july 2011 gepar magazine

1 • elpasorealtor.com El Paso Realtor Magazine | JULY 2011 JULY 2011 | El Paso Realtor Magazine elpasorealtor.com • 1 JULY 2011

WE WANTTO HEARFROM YOU.

WE WANTTO HEARFROM YOU.

LETS GIVE SOME KUDOS

2 • elpasorealtor.com El Paso Realtor Magazine | JULY 2011 1 • elpasorealtor.com El Paso Realtor Magazine | JULY 2011

MILITARY HEROo f T H E Y E A R

G R E A T E R E L P A S O A S S O C I A T I O N O F R E A L T O R S ®

NOMINATION FORM

Name and Rank of Nominee:

Branch of Service:

Years of Service:

Wars and/or conflicts served in:

Awards and/or medals received:

In as many words as necessary, please relate why nominee should be awarded Military Hero of the Year by GEPAR:

Attach additional pages as necessary.

Please return nomination form by August 31st to Hilda at the Association or email to her at [email protected]

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2 • elpasorealtor.com El Paso Realtor Magazine | JULY 2011 1 • elpasorealtor.com El Paso Realtor Magazine | JULY 2011 JULY 2011 | El Paso Realtor Magazine elpasorealtor.com • 1

Kudos definitely goes out to Sharron and the outstand-ing staff at GEPAR for doing an outstanding job on the lockbox conversion. There was so much work

done behind the scenes to make everything flow as smooth as possible. I would also like to take this time and thank all the members who were understanding and took this challenge in stride. Our contract had expired and the other lockboxes had served their time and we needed to move forward with the changing times.

On an earlier subject, the open house signs, we have once again been asked to look at the sign ordinance. Al Jurado, Dan Olivas and I recently met with Mayor Cook regarding this issue. Mayor Cook asked us to provide examples of our signs; this will help the city have guidelines to police the proper people who abuse the current system. Michael Bray attended the city council meeting where this was discussed and came back to me asking that we address this right away and get the word out to our members. We are going to provide pictures and standards on size of the A frame signs we use. The city picks up an enor-mous number signs on any given week.

Our first Leadership Training class is going extremely well lead by Rick Snow. He is extremely knowledgeable and you would think he had taught this for several years. Everyone is really enjoying the wealth of knowledge he brings to the table and that he engages all of us in class to learn and grow.

Well summer is here and things have slowed down a bit. This is a great time to come and be part of your association and all the education we are currently offering. Most events even provide lunch with an outstanding speaker to boot. This is a wonder-ful opportunity to network (not just pass out a card), really spending time with each other and to help us all grow in our business. Come and get engaged in your profession.

- Linda Bastraw

Monthly Update

+ PRESIDENTS REMARKS L I N D A B A S T R A W

G R E AT E R E L PA S O

A S S O C I AT I O N O F R E A LT O R S

P R E S I D E N T


IMPORTANT REMINDERS

ASSOCIATION OFFICERS- Linda Bastraw [ President ]- Jennifer Stroh [ President- Elect]- Kenny Gross [Secretary/ Treasurer ]- Doug Hamilton [ Immediate Past President ]- Sharron K. Ramirez [ Chief Executive Officer] ASSOCIATION DIRECTORS- Caroline Camfield - Susan Craig - Mackie Sue Gilchrist - Andrew Haggerty - Douglas Van Nortwick

ASSOCIATION DIRECTORS 2011-2012- Timothy Cantrell- Socorro Cochran- Jim Howard- Mickey Molina- Patti Olivas

MLS BOARD OF DIRECTORS- Rick Snow [ President ]- Angel Ochoa [ Vice President ]- Jesus Barraza [ Secretary/ Treasurer ]- David Curiel - Art Moreno- Jim Howard- Robert Lozano- Frances Moran- William R. Stanton

