A proposed business license tax reform could your brokerage would pay thousands of dollars more per year than if you were operating one mile away in either San Diego or Chula Vista. 

Here's the math: a broker with $1,000,000 in gross commissions pays $34 in San Diego. Under National City's proposal, that same broker pays $3,000. At $3,000,000 in commissions, San Diego's tax tops out at around $125. Your National City tax liability would reach $9,000.

Same work. Same clients. What a difference a zip code would make!

They Put Real Estate in the Highest Tax Tier

National City's draft tax structure stipulates a charge for General and Retail businesses of 0.10%. Real estate brokers, agents, and property managers, categorized in the "Professional and Property Rental" tier, would pay 0.30%, or, for example, three times the rate of the auto dealers that the National City publicly celebrates as its commercial backbone.

PSAR has formally requested an explanation of the tax policy rationale from the City Council. At the time of publishing this blog, there has been no response. 

The Numbers They Showed the Council Were Wrong

City staff stated to the Council that "other cities have gone higher," but only compared National City's lowest retail rate to other jurisdictions.  They did not benchmark the 0.30% professional rate that your broker business would pay.

The staff presentation also labeled the City's total gross receipts from tax revenue as "$4,842" instead of the correct $4.842 billion amount. The other fantasy assumption of the financial model is that no businesses will relocate in response to these increases.

Real estate is one of the most portable businesses that exists. A 25-to-250 times rate differential is a crystal-clear financial incentive to every impacted National City-based broker to relocate their office address outside the City line.

They're Taxing Money You Never Kept

A gross receipts tax hits your top-line revenue, not your profit. In a typical brokerage, 70% to 90% of every commission goes directly to the agent who earned it. The balance received by the broker is consumed by E&O insurance, MLS fees, association dues, franchise fees, and office overhead.

National City already lets general contractors exclude subcontractor payments from gross receipts. Agent splits are structured in the same way. National City, by not applying the same option to real estate practitioners, means brokers are taxed on income they never receive.

This Will End Up in Court

California law prohibits cities from taxing business activity that happens outside their borders without proper apportionment. At a $20 flat fee, it was never worth it for any broker filing a lawsuit. At a 0.30% of gross receipts, the stakes have been raised.

What PSAR Is Doing

On June 16th, PSAR Government Affairs Director George Ching and GA South Vice Chair Randi Castle appeared at the National City Council meeting and clearly stated the association's position. We've formally asked the City to pause, align its real estate-impated tax structure with neighboring San Diego and Chula Vista, and avoid potential, costly litigation.

What You Can Do

This measure is not yet finalized. If you work in or near National City, your voice matters. Watch for PSAR's advocacy alerts for specific action steps, including opportunities to submit public comment and/or attend upcoming council meetings.

Your Government Affairs team is working hard on your behalf and will update you as events unfold.

Imagine downloading a free smartphone app, checking a few boxes, and saving $36,000 while an artificial intelligence chatbot sells your house for you.

It sounds like science fiction, but technology reporter Stuart A. Thompson seemed to do exactly that for a recent feature in The New York Times (I Tried to Sell My House With a Chatbot). He used Google's Gemini chatbot as a 24/7 real estate consultant. The AI wrote his property description, structured his photo gallery, and literally coached him word-for-word through tricky price negotiations with buyers.

By copy-pasting the AI's clever text responses back and forth to buyers, Thompson avoided paying traditional commissions and walked away with a massive profit. He concluded that AI can now mimic human "wisdom" so well that human real estate agents will soon become a luxury of the past, just like travel agents.

It’s a tempting story. But it is a complete illusion.

Thompson’s experiment only worked because his chatbot was "free-riding" inside a safe, multi-billion-dollar ecosystem built, paid for, and policed by human REALTORS®. If tech-hype breaks this human cooperative apart, the housing market will collapse into a chaotic, scam-filled environment like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.  To experience marketplaces like this, shop for real estate in the thousands of markets around the world.  Simply get online and attempt to purchase a property south of the border in Mexico and experience the fragmented market firsthand.  AI won’t help you there.

AI can write a clever script, but it completely fails when it comes to local data accuracy, emotional intelligence, physical safety, and legal accountability.

1. AI Has Zero Data Without REALTOR® Organizations

AI chatbots do not actually know anything about your neighborhood's current housing market; they only know the data they are trained on. Advanced algorithms get their real estate information by scraping the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).

