To: All struggling homeowners

The Community Involvement Committee of GHAR received grant money from NAR in 2010 and did such a good job of running a series of Foreclosure Prevention Forums for the public that they gave us more money this year! Saturday, November 5th, 11am at GHAR will mark the 5th and perhaps final forum.

It's been hard work but also very rewarding. The committee has met some amazing volunteers and homeowners throughout the process. Overall, we've given free foreclosure and legal advice to over 55 people. How inspiring to meet those willing to do all they can to keep their dream of homeownership!

Just as inspiring has been the community of volunteers willing to give their time. We've created strong alliances with great people like attorney Jeff Gentes from the Connecticut Fair Housing Center who has given his time, knowledge and also supplies our handouts. Rose Holbrook from the CT Housing & Finance Authority voluntarily shares the programs available to struggling homeowners and we have had a few of the foreclosure mediators from the State Foreclosure Mediation Program willing to share the process that our state has set as an example for others.

We are also pleased to have Casey Healey from The Healey Law Firm LLC in Cheshire, who will join us for this last forum. This will be the second forum that Casey is volunteering to share her years of foreclosure and bankruptcy law experience.

The audience is not only made up of struggling homeowners looking for answers but REALTORS® like you are also encouraged to attend. Those that have atteneded, have been pleasantly surprised by how well the forum is organized and how much helpful information is distributed. So, please help us spread the word about November 5th at 11am so that we can make this last forum our very best forum.

Keara

Communications Director

Greater Hartford Association of REALTORS®
433 South Main St, Suite 106, West Hartford, CT 06110
t: 860.561.1800
http://www.gharonline.com/
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Emailing Attachments in MLS

We get MLS questions from agents all the time. Below is a question asked by a GHAR member just last week. It's also a question I think every agent has probably wondered about at some point.

Q. Can you make it so we as agents can send the listing attachments to the clients rather than us wasting paper? It is much more efficient and Eco friendly. If clients don't like what they see in the disclosures why waste their. Now I have to print, scan and email.

A. There are several ways you can get the attachments to your clients without having to print and rescan them.

If the listing agent has marked the attachments as "Public Access" then your clients will be able to access the attachments by clicking on the photo of a listing you email to them, and clicking on the Attachments tab.

MLXchange won't let you email attachments directly, but when you open the PDF attachment there is an email button above that screen that you can use to email each attachment separately. If there is more than one attachment that you want to email you can hit the File "save as" button and save each file to your computer hard drive and then email them as a group from there.

If you have any questions email me or call me at 860-561-1800.

Shelley L. LaPaugh

Director of MLS

Are we ethical?

It’s no surprise that once in awhile REALTORS® find themselves in an ethical dispute over misunderstandings, miscommunication, or lack of adequate communication. In the five years of my tenure at GHAR, however, I've noticed that the number of Ethics complaint and Arbitration filings is steadily going down. Anyone can file an ethics complaint and it costs nothing, so why aren't more complaints being filed? Do you really think ethical behavior has improved over the last five years? Do you understand the process? Please share your thoughts with us!

When another REALTOR® or member of the public calls me regarding an ethical issue with one of our members, I may ask if the Complainant has tried to work it out directly with the member or their firm’s principal broker (managing broker/owner). Open, constructive discussion often resolves questions or differences eliminating the need for further action, and an apology certainly goes a long way in these situations. A reminder about a specific Article in the Code of Ethics may also evoke the ethical conduct needed to bring about a successful transaction. However, if there is no resolution after discussing matters with the REALTOR®, Office Manager, or Principal broker, then filing a formal ethics complaint is the best option.

Please help me get a pulse on what is really going on in the field by completing this brief survey. Your thoughts and suggestions are important to improving our Professional Standards process at the local level. Thanks for all you do!

Susy Hurlbert
Director of Executive Services

Please help! We’re looking for your input!

