Greater Portland Board of REALTORS®, Maine

Winterization Tips

2011-11-21T14:32:00.001-05:00

REALTOR® News & Views

As the weather gets colder and another Maine winter descends upon us, here are a few simple steps you can take to protect your home from the elements and save some money in the process. Winterizing your home does not need to be expensive or time-consuming, and a little preparation now can definitely pay off in the long run.

· Perform a home energy audit. According to the US Department of Energy, a home energy assessment can be a great tool to help lower your energy bills. You can either do it yourself, or hire a professional for a more detailed analysis. A professional uses special equipment to measure the air flow in and out of a house, however you can also do a simple, but thorough, walk-through to look at primary areas where air leaks commonly occur – windows and door frames, exterior doors, electrical outlets, switch plates, baseboards, attics, and utility line entrances. Also check areas where different materials, such as wood, brick or siding meet – between foundations and walls, corners, around chimneys and where pipes or wires exit along the foundation. Ensure that you have an appropriate amount of insulation in place, and that caulking and weather strips are applied properly, and are in good condition. Foam gaskets can be installed behind outlet and switch plates on exterior walls, and you should also consider insulating basement walls, and heating and hot water pipes. Storm doors and windows, or double pane thermal windows are also a good idea, and can help save on energy costs as well. More information on performing a home energy assessment can be found at the US Department of Energy’s Web site, www.energysavers.gov.

· Service your heating system. Have a professional service your heating system each year to ensure it is operating properly and efficiently. Install a programmable thermostat that allows you to heat your home while you are there, and allow it to drop a bit while you are not at home. Also, utilize heating zones if you have them, which can heat the area of the home in which you spend the most time, rather than the entire house. If using a fireplace, make sure your chimney is cleaned, and keep the fireplace flue closed when not in use. This is also a good time to check that smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are installed and functioning properly as well.

· Clean your gutters. Gutters clogged with leaves and debris can be a problem in the winter, and if not cleaned properly, they can cause ice dams and other damage to your home.

· Service weather-specific equipment. Make sure your snow blower has been serviced and tuned up. Drain the gas in your lawn mower, and store away and summer and fall gardening equipment. Replace worn or broken shovels and ice scrapers, and have bags of ice melt or sand on hand.

· Prepare an emergency kit. As we all know, the weather can wreak havoc on power systems, so it is a good idea to stock up on essential items in case of a power outage: candles, matches, batteries, flashlights, blankets, first aid kit, medication, bottled water and nonperishable food supplies – including pet food, if you have a pet. More information on emergency preparedness can be found at http://emergency.cdc.gov.

· Don’t forget about tax credits and other incentives! There are various local, state and federal incentives that exist to help homeowners become more efficient more affordably. Efficiency Maine, www.efficiencymaine.com, offers low cost loans for home energy upgrades that can help you save money on energy costs. According to their web site, a Maine PACE loan can deliver enough savings to offset the cost of the loan, and you could save save an average of 40 percent a year on energy!

Brought to you by the Greater Portland Board of REALTORS®

Article submitted by Heather Horlor, REALTOR®

2011-06-29T14:28:00.000-04:00

Working at Home – Is it for You?
by Marcia Bartol, EO, Greater Bangor Association of REALTORS®

More than ever, many employers and employees are considering the pros and cons of working from home. The greatest advantage to the employer is that there is no overhead such as mortgage or rent, heat, electricity and other costs associated with maintaining or renting space. But the advantages/disadvantages of an employee working from home also must be considered, so I’ve put together some things to think about, from the perspective of a work-from-home association executive:
• Outside interruptions. Working at home often means outside interruptions. Visitors will stop in for coffee, family members may need my help with something…others don’t often think of you as being “at work”. (My favorite thing is the business call I’m on that sounds “less than professional” when the dog starts barking at a squirrel he sees in the backyard.) Be firm with your friends and family from the beginning. Let them know that you are typically on the job during regular office hours.
• Conference/meeting space. Not having a large office with a conference room where meetings are held means your files are not readily available at such meetings. I often bring my laptop so I can provide answers to questions regarding budget, bylaws, membership numbers... Also, keep in mind you’ll have to “pack up” for membership meetings and education events – bringing the banner, flags, gavel, cash bag, handouts, and any other items of interest to the general membership. Make yourself a list of “must-haves” and put everything in one tote that’s ready to go when you need it. When you need space for small events or conferences, call on your affiliates – they are usually more than willing to help out.
Office space. If your home doesn’t have a designated office, you will need to convert an extra room. In my case, my workspace is in the same room as my “home office” – where I pay bills and have my desktop computer and personal files. I have an L-shaped desk, so I try to keep association business on one side and personal business on the other. I have file cabinets, but when those are full, I have to box up files that have to be kept.

