The Arkansas Realtors® Association released its January housing market report today showing that sales compared to the same month a year ago are down.

In January, 1,095 homes were sold by Realtors® through multiple listings services in Arkansas — down 1.26 percent from 1,109 sales in the same month a year ago. The average sales price in January was $139,220, up 2.61 percent from $135,680 a year ago, while the total value of reported sales was $152.45 million — up 1.31 percent from $150.47 million in January 2009.

To download the latest report, click here for the Excel file and here for the PDF. A copy of the above graphic is located here.

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The following article is by Tim Grooms, a partner at Quattlebaum, Grooms, Tull & Burrow in Little Rock and general counsel for the Arkansas Realtors® Association.

I. Introduction

There have been several decisions handed down from the Arkansas Supreme Court in recent years which, along with the Arkansas laws and Real Estate Commission Regulations, every real estate professional in the State of Arkansas should become familiar. Thus, the purpose of this article is to briefly discuss these Supreme Court decisions.

The first two decisions which will be discussed deal with the subject of the real estate professional and the unauthorized practice of law. The third decision was handed down by the Supreme Court on June 30, 1986, and relates to the much publicized concern relating to the practical and legal problems which can confront the real estate professional when faced with multiple loyalties to the buyer and seller in the average real estate transaction.

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“Not everyone blogs, you know?”

That’s what one Realtor® in this state said when that individual was told that the latest news from the Arkansas Realtors® Association could be found on this very blog.

It’s come to our attention, then, that the term “blog” is perhaps a bit too buzzwordy — too geeky. Somewhat undesirable. To that end, we are promoting this blog as the Arkansas Realtors® Association News site.

David Hudson, our intrepid technology cat, even wrote a redirect to access the site without referring to blogs or any of that stuff  — ArkansasRealtors.com/news.

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Choosing the right name for your small real estate business can have a huge impact on its success.

But what about your business phone number? Does it really matter what number you have, as long as it’s printed correctly on your business cards, product literature, Web site, emails and other materials? Actually, it does. The phone number you use can have a direct impact on your real estate business, good or bad.

That’s something you need to keep in mind as you consider which phone service to use for your real estate business, since it could impact the type of phone number you can obtain. Here’s a guide to help you select the best option.

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Here’s a scenario that ought to look familiar to anyone following housing markets in Arkansas — there are more houses for sale today than there were a week ago and average list prices have declined.

The only exceptions to that rule are the markets in the Fort Smith/Van Buren and Jonesboro areas. In Fort Smith/Van Buren, list prices were up a bit. In Jonesboro, inventory — the number of homes for sale — declined slightly.

To download this week’s report from the Arkansas Realtors Association (ARA), click here for the Excel version and here for the PDF. Click here for the PDF version of the above graphic.

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It’s Monday and that means we’ve got another update from Roby Brock over at TalkBusiness.net.

If you’d like to see what’s going on in the wild world of Arkansas business, just click here to download the latest Monday Morning Briefing from TalkBusiness.net.

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Bill Williamson – after spending 32 years at the Arkansas Real Estate Commission (AREC) – retired from his position as executive director at the end of February.

He was succeeded by Gary Isom, who started at the AREC as an investigator in 1987 and became deputy executive director in 1996 after Williamson recruited him for that position.

Isom said he learned a lot from Williamson over the years and we at the Arkansas Realtors Association (ARA) can’t help but think the AREC is in good hands. Isom said he’s passionate about protecting the public and, to that end, hopes to expand educational opportunities for real estate licensees.

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An analysis of Oregon Department of Revenue v. Marks, Or. Tax (2009)

Internal Revenue Code Section 1031(a)(1) provides that “[n]o gain or loss shall be recognized on the exchange of property held for productive use in a trade or business or for investment if such property is exchanges solely for property of like-kind to be held either for use in a trade or business or for investment.”

The requirement that both the property relinquished in a tax deferred exchange and the replacement property received be held for use in a trade or business or for investment, often referred to as the “holding requirement,” has been the subject of significant litigation between the IRS, state tax authorities and taxpayers over the years.

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Mere moments ago, the Arkansas Realtors® Association sent out its regular blog digest to subscribers.

Click here to have a look at the latest digest so you can see for yourself just how nifty it is.

If you haven’t yet subscribed to the blog digest, why not take a few seconds and do just that? To get your own subscription, look for the light blue subscription form over there in the right sidebar and fill it out. Once you’re signed up, you’ll receive a digest by email every two weeks.

Subscriptions are free and digests contain links to the latest articles posted here at The Arkansas Realtor®. And, no, we don’t do anything with your email address but use it on our subscription list — there’s no need to worry about your address winding up in the hands of a spammer out to send you a bunch of junk email you don’t want.

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Bill Williamson stepped down as executive director of the Arkansas Real Estate Commission (AREC) at the first of March and has been succeeded by his former deputy, Gary Isom.

“We’ve worked well together,” Isom said of Williamson. “Bill’s been a good teacher.”

Isom said he started at the AREC as an investigator in 1987 and was named assistant deputy executive director in 1991. In 1996, he said Williamson recruited him for the position of deputy executive director and endorsed him for executive director.

Isom said he was offered the executive director position at the end of January and he accepted it, pending the state of Arkansas signing off on the promotion. Out of consideration to Williamson, Isom said he declined announcing his new job until March 1.

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Just like clockwork, Warren Darden over in Heber Springs has put together his monthly Cleburne County Realtor® Education Newsletter.

Fortunately, he’s sent a copy to the Arkansas Realtors® Association (ARA) so we can share his latest newsletter with you. Want a copy? Just click here to download it and you’re all set.

As usual, Darden has done a great job in putting together a newsletter that’s full of information for both Realtors® and consumers.

What’s in this edition of the newsletter? An article about a proposal from the National Association of Realtors® to turn Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into non-profit entities, a piece about lower mortgage insurance rates for people with good credit, some advice about how to responsibly manage credit cards and, well, just a lot of great information. So download the newsletter get educated.

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Yes, the Arkansas Realtors® Association usually distributes these reports every Monday, but there were some unavoidable delays that kept us from posting the weekly average/median list prices and inventories report until today.

That said, click here to download the Excel version of the report and here for the PDF. A copy of the above graphic is located here.

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Roby Brock over at Talk Business does a heck of a good job covering business news here in the Natural State.

He emails a Monday Morning Briefing every week to the Arkansas Realtors® Association and it’s about time we started posting those so our readers can enjoy them. To have a look at today’s Monday Morning Briefing, click here. Continue reading

A string of letters behind a Realtor’s name might resemble alphabet soup, but it actually shows that agent has decided to specialize.

Let’s say, for example, a Realtor hands you a business card identifying him as “Skipper Benton, ABR, CRS, GRI.” What Skipper is trying to tell you is that he has earned the Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR) designation, is a Certified Residential Specialist (CRS), and holds the Graduate Realtor Institute (GRI) designation.

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It seems that a few companies have started sending over some information of interest to Realtors® as well as home buyers and sellers.

We at the Arkansas Realtors® Association are glad of that as we can pass such items on to our legions of blog-happy readers. The latest great piece of information was sent in by Bob Downum over at Weichert, Realtors® – Downum Group and it lists out the tax benefits of owning a home.

Just click here to take a look at that report.

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