Building Better Communities

REALTORS® participate in San Antonio Board of REALTORS® Build Day with Habitat for Humanity.  

Community Outreach Breakfast

The Community Outreach Committee of Montgomery County Association of REALTORS®, Pa., served breakfast to approximately 100 seniors who serve as foster grandparents with Family Services of Montgomery County in October as part of REALTORS® Reach Out Month.

Garage Sales and Cocktails for Charity

The Hudson Gateway Association of REALTORS®, N.Y., donated $12,600 in proceeds from its “Just a Wish Away” cocktail party to Make-A-Wish Hudson Valley, the Tarrytown-based nonprofit that grants the wishes of Hudson Valley children with life-threatening medical conditions. The association donated an additional $8,000 to the charity raised through its summer garage sale fundraiser.

Atlanta Commercial Board Kicks Off Diversity Initiative

The diversity committee of the Atlanta Commercial Board of REALTORS® recently kicked off a new initiative called the Commercial Real Estate Studio. This series of events features women and minority industry leaders sharing their personal experience of building a commercial real estate practice and all the successes and hurdles along the way. The first event in October attracted more than 150 attendees to hear real estate mogul Egbert Perry, CEO of Integral Group and recognized as an innovator in urban development and revitalization, talk about his personal road to success. Modeled after the popular TV show Inside the Actors Studio, the CRE Studio will feature two or three interviews a year with women and minorities from the Atlanta commercial real estate community.

Pennsylvania Associations Merge

The Carbon County REALTORS® Association and the Lehigh Valley Association of REALTORS® in Pensylvania merged in January to become the Greater Lehigh Valley REALTORS®. Ryan Conrad, former AE of Lehigh Valley, will now lead the Greater Lehigh Valley organization.

NAR Board Improves Professional Standards Processes

To make the enforcement of professional standards more efficient, the National Association of REALTORS®’ Board of Directors approved changes to the Code of Ethics and Arbitration Manual, Professional Standards Policy Statement, and other professional standards documents to:

  • Clarify the role of alternates in professional standards hearing panels.
  • Shorten time frames and clarify guidelines for ethics enforcement administration.
  • Establish a “fast track” administrative timeline for resolving ethics complaints.
  • Eliminate “rehearing” provisions.
  • Expand authorized use of remote testimony, and provide guidance on ensuring its confidentiality.
  • Limit the use of continuances of ethics hearings to certain specified instances.
  • Require those primarily responsible for administration of professional standards processes to complete administrator training every four years.
  • Establish the responsibility of associations to offer ombudsman services to members, clients, and consumers, either directly or as part of a cooperative agreement.
  • Establish a citation system and schedule of fines for optional adoption by local and state associations.

New Toolkit Addresses Relationship Building Between AEs and Large Brokers

A collection of best practices and examples from AEs and large brokers on how they develop and maintain healthy relationships with each other is available on nar.realtor.

The toolkit is the work of a 2014 AEC work group that solicited input from AEs and brokerages around the country. The resource will be evergreen, welcoming AEs and brokers to submit comments and tips to curator Courtney Wilson (cwilson@realtors.org).

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