CRMLS announced that Matrix Subscribers will gain access to data from Terminus Sistema Global, Mexico's leading MLS.  Starting on October 2nd, 2019, CRMLS Matrix users may access data from Mexico's Leading MLS via a reciprocal link in the Matrix Links page. Licensed agents in San Diego, with their Broker's permission may now join PSAR and gain access to Matrix regardless of what association they belong to.  Existing PSAR members may either change from Paragon to Matrix for no additional cost, or PSAR Paragon MLS subscribers can add Matrix as a second MLS for only $6 per month . The tool is new, but the number of listings is growing each day.

Here is how PSAR's CRMLS Matrix users can gain access to Mexican listings. Use the "Links" menu option in Matrix.

NOW Real estate professionals on both sides of the border will have more access to listing data than ever, along with a greater capacity to share their listing information with their peers.

This "Links" menu item will provide access to a page that looks like this.

You are in!  The Terminus interface is powered by the familiar MLS system called Matrix.  

According the press release, CRMLS CEO Art Carter stated "Some people worry that a data sharing agreement means that someone will come 'over the hill' and start selling your listings," said Carter. "Remember, only professionals licensed to sell real estate in California can do so. This agreement is about viewing data, growing connections, and making referrals. It does not suddenly give Mexico agents California real estate licenses or vice versa."

Click here to read the full CRMLS press release for additional details. Check with your Broker and attorney to ensure you are following all applicable laws.

Back in March of 2019 Terminus Sistema Global and the State Board of Real Estate for Baja California (CEPIBC) announce their partnership for the deployment of the MLS for their members. By partnering with Terminus Sistema Global, CEPIBC has been able to introduce the concept of an MLS to their 10 regional associations which include AMPI Mexicali,  API Mexicali,  AMPI Tijuana,  API Tijuana, ASAI Tijuana, AMPI Rosarito, API Rosarito, AMPI Ensenada, API Ensenada and AMPI San Felipe.

The Pacific Southwest Association of REALTORS® (PSAR) and the North San Diego County Association of REALTORS® (NSDCAR), two real estate trade associations for San Diego-area REALTORS®, are proud to jointly announce the availability of a new Local Area Disclosures (LAD) publication covering San Diego County.

This new LAD publication will help REALTOR® members give consumers a deeper understanding of the properties in San Diego County communities where they are purchasing. It contains vital information relating to all local communities in the San Diego region. The new LAD is the latest member benefit and is demonstrating a dedication and commitment to address the local needs of REALTOR® members.

NSDCAR and PSAR leading brokers and legal counsel worked together to create this new version that will provide REALTORS® with a disclosure document that focuses on items that may concern their clients and that are especially, and in many cases, unique to San Diego County.

For consumers, this new LAD will provide important information on all pertinent issues relating to a property they are interested in. It also will help buyers not rely solely on information received from sellers and agents.

“It was a very rewarding, collaborative experience working with our REALTORS® on this LAD project,” said Rich D’Ascoli, CEO, PSAR. “Our team members developed close bonds with a sense of expertise and camaraderie on this project, all with the goal of empowering our members to succeed.”

“Brokers want to provide their clients with accurate and current information,” said Tommy Thompson, CEO, NSDCAR. “Real estate dealings come with potential legal risk. So, disclosure of information is key to our jobs of informing buyers about the exact condition of a property before they agree to purchase it. Keeping tabs on legal concerns in day-to-day dealings help our members safeguard their reputations, businesses and careers.”

Disclosures are one of the most important areas in today’s real estate industry. Full disclosure provides parties with the information needed to properly negotiate price and assess the property’s suitability for their needs.

All sellers are required to disclose certain information and material facts, including information on the property including known hazards and defects that could have an effect on a buyer’s decision to enter into the deal.

In addition, all REALTORS® are required to have a thorough knowledge of California real estate disclosure laws. A real estate professional has a fiduciary duty to disclosure any information that might impact the value of a sale. It is always in your best interest to disclosure all known and suspected hazards. If information is withheld, the buyer or seller may be entitled to damages.

The new LAD publication is presented in easy-to-read format with chapter sections with such titles as “General Disclosures,” “Environmental Disclosures,” “Traffic, Roads and Transportation Disclosures” and “Air Traffic and Airport Disclosures.” Another section called “Specific Area Disclosures” includes specific information on particular communities in San Diego County, including coastal and desert areas, as well as North County, East County, South County, City of San Diego areas.

Topics for the sections include the following:

-- General Disclosures: County of San Diego General Plan Update, Homeowner Associations, High Wind and Flooding areas, Prison and Jails, Attractions and Amusement Parks, Casinos, Historic Districts, Short-term Rental Restrictions, Parking Restrictions, Soil Conditions, Gas Pipelines, Proposition 65.