The MLS isn’t just an open digital bulletin board. It is a massive, highly regulated cooperative managed by strict human rules that force professionals to input honest data and immediate timeline updates.

• The Glitch in the Data: For Sale By Owner (FSBO) data uploaded by random internet users is notoriously messy, exaggerated, and unverified. Without human REALTORS® policing the listings, AI models will eventually train themselves on wrong prices, fake listings, and outdated information.

• Garbage In, Garbage Out: If every consumer simply types whatever they want into the market, the automated tools people use to estimate home values will become completely broken and unreliable.

2. Physical Security vs. Automated Vulnerability

Selling a house means letting total strangers walk through your physical home and look through your personal belongings. Thompson's AI chatbot was great at arranging pixels on a screen, but a chatbot cannot stand guard at your front door.

• The REALTOR® Shield: Human REALTORS® utilize secure, electronic lockbox systems. These lockboxes do not just open with a random text code; they are strictly restricted to state-licensed professionals whose identities have been verified and background-checked. Every single entry is digitally limited, tracked, and timed.

• The AI Blindspot: If the market shifts to a pure consumer-to-consumer model run by AI, physical safety vanishes. Homeowners would be forced to text digital door codes to unvetted internet strangers or open the doors themselves—exposing their properties and families to theft, vandalism, and physical danger that an algorithm cannot stop.

3. The Human Solution: Emotional Intelligence and Local Instincts

Selling a home is one of the most stressful, emotional, and financial events in a human being's life. Thompson himself admitted in his article that when early buyers rejected his home, his mood crashed, and he yearned for real human empathy that the AI's "wooden" responses simply could not provide.

• The REALTOR® Value: A REALTOR® doesn't just fill out paperwork. They act as an emotional buffer against severe stress. They bring a career's worth of hyper-local human instincts to your specific neighborhood. They know which local streets flood, which buyers are bluffing, and how to read the tense body language of a buyer during a live walkthrough.

• Managing the Chaos: A REALTOR® absorbs the frantic noise of endless phone calls, text messages, and sudden cancellations so that the seller can live their normal life instead of being glued to a smartphone screen for days.

4. The Danger of "Confident" AI Hallucinations

A massive problem with AI chatbots is that they suffer from "hallucinations"—meaning they state incorrect, illegal advice with absolute confidence. Thompson experienced this danger firsthand when his chatbot explicitly told him to put an illegal 0% commission rate on his public MLS listing. If an independent, human-managed listing company hadn't manually reviewed his file and caught the AI's illegal mistake, Thompson would have faced severe financial fines.

REALTORS® are state-licensed fiduciaries. This means they are legally bound to protect your absolute best financial and legal interests.

• Real Accountability: If a licensed human REALTOR® lies about a property, breaks a housing law, or cheats a client, they face devastating lawsuits, massive fines, and the permanent loss of their career.

• No One to Sue: A chatbot cannot be held legally responsible in a court of law. Furthermore, an anonymous internet buyer faces zero professional consequences for walking away from a contract at the last second. Relying strictly on AI drastically increases a consumer's risk of falling victim to wire fraud, deed scams, and predatory contracts that can instantly wipe out a family's life savings.

Conclusion: You Need the System, Not Just the Algorithm

Thompson’s AI experiment only succeeded because his chatbot was playing inside a safe, stable sandbox protected by the exact human real estate rules he was trying to avoid. His AI negotiation tactics only worked because the secure infrastructure of the MLS brought him legally verified buyers who were guided by licensed professionals.

AI is a fantastic tool for brainstorming text, but an algorithm cannot police human behavior, comfort a crying seller, or keep your physical property safe.

REALTORS® are not travel agents. A travel agent just books a seat on an airplane; a REALTOR® helps maintain the entire air traffic control tower. If you replace the control tower with an unmonitored AI chatbot, the whole market crashes.

Don't wait, the SentriGuard exchange discount will be ending July 1st, 2026

PSAR's CRMLS subscribers can exchange registered old Gen 1 and Gen 2 lockboxes for a new SentriGuard Lockbox at a discounted price of $129 + tax with the exchange of an old lockbox.  This price will end on July 1st, 2026

This is to encourage members not to dispose of old boxes in the trash but to drop them off at PSAR.

With the sunsetting of Sentrikey cards by Sentrilock, these features are no longer available on the non-Bluetooth lockboxes:

• Non-Bluetooth lockboxes should not be bought or sold, as ownership cannot be transferred

• If one of these boxes has been inactive/not accessed for over a year and needs an internal clock reset, that action cannot be performed, which means the box will no longer function.

