WASHINGTON — The National Association of Realtors’ board of directors will hold a special meeting in July to explore whether to give realtor.com operator Move Inc. more freedom to compete with other websites like Zillow and Trulia.

“Cut the chains. Let them soar,” said NAR director Danny Frank, chairman of the Houston Association of Realtors, before today’s vote approving the special board meeting. “Let’s make this happen soon.”

The special meeting will take place July 23, 24 or 25th in Chicago, and NAR will cover directors’ expenses.

The resolution passed today states that the NAR leadership team will work with Move and its subsidiary RealSelect, to develop recommendations for consideration by NAR’s board “to enrich and broaden the user experience” on NAR’s official website, realtor.com. The recommendations will be presented to the board at the closed meeting in July.

Briefing Realtor association executives Wednesday, NAR CEO Dale Stinton said the information available to consumers on realtor.com and third-party sites is “wildly different” because an operating agreement between NAR and Move restricts realtor.com from providing some  content that makes third-party sites popular with consumers.

NAR’s board of directors and Move can update the realtor.com operating agreement, which dates to 1996 and was last amended in 2010.

“We (NAR leadership) ultimately do what they (the board) tell us to do or not to do. Realtor.com would look like other sites if we would let (Move) do it,” Stinton said Wednesday.

NAR and Move characterized changes made to the agreement in 2010 as having paved the way for innovation, by streamlining the process for developing improvements to realtor.com.

Some details of the Sept. 10, 2010 amendment were kept confidential, but became clear when Move announced the following year that it would run lead forms for buyer’s agents on realtor.com listing detail pages not unlike those employed by rivals Zillow and Trulia.

The “Connection for co-brokers” program, which provides perks like additional listing photos to participating brokers, proved controversial. Although brokerages can opt out of the program, last year HomeServices of America Inc. subsidiary Edina Realty Inc. announced it was pulling listings from realtor.com altogether, in part because it objected to the lead forms.

Addressing NAR’s board of directors today, Samuelson said realtor.com had “nailed” the No. 1 thing that consumers want in a real estate site: fresh and up-to-date data.

But the No. 2 thing they want is comprehensiveness. “That’s a challenge for us,” he said.

Samuelson said that less than a third of rental content (29 percent) is appearing on realtor.com “because of members’ wishes.” He noted that if he’s looking for new construction in Austin, he gets 41 properties if he goes to realtor.com, but more than 2,500 properties at New Home Source.

“We own 51 percent of that company. We could put that content on realtor.com” if members allow it, he said. “We have 17 years of history of winning and competing, but we need your help to make the site not just accurate, but comprehensive.”

Samuelson later told Inman News he was pleased by the board’s enthusiasm to improve consumer user experience on realtor.com.

“If you take what we’re already doing, especially on the technology front,” and add comprehensive content, “I think it’s going to be incredibly powerful. I’m jazzed,” he said.

Samuelson said NAR and Move were “pretty aligned” where realtor.com is concerned — they meet weekly via conference call, he said. “But I think this is going to energize the members. It’s great to have the members feeling that passion, that they have a stake in this,” he said.

He added that some Inman News articles this week had prompted calls from investors, concerned about Move’s relationship with NAR.

“We were able to explain to them the partnership has been strong, is strong,” he said.

Samuelson will be attending the special meeting in July.

This month, realtor.com announced that it’s started tracking information at the property level, allowing it to display information tied to specific properties like tax information, sale history and price changes, and collect housing data on a more frequent basis.

Move has also signed an agreement with Xceligent Inc. to bring “hundreds of thousands” of commercial listings to realtor.com by the third quarter of 2013, the companies said Wednesday.

Reporting by Inman News Associate Editor Andrea V. Brambila.

WASHINGTON — The National Association of Realtors today adopted a policy that spells out “basic” services multiple listing services can charge all members for — including the operation and promotion of public-facing websites that allow consumers to search for homes for sale.

Many MLSs already operate public-facing websites. But some large brokerages objected to NAR taking a formal stance that MLSs that choose to provide those and other services can require members to pay for them, regardless of whether they want them or use them.

At NAR’s midyear meeting in Washington D.C., Thursday, a policy committee signed off on an amendment to NAR’s model MLS rules to classify not only the operation, but the promotion of public-facing MLS sites, as a “basic” service.

But NAR’s Executive Committee, which makes recommendations to NAR’s board of directors, stripped language addressing public-facing MLS sites from the amendment on Friday. The move — which some said was made to appease large brokerages that object to MLSs operating public-facing websites — surprised some members of the Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee.

The amendment put forward by NAR’s Executive Committee failed to pass today. After a lengthy debate, the amendment was voted down, 275-341. NAR’s board of directors then adopted the amendment originally put forward by the Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee, without further debate.

By passing the amendment as originally put forward Thursday, NAR’s board of directors have given MLSs around the country more leeway to decide whether or not to charge members for operating and promoting public-facing websites.

Bill Lublin, vice chairman of the Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee noted on Thursday that the amendments was not intended to either promote or impede the use of public-facing MLS websites, but to allow MLSs to make decisions on a local basis.

Shad Bogany, a NAR director and chairman of the Texas Association of Realtors, said the board’s decision would allow associations to consider public-facing websites without fear that they will be out of compliance with NAR MLS policy.

Craig Cheatham, president and CEO of the Realty Alliance, an association of 70 U.S. brokers, said he was disappointed by the board’s vote.  The debate became a referendum on whether or not MLSs should have public-facing websites rather than focusing on whether the policy itself was sound, he said.

He predicted lawsuits and disputes would arise from within the industry because of questions regarding tying the MLS website service to MLS participation given that public websites are now classified as a basic, not optional, service that MLSs may oblige members to pay for regardless of use.

“This is not a big broker issue,” he said. “No broker is wanting to be charged for something by the MLS that they do not want and do not use.”

