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WESTWORDS DECEMBER 2020

I AM

I AM CHARLES BARRETT I AM OBJECTIVE I AM SINCERE I AM DEVOTED I AM HONEST I AM PRECISE I AM WEST USA

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING "I worked with Charles Barrett when I was buying my first home 2 years ago, and again this year when I decided to sell it and move across the country. When I first bought my new home, I knew nothing about the real estate industry or the home buying process. Not only did he teach me so much so that I could be my own advocate, he went to bat for me in every situation a REALTOR® should, getting me the best deal and the quickest resolution to each step of the process. We ran into plenty of speed bumps with how crazy the market is due to COVID-19, But Charles and his team still kept the process moving and communicated with me every step of the way. Ultimately I came out with a huge profit thanks to Charles!!! All in all, if I ever come back to Arizona or have a friend who plans to, I know exactly who I'm sending them to! Charles and Team Minik Are the absolute best in the valley!" "This is the second time that me and my husband are using Charles as our REALTOR®. For the first time, we lived in Pennsylvania and bought our home in Glendale, Arizona sight unseen. Obviously, having the right REALTOR® for the job was imperative. Charles walked us through house after house (with his iPad!) until we found our dream home. We happily reside there five years later. Now, we're in the process of buying a rental property and working with Charles once again. He is extremely responsive, organized, and patient. While all attributes are probably necessary to being a quality agent, I find the latter the most valuable. Like most people, buying a home is incredibly stressful for me, and Charles has helped me find my calm many a time in tense situations. I am thankful for him and look forward to working with him again in the future." "Charles Barrett is the absolute best REALTOR® in the valley in our opinion... he was extremely professional, very patient and extremely helpful throughout the entire process and after. He showed us many houses on the market we liked before he found us a great Goodyear community to build in. Charles really made it very painless (got us a great mortgage broker too!) and ensured the builder did what they said they were going to throughout the process. Charles Barrett is a REALTOR® Rock Star!"

G O L B R E BROK SMALL ISSUE? OR VERY LARGE ISSUE? Many times, the annoying issue of a real estate transaction is the closing, as stated on lines 32 and 33, which is POSSESSION and receiving the keys—to operate all locks, MAILBOX, security system/alarms and all common area facilities that must be given to the buyers (NEW OWNERS) REMEMBER: AT THAT MOMENT, THE HOUSE MUST BE VACANT to allow possession to happen. (This is number 30 of the Critical Date List) Do you, the agent, take time to explain all of this, perfectly clear, to the clients when they sign the contract? Many times no, because it does not happen as it should. But then again, maybe you do, but the clients just don’t get it!

So now then PRE and POST Possession sometimes rears their ugly heads. This brings forth many contrived and invented forms that different real estate firms use. Actually AAR will not even address these issues with forms that their members can use. The lawyers want the agents to stay away from these issues but they do it anyway. And Lenders underwriters do not want a rental to happen and if they know about it, may take another look at the loan which slows down the process and the lock on the anticipated loan expires, creating another issue.

And, of course, the Final Walk Thru mentions on lines 303-4 that the seller must have ALL OF THE UTILITIES on, for this to be done. BUT, perhaps Years ago, almost all agents wrote that this does not go well and work is not done which Possession would be close of escrow plus 2 or 3 days. Of course, that always brought up the issue will bring on a CURE notice to get it done. Now that the owners were not being paid rent and that everyone’s plans have gone awry and the skill at keeping cool heads is a factor which may employ had to be worked out. So it came to be, when I was on the 2000 contract committee I headed up the Brokers to help out. So, read and understand the effort for what you see in the contract today! every little word in these contracts and remember that the seemingly small issues could become a This turns it all into what is right and absolute! very large issue!!!! QUESTIONS, CONTACT: Managing Broker, Bob Stephens 602-942-4200