On July 1st, 2026 the new SentriGuard Lockbox will go back to $159 + Tax.

For more information, contact PSAR at support@psar.org, call: (619) 421-7811, or visit one of our offices.

The Pacific Southwest Association of REALTORS® Board of Directors respectfully announces the Slate of candidates for 2027/2028 as follows: 

President-Elect
Jamie Kurtz

Secretary / Treasurer
Michael Dullea

Directors (5 Seats Available)

Mike Anderson
Gia Blanco 
Sam Calvano
Martha Duraiswamy 
Peggy Elliot 
Rebecca Pollack-Rude

Affiliate Director
Michelle Hickin

___________________________________________

Electronic Voting via email ballot begins Friday, June 19th. Keep an eye out for the email in your inbox (check other folders as well).

PSAR endorses the 'No on Measure A'” Campaign in the City of San Diego.

PSAR announces that the following candidates have earned its endorsement for the June 2nd primary elections. At PSAR, our mission is to champion homeownership and protect private property rights across our communities, and the actions of our local governments have an undeniable impact on both. When asked to consider candidates for endorsement, our association conducts a thorough, non-partisan evaluation to identify the candidates who can best fight for our industry.

These endorsements are focused on the issues that impact our industry. We believe these individuals are the best equipped to further the causes that keep our market strong and protect the clients we serve.

The Pacific Southwest Association of REALTORS® (PSAR), a 4,000-member trade group for San Diego-area REALTORS®, offers educational training, advocacy, and other services and resources to its REALTOR® members. Founded in 1928, PSAR has played a significant role in shaping the history, growth, and development of greater San Diego County. The Association maintains a leadership role in the industry, empowering REALTORS® by leveraging our collective strength so they may serve homebuyers and sellers and the greater community.

FOLLOW THE ELECTION RESULTS

Stanley John Jasek II was born in San Diego, California, to Stanley and Agnes Jasek and grew up in Chula Vista. He attended St. Rose of Lima Catholic School and graduated from Hilltop High School, Class of 1964.

After high school, Stan proudly joined the United States Marine Corps. He later earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Aviation Management, which led to a successful aviation career and allowed him to travel throughout the world. He worked with Pacific Southwest Airlines, U.S. Air, and Sun Country Airlines.

Stan faithfully served his community through the Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors (PSAR) as Board of Directors, the Chula Vista Redevelopment Advisory Committee, and the Fleet Reserve Association Branch 61, where he held many leadership roles over the years.

In 1995, Stan earned his Real Estate License and became a manager and partner in property management with Golden 1 Real Estate Services Inc., owned by Beth Antiporda. He also served as transaction coordinator for Beth’s real estate sales until his retirement in 2011 at the age of 65.

Stan married the love of his life, Cathy, in 1966, and together they shared 59 years of marriage. He is survived by his loving wife Cathy, daughters Monica and Jennifer, five grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter.

Stan enjoyed traveling, gardening, woodworking, home improvement projects, and hosting karaoke gatherings for family and friends. He will always be remembered as a kind, supportive, and caring friend who has touched many lives.

Personally, Stan was not only a colleague but also a dear friend, a great supporter, and a genuinely good person. We complemented one another well, and he will truly be missed.
He was a man of integrity, honesty, dignity, and trustworthiness who always upheld strong business ethics and professionalism.

His family’s warmth and kindness during my visit with my assistant, Lily, shortly after his 79th birthday on December 29, 2025, will always be remembered with gratitude.

During his final months in hospice care, Stan shared that during his Last Rites with the priest, he saw lights - a moment that brought him peace and comfort. 'Eternal rest grant unto Stanley Jasek, O Lord, and let Your perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul be received into Your loving presence and be at peace with You forever.'

A Funeral Mass will be held at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church on May 26 at 10:00 a.m. Interment at Miramar National Cemetery on Friday, May 29th, at 11:30 a.m.

 As Stan would remind us - “God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy.”

PSAR is aware that a fraudulent email was sent on May 15, 2026, impersonating PSAR President Claudia Zaker. The email referenced PSAR Treasurer Michael Dullea and asked the recipient to make an urgent payment to a vendor via Zelle, Venmo, or PayPal, promising reimbursement later.

This email did not come from Claudia, Michael, or anyone at PSAR. It was sent from a spoofed address with no affiliation to our association. As far as we know, no one was defrauded.