Bob Hale, CEO of the Houston Association of Realtors, supported including public-facing sites as a basic MLS service, but said he would have been content with sites as an optional service, so long as they were included in the policy. But regardless, he said, “In most markets I can’t imagine any broker would choose to opt out” if their MLS had a public-facing site.

The amendment of MLS Policy Statement 7.57, “Categorization of MLS Services, Information and Products,” approved today started out as a proposed rule change to allow MLSs and Realtor associations to charge members for providing lockboxes as a “basic” service.

Because of antitrust concerns, NAR has required that MLSs and Realtor associations categorize lockbox services as “optional” — meaning they could not require members to pay for lockbox services unless they actually used them.

The amended policy will allow MLSs and Realtor associations in  most parts of the country to classify lockbox and other services now considered “optional” as “basic” services that all members pay for, as long as the MLS or Realtor association is not making a profit in providing those services.

In some parts of the country, courts have ruled against this “economic interest” exemption from antitrust issues, or there is no precedent allowing it. States and territories where MLSs and Realtor associations will not be allowed to treat lockboxes and other services now considered as “optional” as “basic”  include Arkansas, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Vermont.

The amended policy also lists services that MLSs and Realtor associations in all states will be allowed to classify as “basic,” and provide to all members:

• sold and comparable information
• pending sales information
• expired listings and “off market” information
• tax records
• zoning records/information
• title/abstract information
• mortgage information
• amortization schedules
• mapping capabilities
• statistical information
• public accommodation information (such as schools, shopping, churches, transportation, entertainment, recreational facilities)
• MLS computer training/orientation
• access to affinity programs
• establishment, maintenance, and promotion of public-facing websites

Reported by Inman News Associate Editor Andrea V. Brambila.

WASHINGTON — The committee that sets the agenda for the National Association of Realtors’ board of directors approved a motion to recommend the board have a special meeting to discuss the trade group’s official website, realtor.com, and third-party aggregators, NAR CEO Dale Stinton told attendees at a forum for executive officers of state associations today at NAR’s Midyear Legislative Meetings and Trade Expo.

Subject to approval at Saturday’s board meeting, Stinton said the special meeting would take place sometime in the next 70 days and would only be open to NAR directors who would be asked to sign non-disclosure agreements to participate and would not be allowed to bring in electronic devices. “Certainly no press” would be allowed, he said.

Because realtor.com is operated by a public company, Move Inc., directors need a “safe place” to discuss realtor.com, third-party aggregation, “and what the board of directors would like us (NAR leadership) to do about it,” Stinton said.

To give forum attendees an idea of how sensitive discussing a public company can be, Stinton said his own comments about realtor.com at NAR’s Association Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday had gotten out and prompted calls from hedge fund managers.

“Two hedge fund managers wanted me on the phone to talk about what was going on with realtor.com,” he said. “(Move’s) stock price moved 50 cents in 10 minutes. Fifty cents on a $10 stock is no joke.”

Move’s stock price did take a tumble on Thursday morning, though what caused it is unclear. The price closed at $10.56 Wednesday and dropped to a low of $9.91 in trading Thursday morning before recovering to close at $10.48. The stock’s highest price this month was $11.32 on May 2; the price has ranged from a low of $6.92 to a high of $12.12 in the past 52 weeks.

“Lest you think we’re all friends in the room, you have to assume everything is public record,” Stinton told forum attendees. He referred to comments he made Wednesday at a well-attended meeting of NAR’s Association Executives Committee.

The day before, he had declared NAR leaders were “ready to get into trouble“ by considering controversial issues surrounding the trade group’s structure — including changing its relationship to realtor.com. Members taking part in NAR’s REThink Initiative about the industry’s future suggested NAR “take back realtor.com” and revamp it to compete with other national aggregators. Stinton responded that “maybe realtor.com needs to get sorted out and maybe that will happen here at the board of directors meeting” on Saturday.

At the Wednesday meeting, Stinton spoke on a panel, “Competitive Forces on the Internet.” He said realtor.com is approaching its 17th or 18th birthday and for the first 14 years, it kept everyone else out of the space.

“Then about four or five years ago, an interesting thing happened: our members started giving away the listings. (They said) ‘I want (them) everywhere.’ It was the beginning of the new era,” he said.

Third-party aggregators — whom Stinton would not name, saying he was tired of giving them free publicity — began to dominate. And there will be others, he said.

“There’s a lot of money sloshing around out there looking for a place to go,” he said.

Stinton said he is “still amazed” at how wrong the industry was about interpreting consumer wants.

“We thought quality would win over quantity. We thought being the best would keep you the best,” Stinton told attendees. But “the consumer has spoken rather loudly and said ‘I’m not that deep. I want to be entertained, play around. When I get serious about it, I might go to realtor.com because I know it has accurate data, but I’m a long way from being serious about it.’”

He compared realtor.com to public television where consumers go when they want to learn something.

“But 99 percent of my time I’m spending watching the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” he said.

Fellow panelist Jim Harrison, president and CEO of Silicon Valley-based MLSListings Inc., said third-party aggregators have evolved to offer content and innovation — much of which the industry resists.

“What started with home valuations are now moving to matching consumers with brokers and agents,” Harrison said.

“We were innovative in the 90s, but we’re not innovative anymore.”

In contrast to realtor.com. third-party aggregators are agile, Harrison said.

“We’ve taken our baby, realtor.com, and we’ve shackled her. Realtor.com is not going to be able to compete the way it needs to as long as it’s weighted down with our bureaucracy,” he said.

Fellow panelist Diane Ruggiero, CEO of the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors, agreed.

“We have a lack of estimates on there. Some of us still don’t allow sold data on there. Some even don’t allow addresses. We are our own worst enemy in this battle,” she said.

“We are what keeps realtor.com from being effective. It’s us. It’s the MLSs. It’s the organizations,” she added.

Some Realtors have come to believe that realtor.com is a member benefit and should be free, she said.