Our website is going to get a makeover and we want the content to be exactly what you need to help make your business successful. We've already gathered a panel of your peers and their feedback was priceless. So good, in fact, that maybe the rest of our membership would like to contribute some great ideas! What would you like to see on www.gharonline.com? What do you wish was there that's not?

We would love to hear your opinions for the new GHAR website and we want to know what is most important to you. Please fill out this brief survey and let us know what you would add/change/delete if you could:

http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e4i6ja3ogquyvys5/start


Thank you!

Christian Disbrow
Director of Information Technology

It’s that time of year again

Hi Everyone,
It’s that time of year again! Time to look toward completing your Continuing Education requirements for Real Estate Licensing. The Real Estate Commission has made changes to the requirements by combining the two mandatory courses to one for the current cycle. The 12 hours of Continuing Education still applies, 3- hours are for the new mandatory course, “CT Real Estate Fiduciary duties and law Update” and 9 hours of elective courses. We are excited to be able to offer some great new courses and great, (maybe not so new) instructors this fall.

Amy Chorew will be offering some of her very timely tech courses to assist agents and their clients with communication in a virtual world. In addition, NAR instructor Rob Nahigian will be at GHAR in October to teach a 3-hour elective on liquidity and Commercial Real Estate: "Connecting The Dots Back To The Future".

Both of these courses and more will be offered by GHAR to assist REALTORS® in the current market. The knowledge services schedule resides on our home page http://www.gharonline.com/. We make updates to it often so be sure to visit the site to select the courses you need.

Just as a reminder, the following are CT State licensing educational requirements:

Brokers - If you passed the Connecticut Broker full licensing examination between 4/1/2010 and 3/31/2012, you do not need to take the continuing education courses. (The date used is not the issuance date of your first license, it is the exam date.)

Salespersons – If you passed the Connecticut Salesperson full licensing examination between 6/1/2010 and 5/31/2012, you do not need to take the continuing education courses. (The date used is not the issuance date of your first license, it is the exam date.)

As always please call or email your suggestions for classes or events and thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,
Gina Micelotta
Director of Member Services
Phone 860-561-1800, Ext.227
Email: gmicelotta@gharonline.com

Key Upgrade

It’s time. Time for your Association to provide you with the very latest in lockbox key technology! While the Display Key has served our members well for the past eight years, the technology is dated. That’s why we went to work to bring you a better technology: the new Supra ActiveKEY.

The new ActiveKEY is the first wireless lockbox key designed by real estate professionals for real estate professionals. There are so many advantages to using the new key, we want you to know more about it:

• ActiveKEY keeps itself updated 24/7 through frequent cellular connections to the Supra network. Virtually no attention is required from you!
• When an ActiveKEY opens one of your iBoxes, you receive a real-time showing notification so you’ll know right away when someone has entered your listings!
• The Supra system can also be set to send you an email when someone opens one of your iBoxes or sends you showing feedback
• ActiveKEY is easy to use. It has lots of friendly features including a built-in flashlight and a brightly lit keypad and display window
• The ActiveKEY comes with a power cord, a mini-USB cable and even a clip-on pouch with a pocket to hold your business cards!
• An optional car charger is available for busy real estate professionals. Charge your ActiveKEY while on the way to your next showing.

Want to read more about the Supra ActiveKEY? It is our hope that this new technology not only makes your life easier but also helps your business. We’ve worked hard at negotiating a fair price to make the monthly increase less than a gallon of gas! One more thing, the projected exchange of the keys will take place during the week of October 10^th. For more information about the upgrade and costs associated, click here: http://www.gharonline.com/pdf/Info_Lockbox_Key_Upgrade.pdf

Stay tuned! You’ll see more information about the new keys, services, and upgrade implementation in our upcoming communications.

Jeff Arakelian, RCE

President & CEO

Sounds like you're ready for change!

You may remember the communications survey that was sent out a couple of months back. No? Well, there was one that just over 600 of our members filled out and we took notes. The feedback we received has been solid gold so without wasting any time, we want to start implementing your ideas right away!

