Help Sellers Understand the Market

For some people the idea of giving clients bad news is difficult - although necessary. The real estate market is not going to turn around anytime soon, and as KHovanian demonstrated a few weeks ago, the best sales tool is a lower price. Even after the staging, after all of the new carpet and appliances, the fresh cookies before every showing and all of your best efforts - sometimes the only answer is reduce the price.

The housing inventory level - "seller activity" - is keeping buyers on the sidelines. We don't need sellers, we need motivated buyers. The best motivation in this market is a lower price. Sellers don't want to believe that, and to some degree agents haven't come to terms with the idea that homes in Minnesota can have value fluctuations - in both directions.

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Legislative Session only a few months away

In a few weeks the Minnesota REALTOR® Governmental Affairs Committee will be discussing and outlining their agenda items for the spring session. During the summer, staff and some volunteers have been meeting and discussing a number of legislative issues/proposals well in advance of committee meetings.

To make sure all members have an opportunity to voice an opinion on the issues we lobby, a survey has been put together for your responses. Please take some time (15-20 minutes to fully complete) to share with us your comments.

Take the survey.

We also invite you to attend one of District Day Events. Go to www.mnrealtor.com to find out about these localized legislative learning sessions.

Not sure what the form language means?

Take a look at the forms explanation page available to you and your clients. We only have the first of a series completed, but we believe this will help you in explaining to your clients what the forms mean. It also provides consumers with an easy to access explanation if they are reviewing the forms on their own time. In the near future we'll have these description forms available in other languages.

MNAR's Linda Modlinski helps write national real estate exam

Linda Modlinski, Sr. V.P of the MN Association of REALTORS® participated in the 2007 Pearson VUE National Job Analysis Committee Meeting for Real Estate in Las Vegas to update and improve the national section of the state real estate licensing examination.

The National Job Analysis Committee Meeting for Real Estate focuses on updating the content for the national section of the real estate exam to reflect recent changes in federal real estate statutes and to ensure compliance of the national section in relation to state laws and regulations. The updated exams improve real estate licensure testing and result in better-informed agents and brokers, considerably strengthening the protection of the public.

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