2011-06-29T13:40:00.002-04:00

Congratulations to Wayne Syphers, GPBR's 2011 REALTOR® of the Year!

We will honor Wayne at a social at DiMillo's Floating Restaurant on June 30th, from 5:30 - 7:30 pm on the Aft deck. Please come to shake Wayne's hand and enjoy great food and company.

This event is generously sponsored by:

Tom Caron of Northeast Inspection Services

and

Judi Hutzler of Mortgage Network

REALTOR® of the YEAR, that member who has shown outstanding contributions of time, energy and determination to strengthen our association on all levels. This person works hard to improve their level of education, professionalism and honest business conduct. This person has great participation in civic, community and cultural organizations; political activities; public service venues and makes contributions to the overall betterment of the community.

2009-10-28T15:01:00.002-04:00

Economists' Commentary: Existing Home Sales in September
October 23, 2009

By Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist, NAR

Sales surged in September. Existing home sales (single-family plus condos and coops) increased 9.4 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million units from a 5.09 million unit pace in August (revised down from 5.10 reported earlier. Compared to the same month one year ago, existing home sales were higher by 9.2 percent.
Inventories at the end of September decreased by 7.5 percent and there were 3.63 million home available for sale. Based on the current sales pace it would take 7.8 months to exhaust the inventory. The months' supply of inventory at the current sales pace fell to 7.8 months - the lowest level in two and a half years (or more precisely since March 2007). I would say a consistent months' supply of less than 7 months would be needed for consistent price stabilization. We're almost there, but not quite.
The dent in inventory is helping lessen the severity of price declines. The national median existing home price in September was $174,900, which is a decline of 8.5 percent from one year ago. Though a decline from one year ago, it is the lowest percentage magnitude in over a year.
Regionally, home sales rose in all four major regions. From August to September seasonally adjusted sales changes were as follow:
In the Northeast, existing home sales increased 4.4 percent
In the Midwest, sales increased 9.6 percent
In the South, sales increased 9.0 percent
In the West, sales increased 13.0 percent
Prices were lower in all four regions. From one-year ago, prices were lower by 7.0 percent in the Northeast, 1.0 percent in the Midwest, 7.6 percent in the South and 15.1 percent in the West. Broadly speaking home values have fallen by 25% to 30% from the peak depending upon which price data is looked at. The Midwest region really did not encounter any housing bubble, yet prices have fallen there as well. But we are now seeing much less pressure for price to fall in the Midwest.
There is very little difference in the condo sales trend compared to the single-family home sales. Condo sales increased 9.7 percent while single family home sales rose 9.4 percent. But there is a continuing difference between the two property groups in terms of inventory, with condo inventory at 11.0 months supply while single-family inventory is steadily getting trimmed to a now-7.8 months' supply. No surprise then that the condo prices have experienced a larger price decline. Condo prices declined 11.7 percent while single family home price were lower by 8.1 percent. Please be mindful that the condo sales only make up about 15 percent of all sales.
Sales continue to be dominated in the lower priced homes. Sales of homes priced under $100,000 increased 22.5 percent. For homes priced at $100,000 to $250,000, sales rose 6.0%. Sales are down from one year ago for those homes priced above $750,000. In September, 70% of transacted homes were priced under $250,000.
By metro level, sales were strong in Miami, Houston, and New Orleans - with the latter two seeing a large year-over-year change because of depressed sales one year ago when a major Hurricane hit the region. Among the large metropolitan regions, sales were down from one-year ago in Atlanta, Indianapolis, Pittsburg, and San Antonio.
The annual survey of home buyers (not REALTORS®), suggests that the first-time buyer accounts for 45 percent of all buyers. The number of distressed sales, those that are short sales or foreclosed sales, made up 29 percent of all sales in September. It accounted for 45 to 50 percent of all sales late last year and in the early months of this year.
The home buyer tax credit stimulus measure is having its intended impact of lifting sales, lowering inventory, and lessening the price decline pressures. Sales in the past 3 months are at a 5.3 million unit pace versus the 4.6 million unit pace in the 3 months prior to the stimulus package. The jump in sales of roughly 15 percent from pre-to-post stimulus is occurring despite 4 million job losses over the same time period. And there are still a sizable number of people who are in a position to respond to tax incentives.
Are there financially qualified renters who are ready to enter the market? NAR estimates that roughly 5 million additional renters exist today versus in 2000 (before the housing market went through a boom) who have the necessary income today to buy a median-priced home. So there is plenty of pent-up demand that could be released into the market.
The housing market is very close to reaching the point of a self-sustaining recovery. When home values show consistent stabilization or even a slight increase, then the buyer fear-factor will no longer be at play. We are ever so close to reaching that self-propelling housing market recovery. But without an extension in the home buyer tax credit the housing market could face a double-dip recession.
We have to be mindful that the tax credit is not only about people in the market. Despite spectacular gains in the stock market, principally from the financial sector recovery, most of the 75 million home-owning families have more wealth tied to their homes. Home values could soon turn consistently positive and help the broad base of middle-class families, but we are not there yet. We're getting early indications of price stabilization, but we need a steady supply of qualified buyers to meaningfully bring inventories down and return us to a period of normal, steady price growth and to fully remove consumer fears, which would then revive the broader economy. Without a firm foundation for middle-class wealth recovery, the post-recession economic growth likely will be one of the weakest in U.S. history
If home values do not stabilize, expect re-default rates to soar on recently modified mortgages and the first-time foreclosures to ramp up again. Getting trapped in the vicious cycle of lower prices fueling foreclosures and further pressuring lower prices and all the accompanying economic damage is a possibility as well. Why then take the chance when the home buyer tax credit extension and expansion will help firm up the foundation for a sustainable recovery.
Finally, let's be clear. When money is dangled in their faces, bad players will look to cheat the system. Knowing this, it is very troubling that there are no tight government safeguards in place to prevent abuse. All fraud needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We cannot have a good, working program be slammed by few rotten individuals. Quickly eliminate the bad and keep the good because the vast number of legitimate middle-class home buyers is responding to the tax incentives and in the process helping the broader economy to recover.

