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Tuesday, February 5, 2008 This week's headlines... • Be Prepared to be Informed, Inspired & Amazed |
Be Prepared to be Informed, Inspired & Amazed! If you are a broker in Michigan, you need to be at the premier event in the state for brokers, MAR’s Broker Summit. Planned by brokers for brokers, this event has a dynamic lineup of speakers and networking to inform, inspire and amaze all brokers in attendance on April 15 – 16 at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn. The incredible lineup of speakers includes:
The Broker Summit will also feature an expert legal panel and a MAR update. The economy is on everyones' minds and this is a speaker combination that will address concerns specific to Michigan. Only MAR is bringing its broker members the top real estate economists in the nation together for one event. Registration is now open and for under $150 you get access to the entire Broker Summit. Visit the MAR Web site to register, view speaker bios and an event schedule. There are also currently sponsorship opportunities available. MAR FPC's Attend Training Session in Washington D.C. The Michigan Association of REALTORS® Federal Political Coordinators (FPC’s) are currently attending a training session held in Washington D.C. The MAR FPC's serve as liaisons between legislators on the federal level and REALTOR® members in Michigan. The focus of the FPC training is to provide tools to strengthen relationships with national leaders in order to push for REALTOR® friendly legislation. The training gives FPC’s from around the nation a chance to meet one on one with federal elected officials to discuss policies and other concerns affecting REALTORS®. Top industry priorities on the national level include; access to affordable healthcare, protecting the mortgage interest deduction, and keeping banks out of the real estate arena. The FPC’s stress the importance of crafting sound legislation to keep the REALTOR® agenda moving forward. To view the 2008 list of Federal Political Coordinators, please visit: www.mirealtors.com/leadership/fpclist.html With the help of McClelland & Anderson, we are taking the most commonly asked questions from our legal hotline and putting them in e-news. We will be featuring a different question each issue. QUESTION: I am a REALTOR® representing a licensed builder who is selling a house that he has built. The builder currently resides in this property. Is he exempt from the Seller Disclosure Act? ANSWER: NO. The builder would have been exempt from the Seller Disclosure Act had he not resided in the property. Section 565.953(i) exempts a transfer from a licensed builder ONLY if it is a newly constructed residential property that has not been previously inhabited. MAR is pleased to offer its members the opportunity to join the MAR, members only Facebook Group. Already over 70 members have taken advantage of this networking opportunity. However, MAR wants to protect its members privacy and offers these safety guidelines. Remember that although using fake names is a violation of the Facebook Terms of Use, people are not always who they say they are. You should always be careful when sending friend requests to, or accepting friend requests from people you do not know in the real world. And it is always risky to meet anyone in person whom you don't know through real world friends. Always follow these important safety tips when using Facebook:
If you have not already joined, you can do so by visiting www.facebook.com and signing up for your free account. After you have created your profile, go to Groups and search Michigan Association of REALTORS®. The MAR logo will come up and to the right there is the option “request to join group”. Click on this and a request will be sent to the group administrator. Once your MAR membership is validated, you will be approved and have access to the group and its members. To view another member’s profile, you must request and be accepted as their “friend”. Stay tuned for more Facebook tips. Detroit Ranks High for Entertainment Worried about what there is to do while you're in Detroit for the MAR Convention & Expo this coming September 17 – 19? Besides attending informative daytime sessions presented by the nations best real estate experts, Detroit offers many evening attractions and was recently named one of the top 10 Party Cities by Maxim Magazine and the Best Sports City by Sporting News. Maxim ranked Detroit as number nine in front of tenth place Chicago. Maxim’s stringent criteria included: 24-hour restaurants, women per man (ages 18-39), the presence of casinos, four-year college undergrads, residents per bar/club, beer cases sold per capita, days/month without sleep, the percentage of women who are divorced and the population’s median age. Happy hours, tolerance for dancing in bars and the sale of alcohol in supermarkets were also taken into consideration. Maxim is a monthly magazine with a circulation of 2.5 million. This is Detroit’s second time being named Best Sports City. One hundred fifty cities were ranked for the annual list. Each city is ranked based on its sports atmosphere, regular season won-lost records (from the most recently completed season), playoff berths, bowl appearances, tournament bids, championships, applicable power ratings, quality of competition, overall fan fervor as measured in part by attendance as percentage of venue capacity, abundance of teams, venue quality, ticket availability and prices, franchise ownership and marquee appeal of athletes. Sporting News is a multi-media sports company catering to passionate sports fans. For details on tapping into the Midwest’s best bar, gaming, nightclub and professional sports scene, check out “The D” at www.visitdetroit.com. For more information on the MAR Convention, visit the MAR Web site. IRS Warns of New E-Mail and Telephone Scams The IRS warned taxpayers to beware of several current e-mail and telephone scams that use the IRS name as a lure. The IRS expects such scams to continue through the end of tax return filing season and beyond. The IRS cautioned taxpayers to be on the lookout for scams involving proposed advance payment checks. Although the government has not yet enacted an economic stimulus package in which the IRS would provide advance payments, known informally as rebates to many Americans, a scam which uses the proposed rebates as bait has already cropped up. Another new scam brought to IRS attention contains features not seen before by the IRS. Using a technique calculated to get almost anyone’s attention, the e-mail notifies the recipient that his or her tax return will be audited. This is the first scam of which the IRS is aware that uses this to get the victim to respond. The goal of the scams is to trick people into revealing personal and financial information, which the scammers can use to commit identity theft.
Calendar of Events For more information, check the events page and the education calendar.
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