December 19, 2018 


Roanoke Valley Associathion of REALTORS  
    R OANOKE VALLEY REALTOR® ONLINE   

   You are receiving this online enewsletter as a benefit of being a member of the Roanoke Valley Association of REALTORS®.
 
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MEMBER TYPE / COUNT
REALTOR®            1295 Membership Update Logo
Offices                     133
Affiliate                    279

Click here to see which RVAR members have switched firms, gone inactive, or joined recently.
Conner Installed as RVAR Presidentpres   
Neil Conner of The Real Estate Group was installed as RVAR's President on December 14th at RVAR's Installation and Awards Breakfast. Also installed were Walter Grewe of Long & Foster, REALTORS® as President-elect and Ashley Donahue of Wainwright & Co. as Vice President.
 
Five Directors were also installed: Dana Berenbaum of MKB, REALTORS®; Vic Coffey of RE/MAX All Stars; Jay Kilby of RE/MAX All Stars; Julie Kingery of RE/MAX Mountain to Lake and Lori Shultz-Moore of Wainwright & Co., REALTORS®. Coffey serves on the Board as a Broker representative appointed by the Broker Council.  Your 2019 Board of Directors stands ready to serve you!

2018 President Connie Hash recognized Jay Kilby of RE/MAX All Stars with the President's Special Award for his outstanding volunteer efforts this year.

Continuing their service on the 2019 Board will be: Immediate Past President Connie Hash (MKB); and Directors Barry Bridges (Weichert Bridges & Co.); Jerry Cohen (Park Place Realty) and Meg Smith (MKB, REALTORS®).


Kingery Receives RVAR Community Service Awardkingery 
Betty Kingery of RE/MAX Mountain to Lake Realty received RVAR's REALTOR® Community Service Award at RVAR's December 14th Installation and Awards Breakfast.

Kingery was recognized for her many volunteer efforts on behalf of STEP (Solutions to Empower People), an organization that "facilitates solutions that empower people to overcome their barriers to economic, educational and developmental success." In addition to recognizing Kingery, RVAR made a $1,000 contribution to STEP in her honor.

The REALTOR® Community Service Award recognizes a local REALTOR® who gives of his or her time to an organization that improves the quality of life in the greater Roanoke Valley. 
Six Firms Win Distinguished Service Awardssix 
Each year, RVAR recognizes those firms whose agents have demonstrated exceptional commitment to the real estate profession by attending RVAR educational classes, serving on RVAR/VR/NAR Committees, earning professional designations, contributing to RPAC and attending RVAR/VR/NAR events. The Distinguished Service Awards were presented to the following firms at the December 14th RVAR Installation and Awards Breakfast:
 
Small Firms (1-15 agents)
Park Place Realty, LLC
RE/MAX Mountain to Lake Realty
 
Medium Firms (16-35 agents)
The Real Estate Group
 
Large Firms (36 or more agents)
BHHS Premier, REALTORS®
MKB, REALTORS®
RE/MAX All Stars
2019 Dues Reminderdues 
To date, 769 members have already paid their 2019 REALTOR® dues (which includes dues to RVAR, VR and NAR.) The final date to pay 2019 dues is Monday, January 14th.

Simply go to www.RVAR.com and click on User Login (upper right hand corner). Follow the instructions to log in to access and pay your dues bill online.

Dues bills were NOT mailed to offices this year. However, any member may contact Susan Edwards to request a dues bill via email or mail.

Should membership be terminated for non-payment of dues, payment of the annual dues plus a reinstatement fee of $150 will be required to reinstate membership in RVAR, provided reinstatement is made within 60 days following termination. After that, application as a new member is required to restore membership in the Association.
2019 RVAR and MLS Budgets: No Increase in dues or feesfees 
The RVAR Board of Directors recently approved the 2019 budgets for RVAR and MLS, which reflect no increase in dues or fees. Summaries of the RVAR budget and MLS budget are provided.  
 A variety of MLS field changes were implemented on Monday, December 17th.   Click here to review the field changes, which affect listings in all property types. Agents are not required to change their listings; however, agents will likely want to take advantage of the new options to update their active listings. Revised MLS Input Sheets were also available in zipForms as of December 17th.

