Association News & Events:

• Insurance Survey: Please be on the lookout for an important all member insurance survey being circulated by AAR. Our organization has heard a great deal from our members about the need for affordable, quality insurance options for our members. To meet this need, the Association is exploring different options to offer affordable, quality insurance for health care, general commercial liability, error and omissions, and cyber insurance for our members as optional member benefits. The survey will gauge potential interest in those benefits. To be successful we need the widest participation possible in this important survey.
• Professionalism. A list of courses and professional development opportunities being offered across the state can be found here.
• Code of Ethics. The deadline for every REALTOR® to complete Code of Ethics Training is December 31, 2018. Click here to sign up for the free or paid Code of Ethics training.
• Judicial and Regulatory Monitor: In addition to the Legal Helpdesk, the Association has expanded the monitoring of regulatory activity in state government and legal decisions affecting our members and the real estate industry. Bad legal decisions and regulatory actions can negatively impact our members as much as bad legislation. Please be on the lookout for those reports in each week’s Real Estate Alabama. Past regulatory updates can be found here. The judicial monitoring reports can be found here.
• Legal Helpdesk. Legal Helpdesk use has increased each month since its launch. Most weeks, new articles and information are published in AAR’s weekly e-newsletter, Real Estate Alabama. You can also view previously published articles on the AAR website here.
• Broker/Owner Meeting: AAR hosted Steve Murray of REAL Trends on September 10, 2018 in Birmingham to speak to a gathering of broker/owners from across the state. Murray, president and owner of REAL Trends, facilitated the meeting discussing an array of topics aimed at helping brokers in all areas of their business and increase value in their firms. Murray has been an industry leading consultant for brokerages of all sizes across the country for over 30 years.  Murray gave an update on the state of the industry and shared data and key metrics about current and future brokerage operations and financial performance. The meeting was at max capacity with over 50 broker/owners from all real estate markets across the state in attendance. More information about the event can be found here.
• Alabama Disaster Relief Training: Alabama REALTORS® partnered with the Alabama Emergency Management Agency to offer Community Emergency Response Team Training (CERT) on June 13-14. The event was sold out. The Association may offer this program again in the fall due to overwhelming interest. More information about the program can be found here. If you would like to participate in future offerings, please email Jennifer here. More information about the Disaster Relief Fund can be found here.

Public Policy: The 2018 Public Policy Forum was held on Tuesday, August 21, 2018. The max capacity crowd included over 60 members from across the state. During the forum, REALTORS® discussed issues present in their markets. These ideas and issues will be used to help shape the Association’s Public Policy Statements and Public Policy Agenda for the next quadrennial (four-year) cycle, legislative sessions 2019-2022. Senator Del Marsh, President Pro Tem of the Senate, and Representative Nathaniel Ledbetter, House Majority Leader, provided a 2019 legislative outlook.

2018 Elections and ARPAC:

• State Elections and ARPAC Endorsements: Primary elections for all state constitutional offices, statewide offices, and legislative offices were held on Tuesday, June 5. Primary runoff elections were held on Tuesday, July 17. Overall in the primary election cycle, ARPAC endorsed candidates won 92% of their races (131W/6L). Legislatively, ARPAC-endorsed candidates won 95% of their races (118W/6L). This was a good outcome for these candidates.
• The fall general election is right around the corner on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. A list of ARPAC-endorsed candidates for the general election can be found here.
• ARPAC-Fundraising: ARPAC fundraising and investments are off to another great start this year. As of August 30, 2018, total state fundraising stands at $596,210 or 99% of our annual goal. Great job to all of our boards and ARPAC chairs who have worked so hard on these efforts!

Association Financials and Assets:
 

• Membership: Membership numbers have continued to increase and have surpassed 15,000. As of August 31, 2018, we have 15,771 members.  
• Audited Net Assets. The preliminary 2017 audit report has been completed. At the end of 2017, the general fund had a surplus of $643,776, approximately 6.4 months of operating expenses. In 2017, we had an increase in net assets of approximately $438,375, bringing our total net assets to $6,615,312. Through July 31, 2018, seven months into the year, revenue exceed expenses by approximately $251,000.
• Building. Most of the building and roof repairs have been completed. We have one leak source to address before we can move on to completing repairs on the interior of the building. The final leak locations are isolated to the roof door and threshold areas and the location of a decorative screen wall that will be removed and replaced with more durable water proof materials.

2018: What’s ahead?

AAR Annual Meeting: October 14 (Montgomery, AL)
Alabama NAR Core Standards Deadline: November 1
NAR Annual Convention: November 2-5 (Boston, MA)
Alabama General Election: November 6
ARPAC Deadline: December 12
NAR Code of Ethics Deadline: December 31