-- Environmental Disclosures: Hazardous Materials, Coastal Cliffs, Electrical and Magnetic Fields, Flooding Valleys, Landfills, Lead-based Paint, Nuclear Materials, Agricultural Lands, Toxic Mold Advisory.

-- Traffic, Roads and Transportation: Major Freeways, Mass Transit, Buses.

-- Air Traffic and Airport Disclosures: Aircraft Noise, Airport Sites and Runway Expansion, Military Airfield Restrictions.

A variety of topics are mentioned on the pages about specific San Diego County communities, including information about off-road vehicles activity, nearby farms and agricultural odors, equestrian areas, sewage plants, groundwater seepage, landslide incidents, military ordinances in canyons, quarry noise and facilities for homeless and transients.

The new LAD publication will be available to members on the PSAR and NSDCAR websites.

About PSAR
The Pacific Southwest Association of REALTORS® (PSAR), a 3,100-member trade group for San Diego-area REALTORS®, offers CRMLS multiple listing services, educational training, advocacy and other 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. PSAR offices are located in Clairemont, Chula Vista, and El Cajon. PSAR Service Centers provide Sentrilock, Supra, retail store, MLS training and REALTOR® education, networking and much more. For more information, visit www.PSAR.org.  

About NSDCAR
The North San Diego County Association of REALTORS® (NSDCAR), a 7,000-member trade group for San Diego-area REALTORS®, offers San Diego County REALTORS® access to the California Regional MLS (CRMLS) service, along with educational training, advocacy and other services and resources. NSDCAR is the largest trade association in San Diego’s North County Region. Service centers are located in Vista, Carmel Valley, Carlsbad, Escondido, Fallbrook and Kearny Mesa. NSDCAR was founded in 1994 when several small boards of REALTORS® joined forces to better serve REALTORS® and real estate consumers in the rapidly growing areas of North San Diego County. For more information on NSDCAR, visit www.NSDCAR.com.

Imperial Beach Code Enforcement is reminding San Diego County Realtors who are placing signs in the public right of way is against state law in all municipalities that don't have an exception.  California PENAL CODE SECTION 556-556.4 states: 

It is a misdemeanor for any person to place or maintain, or cause to be placed or maintained without lawful permission upon any property of the State, or of a city or of a county, any sign, picture, transparency, advertisement, or mechanical device which is used for the purpose of advertising or which advertises or brings to notice any person, article of merchandise, business or profession, or anything that is to be or has been sold, bartered, or given away.

The public right of way is "Real property or an interest in real property offered to and accepted by the City for public use."  Sidewalks are part of the public right-of-way.  While a couple of cities have limited specific exceptions to this rule, these exceptions usually involve city permits and payment.  Agents who place signs on sidewalks are likely violating state and local laws.

Imperial Beach will be fining agents $100 per sign when they place these signs on sidewalks.  

Here is a link to a letter from the IB Assistant Fire Marshal who is in charge of this.

Update and Q&A with Department of Real Estate District Manager Veronica Kilpatrick

Plus

Risk Management recap from recent C.A.R. Meetings will cover new and recurring legal claims to be aware of and the hottest C.A.R. Legal Hotline questions.

This meeting is open to REALTOR BROKERS ONLY AND THEIR OFFICE MANAGERS

Date: Thursday, October 3, 2019

Time: 1 PM to 2:30 PM

Location:  4330 Genesee Ave, #203, San Diego, CA 92117. 

Access to the Clairemont Facility is on the 2nd Floor in the rear of the building. The best parking is also in the rear of the building. As you go up the stairs the office is on the right.

Open to all Realtor Brokers from any association. Working together to reduce liability is important to Brokers Across the County.  

Save the Dates for 2020 Broker Meetings on:

• Thursday, February 13th, 2020, 1 PM to 2:30 PM, El Cajon Office
• Thursday, May 28, 2020, 1 PM to 2:30 PM, Chula Vista Office
• Thursday, October 22, 2020, 1 PM to 2:30 PM, Clairemont Office

REALTORS®, please check your email for a RedAlert from C.A.R. Government Affairs. We’re OPPOSING AB1482, a bill that creates restrictive rent caps and “just cause” evictions, because it discourages the creation of rental housing. Fewer housing units will result in higher rent. #AB1482, #caleg, @CAREALTORS

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact DeAnn Kerr for more information at deannk@car.org.

Tuesday, July 30th was a sad day, as our wonderful Realtor friend Patty Davis passed away on that day. Her health began to seriously decline about three months ago from congestive heart failure. We thought you would like to know a little about Patty, as she was one of PSAR’s more illustrious members.

