Speaking of Real Estate

REALTOR® University launched its Master of Real Estate (MRE) progarm last year and more than 40 students are enrolled now, making it one of the largest real estate graduate programs in the United States. It’s an online-only program, so real estate professionals can attend classes without having to travel or take time out of their work day. Since its launch, RU has been making video testimonials available from students so others can get a sense of what the coursework is like.

In the school’s two most recent testimonials, Mary Martinez-Garcia and Kate Stockert, both of whom are concentrating in real estate association management as NAR employees, share their thoughts on the program.

Mary Martinez-Garcia

Mary is halfway through the program and she says the program is rigorous and has taken her out of her comfort zone in many ways, but she’s gotten a much deeper and broader understanding of real estate than she had before, and has learned some skills that she’s already been able to put to use in her work.

Kate Stockert

Kate is in her eighth class and is finding that the courses, although grounded in theory, have practical applications that she uses in her work. She talks about the skills she’s learned that have helped her implement an association program of a type that she hadn’t implemented before, illustrating the practical applications of what she’s learning.

Previous REALTOR® University coverage.

Recent court cases are giving REALTORS® reason to be optimistic in their efforts to curb the unauthorized use of their MLS data.

Photo: James Thompson (Creative Commons)

Two weeks ago the Key West Association of REALTORS® scored a major victory when a U.S. district court judge in Florida levied a $2.7 million fine against a businessman named Robert Allen, whose KeyWestMLS.com and other websites were found to be using the association’s listing data in violation of copyright laws. The large fine is attention-getting, and that was the point, according to the judge, Justice Lawrence King, in his May 22 decision.

“Awarding a lesser amount of damages would not serve the purpose of the Copyright Act in deterrence of further wrongful conduct by Defendant,” the judge wrote. “Absent the maximum statutory award of damages, future potential infringers of Plaintiff’s MLS copyrights will only see the potential benefit of high commissions from ill-gotten leads. As such, the maximum statutory damage amount is necessitated to deter the future conduct of Defendant Allen and others.”

Similar cases are pending in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. It’s not clear when the judges will issue rulings on them but in a positive development last week, a judge has dealt a setback to the defendant that’s the subject of both cases.

The company is American Home Realty Network (AHRN) and it was sued last year by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. (MRIS) for using its MLS listing data without authorization on its website, NeighborCity.com, and then by the St. Paul, Minnesota-based Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota Inc. (NorthstarMLS) on similar grounds.

After the cases were filed, AHRN tried to turn the tables on the two MLSs by filing a counterclaim in each case alleging that the MLSs violated antitrust and other laws in an effort to drive the company out of business. In the Maryland case AHRN also named NAR as a defendant in its counterclaim, asserting that NAR participated in the alleged conspiracy to discourage participation with AHRN.

There were seven counts in AHRN’s counterclaim, and last week in the Maryland case the Court dismissed all of them, although it left the door open for the company to amend three of its those counts and resubmit them for further consideration. The company has until the end of next week to do so, but even if it does it faces a steep hurdle based on some of the language the judge used in his June 10 order. “In light of the deficiencies identified herein,” Justice Alexander Williams, Jr., said, “ the Court has serious reservations about AHRN’s ability to set forth a cognizable [unfair competition] claim against” the MLSs.

It remains to be seen what will ultimately happen with the MLSs’ cases against the company for copyright infringement, but the positive outcomes of this ruling is an encouraging development for MLSs as they try to maintain control of where their listing data is displayed on the Internet.

For the last several years NAR has been making tens of thousands of dollars a year available to state and local associations for smart growth initiatives and so far more than $1 milion has been given away to 265 associations. That dollar amount is noteworthy but what’s interesting about the program is what the associations are using the money for.

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The Michigan Association of REALTORS® has an extremely innovative program that has to do with “placemaking,” a term that refers to ways to make communities more fun to be out and about in. At the moment, the Michigan program is limited to a pilot effort in Lansing, but it’s bursting with ideas that can be applied anywhere. Among other things, the program uses $20,000 in NAR funds to help pay for a farmer’s market, live music performances in an underused urban park, and the refurbishing of a once-downtrodden neighborhood to attract private investment as part of an effort to turn the area into a mixed-use destination.