“But realtor.com is part of a publicly-traded company. It takes money” to operate, she said.

Stinton noted that the content of realtor.com and third-party sites is “wildly different” because an operating agreement between NAR and Move prohibits Move from incorporating content similar to those of third-party sites. It would be up to NAR’s board of directors to change that agreement.

“We (NAR leadership) ultimately do what they (the board) tell us to do or not to do. Realtor.com would look like other sites if we would let (Move) do it,” Stinton said.

The realtor.com operating agreement, which dates to 1996, was last amended in 2010, after Move initiated negotiations that dragged on for several months and ultimately involved a mediator. At the time, NAR and Move characterized changes to the agreement as paving the way for innovation, by streamlining the process for developing improvements to realtor.com.

But some details of the Sept. 10, 2010 amendment to the realtor.com operating agreement were kept confidential. The nature of the amendment’s confidential provisions became clear only when Move announced the following year that it would run lead forms for buyer’s agents on realtor.com listing detail pages similar to those employed by rivals Zillow and Trulia.

Although brokers could opt out of the “Connection for co-brokers” program, it proved controversial. Last year, HomeServices of America Inc. subsidiary Edina Realty Inc., the leading brokerage in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market, announced it was pulling listings from realtor.com.

Stinton today characterized the relationship between NAR and Move as a “forced marriage,” and described to state association executives what he called “the rules of the game.”

“One, there ain’t no getting anybody else,” Stinton said. “It’s an evergreen agreement that goes on forever. If you didn’t know that before, you know it now. Two, in 17 years, we never put a penny into realtor.com. In fact, they pay us … royalty to use the term ‘realtor.com.’”

(According to the company’s most recent annual report to investors, Move’s payments to NAR under the terms of the realtor.com operating agreement and “certain other advertising agreements” total $2 million a year.)

That money goes into enforcing NAR’s rules on the site because there have been some Move leaders that would like to have ignored the rules, Stinton said.

Ultimately, he said, the consumer will always win. He invited attendees to imagine a scenario where realtor.com had both innovative content and the most accurate listings.

“Then I think we get the consumer back. They want to have fun. They want to be delighted. And they would like to know it’s really accurate too.”

When asked if that’s what he would recommend, Stinton said, “I don’t want to say what I think should happen, but I want to tell you all that if there was ever a point in time to find your voice on these issues, now is the time. You (association executives) influence your members greatly in all these debates.

“We serve at the pleasure of the board of directors of this association. It has to tell us what to do and if it doesn’t we won’t do anything. But I will promise you, if the board of directors says, ‘Change it. Fix it,’ we will fix it and we’ll come to you and say, ‘This is how we’re going to fix it,’ and you can tell us if we got it right.”

Errol Samuelson, Move’s chief strategy officer and head of realtor.com, will present at tomorrow’s board of directors meeting.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with details on the 2010 amendment to the realtor.com operating agreement.

WASHINGTON – A committee in charge of recommending policies to the National Association of Realtors’ board of directors has removed language from a controversial policy amendment that would have allowed multiple listing services to charge all members for the costs of establishing and promoting public-facing websites.

NAR’s Executive Committee has pulled language stipulating that the “establishment, maintenance or promotion of public-facing websites” be included on a list of services that MLSs should be allowed to define as “basic,” according to NAR Director Shad Bogany, chairman of the Texas Association of Realtors.

Bogany serves as a member of the Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee, which on Thursday approved a proposed amendment to NAR’s model MLS rules that would have made that and other changes.

The Executive Committee said it would recommend revisiting the issue of public-facing websites at NAR’s annual meeting in November, Bogany said.

None of the other changes the MLS committee made to the policy amendment yesterday were removed, he added.

Bogany is not on the Executive Committee, but said he was told of the committee’s decision from a committee member. He declined to reveal the member’s name, saying members must sign confidentiality agreements to participate. NAR’s Executive Committee reviews policy recommendations from the trade group’s other committees and recommends to the board of directors new policies, changes in policy, or the repeal of existing policies.

The amendment goes to NAR’s board of directors for a vote Saturday morning.

As a member of the board, Bogany said he would push to get the public website provision put back on the amendment, bring it to the floor and have the board vote on the amendment as it was when it came out of the MLS policy committee.

Bogany said he was stunned that the Executive Committee did not make public-facing websites even an “optional” service that MLSs could offer to members and charge only those who use it, but rather removed any mention of public-facing websites at all.

“That’s what the big brokers wanted all along,” Bogany said.

“They used the other items as a smokescreen,” he added, referring to a debate about whether lockboxes should be categorized as a basic or optional service.

A small minority of large brokers want all consumer leads to go through them, so they can show agents more value and charge more fees, Bogany said.

“It’s all about making more money,” he said.

Those brokers are under the mistaken belief that if there were no public-facing MLS websites, consumer traffic would flow to them, Bogany said, but studies have shown that’s not the case even if a broker is dominant in their market.

“The consumers are still going to realtor.com and the Zillows and Trulias of the world because they want a neutral place to go. They don’t want to go to your site and think you’re trying to sell them something. They perceive these third-party aggregators are neutral,” he said.

“They might believe if they go to my site they’re seeing only my listings. They might think these third-party sites have all the listings. (And) they don’t want me calling them unless they want to be called.”

The change is not what’s best for the agent or the consumer, Bogany said.

Consumers want their listings everywhere, he said, and agents want their MLSs to help them be profitable.

“It is about the consumer and it is about the membership and that’s what bothers me: Nobody’s speaking about what’s best for the consumer or what’s best for the members who we’ve been elected to come up here and represent,” Bogany said.

Craig Cheatham, president and CEO of the Realty Alliance, an association of 70 U.S. brokers, said this morning that the MLS policy committee’s version of the amendment was not sound policy.

“We were disappointed in how the (MLS policy) committee meeting went because instead of crafting good policy it became a rushed referendum on public sites controlled by MLSs versus not,” he said.