TAR Nominating Committee - Sonja Van Nortwick

NAR DIRECTOR- Michael Bray

TAR DIRECTORS- Linda Bastraw- Doug Hamilton

TAR REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT- R. Scott Kesner

TAR TREPAC TRUSTEE- Elizabeth Leal

POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT COMMITTEE- Al Jurado

COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN- Kenny Gross [ Budget & Finance ]- Steve Carvalho [ Education ]- Alma Miller [ Fair Housing/ Equal Opportunity ]- Al Jurado [ Governmental Affairs ]- Socorro Cochran [ TREPAC ]- Angela Ochoa [ REALTOR / Builder ]

6400 GATEWAY EAST BLVDEL PASO, TX, 79905

(915) 779-3521

GEPAR QUARTERLY BILLING SCHEDULE

3RD QUARTER BILLING 05/13/2011 •Invoicesposted–emailtoagentsinvoicesreadyto view & pay online05/31/2011 •3rdquarterpaymentsdue07/05/2011 •Suspensionand$50.00reconnectfee08/01/2011 •Suspensionofofficeifmembersarepastduew/active license.09/01/2011 •Terminationofofficeifmembersarepastduew/active license.

4TH QUARTER BILLING8/15/2011 •Invoicesposted–emailtoagentsinvoicesreadyto view & pay online8/31/2011 •4thquarterpaymentsdue

2012 YEARLY DUES WILL BE BILLED THE 1ST WEEK OF NOVEMBER, 2011 AND ARE DUE DECEMBER 31, 2011

Statements may be paid by debit/credit card online or you can mail in checks. Remember, if paying by check, two checks are required. NO CASH PAYMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED.

E L PA S O R E A LT O R . C O M

GEPAR is now accepting applications for leadership positions for the Board of Directors and the MLS Board of Directors. Download an application form www.elpasorealtor.com.

DEADLINE: JULY 29, 2011 @ 5:00 PM

GET INVOLVEDBECOME A LEADER:Support your association, become a leader!

Please fax or e-mail your application to Isela Martinez @ 915.298.9006 or [email protected].


> EXPERT ADVISORS

Ethical Practice...S

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BONUSESThis subject continues to rear its ugly head and I would like

to bring up the subject yet again. The rules of GEPAR’s

MLS conform to the policy of the National Association of

REALTORS® in regards to compensation. The rules of our

MLS state “Participants make blanket unilateral offers of and

compensation to other Participants”, whether the participant

acts as a subagent, buyer’s agent, or in other agency or non-

agency capacities defined by law. In other words, an offer of

compensation, which includes a bonus, is unilateral and un-

conditional. In June, our MLS Board of Directors wisely ap-

proved a change to MLS Rules and Regulations Section 1.2.7

Conditional Remarks:”An MLS participant is prohibited from

entering a condition into the public remarks of confidential

section of the MLS. A condition is defined as anything that is

not otherwise a unilateral offer. In other words, any language

that causes another MLS participant or their client to react

in a time-sensitive or non-unilateral manner to gain a benefit

is a condition.” As a listing agent, I would certainly exercise

caution when offering a bonus with respect to the fact it is

important to understand the implication that when a bonus is

offered,itcannotbeconditionedbyanything,suchas“$1,000

bonus if this home has an acceptable offer by July 31st”, or

“$1,000bonusforafullpriceoffer.”

REALTOR® CONVENTIONEl Paso’s economy and way of life has been closely linked for

years with our relationship with the Military and their pres-

ence in our City. One of the best suggestions to come out of

the Education Committee this year was for our REALTOR®

community to express our profound gratitude to our Military

by honoring an El Paso Military hero at our REALTOR®

Convention on October 7th. The criteria for a nominee is

that they currently live in El Paso and the nomination must be

made by a REALTOR® from our Association. In this issue of

El Paso REALTOR®, you will find a nomination form that can

be printed and filled out. These forms can either be dropped

off with Hilda Beck at the association or emailed to her at

[email protected]. As one of the members of the Education

Committee noted, there are still several retired military in El

Paso who served in all three wars; World War II, Korea, and

Vietnam. However, please note that this award is open to

both retired and active duty military personnel who exhibited

heroism and exemplary service during their military tenure.

I am sure many of us know someone worthy of a nomina-

tion, so please submit your nomination prior to August 31st.

Ticket sales will begin soon and the Education Committee has

put forth an exciting agenda, so mark October 7th on your

calendars.