The Greater Nashville Association of REALTORS® is using $10,000 to help fund a citizens’ transit council, which is intended to make residents more knowledgeable about land-use issues and get them to think more broadly about how land use relates to quality of life.

And in Memphis, the association is using an NAR grant on a “Complete Streets” initiative, which is a strategy for retrofitting streets so they’re safe and attractive to all users, not just drivers.

All of these projects in some way relate to smart growth, a term that means different things to different people. What smart growth really boils down to is simply making communities nice places to live even as population densities increase. These and other grant projects are as varied as can be, and yet they’re aiming for the same thing: creating a pleasant place for people as they’re out and about in their community.

As we know, community quality of life is one of the underwriters of property markets and home values, so there’s a concrete return on investment as commercial and residential real estate markets respond to improved conditions. Of course, it’s hardly the only answer to improved markets. Nothing is that simple. But it’s one of the pieces to the economic puzzle, and it could be a starting point for maintaining the livability of your community as population densities increase.

To help you become more familiar with the smart growth grants, we produced a 4-minute video, which is posted above . It looks at some success stories and then invites you to learn more on the smart growth section of REALTOR.org.

A number of news articles during the thick of the housing bust and even some today suggest that younger households have been spooked out of buying a home because of market uncertainties.

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“The younger you are, the more freaked out you are likely to be by the housing market crash,” says Micael Derby in an October 2011 Wall Street Journal blog post called “Next Generation Less Confident About Home Ownership.”

“You can . . . conclude that young peoples’ aversion to home owning is an overreaction to a unique recession,” says Derek Thompson in “The End of Ownership: Why Aren’t More Young People Buying More Houses?” in the February 2012 issue of The Atlantic.

This line of thinking has a compelling logic to it but a researcher at Washington State University says it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. He conducted an analysis of U.S. Census population figures and also of data from the America Community Survey, which is an affiliated Census research project, and found young households actually have higher homeownership rates than baby boomers and Gen Xers when they were at a comparable stage in their lives.

He also conducted a survey of young people in real estate classes at his university, a group that’s predisposed to be interested in real estate, and says this group’s intention to buy property grew over the course of a semester even though the downturn was examined during the period.

Glenn Crellin is the author of the study and he’s no newcomer to real estate. He’s the associate director of the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies at Washington State University and a former economist at NAR. He published his paper in the inaugural issue of the Journal of the Center for Real Estate Studies, published by REALTOR® University’s Center for Real Estate Studies.

In the 3-minute video above, Crellin talks about his findings to REALTOR Magazine.

Problems getting action on short sales aren’t in the news as much as they were a few years ago but they remain a stumbling block to business and efforts to speed up processing are still needed. Fannie Mae is hoping some changes it launched this week will help it continue a process it started earlier this year to make it easier for you to at least get action on your short sale offers.

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Under these changes, Fannie is asking you to submit your short sale offer to it at the same time that you submit it to the company that’s servicing the mortgage. By submitting your offer to the two companies simultaneously, you enable Fannie, if it’s the investor on the mortgage, to start taking some of the steps needed to get the application processed. These steps include ordering an appraisal and broker price opinion and reaching out to the servicer to help keep the processing on track. Also, if the servicer needs Fannie to review the application as the investor, Fannie can start doing that without delay.

Beyond these process changes, the company has added pages of information on its website for the listing agent to help remove much of the guesswork from the process. What are acceptable closing costs? What sellers are eligible for a short sale? What steps are needed to get a recommended list price? And so on.

These steps come on top of changes the company rolled out a few months ago that were centered on the company’s online submission and escalation processes. That escalation process was intended to give you a direct line to the company if you weren’t getting answers from the mortgage servicer.

The changes apply to Fannie Mae loans, and that’s a pretty big part of the market, so if they result in quicker processing, they could have a material impact on the short sale market as whole.

To help you learn more about these and Fannie’s previous short-sale changes, Heather Elias, NAR’s director of social business practice, sat down with Jane Severn of Fannie Mae for a 4-minute video interview. You can access that above. Severn is with Fannie Mae’s credit loss management division.

By Katie Johnson

You’ve got options if a licensing agent demands a fee for scanning and e-mailing documents.