"Copyright National Association of REALTORS®, Reprinted with permission."

Getting Real Results from Social Networking

2009-09-16T23:13:00.002-04:00

You can turn Facebook and social networking sites into money-making generators for your real estate business, said panelists of REALTOR® Magazine’s Young Professionals Network during the session “Marketing Strategies That Work” at the 2009 REALTORS® Midyear Legislative Meetings in Washington, D.C. Facebook recently helped Koki Adasi-Efuya, of Long & Foster Real Estate in Rockville, Md., land and connect with three clients, he said. Soon after he reconnected with a high school friend on Facebook, his friend asked Adasi-Efuya to sell his house. And that led to a surge of referalls. After the sale, the friend’s sister called and asked him to sell her house. They communicated via Facebook during the selling process, since she lived an hour away. Soon after, the friend’s father contacted Adasi-Efuya—also through Facebook. He wanted to sell his house, too. Adasi-Efuya said that reaching out to his friend wasn't a strategy to build business; he was just sending a message to say happy birthday. But now he knows that just like in real life, expanding his sphere of contacts on Facebook can lead to new clients. Panelist Adasi-Efuya is a member of the 2008 REALTOR® Magazine “30 Under 30” class. Blogging for CredibilityDarrin Friedman, the branch vice president of the Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage office in Chevy Chase, Md., says blogging turned out to be his social networking silver-bullet. It has helped him recruit sales associates, build regional and national credibility, and ultimately make his company more profitable. He attributes his blog to helping his brokerage receive more than $5 million in referrals in 2008. Plus, he says his blog (www.Cbblogestate.com) had a part in recruiting and luring half of the 70 agents he has recruited to the company since January 2007.Make Your Own Path to SuccessTapping social networking—such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs—can particularly be good tools in reaching the largest segment of future home buyers on the market today—Gen Y and Gen X, panelists said. Panelists offered the following tips on how you can get similar results in your marketing:
Advertise on Facebook. Spread the word by purchasing ads along the side of Facebook pages. You can set an age, gender, and location target market and have your ads appear on Facebook pages that match your criteria. You can also track your ad’s progress in real time to see who has been clicking on it.
Make information available electronically and virtually. Gen Y and Gen X buyers love to see rich data, charts, graphs, and electronic forms, but provide all of the information you have for them on a CD, flash drive, or online so that they can take it with them to analyze themselves later, said Amanda DiVito, ABR®, CRS, of RE/MAX Alliance in Arvada, Colo. Gen Xers (she pegged those born between 1961 and 1981) tend to be skeptics and question everything and are fact-seekers, she said. She called Gen Y (those born between 1982 and 2000) intellectually curious and tech-savvy.
Create group or business pages on Facebook. Create a Facebook group page to connect with prospects, such as a group geared to “first-time home buyers” where you provide helpful information. Or create a business page for your company, and ask others to become “fans” of your page. Whether on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, the idea of social networking is to communicate within online communities of people who share interests and activities, said Adasi-Efuya.
Use status updates to stay in front of your network. On Facebook, you can use status updates and the Wall—the public viewing area on your network’s pages—to stay top of mind among your sphere. The simple “Happy Birthday” on a friend’s Wall that led to three listings for Adasi-Efuya also went to all his Facebook contacts. Likewise, you can use Twitter—a microblogging site based on the question “What are you doing now?”—to keep people alerted to what you are doing in your business.