SENTRILOCK CONVERSIONWell, we survived another change in our business life dur-

ing the initial lockbox conversions the last week of June.

Undoubtedly, we will appreciate the many upgrades the new

system offers, such as inconvenience we all suffered was kept

to a minimum and will be greatly outweighed by the benefits

we will experience. Thanks to everyone for their patience and

to our Association Staff for all their hard work.

CMA CLASSCandace Cook, President of the Association of Texas Apprais-

ers, sold out the auditorium at GEPAR in June with her CMA

class. 90 members attended and the response was awesome,

so much so that members requested we have her return for

the second part of her three series course as soon as we could

arrange it. Candace will be returning on September 12th for

the advanced class in CMA adjustments, and we are expecting

a turnout equal to the first. We will be keeping you posted

when tickets become available.

I welcome your comments and questions to

[email protected].

G E PA R N E W M E M B E R

E T H I C S I N S T R U C T O R

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the x

If you are using Facebook for business, this X can be really, really bad.

factor

10 • elpasorealtor.com El Paso Realtor Magazine | MAY 2011

The letter X hasn’t fared too well in the dot-com era. Once the mark of secret pirate treasures and “sign here if you would please” contracts, it has been relegated to second-class status ever since Microsoft introduced Windows95 as the letter you looked for when you want to make things go away.

Facebook also selected the X as the “go away” letter. If you are using Facebook for business, this X can be really, really bad.If you have never seen the X on Facebook, it hides in the upper right corner of every post made by your friends (and the pages you like). You don’t see it unless you hover over the post – it is pretty stealthy.

When you click the X on any Facebook post the system automatically presents you with a few different options:Hide this postHide all from [USER]Hide all from [APPLICATION] *if it was posted from a third party site like YouTube

I can tell you from personal experience that making the decision between the first two is very hard sometimes. I can think of a few occasions where I clicked the X thinking I was going to just hide a post – and then made a split-second decision to just hide the user instead. If this happens to you, the best social media strategy in the world won’t get you very far.

So why do I hide users? The number one reason is because they post too much. Just like we don’t like that guy at the barbecue who can’t stop talking, we don’t want our Facebook news feed slam-packed with updates from one person. So think about whether you are posting or over-posting and what everyone else may think. As an aside, you may want to start thinking about whether your twitter account needs to update Facebook anymore – the speed and frequency with which we use twitter may cause our Facebook friends distress!

The other reason I hide users on Facebook is because they post the same thing. I think it is great if you tell me something once…maybe twice…but if you keep posting it (or different iterations of it) over and over again forget it – I am going to have to let you go.Finally, the third reason I hide users is because they play games. Not that I have any problem with you playing Farmville , BeJew-eled Blitz or Mafia Wars, but know that if it keeps junking up my news feed I am going to let it go. Usually in this case I try to hide the game first (remember the “Hide all from [APPLICATION]” option) but if you keep playing different things all the time then it will be sayonara for you.

So think carefully about whether you are putting yourself at risk for the X treatment, especially if your social media strategy relies upon you building social capital with your Facebook sphere. If you think you may be getting close, consider varying your posts (even if you are saying the same thing find a different way – video, photo, etc. to say it) and maybe finding new outlets for the same information.

Stefanie Hahn is the education director for Coldwell Banker Hearthside, REALTORS® in Malvern, Pa. Visit her Web site: www.StefanieHahn.com.

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10 • elpasorealtor.com El Paso Realtor Magazine | JULY 2011


> ASSOCIATION EVENTS J U LY 2 0 1 1

“STORIES OF SUCCESS” Learn. Grow. Succeed

GEPAR welcomed Manny Soto, Retired Administrator, Inc. for this month’s series of “Stories of Success” on June 17, 2011, where he communicated his success story. Lunch was sponsored by ACCENT HOMES of ANTHONY.