If your brokerage has been contacted by a company to pay a license for the right to scan a document to e-mail, you’re not alone. Real estate offices around the country have received letters from companies called AllLed, AdzPro, GanPan, and HeaPle, among others, claiming to have the exclusive right to send documents via e-mail from a multifunction copier machine, and demanding that you pay a licensing fee of $900 to $1,200 per employee before you can send a document.

Katie Johnson

Behind these demands is a company called MPHJ Technology Investments Inc., which owns several patents on the process of scanning or copying a document and sending it via e-mail from the same machine.

MPHJ is known as a nonpracticing entity, or patent troll, because it doesn’t produce anything; it merely asserts its rights to exclude others from using its patents. MPHJ has created about forty shell companies, usually with six-letter LLC names, to assert its patent rights.

Escalating Threats

It’s been widely reported that this patent troll has been targeting small and mid-sized businesses in a variety of industries in its effort to generate license fees by sending three standard demand letters through its shell companies. The initial letter is on company letterhead and requests a license fee. If that goes unanswered, a second letter is sent from a Texas law firm called Farney Daniels P.C. seeking a response and threatening legal action. If the second letter is ignored, a third letter is sent from the same firm and it contains a draft complaint that the firm threatens to file if a license agreement is not reached.

There is no evidence that MPHJ knows of any infringement before sending these letters. If you receive a letter, you should discuss your options with your legal counsel. Among the options to consider is:

• Ignore the letter. We’re not aware of any case that has actually been filed against an alleged infringer.
• Respond with a request for specifics. Ask why your equipment or software infringes the patents.
• Deny in writing that there is any infringement.
• Pay the license fee.
• Challenge the patent’s validity. After all, the patented process of scanning a document and sending it via e-mail from the same machine is a common, widely accepted practice. To submit a challenge, you can file a declaratory judgment action against the patent troll in which you seek a ruling by a judge on the patents’ validity. One company in Louisiana is trying to do this right now with a lawsuit it filed in federal court in April.

However, a more effective approach might be to file what’s known as an inter partes review with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, asking it to invalidate the patents. The manufacturers of the machines that make this patented process possible have taken a great interest in MPHJ’s efforts because it is their customers who are being asked to pay the fee. So, Xerox, Ricoh, and Hewlett Packard have recently filed inter partes reviews.

In addition to these attempts to invalidate the patents, Vermont’s attorney general has recently filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against MPHJ, alleging the patent owner’s aggressive licensing campaign amounts to unfair and deceptive acts. Unfortunately, it could be a long time before there is an outcome to any of these legal proceedings. In the meantime, you’re encouraged to consult with your legal counsel and consider your options if this patent troll finds you.

Learn more in a 6-minute audio podcast presented by NAR Legal Affairs.

Katie Johnson is NAR associate counsel. She can be reached at kjohnson@realtors.org.

For years the availability of federally backed flood insurance was an on-off affair. The program was $18 billion in debt to the U.S. Treasury, largely because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and Congress would only renew the program for short periods of time because it wanted to delay long-term reauthorization until top-to-bottom program reforms were included. The result was uncertainty in the marketplace to an extreme level, with no fewer than 17 last-minute program reauthorizations in just a few years and two actual shut-downs. Not a good situation in areas where flood insurance is required to get a loan and the National Flood insurance Program (NFIP) is the only insurer in town.

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Congress finally enacted long-term reauthorization last year and as part of that included long-sought reforms to help improve the actuarial soundness of the program.

What these long-sought changes mean, though, is a gradual phase-out of insurance subsidies that go to a small percentage of property owners.

The phase-out of subsidies is part of the package of reforms that are intended to make the flood insurance program more financially sound. For years, a small portion of property owners have been paying far below the actuarial cost of their policies because of previous legislation. In some cases, the premium subsidies were for properties that were in areas in which outdated flood maps had been grandfathered in. In other cases, the subsidies were for properties that pre-date the drawing of their area flood maps. These are referred to as pre-FIRM properties ( with “FIRM” standing for “flood insurance rate map”).

In all, there are several classes of property that have had their flood insurance premiums subsidized over the years, and now, starting this year, their subsidies will start to phase out gradually. That means that some owners will face rising insurance premiums over the next few years.

