Whitman County Association of Realtors

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Legislative Session Ends with Significant REALTOR® Victories

March 14, 2020 By WCAR Webmaster

 

The 2020 Session adjourned “Sine Die” on March 12 bringing a welcome to the biennial session. In Washington, the Legislature conducts “long sessions” in the odd years (105 days) where they adopt a budget and do the heavy lifting of policy work. The “short sessions” in the even years (60 days) are meant to serve as a supplement to the prior year and addressing any changes to the budget, and bills that were not passed the prior session.

Prior to the 2019 session we polled nearly 1,000 of our members to ask what our priorities should be in this two-year process. They clearly told us that we needed to work on real estate taxes and fees, supporting policies that led to new (preferably first-time) homeownership opportunities and helping restart the condominium market. We accomplished many of those objectives in the 2019 session, and added some significant victories in the 2020 session.

“The 2020 Legislative Session built on the successes we achieved in the 2019 session. We put money back in our members pockets, increased housing supply options for the entire state and defeated several bills that would have brought harm to our industry. It was a great session for our members, homeowners and those who want to become homeowners”

-Kitty Wallace, Washington REALTORS® President

 

TAXES & FEES

The 2019 session saw an unusual bill that lowered the Real Estate Excise Tax (REET) on many properties but raised it on high end properties, to include commercial real estate. All property sales under $1.55 Million (at least 90% of all sales in WA) saw a decrease in real estate excise tax. Predictably, we saw a rush in the commercial real estate market to complete deals before the bills effective date of January 1, 2020 that likely pulled some 2020 transactions into 2019 to avoid the increase. In most non-commercial transactions, you are able to tell sellers you helped put more equity back into their pocket.

We were also able to exempt Real Estate brokerage services from the B&O Tax increase applied to most service businesses. The 2019 B&O Increase came back to the legislature this year for clarification, and once again real estate brokerage services were not included in the service businesses that will pay the B&O increase.

Both bills took effect January 1, 2020 and we’re monitoring the impacts across the industry.

HOMEOWNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

The 2019 session saw the Legislature adopt HB 1923 which incentivized cities to adopt ordinances that would allow “missing middle” types of housing to be built. That bill was extraordinarily successful with over 70 local jurisdictions taking advantage of the bill.

The legislature built off of that success and in 2020 extended the deadline for the incentives and also removed population size restrictions. With this change, cities of all sizes can take advantage of these incentives. We know our smaller cities also want to build missing middle housing and now they will have more tools to make that a reality.

The legislature also furthered legislation on encouraging Accessory Dwelling Units in local jurisdictions, moving local comprehensive plan dates to correspond with data from the US Census, and added an extension of popular incentives in the Multi Family Tax Exemption bill.

WHAT DIDN’T PASS

Most sessions are defined by what bills passed, but bills that didn’t pass are just as important. The 2020 session was no exception to this rule we saw numerous bills that would have dramatically impacted Real Estate fall by the wayside. These included a bill that would have required lawyers on both sides of a transaction in any in-house listing, a new independent contractor test that could have taken away REALTORS® independent contractor status, rent control, just cause eviction, a bill that would have made it easier to implement additional real estate excise tax in certain areas, and a head tax on highly paid employees that would have applied to certain real estate businesses and brokers in King County.

The 2019-2020 Sessions are now a wrap. Our members made their priorities clear, and we were able to take steps to meet those priorities. More work remains- especially on first time home owner opportunities. We will continue to listen to our members and work with legislators in an effort to keep moving the industry forward.

SOURCE

Filed Under: Government Affairs, WCAR News & Updates

Why You (and Your Clients) Should be Obsessed with Homesnap

March 13, 2020 By WCAR Webmaster

Homesnap has always been built specifically for agents and brokers, and that’s why we proudly provide it as one of our subscription benefits.

You’ll always find new tools that help agents and brokers work more efficiently and effectively. And you won’t find advertisements from other agents on your listings or an iBuyer program that competes with you for business.

But one of the most impressive things about Homesnap is how it can transform the way you work with your clients. Homesnap’s industry-leading client collaboration tools empower you to work better with clients while creating a safe haven so you can protect your client relationships.

Below, we break down these tools to help you understand why so many agents and their clients are obsessed with the Homesnap app.

Homesnap Is Better For Your Clients

Is there anything worse than hearing your clients have fallen in love with a home, and then having to tell them the property has been off the market for a week? You don’t need to worry about outdated listings inside Homesnap.

That’s because Homesnap doesn’t run off public record data, which could be weeks old before it gets refreshed. Our real-time data feed directly powers Homesnap so your clients can browse homes that are actually on the market. They see the same listings that you’d see if you logged into our portal (or Homesnap Pro!).

This direct integration with our data feed powers both Homesnap (for your clients) and Homesnap Pro (for you). It completely transforms their home search experience, so they don’t see all the outdated information that is prevalent in other third-party search portals.

You can still save searches for your clients and keep track of the latest market updates that way, but since your clients have the freedom to browse accurate listing details on their own, you can also empower them to take their home search into their own hands.

After your clients connect with you inside of Homesnap (more later on exactly how to do this), you’ll be alerted immediately whenever they snap or favorite a listing. You can instantly pull up confidential listing data and browse associated listing docs to get the full picture of the property before you discuss it with your clients.