“That really wasn’t supposed to be the question. It was about ‘Is this a well-worded, sound policy and have we properly thought through and assigned what MLSs can charge their participants for and what they cannot, and what could be imposed on participants and what should be optional?’”

Because there was an “artificial sense” in the meeting that they had to pass something that day and not refer the policy back to the committee’s advisory group, the resulting policy was “flawed and perhaps dangerous and certainly may not reflect the intent of the members of the association and participants of the MLS,” he said.

He said the board of directors should send the policy back to committee “to get it right.”

For instance, he pointed to language in the policy that said basic services are those that are “substantially related to the purpose and functions of the MLS.”

“We don’t even agree on what the function and purposes are,” Cheatham said.

Cheatham had not immediately returned requests for comment on the Executive Committee’s decision by publication time.

A Texas homebuilder has agreed to pay more than $100,000 to resolve allegations that he received kickbacks from two mortgage lenders through joint ventures that federal regulators characterized as sham businesses.

Paul Taylor will pay $118,194 — the full amount he received since early 2010 for referring business to Benchmark Bank and Willow Bend Mortgage Co. — and will be barred from providing real estate settlement services, including mortgage originations, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced today.

Taylor’s company, Paul Taylor Homes, referred buyers to two joint ventures he formed with lenders, Stratford Mortgage Services and PTH Mortgage Co. But Benchmark Bank and Willow Bend actually performed the mortgage origination work — the joint ventures were formed only to pass kickbacks to Taylor through profit distributions and as a payment through a “service agreement,” the CFPB said.

The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) prohibits giving and receiving kickbacks for mortgage-related services. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) separately fined Benchmark Bank for its alleged role in the RESPA violations. Source: consumerfinance.gov.

Interest rates on long-term bonds and mortgages have stopped their May rise, a little above the halfway mark of the low and high for the year. The tilt seems to be upward, but the trading pattern has been chaotic and artificial, trading on guesses at the Fed’s intentions to continue, trim or stop QE3 bond buying.

Bond markets everywhere always trade on central bank intentions to ease or tighten money in the future — nothing artificial about that — but the central banks themselves have for five years engaged in artificial, full-scale-emergency-experimental action to prevent a rerun of the 1930s, or worse.

Trading on central banks is once removed from the real drivers: inflation and economic growth. Every interest-rate analyst is always caught in this loop: What does the Fed think of incoming data, and how will it react, right or wrong?

Complicated today by this wrinkle: In normal times the Fed attempts pre-emptive action, knowing that its moves take six to 18 months to have effect. But these times are unprecedented, and no one in or out of the Fed has decent predictive tools. This is a pure, seat-of-the-pants deal, and the chairman in those pants will retire in seven months.

PIMCO has been the largest and most successful bond investment manager of the last generation. This week its CEO, Mohamed El-Erian, intoned (condensed): “The global economy will give way to one of two stark alternatives: either sustainable growth, or shortfalls, instability, social tensions, political instability and debt traps.”

Wow. El-Erian usually talks like the Oracle of Delphi, murky thought, free of specifics.

Buried in the thread: “… in the next three to five years.” Translation: The world’s central banks still can buy time and have room for more heroics. Spitball from the back: “Three to five years” means you don’t have any damned idea.

El-Erian was joined by PIMCO’s Bill Gross, modern god of bond trading, saying the Fed has “12-24 months” of QE still ahead. Fire another sloppy wad at that guy.

Meanwhile the financial press publishes in bold any investment manager with a theory, or political angler, or boondocks Fed official (Kansas City’s Ms. George, Dallas’ Mr. Fisher, and Philly’s Mr. Plosser belong in “SNL” skits) — a stream of confetti blinding civilians and professionals actually trying to figure this thing out.

Avoid analysis, and review as much hard data as you can. In a seat-of-skirt deal, yours is as good as anybody’s.

The Fed would like very much to pull back from QE, if only to reduce its political exposure. But it must err on the side of slow exit for fear of an accidental economic abort, and not enough ammunition to reverse it. To pull back, the Fed must be content that the U.S. economy has entered a self-sustaining recovery.

The job market is obviously not in such recovery. Housing may be, but did not find ignition until the Fed drove mortgage rates to 3.5 percent only 10 months ago.

Technology is a strength, and some manufacturing, but the only other general sector doing well is actually a ruinous burden on households: health care.

In a spectacular accident, void of leadership, we have achieved the largest fiscal repair of any advanced nation, the federal deficit cut in half in just two years and falling (the “out years” are not pretty, but we have time for that). The Fed is justified in easing against that fiscal drag.

Inflation is sliding by every available measure (CPI, PCE, chained-mean …), the “core” versions very close to the danger zone below 1 percent. Gold has dropped 25 percent since last fall, $1,365 today, regaining its position as one of the world’s worst investments. Falling prices are grounds for Fed easing, not tightening.

Total bank credit outstanding has just now regained the level of 2008. The U.S. GDP has grown 14 percent since then, credit support provided entirely by QE. Consumer credit is contracting 1 percent every 90 days, mostly in mortgage accounts (capping housing recovery), and shrinking despite the hideous explosion in loans to students.

There will come a time for QE pullback and higher rates, but the data say this is not that time.

You can either overregulate banks OR have enough credit.

Source: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, via Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Lou Barnes is a mortgage broker and nationally syndicated columnist based in Boulder, Colo. He can be reached at lbarnes@pmglending.com.

If you own and rent out commercial real estate and have been thinking about making improvements to the property, you should do so by Dec. 31, 2013.

Qualified leasehold property improvements made during 2013 can qualify for the following tax benefits:

• 15-year depreciation period (instead of 39 years).
• Section 179 deduction up to $250,000.
• 50 percent bonus depreciation.