Patty Davis was born on Oct 1, 1950 in Louisville, KY. She grew up on a dairy farm, milking cows before and after school. Patty graduated from Ursuline Academy, received the US Army Walter Reed Nursing Scholarship and attended the University of Louisville, where she met her husband (now divorced) Rod Davis, a naval officer. They married and were transferred to San Diego in 1969, later moved to Guam, to Oakland, eventually returning to San Diego, where they settled in the Chula Vista area. They have two sons, Rod, born in 1970 and Eric, born in 1974. Patty has two grandsons she is very proud of, Justin Daniel and Cameron Eric.

In 1979, Patty started her real estate career, as a successful sales agent and property manager. In 1986, Patty became involved with the Association of Realtors’ Government Affairs Committee, which sparked her interest in local politics, private property rights, as well as leadership within the real estate community. She traveled to Sacramento and Washington DC to lobby the politicians on real estate issues. In 1992, Patty served as president of the South San Diego Bay Cities Board of Realtors now known as the Pacific Southwest Association of REALTORS® . During her year as president, she led our association through the construction of our current office building on Canarios Court, quite a step-up from the tiny space at 588 L Street. Patty was soon designated as a Director for the state level California Association of Realtors and at the national level for the National Association of Realtors. She represented local Realtors as Federal Political Coordinators. This distinguished position allowed our local voices to be heard in the halls of Congress.

In local politics, Patty served as a rent control mediator for the mobile home parks in Chula Vista, served on Chula Vista’s Economic Development Commission and on Chula Vista’s Planning Commission. In 1998 she was elected to the Chula Vista City Council, even serving some time as deputy mayor. In 1999, Patty co-founded “Christmas in October” with Dr. Emerald Randolph. Every year this program fixes up houses of low-income homeowners in Chula Vista. Patty was the democratic nominee for California’s State Assembly in 2004, running against an incumbent, and missed winning by only 500 votes.

At the time of her death, Patty was chairing the Cultural Arts and Design Review Committee for the Port District’s Chula Vista Bayfront. She has continued to co-chair “Christmas in October” every year for Chula Vista.

Patty was known throughout our community for her fairness, her positive attitude and her willingness to help people. She will be missed, but her battle is over; she can now rest.
Services will be held as follows:

DATE: Friday, Aug 16th
TIME: 10:00am
PLACE: St Pius Catholic Church
ADDRESS: 1120 Cuyamaca Ave, Chula Vista, CA
RECEPTION: Immediately following the service in the church hall.

Have you checked out Matrix? Most PSAR members use Paragon which is the product we have had for many years. It works great and we will support it for years to come. If you are looking to leverage the MLS to do more robust and targeted searches and you want to update listings on the go, Matrix may have some tools and benefits that fit your needs.

San Diego Agents who sell out of area have been joining PSAR and signing up for Matrix since PSAR aligned with CRMLS last fall. There is a strong case for agents selling inside San Diego to use Matrix. Some technologically savvy brokers have moved their entire offices to the platform for it's deep search capabilities, mobile friendliness and its rich listing data inside and outside of San Diego County.

PSAR offers choices. We have both the full version of Matrix and the full version of Paragon through CRMLS. Our Matrix offering is not a "hot link" in the MLS. In fact for just $6.50 per month our members can add Matrix as a second MLS and use both Matrix and Paragon. During the past two weeks there have been some big announcements for our Matrix users.

Last week CRMLS sent out an update to our Matrix users. List Price and Public/Private Remarks are now editable in the CRMLS App.

Today Corelogix which owns Matrix and Homesnap announced that they will join forces to integrate the platforms. The press release isn't specific about what this integration will look like, but we realize that many agents would love to see Homesnap Pro pull more MLS data and potentially incorporate an add/edit feature into the popular Homesnap Pro application.

CRMLS is well positioned as a platform that encourages competing vendors to innovate and create the very best technology for PSAR's MLS subscribers. These tools are here to empower Realtors.

              

We just received word from the National Association of REALTORS. Without Congressional action, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) will expire at midnight on Friday, December 21, 2018. NAR is making every effort to secure a long-term reauthorization of NFIP.

An NFIP extension is attached to the Continuing Resolution to fund the part of the federal government at risk of closing. The White House and Congress are continuing to negotiate over funding for border security. Congressional leaders are aware that flood insurance is caught up in this debate and considering all options, including passing an NFIP extension on a standalone basis.

The situation is fluid, to read more about the current situation see the update here.

San Diego County Department of public works provides information about NFIP and links to other county information here.

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) provides up to $350,000 of flood insurance coverage where required for a federally backed mortgage in 22,000 communities nationwide. It also provides an alternative to taxpayer-funded disaster assistance, which averages $5,500 per household but more often means an SBA loan that must repaid with any underlying mortgage. While there is a growing market for private flood insurance, for many, the NFIP continues to be the primary source of asset protection against flooding, the most common and costly natural disaster in the United States.

Here is a primer from the Brookings Institute about flood insurance, why it is important, and why the government is in the business of backing it.