Board Report - September 2011

Board Report
September 2011

The Corporation remains within budget and within income for the first eight months of the year. Membership increased slightly for the period to 7,666 members from 7,585. There were 448 assistants, bringing the total to 8,114. When the lockbox reciprocation begins, the Finance Committee projects a decline in membership which will have a major impact on our monthly numbers.

Directors were provided a letter from Rapattoni and a copy of correspondence to NAR confirming that NAR exceeded the $7.5 million payment by $2,370,945.00. BAREIS paid approximately $9.06 per member for the license; the adjusted amount should be $6.26 per member. Rapattoni has confirmed that they will reimburse 70% of the $6.26 cost. This will result in a net cost to BAREIS of $1.88 per member. Directors discussed whether the funds should be used to reimburse the legal reserve or purchase a software enhancement for our members. After a discussion, Directors referred the use of the reimbursements and the savings on the CIVIX license fee to the Audit and Budget Committee.

The Communications Committee has been receiving feedback from spokespeople on how their roles are working. On September 15, 2011, Art Battles and Kasey Childs-Briare hosted a webinar for committee members to demonstrate upcoming features on BAREIS’ system. Four Directors and two committee members attended the session. The session was not recorded, though the next session will be recorded and made available for committee members and Directors to view on BAREIS.com. A number of different options were discussed to encourage committee members to become more involved. It was suggested that the broker managers of large offices be asked to select a person in that office to be a spokesperson for the office.

The Rules Committee reviewed four appeals and discussed two requests by members to revise the policy regarding information that can be mentioned in the Property Description field. The first request was to allow references to personal property as amenities, and the second request was to allow statements that discuss potential usage of a property (i.e., bed & breakfast, vacation rental, vineyard, etc.). Personal property is currently not permitted in the Property Description field. Unless the property is zoned for, or has an existing usage for a particular purpose, our policy has been to not allow “Could be” statements. The committee feels that the burden of deciding what should be placed in the Property Description field should be on the broker and recommends expanding the policy to allow these two items. Directors also discussed the repeated request to allow financing terms in the Property Description field. Due to Truth-in-Lending laws we do not permit partial information about financing in the Property Description field. The availability of seller financing is critical in this market place, so Directors discussed the different ways that seller financing can be presented without requiring full terms involved under Truth-in-Lending. After a discussion, Directors agreed to approve the change in policy to permit references to personal property; to permit remarks that discuss a property’s potential usage; and to permit remarks that indicate that seller financing may be available in the Property Description field.

Directors discussed the placement of QR codes in the photo field. Placing a QR Code in the photo field creates a link directly to member’s personal Internet site. We have had a complaint regarding an agent placing a QR code in a listing photo and we anticipate more. BAREIS’ currently policy allows the photo field to be used only to display photos of the listed property, so a link to a personal Internet site is a violation of BAREIS’ Regulations.

BAREIS continues to negotiate with SmarterAgent, the holder of the patent that is preventing Rapattoni from being able to release their software for smartphones. We are negotiating with SmarterAgent to develop an application for both the Android and iOS that links to GreatHomes®.org for general public usage.

Our efforts to finalize the lockbox reciprocation program continue to move forward.

The Sutter/Yuba SSO link should be active 9/27/11. We have executed the reciprocal access agreement and have a draft reciprocal key agreement being circulated.

There has been some dysfunction with Realist2, and some user-based problems with Realist2 software. BAREIS is hosting a number of demonstration training seminars for members. We have held sessions in every county and they have all been well-attended. There are still fields that are only available in Realist Classic, not Realist2, and the documents are only available in Classic. There have also been issues with Realist2 not updating photos. BAREIS’ technical support team has been working with CoreLogic to ensure these issues are being addressed.