Any one of these benefits would be great, but all three together enable commercial landlords (and lessees) to deduct a huge percentage of the cost of making improvements in a single year, rather than having to depreciate the entire cost over 39 years.

Example: Sam owns a small office building that he rents out. During 2013, he spends $500,000 to redesign the building’s interior office spaces. This includes installing new walls, doors, ceilings and floors.

Sam gets to deduct the following amounts in 2013:

• $250,000 Section 179 deduction.
• $125,000 50 percent bonus depreciation.
• $7,292 regular deprecation (based on 15-year depreciation period).

Sam’s total 2013 deduction is $382,292.

If Sam makes the same improvements in 2014 instead of 2013, he’ll be entitled only to regular 39-year depreciation — which amounts to $6,410 in 2013 and then $12,850 per year for the following 38 years.

To qualify for all these tax benefits in 2013, a commercial landlord or lessee must make improvements to “qualified leasehold improvement property.” Generally, this is any improvement to an interior part of a nonresidential building, if:

• the improvement is made under or according to a lease by the lessee (or any sublessee) or the lessor of that part of the building.
• that part of the building is to be occupied exclusively by the lessee (or any sublessee) of that part.
• the improvement is placed in service more than three years after the date the building was first placed in service by any person.
• the improvement is section 1250 property — that is, depreciable real property, including depreciable leaseholds.

Examples include improvements to:

• utilities.
• framing.
• walls.
• doors.
• windows.
• pipes and fittings.
• plumbing fixtures.
• fire protection systems.
• HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems.
• permanent interior finishes.
• permanent floor coverings.
• millwork and trim.

However, a qualified leasehold improvement does not include any improvement for:

• the enlargement of the building.
• any elevator or escalator.
• any structural component benefiting a common area.
• the internal structural framework of the building.

Stephen Fishman is a tax expert, attorney and author who has published 18 books, including “Working for Yourself: Law & Taxes for Contractors, Freelancers and Consultants,” “Deduct It,” “Working as an Independent Contractor,” and “Working with Independent Contractors.” He welcomes your questions for this weekly column.

Here’s one way to teach people about the perils of overpricing a home: use Hitler.

That’s what Jared Reimer did by using the “Downfall” meme.

Other submissions for yesterday’s #madREskillz that caught our eye: distributing coloring sheets and magnets, adding Captain Obvious captions to listing photos, and designing Game of Thrones graphics.

Scroll down to see more of yesterday’s #madREskillz entries, and be sure to vote on our Facebook page for a winner.

Jared Reimer’s “Downfall” meme on YouTube.

Do you miss Ned Stark? We really, really miss him. 

Underwriting and down payment requirements for second homes are still tight, but the improving economy has fueled demand for vacation homes even if buyers have to pay cash, Investor’s Business Daily reports.

Brokers in vacation destinations from the mid-Atlantic to Lake Tahoe tell Investors.com that second-home sales have picked up in the last year. The National Association of Realtors reports that sales of vacation homes were up 10.1 percent in 2012, to 553,000 homes. Source: investors.com.

The Miami Association of Realtors is partnering with China United Global Real Estate Group, the National Association of Realtors’ representative in China, to generate exposure for the Miami market. Initiatives include television commercials, property expos in Southern China, and property tours in South Florida.

In June, Miami Realtors will host a delegation from GDTV, a television station in China’s Guangdong province, who will spend five days shooting footage that will air to an audience of more than 40 million viewers on GDTV’s Real Estate Channel.

Realtors and developers can pay $1,000 to feature an individual property or $4,000 to showcase an entire development in four spots being aired. Property expos are scheduled for July and early August in Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Xian or Beijing. Source: prweb.com.

A real estate agent says she’s keeping her phone number even after hackers “ported” it and racked up a $586,371 bill, making more than 2,000 calls to international destinations like Somalia, Guinea and Azerbaijan.

St. Peters, Mo.-based agent Melissa Bream says new security measures are now in place, and she’s invested too much promoting her number on the Internet, billboards and business cards to change it, the St. Louis Dispatch reports.

Bream will have to pay only what she usually owes — $337 — but she said it took 60 or 70 calls to get the fraudulent charges off her bill and stop the robocalls from her phone companies demanding that she pay up. Source: stltoday.com.

A revamped version of Google Maps that Google recently introduced at its annual developer-focused tech conference equips the app with several new features that paint more colorful portraits of neighborhoods as well as larger geographic areas.

The revamp, unveiled at Google I/O 2013, switched Google Maps to vectorial maps. That will make zooming more seamless and enhance details.

The new version also features Earth View, a new functionality that offers the ability to view 3-D renderings of cities and other areas by integrating the 3-D experience from Google Earth into Google Maps.

The app’s latest iteration also makes maps more customized. It bakes information that it gleans from one’s Google Plus account into them (think restaurant reviews from friends) and it gives users the option to filter results by categories including cultural landmarks and food areas, Android Geeks reported.

Inman Next contributor Seth Price recently published an informative infographic on Google Analytics.

The infographic contained numerous facts and statistics. Did you know that 55 percent of the top 10,000 websites utilize Google Analytics?

Seth did an excellent job communicating the importance of measuring Web analytics.

“It’s game changing and it’s available to every business that is serious about marketing online,” Price wrote. “By including analytics in your marketing conversation you can start having actionable discussions about content and social media ROI as a real, measurable number, and not some mythical figure that no one knows.”

Google Analytics is a deep platform that can be a little intimidating if you’re just getting started. Dashboards are one of my favorite features that can help keep things simple.

Dashboards are a single page in Google Analytics, which is made up of multiple widgets that display a snapshot of a report. You can have up to 20 dashboards per account and each dashboard can accommodate up to 12 widgets.

I have created a dashboard that I quickly access everyday. The dashboard contains widgets that answer simple questions that are critical to any real estate pro’s business.

For instance, what are the most popular properties on my website? I then add the appropriate metrics and filters to answer the question.