Also on December 17th, changes were made to some of the FlexMLS settings. Click here to review the setting changes. When the FlexMLS contract was renewed, FlexMLS agreed to assist RVAR in reviewing over 275 settings to determine which changes would improve our MLS system. Special thanks to the MLS Settings Work Group, chaired by Donna Marie Harris (Long & Foster), the MLS Policy Committee, Broker Council and Board of Directors - all of whom assisted in the review process.   
A new law which goes into effect January 1st requires all listing agreements to include the name and contact information for the supervising broker. Prior to January 1st, zipForms will update the following forms:
    Exclusive Right to Represent Seller Agreement
    Exclusive Right to Represent Buyer Agreement
    Non-Exclusive Right to Represent Buyer Agreement

Fields have been added in the signature section of these forms for the broker name and information. 
The 438 homes sold during the month of November is the highest number of homes sold during the month of November since 2005.  A link to the November  home sales statistics, including a 4-year comparison, is provided on the front page of RVAR.com. The MLS releases its monthly home sales statistics around the 15th of the following month.    

RVAR's Family Fun Night on the Iceice
Join us for a night of fun and fast paced hockey with the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs on Friday, February 8th.   

Tickets will be just $12 for adults and $10 for children ( under 12) and includes admission and a meal voucher to be used at the concession area.    

Order as many tickets as you would like - bring your family & friends for a fun, exciting evening at the Berglund Center!!  The puck drops against Birmingham at 7:05PM.

These will be pre-purchase only tickets and must be ordered by 3:00PM Monday, February 4th. Tickets can be picked up at the "Will Call" window on game day.

Click here to register online or click here for more information and the order form.  
Code of Ethics/MLS Change: Effective January 1stcode   
The following change to the REALTOR® Code of Ethics goes into effect January 1st. A matching MLS rule will also go into effect January 1st, as required by NAR.

Standard of Practice 1-7 (the revision is underlined): When acting as listing brokers, REALTORS® shall continue to submit to the seller / landlord all offers and counter-offers until closing or execution of a lease unless the seller / landlord has waived this obligation in writing. Upon the written request of a cooperating broker who submits an offer to the listing broker, the listing broker shall provide a written affirmation to the cooperating broker stating that the offer has been submitted to the seller / landlord, or a written notification that the seller / landlord has waived the obligation to have the offer presented. REALTORS® shall not be obligated to continue to market the property after an offer has been accepted by the seller / landlord. REALTORS® shall recommend that sellers / landlords obtain the advice of legal counsel prior to acceptance of a subsequent offer except where the acceptance is contingent on the termination of the pre-existing purchase contract or lease.

NOTES: When NAR uses the term 'broker' in the Code of Ethics, it includes brokers and sales associates. Also, NAR has confirmed that written requests and written affirmation can be accomplished via email. 
NAR Requires Ethics Training by December 31st...requires  
Don't let your time run out . . . this is an NAR requirement! According to RVAR records, 143 members still need to take this training (or let RVAR know that they have taken the training)!

If you have already completed the REALTOR® Code of Ethics training for your license renewal, just send a copy of the certificate of completion to Susan Edwards. If you have joined within the last 6 months and have not yet attended New Member Orientation, you will receive ethics training credit at Orientation.
 
NAR requires all REALTORS® to complete 3 hours of REALTOR® Code of Ethics training every two years. The current two-year cycle will end 12/31/2018. Failure to meet the requirement is a violation of NAR's membership requirements and will result in suspension of membership until the requirement is met or until membership is automatically terminated.

If you still need to take this class, simply go to NAR's website! NAR provides two options -- either with CE credits ($29.95 cost) or without (which is free and only meets NAR's requirements.) Click here to access NAR's ethics training options.
 
Advocacy @ Work work    
Advocacy @ Work is an article aimed at updating members on what is happening in our region regarding Economic Development and/or Governmental Affairs.

National Flood Insurance Program Extension
The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was extended earlier in December and is now connected to the budget which could result in a longer extension agreement, potentially through September of next year.  The budget bill, along with the extension of the NFIP, is set to expire on December 21st.  At this writing, we continue to monitor the budget discussions taking place in D.C. which could affect the NFIP extension.

The National Association of REALTORS® supports and continues to push for a long-term authorization of the NFIP along with meaningful reforms to improve the program. We will continue to monitor the progress of this important program and provide updates as needed.

Roanoke City Comprehensive Plan

"What should Roanoke look like in 20 years?"  That is the question Roanoke City leaders are working to define as they develop an updated Comprehensive Plan. This Plan will guide policy decisions and long-term investments until 2040.

The process for developing the new plan started earlier in 2018 and continues through 2019. Citizen work groups have been formed to discuss specific goals, policies and actions that the community feels should be incorporated into the City's next 20-year plan. These work groups are reviewing and incorporating ideas citizens shared during community meetings and surveys in 2018.  

You can still be involved and follow progress of the Plan as the work groups refine the Plan through the first part of 2019. Click here to learn more about the data already collected about Roanoke and understand what the community sees as most important going forward. Keep up-to-date by signing up here to receive updates and announcements about the Plan.

2019 General Assembly Session

The 2019 General Assembly session convenes on Wednesday, January 9th.  Legislators will be working on some big issues this session such as plans for improving I-81 and how to fund needed improvements. Next month I will include an overview and progress of some of the bills that are important to our members.  

Happy Holidays!

Article provided by Joe Sutliff, RVAR Director of Economic & Governmental Affairs.
Charity of the Monthcharity
American Cancer Society (Discovery Shop)

Since it opened in 1995, the Discovery Shop of Roanoke has provided unique and quality merchandise at affordable prices to the community. All merchandise in the Discovery Shop is donated by community members who want to support the mission of the American Cancer Society. Proceeds raised from the sale of donated items are used to help fund cancer research and local programs and services.
For more information or to donate please log on to their website at www.cancer.org/involved/donate/more-ways-to-give/discovery-shops-national/virginia-discovery-shops.html
Our RVAR Family family
Congratulations
RVAR congratulates David Radford of BHHS Premier, REALTORS® upon his appointment to the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, to fill the vacancy in the Windsor Hills District. David will serve in this position until a special election is held in November, 2019.
 
RVAR also congratulates Bill Gearhart of Coldwell Banker Townside on his appointment to the Public Policy Committee of Virginia REALTORS®.

Sympathy
RVAR offers condolences to Wei Li Chow of The Real Estate Group upon the death of her mother; to Barry Bellamy of The Real Estate Group upon the death of his father; to Janie Meggers of MKB, REALTORS® upon the death of her brother and to Tom Floyd of Member One Credit Union upon the death of his mother.

Let RVAR know if you have news to share. 
Upcoming Events & Deadlines Upcoming

December 24th & 25th 
RVAR Office Closed
December 31st
RVAR Office Closed
January 1st 
RVAR Office Closed
January 14th 
Deadline to Pay 2019 Dues
January 21st  
RVAR Office Closed
February 8th 
RVAR Hockey Night

 
Roanoke Valley Association of REALTORS® 
Proudly Recognizes Our 2018 Partner / Sponsors partner 
 
Platinum Level Partner / Sponsor
 
    

Gold Level Partner / Sponsor 
Acquisition Title & Settlement Agency, Inc.
 Blue Eagle Credit Union 
Colonial Mortgage Company
Colonial Title & Settlement Agency, LLC  
Consolidated Construction Services, Inc.
First Citizens Bank   
Southwest Virginia Moving & Storage
The Federal Savings Bank   
Virginia Title Center, LLC  
 
Silver Partner / Sponsor
 
Bug Man Exterminating, Inc. 
First American Home Warranty 
HMS National Home Warranty
Lawrence Moving & Storage
Old Republic Title
Seal-Tite Basement Waterproofing Co.
Sticks & Bricks Home Inspections, LLC
VIA Insurance Agency, LLC 
Contact:

ROANOKE VALLEY
ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
  |  540.772.0526