Email
The survey found that 95% of you prefer to be communicated with by email. That is a relief because about 95% of our communications are by email! We found that a majority of the survey applicants always read our Newsletter 45%, MLS login page 36%, and dedicated event emails 48%.

Frequency
Most of you (52%) would like to be emailed once per week. One member suggested: “Once a week. maybe news and bulletins could be combined into one weekly email, unless an important announcement or deadline came up.” Great idea! We heard this more than once - and we are listening!

Respondents suggested that emails sent on a Friday are often overlooked and that emails sent early to mid-week have the best chance of being seen. Also, a majority stated that the communications would be read more if they were shorter in length (47%) and contained a combination of information (news, info, deadlines, bulletins, etc). See what I mean about great ideas?

Topics
A majority of you are very interested information concerning CE classes (75%), 62% are somewhat interested in GHAR events and 51% are very interested in information about technology. One suggested that we provide more printable tools to share like facts, numbers and graphs. Most of you prefer to read summarized information because there just isn’t enough time in the day!

The Result
So, having read through hundreds of comments and suggestions, we are ready to heed your wishes. It appears you would like emails to be short, to the point, and once per week. This plan is already set in motion and will continue to evolve over time as we update our website to accommodate all of these changes. Our current Newsletter (REALsTORy) will be sent once per week, instead of both the eNews and newsletter. The June issue will be the last newsletter as you know it now. The new one will be a combination of everything you need to know - all in one place! Just imagine!

Our email design will ultimately reflect our new website design - easy to navigate and easy to read. Oh, and did we mention that we're working on a new logo, too? Lots of changes coming but from what I've read, you're ready! Do you like these ideas? Do you hate them? Please let me know! Keara Langston (klangston@gharonline.com or call 860.561.1800).

We’re looking for some good advice!

GHAR is redesigning its website from top to bottom. We’ll remove some content, add new content, and change the navigation to make it easier for you to find the information you need.

Here’s your chance to make GHARonline.com a better website for all of our members. Tell us what you would like to see on our new website.

Here’s how you can help us. Join our focus group. We’ll have a short meeting that’ll last about an hour or two to discuss the redesign. You don’t need any web design experience or technical knowledge to take part in our focus group. You even have a chance to win a $50 gas card for giving us your time!

To sign-up for our focus group, please call me (Christian) at 860-561-1800 ext. 232 or send me an email by May 20, 2011.

For the last nine years, the editors at REALTOR® Association Executive magazine have held an annual website contest for real estate associations - like GHAR. They recently announced the winners of the 2011 contest and the reasons behind their choices in the Spring 2011 edition of the magazine.

Following are the winners, one for each association size category:

• the Portage County Association of REALTORS, Ohio in the fewer than 300 members category;
• the Berkshire Association of REALTORS, Mass. in the 301-700 members category;
• the Dulles Area Association of REALTORS, Va. in the 701-2,000 members category;
• the REALTORS Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh in the 2,001-7,000 members category;
• the Houston Association of REALTORS in the more than 7,000 members category.

To put this in perspective, GHAR has approximately 3,500 members. If you look at the websites above, you’ll see how other associations try to disseminate information to their members. It worked for the judges; the 2011-2012 REALTOR AE magazine editorial board and NAR staff, but do these ideas work for you, our members?

Christian Disbrow
Director of Information Technology

Spread the Word About MLXwireless!

One of the fears I have about writing a BLOGGAR is that I’m preaching to the choir and reaching only the agents who are already tech savvy. So I’d like to ask a favor of all of you Blog fans. Please share the Blog with a friend, a colleague, or a new agent in your office.

Most agents think of the MLS only as a place to look up listings. You meet a buyer who wants a Colonial in Wethersfield, so you go in the MLS and look up Wethersfield Colonials. But our MLS offers more functionality than just a simple search, it offers tools to help you work smarter not harder, a fact I sometimes think is the best kept secret in Connecticut.

