood doesn’t see that changing anytime soon. “People move here for the culture almost 100%,” she says.

Wood says several of her clients have seen substantial returns on their investments. That’s especially true right now in the Gentilly neighborhood, which took on eight feet of flooding in some areas during Katrina. For a home just minutes from the trendy French Quarter, Gentilly investors will find prices 30% to 40% below market rate. “Investmentwise, it’s hard to find a house this cheap in a major city,” Wood says.

New Orleans buyers aren’t alone. Of the investors interviewed in the ULI/Heitman study, none had decided to stop investing in certain cities prone to climate risk. However, many were taking a more granular approach to understanding risks. “Some investors were looking to diversify within markets, and others were looking at how to protect and mitigate at the property level,” Burgess says.

One of the key findings from the study, Burgess says, is that in the next five to 10 years, the industry will become more advanced in pricing climate risks and understanding how to address them. Conversations about the need for climate risk disclosures are already underway in some markets.

“There’s increasing awareness of these issues among investors. And over time, we’d assume this awareness will reach all the way to tenants, future owners, and future occupants,” Burgess says.

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

Celebrating and remembering REALTORS® who have dedicated their careers to advancing fair housing and expanding home ownership.

As we commemorate Fair Housing Month, we celebrate three REALTORS® who have dedicated their careers to advancing fair housing and expanding homeownership.

Abra Barnes, Sofia Crisp and Frank Williams are the National Association of REALTORS®’ 2023 Fair Housing Champions. These REALTORS® truly embrace the responsibility that comes with Riding with the Brand.

Another such individual was my friend, Margo Wheeler. Margo, a broker from Tacoma, Wash., served as our 2023 vice president of association affairs until her life was cut short by cancer in January. Like our Fair Housing Champions, Margo was a leader who shined the way for countless others.

I’m tremendously proud and grateful to serve this organization alongside leaders like Abra, Sofia, Frank and Margo.

And I hope you’ll see how powerful it is to ride with the REALTOR® brand by participating in one of our Riding with the Brand tour events. In May, we’ll be in Sacramento, Calif.; Washington, D.C.; Hartford, Conn.; and Williamsburg, Va.—and the tour continues throughout 2023.

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

While NAR fights legal challenges to procompetitive, proconsumer local broker marketplaces, you can educate your community.

In the litigation landscape that the National Association of REALTORS® is facing today, much of what NAR is fighting is misinformation, mischaracterization and lack of understanding or education. There are class-action attorneys and other challengers who have a blatant disregard or lack of appreciation for the value REALTORS® bring consumers and how local MLS broker marketplaces serve the best interests of American home buyers and sellers.

Litigation is a long, complex process that will not be resolved for years, and NAR takes each case and legal development seriously. NAR leadership is taking proactive measures to ensure consumers continue to benefit from the access and opportunities they have today and that real estate professionals continue to be equipped and positioned to serve the best interests of those consumers. On the front, NAR has legal teams actively engaged to defend pro-consumer and pro-competitive practices in local broker marketplaces.

We want you to understand major developments, what we’re doing to address them and how you can help.

Several Cases Remain Unresolved

Let’s start with the Department of Justice.

In a clear victory for NAR in January, a district court ruled that the DOJ must adhere to its previous agreement with NAR to more explicitly state the spirit and intent of NAR’s Code of Ethics and MLS guidelines in certain key areas. In fact, NAR has already adopted clarifications to its guidance for local MLS broker marketplaces to strengthen transparency for consumers.

Though the DOJ recently appealed the decision, NAR remains confident that it will ultimately prevail, saying the association has upheld its end of the agreement and simply expects the DOJ to do the same.

Next, let’s discuss seller class-action lawsuits.

Four years ago, class-action attorneys brought lawsuits against NAR and four corporate defendants in Missouri and Illinois, alleging home sellers have been damaged because their listing broker compensates the buyer’s representative. The lawsuits also suggest that real estate professionals are being paid too much as a result.

While the Illinois case is in earlier stages, the Missouri case is set to go to trial this fall. NAR’s attorneys will make it imminently clear that the association has the law and facts on its side.

Lastly, let’s look at challenges to the Clear Cooperation Policy.

Two lawsuits stem from private listing networks wanting REALTORS® to bypass local broker marketplaces and market properties to consumers only within these private networks. The plaintiffs’ original complaints were dismissed; a federal judge agreed with NAR that the Clear Cooperation Policy provides consumers with “access to more information regarding market conditions, enabling them to make better informed choices about the bundle of real estate brokerage services that will best serve their needs.” 

However, due to appeals, the cases are still ongoing. Regardless, NAR is prepared to present its position at trial, if needed, and prove that the rule promotes competition and ensures transparent, equitable access to real estate listings for the benefit of consumers.

Help NAR Educate the Public

NAR continues to anticipate and prepare for these various legal milestones via ongoing positive, proactive storytelling moments in the media and other places to spread the word about the pro-consumer and pro-competitive nature of local broker marketplaces and REALTORS®’ reputation as trusted, valued experts. NAR also continues to equip state and local associations with toolkits and other content to help them motivate members and educate consumers.

This is where you come in: NAR needs your help to educate consumers about how local MLS broker marketplaces work and promote equity, transparency and market-driven pricing options for consumers as well as the incredible value you provide. That’s why NAR has developed the website competition.realtor. This site is a place to send people who have questions, and it’s a resource for you to pull things you need to be ambassadors with clients and others in your community. The site hosts fact sheets, FAQs, articles, infographics and other information you can use that:

• Illustrate how REALTORS® are consumer champions.
• Describe how local MLS broker marketplaces create highly competitive markets that promote equity, greater access, more choices and greater pricing options when it comes to real estate services.
• Provide soundbite updates on NAR policy changes and legal matters.

In addition, NAR has created a simple consumer website at realestatecommissionfacts.com(link is external) to aid consumers’ understanding of broker services and how real estate professionals are compensated.

At the end of the day, we all know that REALTORS® are consumers’ advocates. We all know that REALTORS® lead as entrepreneurs, small business owners, experts and philanthropists to protect consumers, build generational wealth and contribute to local and national economies. And we also know local MLS broker marketplaces create the largest, most efficient and convenient markets that ensure equity, transparency and market-driven pricing for home buyers and sellers.​​​​​

It is imperative that right now, REALTORS® do all they can to communicate that reality every day in all the conversations they have and channels at their disposal. While NAR’s legal team is helping the association win in a court of law, the association asks members to play their part to help win in the court of public opinion.

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

Your expertise and experience make all the difference.

A home sale is rarely as smooth as the open road. More often it’s a rocky, winding journey that requires detours, pit stops, and flexibility. Your expertise and experience make all the difference. Through this year’s Riding with the Brand tour, we’ve met thousands of you, our industry’s finest professionals who are committed to putting clients first. Yet, even as we celebrate our REALTOR® brand, we are in a legal battle against detractors who either don’t understand or don’t appreciate the value of REALTORS® and local broker marketplaces. The facts are on our side. We will prevail. But we need all hands on deck. At competition.realtor, you’ll find resources that spell out what we do, the economics of a home purchase, and the value of local broker marketplaces. Share these resources to give the public a true understanding of how REALTORS® pave the way. Thank you for all that you do! Thank you for Riding with the Brand.

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission