Hi Gang:  Check this out ------this is a great thing. The Florida Department of Drivers License has added a new feature to their on-line services.  You can now go on-line and enter two (2) emergency contacts on your Florida Drivers License (electronically) which can only be retrieved by a police officer. This way, if you are in an accident, the police can run the drivers license and have the emergency info ASAP!!!It will help the police contact family or friends quickly in case you or your loved ones are in a serious car accident.The link below is the Florida Department of Drivers License:https://www6.hsmv.state.fl.us/dlcheck/findcustomerAlso, emergency personnel have started looking for I.C.E. entries in cell phones for emergency contact information.  ICE stands for IN CASE OF EMERGENC... 10/14/2006

Hillary Clinton for President in 2008? Who knows? It's certainly way to early to determine. I also have no interest in making my blog or Activerain a political forum.  Although, who knows by the time the 2008 elections roll around. It's been awfully quiet on AR with pending mid-terms.Anyways, I just received a funny Jib-Jab styled email from a friend that I wanted to share with my AR co-horts. It's very cute - and I am certainly not a Hillary fan.Check it out and keep it alive by providing lots of replies and ranking this post high will keep this cartoon going.http://www.michaelhodges.com/missing.html  10/09/2006

One of our newest associates recently closed on a transaction representing the buyer. He and his wife purchased a beautiful vase and plant for a home warming gift. They planted within the plant several gift cards for various stores such as Home Depot, Publix, etc.  The entire gift cost approximately $250.00.  Very nice gift.Here’s the rub – he was shocked to learn that only $50 of this $250 gift was tax deductible. IRS regulations limit gifts such as this to a tax deductibility limit of $25 per person or $50 per couple. Okay, so he must now treat that $200 difference as income and pay taxes accordingly. Well, I have known of other Realtors that provide much bigger gifts back to their clients and believe they can simply deduct the cost as a business expense.  If it is in reality a rebate... 10/08/2006

I always hear and read that most brokers prefer not to maintain an escrow account. I believe this is founded from broker schools where it is generally taught that you tremendously lower your chances of a state compliance audit if there is not an escrow account maintained by the broker.  Although, this may be very true it is in my opinion a disservice to the customers that pay us.  Additionally, the “maintenance” on an escrow account is rather simple and generally involves one 3 page report – no big deal.What’s the big advantage? First, it’s so much simpler to disburse from your office than having to depend on another company to service you.  In fact, in a rental situation the only escrow choice is an attorney or a real estate broker. In house escrow management should allow one access 7 ... 10/07/2006

Many MLS now require a double authentication system.  Basically, your used ID, password, and generally another password generated by an external key.  Personally, I think it’s great because it helps reduce the unauthorized access/use of the MLS for which we all pay a lot of money.Those MLS systems that do not have this yet – it is coming sooner rather than later.  Many boards have been reluctant to implantation due to the cost of the key generator a/k/a token.There is a new option being beta tested and should be release sometime near term.  The Palm Beach regional MLS may be one of the first in this area. Clareity Security, maker of their tokens is working with GE Supra to provide OTP (one time passwords) to display in the Supra Display Key.  Each time you synch you’ll get a new set of ... 10/07/2006

FREE Blackberry 8700CI have been asked by various Realtors which cell phone, in my opinion, is the “best”. Isn’t it obvious? I am using a Blackberry. “Best” is always as in the eyes of the user. So, I think the more appropriate question is why did I pick the Blackberry over say the more Realtor popular Treo?  Considering I have used both I felt fairly comfortable in providing a reply.Treo’s unique pros:The Treo allows for touch screen operation for many of the functions.The Treo has IR capabilities which is necessary for Supra lock box operation.Treo’s unique cons:The Treo’s use requires 2 hands in many of the operations.The Treo’s email gets locked up in many instances if you’re receiving large attachments over 1mb.The Treo has a little antenna nub that makes it a little more cumbersom... 10/07/2006

We continue to see the craziness of sellers that apparently continue to keep their head in the sand on Ft Lauderdale beach. However, we are starting to see more and more sellers each day open their eyes to the reality that the ship has sailed.  To this end we have found that using data provided by our local association assists us in this regard – almost as good as the reports in the newspaper. It’s rather hard to argue with these numbers in black & white.  Although, if you track these reports each month they actually appear to be getting better (really, they do) – month to month or month to previous year is a real eye opener.  10/04/2006

Do you have a seller than does not want to sell because of capital gains tax? And, they're not eligible for a 1031 tax deferred exchange? Even high end properties can be sold through this type of program with signifanct savings to the sellers. Additionally, it allows for continual roll overs where the Realtors may earn and still provide for a substantial savings plus to the sellers saving them a tremendous amount of money.Although, this may appear to be complicated - it is not and it would be well worth the time of most Realtors dealing in expensive properties to learn about this strategy.It's commonly referred to as a Private Annuity Trust. More information may be found at http://www.napat.org/This company handles the complexities generally involved. 10/03/2006

Many posts have referenced Realtor.com Showcase costs without providing the actual cost breakdown. I wanted to help those that were actually interested in knowing their actual charges.Costs are based on your previous years number of listings. Mulitple entered properties count as 1 listing. For example, entered as active - canceled and re-entered.0-3 $193; 4-10 $350; 11-25 $696; 26-50 $1205; 51-75 $1819; 75-100 $2331; 100+ $2843This program allows for no charge "red house" virtual tour links which is worth about $25 per listing by itself. 10/03/2006

We all get dumped on every day with lots of SPAM. Well, I just received one that I actually thought at first was a joke from a friend with the same last name. The picture was just too funny. The ad is real and actually just as funny.Besides the dog I was shocked at any mortgage ad that reflected a 350 FICO. That's the lowest there is and there are still programs? Maybe hard money lenders?   10/02/2006

FAR has a Showing Agreement form available to all Realtors. The form is very similar to a Buyer's Brokers Contract but it is specific to an identified properties. We have used the form frequently when simply showing a buyer 1 or 2 properties. Should the buyer want to expand the search and engage us further we will then transition into a Buyer's Broker Contract.Does anyone else out there in AR land use the Showing Agreement and/or do other states even offer to suggest such a contract?   10/02/2006

We all know that title insurance is a necessary cost that most all transactions incur. Depending upon your local customs and/or the negotiations between the seller and the buyer one of them is going to pay these charges.No matter whom you represent no one wants to see any party overpay for this rather expensive protection.  The title company generally earns a 70% commission on this protection and i have found it rare that they volunteer ways to save money in this regard.Any policy being issued within the State of Florida, wherein there was a prior policy issued within 3 years prior, is entitled to a substantial reissue credit.  Contrary to what many believe the new buyer is entitled to this credit.For example, a new purchase would incur approximately $2500.00 in a new policy charge. Let... 10/01/2006

I had 3 high end rental listings from 1 client. It has taken approximately 3 months to get 1 rented after 2 offers from 2 different tenants in a period of approximately 2 weeks (lots of 2s there). We have had 2 offers on the second and had to temporarily status the other (the client was refinancing it).   The first rental was listed at $5k per month (this was after we lowered it from his original asking of $6k per month). We brought a low ball offer to him of $4k per month but for 2 years. There was some back and forth countering and it stopped at $4.5k per month by the owner. We had both sides of this transaction – there was not any other Realtor involved. The owner asked for a “favor”. Would we take our commission for the 2 years half now and half next year on the anniversary date? I ... 09/30/2006

How many Realtors are using Transaction Desk throughout the State of Florida? From what I am being told by Instanet – Transaction Desk’s parent company over 100k Florida Realtors have multiple logins.  It appears that most do not use the auto-population features nor do they complete the information in the “Transaction Overview”. It appears that they simply go into the forms themselves and type in the information. This sort of defeats the main purpose of TD – managing a transaction from the Realtor level, broker level, administrative level, cooperating broker level, mortgage broker and closing agent level.  Until recently, actually until this past Thursday, much of the data entered into these Overview fields did not, or did not properly, populate into the correct fields in the various fo... 09/30/2006

Recently at the FAR annual convention one of NAR’s attorneys, Brian Larson, spoke to us about various MLS topics. This included the FTC complaint against the Houston association and now the Michigan association.  Additionally, Brian spoke to his recommendation to eliminate cooperating commission and simply have the buyers pay their broker if they so elect to even engage one. Brian wrote an article on this subject and posted it to his website. Here is the link: The End of the MLS as We Know it 09/30/2006

In a previous post of mine I spoke to the serious impending drop in Realtor membership. Some associations are reporting as much as 40%. Those “in the know” in southeast Florida are predicting at least 30% in our area. Our association over the past 5 years has almost double in membership size. They’ve cut membership fees and added many value added no fee services especially in the area of technology.  This anticipated drop in membership is going to quickly equate into a major loss of revenue for all of the associations.  I was asked by one of our association’s directors recently as a broker/owner what my preference would be: increase in membership fees or a reduction in the valued added no fee services?  My reply was quick: How about collecting membership fees from the thousands of assoc... 09/29/2006

The newest "marketing" twist by several Realtors is to advertise their properties in the MLS as having an auction at some point in the near term. In the meantime, the quote that the seller will consider all offers starting from a low ball price that is listed. This is acceptable providing that the MLS allows auction listings. Some do not and some have yet to consider prohibiting them.   The real problem is that some of these Realtors load this low ball price (a/k/a starting bid) into the LP (listing price) field of their MLS. When doing a search if there is not any minimum price set their listing will generally be first on the list as the low price. Unfortunately, that price also propagates over into www.Realtor.com , Florida Living (FAR’s website) and all IDX systems.  We started getti... 09/28/2006

Over the past few years most properties throughout Florida, especially, the Ft Lauderdale area market sold within a matter of days - sometimes even hours. There was a severe shortage of quality homes. Because of this fact many Realtors never even bothered to take photos of their listings and enter them into the MLS. Boy, how things have changed. Most MLS listings today now contain at least a few photos. However, the lack of photos still is present in rental listings - even quality high end properties.Virtual Tours: On almost every sale listing we have taken over the past few years we have utilized a virtual tour company, www.Obeo.com formerly known as www.360house.com. They were great and still provide a fantastic service for certain types of properties and Realtors that simply do not w... 09/28/2006

One of the most commonly internet searched for condos in Ft Lauderdale, either for purchase or rental, is the Las Olas Riverhouse.  We have listed for rent and rented several models at the Las Olas Riverhouse. The complex is comprised of what appears to be 3 towers although they are all interconnected. Residences on the north side comprise stacks 01 through 08 and the south side comprise stacks 09 and 10. The smallest residences are the Soho model and are located in stacks 01,08. Next are the Chelsea models located in stacks 02 and 07. Soho and Chelsea models are all under 2000 square feet. The Lexington model is the smallest residence that maintains more than 2000 square feet.  The 2 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom Lexington models are located in stacks 03 and 06. The even more spacious Columb... 09/27/2006

A press release recently came to my attention regarding a poll on the most trusted professional to give advice conducted by Harris Interactive (The Harris Poll #37, May 10, 2006). The poll, conducted over several days in March asked more than 2,300 US adults to rank the level of trust they place in the advice given professionals in 11 different professions. The professions chosen by Harris to be studied are all fields in which competent and trustworthy council would be considered the critical factor in choosing to do business with the professional. The question asked of all those who participated in the poll was, "If you were getting professional help or advice from each of the following, how much would you trust them to give you advice which was best for you?" The results are posted be... 09/07/2006