If you received this email, delete it immediately and do not respond or send any funds. If you already sent money, contact your bank right away and report it to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

This Is a Common Scam - Here Is What to Watch For

Scammers spoof real names and titles to create urgency around financial requests. Watch for these red flags:

• The sender's actual email address does not match who they claim to be
• Urgent requests for money transfers or peer-to-peer payments (Zelle, Venmo, PayPal)
• Requests to keep the transaction confidential
• Pressure to act before you can verify with the person directly
• Unusual phrasing or tone from someone you know

PSAR will never ask members to transfer personal funds on our behalf. When in doubt, call us directly using a number you already have - not one provided in the email.

For more information on email fraud, visit the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.

 This is a FREE online course (typically $49) that you take at your own pace.
The course is available 24/7. 

Cybercriminals are targeting real estate transactions through fake emails, AI impostors, wire fraud, and title theft. 

The Cybercrime & Transaction Fraud Certification (CTF) program gives you practical tools and knowledge to spot scams, prevent fraud, and protect your clients throughout the transaction process.

The CTF Certification Includes:

• BEC & Wire Fraud: Spot infiltrated emails and fake wire instructions to protect your transactions from identity deception.
• Deepfakes & AI Imposters: Recognize emerging threats like voice cloning and synthetic identities.
• Rental & Listing Scams: Identify how fraudsters hijack listings and trick renters into paying deposits for properties they don't own.
• Mobile Device Scams: Secure your on-the-go business against phishing texts, malicious apps, and SIM-swapping attacks.
• House Stealing & Title Fraud: Defend against deed theft and property identity fraud by learning how criminals quietly transfer titles.

Completing the CTF Certification will equip you to confidently assure clients that you’re protecting their interests in every deal. Because, in real estate, trust is everything. 

Claim Your Free Certification

The solution is free. Follow these steps to get started:

1. Log In: Ensure your C.A.R. Member Account is set up!
2. Add to Cart: Select the Cybercrime & Transaction Fraud Certification.
3. Apply Code: Use promo code FREECERT at checkout.
4. Start Learning: Follow the email instructions to log in at www.onlineed.com.

*Only one promo code can be used during a transaction. You will have up to ONE year from the date registered to access and complete the course.

 Laurie MacDonald is a true champion of community and a pillar of the La Mesa area. For over 14 years, Laurie has dedicated her heart, time, and leadership to the La Mesa Parks & Recreation Department, where she served as President for three years and held various additional service roles for another two years. Her steady presence, thoughtful guidance, and consistent commitment have helped shape programs and initiatives that reflect the needs and values of local residents.

During her tenure, Laurie contributed more than 500 volunteer hours and was instrumental in raising and donating over $25,000 for local programs. Her efforts have directly benefited families and youth throughout La Mesa, ensuring vibrant public spaces and accessible community initiatives. Beyond Parks & Rec, Laurie continues her legacy of service alongside her daughter in the Mother-Daughter East County Sprites Group, contributing  30+ hours to local charities.

Laurie was instrumental in securing sponsors and became a founding member of the La Mesa Community Garden.  Her passion for strengthening community connections continues to leave a lasting,
positive footprint across East County.

 Learn more about the PSAR Good Neighbor Award and submit nominations HERE 

Ryan Caron is a dedicated supporter of the AWS1 James Buriak Foundation, an all-volunteer organization that stands as a beacon of hope for the Navy and Marine Corps Aviation community.

This foundation provides a vital lifeline by offering comprehensive pre-mishap education and immediate, hands-on post-mishap support for service members and their families. Ryan’s involvement stems from a deep-seated respect for those who serve, and he has made it his mission to ensure the foundation has the resources it needs to act swiftly when tragedy strikes. His advocacy goes beyond simple awareness; it is a commitment to ensuring that the men and women of our military aviation units are never left to navigate their most difficult moments alone.

Ryan’s commitment to the military families was on full display during the foundation’s 5K Run in October 2025. His leadership during this initiative was instrumental in securing the funding required to provide critical services, ranging from emergency childcare and immediate financial relief to long-term planning assistance for families facing the sudden loss or injury of a loved one. Ryan’s work ensures that the AWS1 James Buriak Foundation can continue to offer its essential resources, providing stability, relief, and a sense of community to families in their hour of greatest need. 

Learn more about the PSAR Good Neighbor Award and submit nominations HERE