If you are a Hinds County or Jackson resident, the Governmental Affairs Committee needs you. Please send a quick email to Bethany Culley at bethanyculley@gmail.com if you are interested in serving on this year's Governmental Affairs Committee. The committee is monitoring the municipality elections and needs interested REALTORS® who live in the Jackson/Hinds area to help vet candidates.

Please show your value to your clients helping them get registered to vote in the August 6 election if they moved into a new voting district. Providing voter registration forms and even offering to mail them in shows your interest in your clients and adds value to your service. REALTORS® vote and encourage their clients to vote as well. Visit CMR’s Get Out The Vote page to download and print the Mississippi Mail-In Voter Registration Application.

Get it out of the way on June 17.  Your CEO, Jo Usry, is teaching the “Raise Your Right Hand” (required Code of Ethics class) at the REALTOR® Institute.  It’s not your same old, tired Code of Ethics class. 

If you enter into a buyer representation agreement with a buyer and your buyer “gets loose,” buying directly from a seller or through another Broker in MLS, the buyer representation agreement isn’t a determiner of procuring cause.

The CMR and MLS office will be closed April 24-25, 2019, while the staff works the MLS EXPO.  The office will reopen Friday, April 26, 2019, at 9 am.

Be careful and know what you can and cannot do.

If a seller contacts you, know what you can and cannot do if the listing has not yet expired.

If a buyer contacts you, determine whether or not he/she is a party to a buyer representation agreement.

Be careful and avoid a potential ethics violation (Article 3, 3-9) by assuming that the MLS term “showing instructions” ONLY apply if you are showing a property to a potential client.  “Showing instructions” includes ACCESS to the property for any reason.  To say that you didn’t need to follow showing instructions because you were not “showing” the property is an improper interpretation.

Don’t rely on social media and news from places other than NAR for reliable updates on the class action anti-trust lawsuit (Moehrl v NAR et al).  Instead, rely solely on the updates that Katie Johnson, NAR’s Chief Legal Counsel, provides to the membership.

Six of MAR’s forms have been revised and have 2/2019 revision dates. If you use MAR’s forms, ensure you are using only the most current ones. Using copies of old forms from 2008 is not in the best interest of your client. Although not revised, Form 39 Seller Multiple Offer Notification and Form 40 Buyer’s Agent Acknowledgement are forms that have kept many REALTORS® out of harm’s way by presenting Multiple Offers according to the Seller’s wishes. Check them out in the Forms Library if you haven’t seen them yet.

Your Road to Home Ownership & 10 Ways to Simplify Your Life Using Banking Technology

• April 18, 2019
• May 16, 2019
• June 20, 2019

[Download Flyer]

April 25 and 26 at the Jackson Hilton

Approved for 7 hours of elective CE

• Fair Housing and Reasonable Accommodations
• Zoning and Group Homes
• Fair Lending
• Avoiding Loan Modification Scams

Register through https://www.heedhousing.org/

Did you SALE it or did you SELL it?

REALTORS SELL property.  REALTORS participate in SALES.  

When you are tempted to write the word SELL or SALE....think, proof, and know that clients and customers may judge you by your good or bad grammar.  We hope you all SELL a property this week and have a SALE to report next month!

If you ever find yourself under investigation by MREC as a result of a complaint being filed against you, regardless of what the complaint is about, the investigators review every single document in your file pertaining to the transaction being investigated.

You have an obligation under Article 1 of the Code of Ethics (SOP 1-12) to advise sellers of how your firm cooperates and compensates buyer’s brokers.  Part of that explanation will include how compensation works through MLS.

When your seller agrees to extend the date on the listing agreement the MLS Property Status Change Form should not be used as that extension agreement since it does not include the requirements stated in MREC Rule 3.2B

Regions Bank is offering two-hour education classes valuable to REALTORS® (elective CE credit provided) and their customers and clients. The topics include Financial Fundamentals, Banking Technology, Credit Reports, Identity Theft, and Fraud. Sharing this opportunity with clients and potential clients adds value to your services. Registration is directly through the contact names provided on the flier.

[Download Flyer]

If after a due process hearing, it is determined that a violation occurred the following sanctions are authorized:

1. An automatic $500 administrative fee will be charged to a Respondent found in violation
2. Plus, one or more of the following authorized sanctions:

2019 is the last year that the criteria for earning the REALTOR® Emeritus award are limited to 40 years of REALTOR® membership and prior service at the local or state levels of the REALTOR® organization.  Beginning in 2020, the criteria will also include service at the National level.

Sellers hire you to bring a buyer to the property.  If your photos don’t entice a buyer to make an appointment to see it, you might not be promoting the seller’s interest (Article 1 of the Code of Ethics).  Take a moment and review your photos from your seller’s perspective asking yourself, “Do my photos make someone want to see the property?”

Many obligations in the Code of Ethics are also obligations in License Law.  That is particularly true with the language added to the Code of Ethics in 2019 requiring listing brokers to provide proof to cooperating brokers that an offer was presented. The same obligation with similar language has ALWAYS been in license law.

Today is a banner day for REALTORS® as we launch That’s Who We R®, the new national ad campaign from the National Association of REALTORS®. The campaign showcases the passion and dedication you bring to your work while telling the story of who you are as advisors, advocates, volunteers, neighbors—and real estate professionals committed to a Code of Ethics.

That’s the REALTOR® difference. That’s who you are.

[Campaign Announcement]
[Tell Your Story]
[Memo: That’s Who We R®]

Individuals can deduct up to $2500 from their state adjusted gross income when they make deposits into a First-Time Homebuyer Savings Account. Couples and deduct up to $5000 a year. To learn more on the who, what, where, when, why, and how, visit firsthomems.org.

Have you ever wondered whether or not your buyer’s offer was actually presented by the listing agent to the seller? Failure of a listing broker to provide written affirmation to a cooperating broker indicating that an offer was presented is now a violation of BOTH the REALTOR® Code of Ethics and MLS rules.

The MLS building downtown at 620 N. State Street has sold and closed. The MLS and CMR staff will continue to provide services out of the N. State Street location for about a year. The new headquarters will be located on Sunnybrook Road in Ridgeland behind Patty Peck Honda and in front of Ridgeland High School.

The two awkward questions REALTORS have to ask a potential buyer can open the door to a better relationship from the beginning if asked a different way.