Ensure Your Clients Don’t Forget Your Name With Santa’s Help
Place your order by November 30, 2019 to spread cheer and increase your sphere with personalized video texts from Santa This Christmas, be the REALTOR® that not only remembers the names of past clients’ children, be the one that knows Santa! For only a $35 investment to TREPAC, Santa will personally record and send a personalized…
FHA Condo Rules Loosen and VA Loan Limits Eliminated
By Tracy Walden – Thrive Mortgage, NMLS #1048123 and member of CCAR’s REALTOR®/Lender Committee FHA ISSUES NEW CONDOMINIUM APPROVAL RULE Comprehensive policy revisions include ability to approve individual units in non-approved condo projects – effective October 15, 2019 In an effort to promote affordable and sustainable homeownership, especially among credit-worthy first-time buyers, the Federal Housing…
Who is the 800lb Gorilla in Government Affairs?
This article was originally published June 2019 in North DFW Real Producers Magazine The only source of light at 4:30 a.m. on March 26 was the Coit Road streetlights and the Collin County Association of Realtors (CCAR) headquarters. While the rest of the world slept, the CCAR headquarters was awake and bustling as 90 Realtors prepared…
MUD, SUD, PUD, PID, TIRZ Video Resource
Alphabet Soup: Differences between MUD, SUD, PUD, PID and What it means to you to sell inside one On July 16, 2019 MuniCap experts Lindsay Banner and Joshua Arendt discussed special Tax Districts and how they impact homeowners at CCAR’s Allen/McKinney Business Development meeting. The entire presentation is available to watch here. To view the…
Why Attending the Texas 86th Legislative Session Review on October 3 is Worth Missing Kickoff
We get it. Thursdays in October are for football. Even for the football adverse (), attending a Legislative Session Review rarely tops the list of desired Thursday evening activities. That is why we created an easy quiz to evaluate if legislation passed by your greater North Texas Delegation impacts you. With so many significant…
Home Buyers Got Half of What They Wanted in August 2019
The Collin County Association of Realtors (CCAR) reports that as interest rates continued to drop in August 2019, homes sales continues to rise—creating a good news/bad news situation for buyers. The bad news: Limited inventory for buyers. August 2019 had 8.5% more listings under contract and 13.1% more projected closed sales than August 2018. Yet,…
Some Markets Red Hot in Q2
The CCAR Pulse, which delves into the real estate markets of 37 local communities, continues to show a healthy housing market with increased profitability and stabilizing inventory. However, Collin County’s localization of increased activity has resulted in some segments experiencing a red hot market, while other segments have begun to stabilize. A market trend that…
TREC Contract Changes to 40-8 and 49-1 Requires Adjustments to Lender/REALTOR® Workflow
By Dawn Ferreiro – Supreme Lending, NMLS #514152 and member of CCAR REALTOR®/Lender Committee TREC made several changes to the 1-4 Residential Single Family Contract in November of 2018. This article specifically addresses changes made to the “Third Party Financing Addendum (40-8)” article 2, paragraph B as well as the addition of the “Addendum Concerning…
Warning: Data Breaches Can (and Will) Happen to You
Warning: Data breaches can (and will) happen to you. However, there are steps you can take to reduce your risk of being hacked. “The last thing agents want to do is notify their buyers and sellers that they were victims of a data breach. Too many agents think a data breach will never happen to…
What is FIRPTA?
By Diane Donley, Republic Title North Coit, Member of CCAR’s Affiliate Committee FIRPTA (The Foreign Investment In Real Property Tax Act of 1980) is a tax law that may impose a tax on certain defined “foreign persons” selling U.S. real estate. It is important to determine as early in the transaction as possible if this…