Last Tuedsay Oct 1, the Houston Association of Realtors held a city wide CIPS networking event! CIPS stands for Certified International Property Specialist. It is a special designation that realtors can get to show their customers that they are specialist when working with international clients. CIPS is one of the most difficult designations to obtain, as it requires 5 full days of 8 hour instruction (40 hours) and an application to the National Association of Realtors denoting experience and participation in international activities and conferences. Susan is a CIPS instructor and many of the designees in Houston are her students! The group often travels together to international real estate conferences, making new contacts with realtors from all over the world. These relationships give birth to partnerships and referrals, whereby Houston realtors can market international properties to the Houston market and vice versa. It was fun to welcome in a new class of CIPS designees at the party last Tuesday!
Right now through September 15, there is a special exhibition called “Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan” being held at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. This exhibition offers an extraordinary look at Japan’s Meiji era (1868–1912), when the country emerged from near-total isolation to enter a modern, global period. Over these pivotal decades, Japan experienced major social and political shifts. The exhibition brings together nearly 200 remarkable works of Meiji art from more than 70 public and private collections. We went to check it out on Friday night and it was very impressive! Be sure to see the golf-leaf folding screens of the Tigers!
Summer is a time to slow down and spend time with friends! With all my family members gone, I was fortunate to have some free time to meet up with good ole friends. This is precious time I rarely have! First, I met up with the Foltyns and the McGaritys for a daytime 4th of July get together. Our 3 families have raised our kids together and one by one have seen them go off to college, with Ty and Jack both recently leaving for the Naval Academy and Air Force Academy respectively. The last two left are Jana and Zach! The Foltyns hosted and grilled up some amazing burgers! Next up, I got to meet up with Dr. Adachi over the 4th of July holiday. I have known Dr. Adachi since he first moved here maybe 15 years ago. He first leased, then he bought a home, then he sold that home, and then he bought a bigger home. Then during COVID, he asked me to help him buy a lake house. That was 3.5 years ago and I had not gone there to see it or see him since then so it was a treat to get to spend the 4th of July there and to catch up with how he and his family have been doing. A second outing last week was with Ryan and Elaine! They too, bought a home during COVID and recently hired Annoura Realty to sell it, so that they could move into the city. It was so fun getting to catch up with them at Uchiko last weekend. Two cool things is that it was walking distance to their new place so they just walked right over, and the second cool thing is we went during Happy Hour so we got some great food for some special prices! If you have free time and would like to meet up, I have some free time these days and would love to catch up!
The law is changing and starting August 17, 2024, all realtors and their clients will be affected. This change in business practice is the result of a lawsuit against the the National Association of Realtors. Until now, it was fairly common to work with a buyer to find a house without requiring the buyer to sign a ‘Buyer Representation Agreement”. A buyer would simply contact a realtor and the realtor would help them find a house to buy. The new rules state that before the realtor can show that buyer any homes, the buyer will have to first sign a Buyer Representation Agreement, which will bind the buyer to pay for his agent’s commission, with the amount negotiable between the parties. Until now, it was customary for the seller to pay commissions to his own realtor (the listing agent), who would then offer a portion of this commission (usually half) to any cooperating realtor who would bring a buyer. Because of this, the buyer did not have to pay any commissions to his agent. The buyer’s agent would be paid by the seller’s agent, and all the commission money would actually come from the seller. The offer of commission was denoted on HAR.com so that the public and all realtors could see it and know how much it was. However, starting August 17, the MLS (for Houston, HAR.com) will no longer be allowed to display the offer of commission, so this field will be removed. Before showing any homes, the buyer’s agent will need to call the agents of all the homes the buyer wants to see, to verify if the seller will help the buyer pay for the buyer agent’s commission. It is highly anticipated that the seller will still offer a ‘buyer’s concession’ to help the buyer pay for his agent’s commission. They know that if they do not, the number of buyers that can see the home could be drastically limited, as many buyers barely have money for their down payment and can not afford to pay the buyer agent’s commission. It is important to note that if the seller says he will not offer a buyer’s concession, the buyer will then have to decide whether or not they still want to see the house. In the case where the seller will not offer a buyer’s concession to help the buyer pay for the buyer agent’s commission, and if the buyer does not have money to pay for the buyer’s agent’s commission, then that house would either not be shown or the Buyer Representation Agreement would have to be revised before it can be shown. Needless to say, the process to show houses to buyers will become a much more difficult and time consuming process, and could potentially cost the buyer a significantly higher cost if they have to pay their own realtor’s commissions. HAR.com has made these videos to help the illustrate the changes: https://cms.har.com/the-reality/.
Did you know that The National Association of Realtors is the largest trade association in the United States, representing the interests of 1.5 million agents, brokers, appraisers, property managers, and other real estate professionals? One of the biggest and most important role NAR plays is their advocacy for issues important to the real estate industry. Having the annual May meeting in Washington DC gives realtors the chance to visit the Capitol to meet their elected officials. Susan and Mariko attended these meetings and got to actually meet with their Congressman, Brian Babin, with a group of realtors from Houston! Aside from that, Susan attended the CIPS Advisory Group meeting and made some recommendations to change the current CIPS curriculum. It is in these settings and in these committee meetings that changes like these can be discussed and realized. In the off hours, Susan spent time with her HAR Executive Team, visiting the White House on a short tour and sharing meals at different local restaurants. Before the conference started, Susan arrived a couple days early to attend her second in person NARLA (NAR Leadership Academy) session.The week ended with a short Board of Directors meeting, attended by over 900 realtors representing local associations from all over America. It was Susan’s first time to represent HAR and Texas Realtors as an NAR director! All in all, it was a very eventful week and we were happy to spend time with so many colleagues both new and old from all across the United States and some from other countries.