Setting up a dashboard is super easy. As Google explains, “Each profile in your Google Analytics account displays a default dashboard that is prepopulated with a few widgets. You can add new widgets to a dashboard by clicking Add to Dashboard at the top of any report, or by clicking +Add Widget from the dashboard menu.

“You can also customize and remove any widget on a dashboard, including the default widgets that automatically display in your account. Click the gear icon in the top corner of each widget to see these customization options.”

Here are five must-have widgets to build your real estate dashboard:

Please note: Most Realtors utilize some form of a CRM (customer relationship management) tool to track and manage leads. So, I have not included a widget for managing goals in Google Analytics. Also, all of these widgets utilize a table to display the data set.

1: Most popular (viewed) properties:

Step 1: Select “Table” under Standard

Step 2: Display the following columns: Page > Pageviews > Unique Pageviews

Step 3: Show a table with: 10 Rows

Step 4: Sort: descending

Step 5: Filter this data: Only show > Page > Containing > */properties-link/

NOTE: *This entry will be determined by your website structure. For example, “yourdomain.com/properties-link/”

2: Most popular (viewed) agent bios:

Step 1: Select “Table” under Standard

Step 2: Display the following columns: Page > Pageviews > Unique Pageviews

Step 3: Show a table with: 10 Rows

Step 4: Sort: descending

Step 5: Filter this data: Only show > Page > Containing > */agent-roster-link/

NOTE: *This entry will be determined by your website structure. For example, “yourdomain.com/agent-roster-link/”

3: Syndication:

Step 1: Select “Table” under Standard

Step 2: Display the following columns: Source > Visits > Pageviews

Step 3: Show a table with: 10 Rows

Step 4: Sort: descending

Step 5: Filter this data: Only show > Source > Regular Expression > *zillow.com|trulia.com|etc.

NOTE: *Enter the website URL’s that you syndicate to separated by the pipe (vertical bar) character.

 4: Most popular (viewed) blog posts:

Step 1: Select “Table” under Standard

Step 2: Display the following columns: Page > Pageviews > Unique Pageviews

Step 3: Show a table with: 10 Rows

Step 4: Sort: descending

Step 5: Filter this data: Only show > Page > Containing > */blog/

NOTE: *This entry will be determined by your website structure. For example, “yourdomain.com/blog/”

 5: Most popular (viewed) content pages:

Step 1: Select “Table” under Standard

Step 2: Display the following columns: Page > Pageviews > Unique Pageviews

Step 3: Show a table with: 10 Rows

Step 4: Sort: descending

Step 5: Filter this data: Only show > Page > Regular Expression  > */communities/|/contact/|/about/|etc.

NOTE: *Enter the Web page names that you want to measure separated by the pipe (vertical bar) character.

Google analytics is a powerful platform that offers many benefits for real estate professionals. The application is free and empowers you to make sound business decisions.

Being data informed is critical in today’s marketing and technology space.

WASHINGTON — A budget proposal for the National Association of Realtors projects the trade group will run at a loss for the next three years.

The proposal projects the operating budget’s net revenue will total $1.71 million in 2013 but anticipates NAR will have to dip into reserves for between $614,559 and $727,246 each year from 2014 through 2016.

The shortfalls are due to requests for incremental additions to current, not new, programs that “we don’t have the dues dollars to support” but were nonetheless approved by NAR’s finance committee, NAR Comptroller John Pierpoint told attendees at a Thursday forum to discuss the proposed budget at NAR’s Midyear Legislative Meetings and Trade Expo.

One attendee objected that he didn’t want to return home and tell his members that “we’re budgeting for a loss, but hoping for a profit,” and he personally would never run his home or business similarly.

Bill Armstrong, NAR’s treasurer and finance committee chair, agreed. “I don’t want somebody saying I endorse budgeting at a loss because I don’t,” he said.

“But we look at these as an investment. And we have the reserves to make the investment,” he added. “If we spent several hundred thousand dollars, that won’t make much of a difference to us.”

NAR anticipates its program-level net expenses will total $74.5 million this year, rising to $77.1 million in 2014, $78.2 million in 2015, and $79.6 million in 2016.

A sizable chunk of the $2.6 million difference between the 2013 and 2014 budgets will be the addition of more than $900,000 to the trade group’s marketing and business development program in 2014, to $1.9 million.

Pierpoint told Inman News that increase was mainly due to the expiration of a contract with a non-dues revenue partner. He declined to name the partner or give further details about budget increases to other programs, saying that was not public information.

Other divisions expected to see significant budget increases in 2014 are:

• Print and online publications, whose budget would rise by nearly half a million dollars to $5.8 million.
• Executive offices, whose budget would increase by more than $300,000 to $8.8 million.
• Government affairs, whose budget would rise by nearly $300,000 to $9.6 million.
• Commercial and global real estate division, whose budget would rise more than $200,000 to $4.6 million.

The NAR program with by far the biggest budget this year, and for at least the next three years, is NAR subsidiary and national database Realtors Property Resource. RPR’s budget for 2013 was $18.5 million. The budget proposal is requesting the same amount each year for the next three years.

NAR’s non-dues revenue for 2013 is an estimated $32.2 million and expected to remain at around that level for the next three years. The trade group’s biggest source of non-dues revenue are its convention and business meetings, coming in at $8.6 million in 2013. That revenue is expected to remain essentially flat in 2014 before rising to $9.2 million in 2015 and 2016.

NAR’s buildings are expected to provide $6.5 million in non-dues revenue this year, increasing to $7.2 million in 2014 and $7.5 million in 2015 and 2016.

The marketing and business development division will generate an estimated $4.2 million this year with an expected decrease to $3.5 million in subsequent years.

“We’ve been feeling the pinch of the times. Our non-dues revenues are still healthy … but it’s not what it was once,” Pierpoint said.

“Each of the categories is slightly reduced, but again still profitable. That helps pay for the greater majority of the governance (and) structure” of NAR.

