D.R. Legal News

Current Issue: September 2010

Home Warranty Payments to Real Estate Brokers
The issue of compensation paid by home warranty companies to real estate brokers and agents has been a topic of discussion since the Office of General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued an unofficial staff interpretation letter on February 21, 2008. On June 18, 2010 an interpretive rule was issued by the HUD Office of General Counsel interpreting Section 8 of RESPA as it relates to payments from HWCs to real estate brokers and agents. The effective date of that interpretive rule was June 25, 2010. Read more >

Update on E-Contracts and E-Signatures
There have been some additional questions raised recently regarding the use of e-real estate contracts and e-signatures in Illinois. The simple answer under Illinois law is that e-real estate contracts and e-signatures are permissible and legal. However, (and this is a significant however) the issue has been and continues to remain how do you prove that the e-signatures are the signatures of those parties indicated and that the e-real estate contract contains exactly the language agreed to by the parties when they signed with an e-signature. Read more >

Illinois Ranks Among Top 5 States for Broker Involvement
Help Illinois rank #1 and, more importantly, be the first to know about legislative issues that affect your real estate business and your agents’ livelihoods by making one simple move. Sign up for the Broker Involvement Program of the National Association of REALTORS® so we can make the REALTOR® voice that much louder and stronger in Congress and at the Illinois State Capitol. It’s free and easy to participate. Read more >

Short Sale Pulse
In the June Illinois Association of REALTORS® Broker Sentiment Survey, we took the pulse of managing brokers related to short sales and their expectations for the Illinois housing market for the second half of the year. Most (58%) report the number of short sales have increased in their offices compared to a year ago. Read more >

Trends and Broker Strategies
We asked Inman News columnist and real estate coach Bernice Ross to share some recent trends she’s observed for brokers. Ross is a featured speaker at the upcoming IAR Convention Sept. 29 – Oct. 1 in St. Charles on the topic of “You Snooze, You Lose: Trends to Take Your Business to the Top in 2011.” Read more >

D.R. Legal News Online Only in 2010
Starting with the March 2010 issue, the former print D.R. Exclusive Newsletter has been renamed D.R. Legal News and will be published online only in a downloadable PDF format that is e-mailed to all IAR members who are the Designated REALTOR® (or D.R.) for their real estate office. Be sure to watch and open all e-mail from “IAR Communications” or the "Illinois Association of REALTORS."

The D.R. Legal News is e-mailed quarterly (March, June, September, December) to the Designated REALTOR® member of the Illinois Association of REALTORS®. For reprint permission, contact iarnews@iar.org.

Breakout Text:

Current Issue:
September 2010
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