GHAR = Go Hug A Realtor® (Part I)

I’m Susy Hurlbert, Director of Executive Services here at GHAR. Cool title, huh? Now I'm sure you’re wondering what that means, right? Well, in a nutshell, it means I have my hands in a lot of different areas at the association. I’m a jack of all trades, in a way. I am the staff liaison to GHAR’s Professional Standards, Grievance, Legal Awareness and West Region committees. In fact, there is so much to tell you about all of these areas that I have to split it into two blog entries! So keep an eye out for part II next month.

All of the areas mentioned earlier give me great insight to Realtors and here is what I’ve learned…. REALTORS® are a delightful, enterprising, creative, giving, smart bunch of professionals who like to have a pulse on their community. They have great sense of style, like to dress to impress, and love a good party. I’ve noticed that what drives a REALTOR® is a genuine desire to help their clients. REALTORS® are astute linguists, contracticians, mathematicians, and they expect and receive the very best from each other when it comes to professionalism.

Of course most of you reading this already know all that so here’s something you might not – let’s talk about me because I have the coolest job at GHAR! One of my favorite things to do is take Professional Standards phone calls. I get to hear a laundry list of all the unfortunate things that REALTORS® get accused of doing, such as:

• Leaving a door open for the sellers cat to escape
• Giving a key without permission so a buyer can start moving in before the closing date
• Not presenting an offer that is too ridiculous to waste time on
• Buyers who are mad that their deposits aren’t being returned right away
• Clients who want to switch Realtors but don’t realize their contract is legal and binding or switched Realtor’s and now want to vilify them to justify ignoring their contractual obligations

Recently I’ve had a couple instances this year where the “letter” of the law has met the “spirit” of the law when grammatical mistakes in the MLS have given rise to ethics and/or arbitration complaints. In these lean times, be careful what you write especially when it comes to offers of compensation! If you have a question or aren’t sure if you are following the Code of Ethics, give me a call (860.561.1800). If you need the forms to file a complaint, click here. Want to brush up on the Code of Ethics, click here!
BTW, my Grievance Committee is just as enthusiastic as I am about this work, and I am always impressed by the professionalism of those who serve on Professional Standards, especially the Hearing Chairs who lead the process with fairness and skill as though they were born for the bench.

Stay tuned for part II to find out the rest of the fun I get to have everyday! Please let me know if you have questions or concerns – I’d love to hear from you! Until next time… Happy home sales!

New fall education courses!

Dear Valued Members,

Welcome to my first post on the new GHAR Blog! What another great way to communicate with you, our members! I am Gina Micelotta, the Director of Member Services here at GHAR and one of the most important things I can do is listen to our membership. I hope to gather some great information from you right through this blog!!!

Did you know that we have a Member Services Committee for the association that is responsible for the programs, products and services that we offer to the members? This committee comes up with ideas on education, events, affinity discounts and so much more. The committee serves as your representative for all things education. Coming up this fall, we have some exciting new professional development courses to help you grow your business. NAR has written an important new outline “HAFA-Short Sales-The Complete Course” watch for details this coming fall.
We are also offering two regional legal updates to bring new information to you.

Even though our Member Services Committee does a great job bringing us fresh ideas, we still need to hear from you! Please let me know if there is a topic, area of interest, or a part of business that you want to know more about. Visit http://www.gharonline.com/ for an education schedule and/or event updates.

I am always available to hear your ideas so don’t hesitate to contact me. We are here to support and enhance your knowledge and your business!

What do you need in 2011?

Hello members!

Thank you for taking the time to follow our BLOGGHAR! I'm excited at the opportunity for us to let you know what's going on with the association as well as to get your input. Mike Tracy, our 2011 Chair of the Board, and I were able to hear all about this type of communication at the yearly NAR Leadership Summit in Chicago just last week. This is an exciting time of year as we look to generate new ways to help your business as well as align our goals with the National and State associations. We had the opportunity to hear from great leaders in the real estate industry from all over the country who touched on a few of these hot button issues:

• New NAR marketing campaign: "What Matters Most". Launched in May, supports NAR’s members by educating consumers about the benefits of homeownership and buying opportunities in a changing real estate market
• Lots of reports and member surveys! 47,000 random REALTORS® were surveyed via email and 78% of you have Facebook accounts and about 40% thought social networking was good for business
• Building effective relationships with lawmakers and the media by using talking points to deliver NAR's position and perspective
• Available tools to help you, our membership: 'Rookies' (http://www.realtor.org/toolkits/forrookies), 'Master Series' videos (http://www.realtor.org/rmosales_and_marketing/articles/2009/masters_series), Home design trends (http://styledstagedsold.blogs.realtor.org/)
• Real Estate market update from NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun and the Economists' Outlook section of the NAR website: http://www.realtor.org/research/research_commentary

...and so much more!

The summit is perfectly timed because just two weeks ago, the GHAR Board of Directors and committee leadership sat down with staff to soak up the vast knowledge from Belton Jennings (http://www.linkedin.com/in/beltonjennings). Belton is the former CEO of the 12,000 member Orlando Regional REALTOR® Association and the managing shareholder for the Mid-Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service (MFRMLS) which serves 29,000 real estate professionals throughout Central Florida.

We were able to pick his brain for a full day of strategic planning! What a creative day with great ideas from your peers on the Board of Directors. The lively discussions and brainstorming were inspiring! Mike Tracy and I hope to share even more ideas and initiatives with you as we sort through all of the great information from the National Summit.

Please use this opportunity to tell us ways we can better serve you. Do you have an idea on a program you'd like considered? How about a kind of event that would help your business? Post a response and let us know!!!

We're here to help you become the best in the business!
-Jeff

GHAR President and CEO