The budget proposal estimates NAR membership will remain flat at 1.01 million members in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The budget assumes that the current member dues of $120 per year are maintained.

NAR’s board of directors will vote on the proposed budget at its meeting on Saturday.

Cruising through a dozen or so apps and services demoing at the RealTech SF event in San Francisco a couple weeks ago made me realize how much the real estate startup scene is once again in full swing.

Many of these startups have great ideas, solid engineering and a thirst for growth. But few seem to have a grasp on the greater real estate industry — the ecosystem in which relationships grow, technology connects and politics governs.

As someone who genuinely wishes to see more innovators succeed in real estate, this crib sheet came to mind. Think of it as a primer on the basics.

First, let’s talk data:

RETS

This acronym stands for Real Estate Transaction Standard. The name is somewhat misleading. There is, of course, no “standard” for real estate transactions. RETS is a protocol for delivering data from MLSs to brokers, software developers or other MLSs. It is an attempt to make life easier for brokers and software developers who want to access data from more than one of the nearly 900 MLSs in the country, each of which may have different data fields and naming conventions. A “patio” in New York may be a “lanai” in Hawaii, for example.

RESO

Short for Real Estate Standards Organization, RESO oversees RETS and continues to push for uniform MLS data standards. It is an open community of volunteer real estate businesspeople and tech vendors.

Syndication

Syndication is the name given to the delivery of real estate listings data to websites for marketing purposes. Many brokers choose to syndicate their listings to sites like Zillow, Trulia and many other smaller websites that attract consumers interested in property. This is different from IDX, which is broker-to-broker listings sharing and display (see below).

IDX

Short for Internet Data Exchange, IDX is the name given to the sharing of listings among brokers for the purpose of website display. It is also known as broker reciprocity. IDX is a way for brokers to maximize the exposure of their listings (their listings appear on all other brokerage websites) and enables them to give consumers a complete home search experience on their own websites (they display virtually all the listings in their market, not just their own). IDX is managed market by market by local MLSs.

VOW

A Virtual Office Website aims to extend the relationship a broker would have with a consumer in the offline world online. This means that a broker can show MLS data that goes beyond IDX to consumers via their website provided the consumer registers and accepts the broker’s terms of use. This additional data may include sold properties and sale prices, withdrawn and expired properties, and other status changes and data fields not available outside the VOW context.

RPR

Short for Realtors Property Resource, RPR is a national database of information on every parcel of property in the U.S. It’s a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Association of Realtors, and is intended for Realtor use only. RPR was envisioned by NAR as a means of enhancing the Realtor value proposition, but has been fraught with difficulty since its launch in 2009. (Read more about RPR here.)

MLS alphabet soup

COVE

COVE stands for MLS Cooperative Venture, and is a group of large MLSs that promotes the ability for MLSs to share knowledge and create data standards. They’re a significant player in the whole RETS initiative.

CMLS

The Council of Multiple Listing Services is a group that brings together MLSs in the interest of cooperating and sharing information that will better the MLS industry. They talk about technology, legal and organizational issues faced by MLSs across the country. They also hold a well-attended conference each year.

A legal note

What is RESPA?

This stands for Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. You’ll hear a lot of talk about it in the industry because this law governs affiliate business relationships, which are the lifeblood of most brokerage businesses. Kickbacks are highly scrutinized by regulatory agencies and carry stiff penalties. Today, RESPA is policed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Franchisors, brokerages and industry groups

Realogy

Realogy is the largest real estate company in the world. This publicly traded corporation owns Sotheby’s, Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, ERA, NRT (see below), and large title and relocation businesses. Realogy is both a franchisor and owner/operator of real estate offices.

NRT

NRT stands for “National Realty Trust” and is owned by Realogy. It is the largest residential brokerage company in the U.S., and owns companies that do business under the Coldwell Banker, Coldwell Banker Commercial, ERA, Sotheby’s and Corcoran brand names. These are Realogy’s “company-owned stores” (as opposed to most of their offices, which are franchised).

HomeServices of America

HomeServices is the second-largest brokerage company in the nation. It operates largely through regional or local brands, and has historically positioned itself against national franchises. Edina Realty, Long Realty, and Koenig & Strey are just a few of the local brands owned by HomeServices. HomeServices is a Berkshire Hathaway company. The company launched a franchising arm in 2013 called HSF affiliates (see below).

HSF Affiliates

A franchisor owned by HomeServices of America that franchises the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and Real Living brands. HSF Affiliates is owned by HomeServices of America and Brookfield Residential Properties, a multibillion-dollar Canadian conglomerate (confused yet?).

The Realty Alliance

The Realty Alliance is a network of leading independent (as opposed to franchised) real estate companies throughout North America. They’re worth knowing because their members tend to control a lot of market share. In fact, there are probably fewer real estate transactions that they don’t touch in some way than ones they do.

Leading Real Estate Companies of the World

Leading Real Estate Companies of the World is an international network of more than 500 independent real estate companies. It essentially gives brokerage companies not affiliated with a franchise (e.g., RE/MAX, Century 21) some of the benefits of a franchise. This includes a relocation network (referring people who are moving out of market to another real estate company), a national convention, training and technology.

Realtor.com, Move Inc. and the National Association of Realtors

Move Inc. and realtor.com

Move is the publicly traded parent company of realtor.com and other holdings, including Top Producer, ListHub and TigerLead Solutions. Realtor.com is the national listings site Move operates under an agreement with the National Association of Realtors. It includes listings from more than 800 MLSs across the country and competes with Trulia and Zillow.

Trade media and publications

Real Trends

Real Trends is a publishing and consulting company that produces regular reports and newsletters on industry trends. It is largely focused on brokerage executives and staff and has been a respected voice in the industry for more than 20 years.