Sentrilock NXT Upgrade EventOn June 27 through July 1, 2011 Your Staff from the Greater El Paso Association of Realtors upgraded member’s old Sen-trilock products for new ones. The Sentrilock Upgrade Event was an opportunity for all our members to come to the Association,


TREPAC BOWLING TOURNAMENTOur TREPAC Bowling Tournament was on June 16th at Bowl El Paso. The TREPAC Leadership would like to thank everyone who participated and took advantage of the opportunity to network with members of our industry, and at the same time contributed towards a very worthy cause. Our First Place winning team was Jesse Moore, Joel Garcia, Mike Musshorn and Steve Sepulveda. Second Place was the team of Catherine Holguin, Cris McGee, Henry Holguin and John Ayoub. This year we had two teams that came in Third Place, first team was Al Jurado, Celina Parada, Isela Martinez and Michael McKay, second team was Betsy Miller, Brad Judy, Del Shepard and Graciela Saldivar. Congratu-lations to all the winning teams and a very big thanks to our advertisers for their support of our events.

WINNING CIRCLE ADVERTISER - Bella HomesBANNER ADVERTISERS - GECU - Lone Star Title - The Liquor Co.

> ASSOCIATION EVENTS

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> TREPAC BOWLING TEAMS J U LY 2 0 1 1

TREPAC BOWLING TOURNAMENT - Teams

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> TREPAC BOWLING TOURNAMENT


+ NAR SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL H O M E S A L E S R E P O R T

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

Real Estate Trend Indicator

Board: Greater El Paso Association of REALTORS®

State: Texas

Date of Report: 06/15/11


+ BY THE NUMBERS J U LY 2 0 1 1 C O M PA R I S O N


4 Office Closed

5 9:00 am- WCR Board Meeting 12:00 pm- CIBA Luncheon 1:30 pm- Education Committee Meeting

6 8:00 am – Orientation

7 8:30 am- RCA Weekly Meeting 11:30 am- Builder University 1:30 pm- Gov. Affairs Committee Mtg. 2:30 pm- TREPAC Committee Meeting

9 11:30 am- WCR Luncheon 11 8:30 am- Lock Box Conversion 12:30 pm- Toastmasters

12 8:30 am- Lock Box Conversion

13 8:30 am- Lock Box Conversion

14 8:30 am- RCA Weekly Meeting 9:00 am- Success Realty Meeting

18 8:00 pm- TX REALTORS® Leadership Program 12:30 pm- Toastmasters

19 8:00 am- MCE 1:30 pm- Education Committee Mtg. 7:00 pm- YPN Diablo’s Night

20 8:00 am- MCE 1:30 pm- Budget & Finance Meeting 2:00 pm- Executive Committee Meeting

21 8:30 am- RCA Weekly Meeting

25 12:30 pm- Toastmasters

26 1:00 pm- CIBA Board of Directors

27 8:30 am- MLS Board of Directors


29 8:30 am- Board of Directors 11:30 am- Stories Of Success (Tentative)

1 9:00 am- WCR Board Meeting 12:30 pm- Toastmasters

2 12:00 pm- CIBA Luncheon 1:30 pm- Education Committee Meeting

3 8:00 am – Orientation 1:00 pm – YPN Meeting

4 8:30 am- RCA Weekly Meeting 1:30 pm- Gov. Affairs Committee Mtg. 2:30 pm- TREPAC Committee Meeting

5 11:30 am- WCR Luncheon

8 8:00 am- Strategic Plan 12:30 pm- Toastmasters

9 8:00 am- TX REALTORS® Leadership Program

10 9:00 am- Success Realty Meeting


12 11:30 am- Builder University


16 8:00 am- MCE

17 8:00 am- MCE 1:30 pm- Budget & Finance Meeting 2:00 pm- Executive Committee Meeting


19 11:30 am- Stories Of Success Ginger Kerrick – NASA


23 TREPAC Talent Show @The Comedy Club

24 8:30 am- MLS Board of Directors

25 8:30 am- RCA Weekly Meeting 1:00 pm VA Course

26 8:30 am- Board of Directors

29 9:00 am- WCR Board Meeting 12:30 pm- Toastmasters 1:00 pm- REALTOR/ Builder Cmtee.

30 1:00 pm- CIBA Board of Directors

JULY

AUGUST

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july 2011 gepar magazine

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paso realtor magazine

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military heroo f t h