In the last orientation class here at GHAR, I asked, as I usually do, how many of the agents in the class had smart phones. About 10 out of the 30 or so attendees raised their hands. Then I asked how many of those people are using MLXwireless. I hoped that all ten would raise their hands, but as usual, it was about half. So, why are agents, who are already paying for their smart phones, not using wireless access?

• It can’t be the price. It’s FREE!
• It can’t be the time it takes to sign up because the MLX wireless registration is easily accessible under ‘Resources’ on the MLX home page, 24/7, and it’s only four questions long.
• It can’t be that they couldn’t use the convenience of being able to look up listing information from anywhere.

So, it must be that most of the agents out there just don’t know about MLXwireless. So, I’m spreading the word and asking Blog readers to share. Your next sale may depend on the ability to look up information while you are on the road. Why not register for MLX wireless today and make that sale a reality!?

Shelley LaPaugh
GHAR MLS Director

Do you have integrity?

Ethics is a subject that applies to our business dealings as REALTORS®, but it is also at the root of our moral character as individuals, parents, and leaders. NAR established the REALTORS® Code of Ethics based on the fundamental golden rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. The Golden Rule falls under duty theory in the family of normative ethics, but did you know there are actually three theories that guide our moral conduct?

• Duty Theory: Basically what NAR says…Avoid wronging others, treat people as equals, and promote the good of others. According to Kant’s categorical imperative, treat people as an end, not as a means to an end.

• Virtue Theory places less emphasis on learning rules, and instead stresses the importance of developing good habits of character. Plato describes cardinal virtues as wisdom, courage, temperance and justice. Other important virtues are fortitude, generosity, self-respect, good temper, and sincerity. Aristotle believed that virtues are good habits that we attain..

• Consequentialist Theory: An action is morally right if the consequences of that action are more favorable than unfavorable. Utilitarianism falls in this category – do the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

From Donald Menzel’s Ethics Management for Public Administrators, here are a few integrity building tips for you, your staff, and even your children:

1. Take risks to oppose unjust acts (don’t just go along)
2. Communicate Truthfully (don’t intentionally deceive others)
3. Deal Fairly (don’t provide advantages or disadvantages because of affiliation or position)
4. Honor Agreements (keep your commitments)
5. Accept Personal Responsibility When Things Go Wrong
6. Forgive individuals for mistakes or wrongdoing (Don’t hold grudges)
7. Exhibit humility (Avoid unbridled ambition and emphasis of rank and status differences)
8. Respect the dignity of individuals by giving earned recognition (don’t treat employees as simply vehicles for getting the work done)
9. Celebrate the ability and good fortune of others (suppress envy)

Best Wishes for a long life well lived!

Susy

Short Sales from Your Perspective

Hi Everyone,
As Director of Member Services, I need to address current market issues based on hot topic items in the industry. In our current economy, I’ve heard a tremendous amount of feedback from REALTORS® regarding short sales; such as how to close them, how to get the banks to return calls, and how to figure out the necessary paperwork, just to name a few. If you are an agent who struggles with these questions, or some like these, then you are not alone.

Help is on the way! We have secured a short sale expert to come to GHAR to address issues like the ones mentioned above and more. On Friday, March 18th at 9:00am, George Tifft, REALTOR® and Certified Depressed Property Expert, will be speaking regarding short sale topics such as:

• Why will a lender do a Short Sale?
• Understanding how banks make money and how it relates to short sales
• Just how big is the short sale market going to get?
• Where do you start?
• The Listing Package
• MLS Disclosures
• The Offer
• The Lenders Package
• Lender Negotiation

Visit George’s Blog for more information and helpful tips:
http://www.saveufrom4closure.com/Blog.aspx

To register for the George Tifft Seminar:
http://www.gharonline.com/pdf/Event_Workshops.pdf

“As an agent with the CDPE® Designation (Certified Distressed Property Expert), I have a strong and unique appreciation of the factors affecting the market, and know that there are options available…”
- George Tiff from http://www.saveufrom4closure.com/

Let us know what kinds of issues you’ve seen out there in this market. What topics are important to you and how we can better serve you?