THE NAR CODE A NEW STANDARD OF PRACTICE BY DUANE FOUTS, DESIGNATED BROKER During the social unrest throughout the nation in late spring and summer of 2020, NAR received an unprecedented number of complaints about REALTORS® posting discriminatory speech and conduct online, especially on social media. The hate rhetoric, discriminatory language, practices, and actions by some REALTORS® on social media and other avenues not only reflected poorly on REALTORS® members, but also led to concerns about Fair Housing violations. Local and state associations experienced a similar influx of these complaints. The Atlanta Association of REALTORS® wrote to NAR President Vince Malta requesting that NAR consider the Code of Ethics’ applicability to this type of speech and conduct. As a result of this request, the NAR Professional Standards Committee (Our own Marge Lindsey is a member of this committee) met and agreed to address the applicability of the Code of Ethics to the discriminatory speech and conduct. From that meeting and the recommendations of the Interpretations and Procedures Advisory Board, the NAR Professional Standards Committee forwarded to the NAR Board of Directors six recommendations for approval that address conduct and speech that is discriminatory and abhorrent. These changes took effect immediately upon the NAR Board of Directors approval on November 13, 2020. Although there were six different recommendations approved, the one that you should understand is the new Standard of Practice 10-5 which reads as follows: Standard of Practice 10-5 REALTORS® must not use harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

Rationale: This proposed Standard of Practice directly flows from the requirement to not deny equal professional services or be parties to a plan to discriminate. Specifically, bias against protected classes revealed through the public posting of hate speech could result in REALTORS® not taking clients from certain protected classes or not treating them equally, which would lead to violations of the Fair Housing Act due to overt discrimination or disparate impact. As I have monitored the discussions of these changes over the past several months, I have noticed one common theme from REALTORS® that disagree with the changes, and that is…. I should be able to say whatever I want online, including on my personal social media profile. This policy is a violation of my First Amendment rights. The fact is the First Amendment provides that neither the United States Congress nor any state may abridge the freedom of speech of American citizens. With some exceptions, the First Amendment does not prohibit a private organization from restricting the speech of its members. NAR is a private association that is not exercising any governmental function. As such, the First Amendment does not preclude NAR from imposing this ethical duty as a condition of membership. A REALTOR® pledges to abide by the Code of Ethics, which must be followed in all their activities, and cannot be abandoned. Put simply, when a licensee becomes a REALTOR®, they are a REALTOR® 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If a REALTOR® engages in discriminatory speech or conduct, that reflects negatively of on all REALTORS® and now that conduct would be a violation of the Code of Ethic If you have questions, please check out the NAR FAQ’s.

REVIEW YOUR GOALS

AND PROGRESS

BY ERIC GALLAGHER, DIRECTOR OF COACHING Your Excel Business Plan represents a variety of things. It defines the expectations of performance that you initially set as well as how to achieve the end result. Within the Plan you have set an annual income goal. You have set the listing and selling criteria that equates to the transactions resulting in the income goal. And, via the back-end calculations, established the number of leads necessary to accomplish closed units resulting in your chosen income goal. Now comes the work of acquiring the seller and buyer leads. Because not every lead turns into a closing, you have a bit of work ahead of you. Your Business Building Goals/Activities worksheet (see your coaching manual) allows you to track all the potential activities that lead you to acquiring your leads. On a daily, weekly and monthly basis you are accounting for all your prospecting activity. This is an important task because it demonstrates what you have not been doing as much as what you have. From one perspective, great prospecting is counted in the number of rejected phone calls, not the successful ones. If your goal was to simply allocate the time and make 15 calls a day, you could achieve your daily goal and still result in zero appointments set. However, if your goal was to call until you achieved 15 rejections

and on one of the calls an appointment was set, then you are forced to get on the phone again and continue calling. You could potentially end a prospecting session with far more success than simply counting your calls, successful or not. It is a kind of reverse psychology that keeps you moving forward. The following goal criteria must be committed to as the necessary work determined by your Excel Business Plan. • I prospect _____ days per week. • I contact _____ prospects per week. • I have _____ listing/buyer presentations per week. • I make _____ appointments per month. • I acquire _____ listings per month. • I acquire _____ buyer per month. Now hold yourself accountable and deliver the results to your coach on a weekly basis, whether you have a planned meeting or not. Then deliver it to your significant-other and demonstrate that you are proactively working to build a real estate business. I say this because accountability is what keeps the train on the tracks.