Be professional. Make your status as a real estate professional clear by posting a professional photo and creating a complete profile at social networking sites you frequent. Remember also that your duties under the REALTORS® Code of Ethics extend to your online communications.

Show your personality but not your sale pitch. Friedman said blogging is an opportunity to engage in dialog with customers and employees, to challenge assumptions, meet like-minded people, a way to get skeptical clients to know you, and an avenue to let clients know more about who you are. However, he warns, blogging should not be self-indulgent, and you should not attempt to control the message or make it product-driven. Instead, blogging should be transparent, inclusive, authentic, vibrant, and consumer-driven, Friedman said. Friedman requires his new sales associates to create an Active Rain profile within 10 days of starting at the company and then to send a link to everyone in their sphere. Follow blogging best practices, he said, and you’ll become an authoritative source on this business.

—Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
(REALTOR® Magazine Daily News Online, May 13, 2009).

2009-09-01T13:39:00.004-04:00

Greetings from Chicago!

Wayne Syphers, 2010 President of the Greater Portland Board of REALTORS®, and Kelley Craig, Executive Officer, joined 1800 other leaders in Chicago last week for the National Association of REALTORS® Leadership Summit. This was fully funded this year by NAR's Right Tools Right Now program.

This summit is designed to bring together the leadership of local and state boards to be briefed on everything from national trends to local politics. We were able to hear from 2010 NAR President, Vickie Cox Golder from Arizona, as well as updates from Lawrence Yun, NAR Economist.

Cathy Whatley, 2003 NAR President and Keith Holm, St. Paul Area Association of REALTORS® EVP, spoke on Leadership Roles and responsibilites, best practices and areas to improve in REALTOR® association management.

As usual, NAR put on a fantastic program that outlined traits and trends in leadership. We enjoyed 2 of the most inspiring speakers.

Allyson Levine has climbed peaks on every continent, served as the team captain of the first American Women's Everest Expedition, and skied across the Arctic Circle to the geographic North Pole. Her presentation offers a unique perspective on the topics of leadership, teamwork, innovation, and dealing with a changing environment.

Christopher Gardner is the head of his own successful brokerage firm - but just 25 years ago, he was homeless, carrying all his possessions on his back, and occasionally living in a bathroom at a train station. A true testament to perseverance, Gardner tells his story of overcoming obstacles, "breaking cycles," and hard-won success. The amazing story of Gardner's life was the inspiration for the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness," starring Will Smith as Gardner.

Laurie Janik is General Legal Counsel for NAR and gave us an informative legal update of issues facing associations. The great news is that the trend is FEWER lawsuits involving REALTOR® boards.

Please visit for Leadership Summit materials and speaker bios. You will find the reading well worth your time!

MAR treated us to 2 very nice dinners on the streets of Chicago - thank you!

Habitat Project - almost there!

2008-04-24T08:16:00.000-04:00

The Arthur Gary/Greater Portland Board of REALTORS® habitat house is nearly complete!

Some of you may recall, that the GPBR Habitat Committee formally convened in 2006. Their mission - to build an entire house for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland. A worthy and daunting goal, to be sure. Who would step forward to chair this committee? Why, none other than the energetic Rita Yarnold, of course.

The first challenge, to secure a building lot. Enter, our own Arthur Gary. Arthur had a building lot on Penn Avenue in Portland, which he kindly donated to the cause. After some negotiation with the City of Portland all systems were go and Habitat began the process. The lot had a garage on it which had to be removed and the work began in earnest last fall.

The board had many fundraisers to begin amassing the funds necessary to move our family into their new home. Each Habitat house starts with a zero balance, so we had our work cut out for us. Susan Hight of Wells Fargo organized volunteers days whereby Wells Fargo donated funds to the project for every day we staffed with REALTOR® and Wells Fargo volunteers.

Now the home is nearly completed and the family is waiting patiently to move in. Closing is tentatively scheduled for mid June.

Look for more details on the upcoming celebration.