RISMedia

RISMedia is a trade publication covering real estate news and marketing. They offer content online and in a print magazine, and produce several industry events. They are perhaps best known for their Power Broker Forum, which brings together industry leaders during NAR’s annual EXPO.

Inman News

Inman is an real estate news service that was founded by Brad Inman, a former journalist and serial entrepreneur. Inman is known for its biannual Real Estate Connect conferences in New York and San Francisco, and for its close eye on upcoming technology in real estate.

Swanepoel Trends Report

This is an annual report tracking emerging trends in real estate, technology and consumer behavior. It is published by author, speaker and entrepreneur Stefan Swanepoel, and is read widely within the industry.

Events

Real Estate Connect

Real Estate Connect is the leading real estate and technology event. It has been in existence for 16 years. It is held twice each year: New York in January and San Francisco in July. It attracts real estate-related tech startups, the established online real estate companies, brokerage and brand executives, and real estate agents.

NAR Expo

This is the largest real estate trade show on the planet. The National Association of Realtors hosts the Expo every year in November, rotating locations. While it’s not a great place to network (think football stadium-sized trade show), the NAR Expo is a nice intro to the people who work in real estate day in and day out, and the vendors that serve them.

NAR Midyear

The NAR Midyear conference takes place in Washington, D.C., in May every year. The event is smaller than the association’s annual expo, but includes a trade show and is a great place to network. This event is also where many important policy meetings take place.

Gathering of Eagles

This is an event produced by Real Trends, usually held in Denver in May, where you’ll find top executives from all the franchise companies, large brokerage companies, and tech vendors. It offers limited sponsorship and exhibiting opportunities.

Final note

The real estate industry is a complex maze of business relationships, data-sharing policies and federal regulations. This list is by no means definitive. If there’s an entity or acronym you feel any entrepreneur new to the industry should not go one more day without knowing, please add it in the comments below.

Jessica Swesey is with 1000watt, a marketing, design and strategy firm focused on real estate. Republished with permission from 1000watt blog.

Realtors saw their incomes jump and also ratcheted up their spending on technology as their optimism increased  in 2012, according to the 2013 member survey from the National Association of Realtors.

With a median income of $43,500 on a median of 12 transactions in 2012, Realtors made about 25 percent more than they did in 2011, according to a 72-question survey of 4,883 Realtors sent out in January.

Despite the $8,600 increase in gross income, Realtors’ take-home pay after taxes and expenses was just $4,200 more than it was in 2011. That still beats 2011, when Realtors saw net income decrease $1,400 from 2010.

Source: 2013 NAR member profile

Realtors are also showing growing optimism about the profession. Eighty percent of respondents indicated that they’re “very certain” they’ll be a real estate professional for the next two years. In 2011, 76 percent had the same take, up from 73 percent in 2010.

Though they made more money in 2012, Realtors also spent more — a median of $4,900 in the year — to operate their businesses, respondents said. That’s up from $4,520 in expenses respondents reported in 2011 and $4,270 in 2010.

Realtors also used technology more in 2012 than they did last year, spending $690 on technology and marketing services in 2012, $60 more than they spent in 2011 and 2010, according to the survey results.

Realtors used email and smartphones more frequently, and more of them had websites in 2012 than previous years. In 2012, 95 percent of the respondents said they used email on a daily basis, up from 93 percent in 2011. And 86 percent said they now use a smartphone nearly everyday, compared with just 78 percent in 2011.

In 2012, 64 percent of respondents said they had a personal website and paid a median of $220 to maintain it. That’s up from 62 percent in 2011, and Realtors also spent $20 more maintaining their websites than last year, but $30 less than in 2010.

A vast majority of Realtors, despite the marketing buzz around the practice, still aren’t blogging, according to the survey results, though the practice did increase from 10 percent of all Realtor respondents in 2011 to 12 percent in 2012.

Not only do the survey results show that the typical Realtor made more money in 2012, but it also revealed that NAR members may be delaying retirement. At 57, the median age of Realtors was up from 56 in 2011 and 52 in 2008.

Realtors were less likely to be women in 2012, although females still made up a healthy majority, according to NAR’s survey. Some 57 percent of Realtors were women, down from 60 percent in 2011.

Realtors were even more likely to be white in 2012 than in 2011 with 87 percent of respondents indicating they were white compared with 86 percent in 2011.

Like 2011, the No. 1 factor hampering completed transactions, 29 percent of the respondents said, had to do with the difficulty their potential clients faced qualifying for a mortgage because of tight lending conditions.

The second-most prevalent factor blocking closed deals in 2012, 25 percent of the respondents said, involved low inventory — clients had trouble finding the right home.  In 2011, only 12 percent of respondents said finding the right house was an issue for clients closing deals.

A much more prevalent issue a year ago — cited by 18 percent of respondents — was buyers who worried that home prices might fall and leave them underwater shortly after purchase. In 2012, only 8 percent of respondents indicated that client fear over falling prices contributed to stalled deals.

In 2012, more than half of all respondents (56 percent) worked for an independent company, down from 59 percent in 2011.

Large firms with 101 or more employees are more likely to be affiliated with a franchisor than not. Last year, 54 percent of large firms had a franchise affiliation, up from 49 percent in 2011 and 46 percent in 2010.

Think you’ve got what it takes to handle a $22.3 billion real estate portfolio? The California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) is looking for a real estate portfolio manager with at least 10 years of real estate investment management experience in acquisitions, asset management, portfolio management or disposition.  Source: jobs.spb.ca.gov.

Fast-growing brokerage and new franchisor Realty One Group Inc. is expanding into San Diego with plans to open three offices in the large Southern California metro.

The 8-year-old firm, based just outside Las Vegas, was the seventh-largest brokerage in the U.S. by transaction sides in 2012 with 22,770, according to the latest rankings from RealTrends.

“San Diego was our next logical step, as we have dominated Orange County,” said Kuba Jewgieniew, CEO and owner of Realty One Group.

Source: Realty One Group