TODD MENARDâ€™S

REAL ESTATE MARKET STATS

DAWN MARIE RAPAPORT If you would like to nominate an agent that is doing great things in the community or making a difference, please fill out the nomination form on the Mywestusa.com website under the downloads tab and the Cares button.

Our Agent in Action for December 2020 is Dawn Marie Rapaport out of the Arrowhead office. She served on the West USA Cares board in 2015-2016. Dawn recently won the Community Outreach Award that is given out annually by the Arizona Association of Realtors. She won because of the amazing things she does running her charity, H.E.L.P., which stands for Homeless Engagement Lift Partnership. The organization serves the homeless and displaced children in the valley. They are registered for aide to 19 schools and provide approximately 15,000 bags of food a month to families in need. When COVID-19 hit and schools shut down, they created a program called Helping hungry Families. This program provides weekly groceries delivered by volunteerâ€™s valley wide. Starting November 15th, the organization will be running a campaign called Adopt A Family, where you can help a family this Holiday season. Congratulations Dawn Marie and Thank you for everything you do in the communities!!

If you would to help or get more information, please visit http://www.helpingthehomelessnow.org/ or email them at info@helpingthehomelessnow.org

EMPLOYEE

MONTH OF THE

SANDRA BALCOM

Call Center/Receptionist

Congratulations to Sandra Balcom West USA Realtyâ€™s December Employee of the Month! Sandra is a member of our Corporate Staff and you can usually find her in the call center answering phones. In her short time with West USA, she has helped in many different areas. She always has a smile on her face and is always ready to jump in when needed! We are thrilled to have her as part of our family!

M O N DAY

T U E S DAY Prostart Training Session 3 9:00am - 4:00pm / Zoom

W E D N E S DAY FREE REMOTE CE CLASS Duties to Clients and Customers 3Hrs Commissioner Standards 9:00am - 12:00pm / Zoom Kierland Office Meeting 10:00am - 11:30am / Zoom

Creating Real Estate Wealth

w/ Michael Douville

T H U R S DAY

Ahwatukee Office Meeting 10:00am - 11:00am / Zoom

DECEMBER 2020 F R I DAY

Revamp Your Social Media for 2021 w/Keith Flynn 10:00am - 11:30am / Webinar Chandler Office Award Ceremony 11:00am - 12:00pm / Zoom

10:00am - 10:30am / Webinar

West USA Weekly Webinar 9:00am - 10:00am / Webinar

Creating Real Estate Wealth

w/ Michael Douville

10:00am - 10:30am / Webinar

West USA Agent Orientation 10:30am - 12:00pm / Webinar

West USA Weekly Webinar 9:00am - 10:00am / Webinar

Facebook Basics for Real Estate Professionals w/Keith Flynn 10:00am - 11:30am / Webinar

Goodyear Office Meeting 10:00am - 11:00am / Zoom

Don’t Do Dat w/Broker Bob Stephens 2:00pm - 2:30pm / Webinar

GRI - Risk Management (14 CE Hours) 8:30am - 4:30pm / Zoom

FREE REMOTE CE CLASS The NAR Code and the AZ Law 3Hrs Real Estate Legal Issues 9:00am - 12:00pm / Zoom

GRI - Risk Management (14 CE Hours) 8:30am - 4:30pm / Zoom

Creating Real Estate Wealth

FREE REMOTE CE CLASS Agency and Industry Related Issues 3Hrs Agency Law 9:00am - 12:00pm / Zoom

Meet Your Coaches and Mentors 11:00am - 12:00pm / Zoom

w/ Michael Douville

Don’t Do Dat w/Broker Bob Stephens 1:00pm - 1:30pm / Webinar

10:00am - 10:30am / Webinar

Creating Real Estate Wealth

w/ Michael Douville

10:00am - 10:30am / Webinar

FREE REMOTE CE CLASS Mastering the Residential Purchase Contract - 3Hrs Contract Law 9:00am - 12:45pm / Zoom

OFFICE HOURS TBD Christmas Eve

31 New Year’s Eve

Creating Real Estate Wealth

w/ Michael Douville

Christmas Day

JANUARY 2021

New Year’s Day

10:00am - 10:30am / Webinar

• CE- Continuing Education Renewal Training • Luxury Division Event

• Commercial Division Event • Office Meetings