No one can be expected to like seeing their subsidies phased out, but for supporters of reform, it was either that or not having any flood insurance available at all.

You can learn more about the phase-out in the 4-miniute video above.

Get more information about flood insurance at REALTOR.org. The site aslo includes a page on last year’s long-term reauthorization law that includes the program reforms.

An investment analyst has approached the National Association of REALTORS® and several NAR directors seeking insights on a special meeting of the NAR directors that will take place in July. At the meeting, the  directors will be discussing proposed changes to the relationship between NAR/REALTOR® Information Network and Move Inc./RealSelect, which operates REALTOR.com.

The analyst, who signs his e-mails “Jem,” is offering an incentive for information and is seeking to learn the likelihood of changes that would restrict the ability of third parties to aggregate MLS data. NAR General Counsel Laurie Janik says directors should avoid speculating on any future actions of the board. “We don’t know what the board will decide,” Janik says, “so I would strongly caution against speculation.”

At the Joint Meeting of the Multiple Listing Service Forum and Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee Thursday, all things MLS were on the table. In fact, even items that weren’t on the MLS were up for discussion–specifically, so-called “pocket listings.”

Credit: Daniel Moyle

“Clearly they’re not ‘off the market,’ nor are they in your pocket. They’re not on the MLS,” clarified Robert Bailey, 2013 chair of MLSlistings Inc. in California. Bailey presented attendees with research on the growing number of homes for sale in his local area that never make it to the MLS at the REALTORS® Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo.

In a study comparing public records with MLS listings in the California communities of Monterey, San Benito, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz, Bailey found that off-MLS listings increased from 12 percent in 2011 to 15 percent in 2012 to 26 percent of the market in the first quarter of 2013.

Supporters of pocket listing practices often cite situations where sellers are seeking privacy or are concerned about having strangers view their homes. Bailey said such desires are valid, but the numbers indicate a growing trend.

“Clearly they’re more concerned about privacy and security now that the market has gotten better,” Bailey said, drawing a collective chuckle from the crowd.

When asked what is driving agents to consent to the increase of this practice by sellers, Bailey said it’s largely comes down to market changes.

“I have agents who have had a very long, very hard six years,” Bailey said. He posited that some agents are using pocket listings to increase “the ability to capture leads” in a competitive, low-inventory market.

But Bailey cautioned that sellers and agents who resort to this tactic in order to avoid “doing business with the unwashed masses” could run into fair housing issues.

Because of local rules, Bailey noted that disagreement over pocket listings will vary from state to state. But he expressed concern that they could have catastrophic effects on the industry nationwide.

“Could it lead to the collapse of our MLS model as we know it today? Could it lead to the erosion of an agent’s value?” Bailey asked. “There’s not a market that’s exempt from this issue.”

NAR has not defined pocket listings, nor do they have an official policy on the practice. But Bailey urged those present at the joint meeting to avoid them.

“We’ve built our businesses on the basis of if we collaborate together… then we can operate in the best interests of the consumer,” Bailey said. “[We must] maintain our position at the center of the transaction.”

Read more

What is a Pocket Listing?

HUD Secretary Donovan

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan made an appearance at the National Association of REALTORS® Midyear Legislative Meetings on Wednesday to laud the work of his agency in promoting housing policies and programs that acknowledge the equal rights of gay and lesbian Americans. The agency makes clear that sexual orientation is no barrier to accessing any HUD programs, he said.

“We have a broad requirement that housing opportunities should be available to all persons regardless of sexual orientation,” said Donovan, who spoke to members gathered for a reception of the National Association of Gay & Lesbian Real Estate Professionals (NAGLREP).

But Donovan noted that there is still a long way to go on the civil rights issue that has rapidly been gaining ground in recent months and years. Noting President Obama’s strong support of marriage equality and recent same-sex marriage cases brought to the U.S. Supreme Court, Donovan added, “There is still an urgent need for legal protections based on sexual orientation.” The 45-year Fair Housing Act does not include sexual orientation as a protected class.

NAGLREP Founder and CEO Jeff Berger said he was delighted by Donovan’s appearance at the meeting and his commitment to ending discrimination in housing faced by the LGBT community. The movement clearly has momentum, he said.