You can also access your clients’ full list of favorites and snaps inside your Homesnap Pro account, so you can review the properties they’re interested in at any time on your phone, tablet, or desktop.

Another feature that agents and consumers love to use is Homesnap’s in-app messaging, which allows you to share new listings and have a conversation with your clients in a single message thread instead of fragmenting your communication through texts and emails.

Plus, any conversations you have about a particular listing will also appear under “Related Conversations” on the actual property listing for easy reference in the future (only you and your clients will see these comments).

Better For You

Homesnap Pro is the one place where you can centralize all your digital communication and access the most up-to-date listing data — but it also protects your client relationships and is free of third-party advertisements.

When your connected clients browse listings, the only agent they will see inside the app is you. Homesnap directs all their questions and comments to you as well.

Homesnap proudly follows Fair Display Guidelines, meaning search results aren’t given preferential ranking, listings are free of third-party agent advertising, and leads are sent to the listing agent for free. Their motto is (and always has been) “your listing, your lead.”

Best of all: Every feature of Homesnap Pro and Homesnap that we mentioned is FREE to both you and your clients as a subscription benefit.

How to Bring Your Clients Into Homesnap

We’ve made the process of bringing your clients into Homesnap really simple. To make a new client connection, just send out an invitation through the app. Once your clients accept it, they will be connected to you. You’ll enjoy one-to-one branding inside Homesnap and have the ability to start using the client collaboration tools we mentioned above.

You’re only two taps away from inviting clients on your desktop computer or mobile device. Here’s exactly how to do it:

ON A DESKTOP COMPUTER:

1. When you’re logged into your Homesnap Pro account, go to the Pro Agents tab and select Invite Clients.

2. A pop-up will allow you to invite clients by typing in their email address or by sharing your profile link. When you post your link to social media, anyone can connect with you through your public-facing Homesnap profile, just like on Facebook or LinkedIn.

ON A MOBILE DEVICE:

1. When you’re logged into your Homesnap Pro account, go to the Pro Agents tab and tap Manage Clients & Contacts.

2. To send a new invitation, select the headshot silhouette that has a “+” next to it. Then, you’ll see options to invite clients by typing in their email address or phone number, select people from your contact book, or share your profile link to social media (just like Facebook or LinkedIn, anyone can connect with you through your public-facing Homesnap profile).

Voila! Follow up with your clients to make sure they saw the invite and accepted it, and you’re ready to take advantage of the incredible client collaboration tools in Homesnap.

Filed Under: WCAR News & Updates

A More Secure and Accessible Onboarding Process

March 6, 2020 By WCAR Webmaster

There’s never been a better time for human resources departments to go digital. Implementing technology to automate employee processes, from recruiting to learning and development, enables HR leaders to spend less time on manual processes and more time thinking strategically about the future of their organization. 

But HR transformation is still a work in progress, especially when it comes to onboarding. Outdated systems and software negatively impact the new hire experience, resulting in unnecessary delays and endless rounds of paperwork. In fact, Glassdoor reports that only 12% of workers are fully satisfied with the employer’s onboarding process. The main culprit? The dreaded I-9 form, which requires HR staff to copy a new hire’s ID, file and store it securely, and then return it to the employee. This process can take hours, if not days, to complete. 

But I-9 forms exist for a reason. They ensure employees are who they say they are and, by law, are eligible to work in the U.S. 

Still, that doesn’t mean completing them should be a hassle. Digitizing the process can help HR departments comply with necessary hiring regulations while prioritizing the employee experience. 

A Platform That Puts Security First 

From their social security numbers to banking information, employees provide sensitive data to an employer when they begin a new job. It’s HR’s responsibility to make sure this information is stored and protected. As a result, many organizations are reluctant to go digital because they are afraid data might be compromised due to growing cybersecurity threats. These anxieties are not unreasonable—Cisco reported that 53% of mid-market companies have experienced a security breach. 

However, a secure ID verification platform like DocSign Identify can alleviate these concerns by offering a diverse range of authentication methods to verify and store a new employee’s information. HR departments can leverage this technology to scan a new hire’s government-issued ID and cross-check the name on the email they provided to the name on their ID, maintaining compliance through security verification protocols. (Of the list of documents I-9 requires, the ID Verification product currently supports passports and driver’s licenses.) DocuSign even goes so far as analyzing specific ID features, including security markings and watermarks, to ensure its validity. 

A Trusted Storage Option 

Once an employee’s identification is confirmed, many HR departments prefer to save a copy of the ID so they can access it at a later date. In a recent DocuSign survey, 74% of respondents who said their company has a need to verify the validity of ID documents also stated the need to store these documents. With ID Verification and its newest feature, ID Evidence, all sensitive employee I-9 information, including photos, can be stored safely and securely in the cloud. That means HR managers can find it all in one place, as opposed to relying on haphazard filing systems.

DocuSign integrates with more than 350 systems, including Greenhouse, SAP, Workday and Oracle, allowing HR to streamline and store employee documents in their existing HR systems —and making it easy for organizations already using the DocuSign Agreement Cloud to implement. 

By making these small changes, organizations can move beyond manual tasks and introduce a secure and manageable approach to onboarding, resulting in more strategic HR teams—and happier employees. 

SOURCE

Filed Under: WCAR News & Updates

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