Sincerely,
Gina Micelotta
GHAR Director of Member Services

GHAR exclusive benefits - what's next?

Hello all,

Hopefully by now you are aware of GHAR’s new member benefit product, zipForm 6 Professional. Please take advantage of this GHAR members-only benefit by enrolling or maybe you are waiting for your zipForm 6 Standard software license to expire before your switch over. Here are step-by-step instructions to sign up for or renew your zipForm 6 License Agreement, if you haven't already:
New user: www.gharonline.com/downloads/ZipForm_Member_Signup.pdf
Renewing user: www.gharonline.com/downloads/ZipForm_Member_Renewal.pdf
 

In any event, GHAR’s focus is squarely on providing you with tools to enhance your professionalism, productivity, and profitability. It is our vision to be Connecticut’s leading provider of products and services for real estate professionals and I believe this tool proves our dedication to that vision. As the only REALTOR® association in the state to offer this benefit, we have further demonstrated our leadership.

Clearly, we are proud of this accomplishment and we've also gotten positive feedback from you but we want to know more. Tell us what you think about zipForm 6. What other tools would you like to see GHAR deliver? What more can we do to provide products and services to help your business grow?

Jeff Arakelian, RCE

GHAR CEO

Who wants a free CE class?

I’ll get to the free class in a minute, but now that I have your attention I’m wondering how you communicate. We’ve been doing lots of thinking about communications as of late. Our strategic planning session for 2011 seemed to have communications come up in every topic! That makes me happy. I happen to think relevant communication is very important – especially the way it’s delivered - and I’m not saying that just because it’s my job!

Are you wondering about that free CE class? Not long now. :) Do you find it difficult to find the right way to communicate with your clients? I think everyone in all types of businesses might struggle with that as technology tools become increasingly diverse. Do you wonder if email or social media are enough? Maybe you prefer to pick up the phone. Does anyone actually send mail anymore? Our inquiring minds would like to know!

Ok, first things first. Who are you? Oh sure, we have a membership database that lets me know we have roughly 3500 members. Of those 3500, I know that roughly 60 to 70 percent of you are female. That’s about all the rough information I can gather. This is where you come in to help! I’d like to know how you communicate. I'll beg if I have to... please, please, please fill out this survey and tell us! You will be entered into a random drawing to win a free GHAR CE class!!

Thanks for your time - it is hugely appreciated.
best,
Keara

Got eWaste? Destroy, Donate, or Dispose

I found that our office had accumulated a truckload of computer equipment over the years. I didn’t throw out old routers or CRT monitors because I thought I might need them someday. Some of the gear had some value and could be donated to a worthy cause, but the rest of it was too old to be given away. State law prohibits me from throwing it all in the garbage and mandates that I recycle it. We got ewaste and now I had to figure out what to do with it.

Since all of the computers were too old to donate, I destroyed the hard disks by opening the drives and bending the platters that held sensitive data. I would have used Cybercide or KillDisk to destroy the data on the hard drives if I were going to donate the computers.

I took our old gear to the Computer Recycler in Cromwell. It’s a free recycling service for home users, businesses, or educational institutes. They take all kinds of electronics and computer equipment and are open Thursdays and Saturdays every week for a few hours. The guys were friendly and were happy to take our old computer equipment.

If the drive to Cromwell is too far, check if to see your town has a transfer station that will take residential electronics for no charge and what items they’ll take.

I donated the equipment we didn’t have any use for to a local charity called the Global Harmony Institute. If you have computers you would like to donate, check to see if it meets their criteria. While they charge $10 an item, at least you’ll know your donation would be re-used at a school or other nonprofit organization.

While there are a number of organizations who will also recycle your electronics, the most useful link I found is the one for returning HP printer cartridges and their consumables. You can print a UPS label so you can return the HP printer cartridge to a recycling center.


Christian Disbrow
Director of Information Technology