Berger cited the group’s drive, working with Wisconsin REALTORS®, to get sexual orientation included as protected classes in the NAR Code of Ethics. That change was approved by NAR’s board of directors at the Midyear Meetings in 2010. Now, an effort is underway to add Code of Ethics protection based on gender orientation. The proposal will be voted on by the NAR Delegate Body at its meeting in November. Berger also hopes to get NAR to include LGBT data in future versions of its Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers and Member Profile. “It will give REALTORS® a truer picture of who is in their markets if lesbians and gays and same-sex couples were acknowledged,” Berger said.

School’s coming to members of Congress over the next two days as thousands of REALTORS® meet with lawmakers to provide a refresher course on how critical the federal government’s historic support for home ownership is to the country’s future.

“We have an unprecedented situation today, because so many members of Congress are new and really don’t always know how important home ownership incentives are to the economy and to the country, NAR Chief Lobbyist Jerry Giovaniello told thousands of REALTORS® packed into a 7 a.m. session today as a kick-off to their visits to Capitol Hill.

Each year thousands of REALTORS® come to Washington for the NAR Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo, which includes two days of Hill visits to champion real estate issues to their members of Congress.

This year is different, Giovaniello said, because as Congress discusses ways to reduce the federal deficit and whether to change the Tax Code, some of the government’s longstanding incentives for home ownership, including the mortgage interest deduction and other tax provisions, will come under debate. The roles of FHA and the secondary mortgage market are also shaping up to be part of the discussion.

“Our main job is really just to educate members on why these incentives have been such priorities for the federal government for so long,” said Giovaniello.

Some 43 percent of the Senate had turned over in the last six years, and in the House, more than 80 members have been in Congress for fewer than three years, many of whom have never served in public office before. “There are many members of Congress who think FHA is a lending program rather than an insurance program, so a lot of what we have to do is just educate these members about these basic things, said Giovaniello.

REALTORS® have three simple talking points they’ll be taking with them to Capitol Hill this week:

1. Preserve MID and other housing tax incentives, including the capital gains exclusion on the sale of a principal residence and the property tax deduction.
2. Protect FHA’s ability to meet its mission of helping responsible households who needs its mortgage insurance to buy a home.
3. And pave the way for the return of private capital to the secondary mortgage market while preserving an explicit, not-for-profit, government-chartered federal presence in the market.

NAR’s tax counsel, Evan Liddiard, said the conditions are the best in almost two decades for Congress to tackle sweeping tax reform, so MID and other tax incentives will be part of the discussion. Liddiard said that even if the two houses of Congress can’t craft legislation that can pass both houses, if any paring back of home ownership incentives are included in bills that at least make it through one house or another, that sets a precedent that will make it easier in later years for harmful changes to pass. “We have to head this off now,” he said.

One argument members of Congress might make in favor of paring back MID is that they need that tax cut in exchange for lowering tax rates, which would help households across the board. But because there’s no guarantee that Congress won’t turn around in a few years and raise the tax rates again, that’s not an argument that makes sense, said Giovaniello. “Once we give up something on MID, we won’t get it back,” he said.

On FHA, which has seen its reserves take a hit in recent years, REALTORS® will be carrying the message that the agency has been the unsung hero of the country’s economic recovery. It stepped up to the plate during the housing downturn and made lending possible at a time when there were few other options. Had it not done that, the country would be in a tougher place right now. And in any case, the agency’s finances are quickly improving and could soon be in positive territory once again.

“FHA is a counter-cyclical program,” said NAR Policy Analyst Megan Booth. “It’s role is to step up when other sources of funding won’t, so it did its job.”

Legislation could be coming down the pike that might seek to require borrowers to come with a higher downpayment or to pay higher insurance premiums or to meet certain income qualifications, said Booth. each of these provisions would be devastating to the agency’s mission and needs to be resisted, she said.

The main message on reform of the secondary mortgage market is that a continued federal presence, explicit and on a nonprofit basis, is essential for the preservation of the widespread availability of 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages. Private lenders without that federal backstop simply won’t make safe, long-term financing available on a widespread basis.

“We’re going to hold members accountable for how they vote on these issues,” Giovaniello said. “That’s one of the messages we need to take to Capitol Hill. We’re watching what they do.”
To reinforce the message, REALTORS® will be wearing badges on lanyards that carry a simple message: “Home ownership is not a loophole.”

Over the next two days, that message will be out in force on Capitol Hill.

A standing-room-only crowd was on hand as members of the National Association of REALTORS®’ Strategic Planning Committee revealed a report Tuesday afternoon that summarized the results of a year’s worth of REThink sessions.

Thanks to volunteer coordinator and presenter Jason Pantana for sharing his photo of the overflowing audience at Tuesday's event

Released at the Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo in Washington, D.C., the report was compiled from 16 workshops across the country in an effort to answer the question over the future of NAR in uncertain times.

“I’m glad to see that we had a small enough room for this crowd,” joked NAR 2013 President Gary Thomas. He said he was thankful for the enthusiasm, adding that broad engagement is what makes the REThink report special. “It’s coming from the members rather than a small, insular group.”

The event was so widely attended that the committee added a second session Wednesday, May 15, at 1:30 p.m. Eastern at the Omni Shoreham hotel.

The report distilled responses from 4,500 individuals who used these workshops to come up with actions that individual real estate professionals, industry players, and NAR can undertake to stay relevant in the changing world of real estate. But this was not just an exercise of pulling the curtain back on data.

“We’re here to ask your feedback,” said Strategic Planning Committee Chair Shannon W. King. “We want you to agree that these are the right issues.”

Some of the many items discussed at Tuesday’s event were “big data” issues, industry collaboration, the opening up of association leadership positions, and more. Two suggestions that garnered widespread applause among attendees were increasing professional standards for members and “taking back realtor.com,” as one facilitator quoted from the report.

Both at the local workshops and at the event at Midyear, members expressed skepticism about the engagement of NAR leadership. One of the volunteer coordinators recalled the initial backlash she experienced when organizing a local REThink seminar.

“Many of the participants just thought we were from NAR,” said Summer Greene, a volunteer coordinator and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based REALTOR®. “After we got past that, it was all about, ‘Is the leadership at NAR really going to listen?’”

The difference between those local information-gathering sessions and Tuesday’s presentation was that NAR leadership was present at the Washington D.C. event and made it clear that they were not only listening, but were also ready to act.

“I didn’t want to just have another plan that would sit on the shelf and gather dust,” said Thomas, “which is basically what happens with strategic plans … when it’s done, it’s done — meaning nothing happens with it typically.”

Another hot topic was the issue of who the national association should serve first and foremost: consumers or members? Many in Tuesday’s session said the association should strive to be a resource for both groups.

“We serve the consumers through the REALTORS®,” said Bob Hart, a real estate professional from Santa Barbara, Calif. “We have to empower REALTORS® to do a better job serving the consumers.”

NAR CEO Dale Stinton agreed with this sentiment, but only to a point.

“I want to serve the consumer, but only if it helps you,” he said. “Let’s deal with realtor.com, and then let’s deal with the three-way agreement. Let’s figure out what it means to serve the member.”

One theme common among facilitators, session attendees, and association leaders alike was the idea that upsetting the status quo can be a dangerous proposition.

“You can’t ever talk about a national MLS without getting into trouble. You can’t talk about the number of associations without getting in to trouble. You cant ever talk about professional standards without getting in to trouble,” Stinton warned. “What I’m here to say on behalf of leadership is we’re ready to get in trouble.”

With that, the organization’s next leader ended the lively session with a call to action.

“Your leadership team is here, and they’ve been listening,” said 2013 NAR President-elect Steve Brown. “Are you ready to stand behind your leadership team when they get in trouble?”

Vince Malta pictured with one of his prized bats

It may seem out of left field, but when NAR regional vice president Vince Malta isn’t selling homes in San Francisco, he’s collecting baseball bats hit by legendary players like Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. The unlikely combination is a result of deep-rooted family traditions; Malta is a third generation REALTOR® who has been in the business for 35 years, and joins his father and grandfather before him as a passionate fan of the game.

“I’ve always loved baseball since I was a child,” said Malta, CEO at Malta & Co., Inc. in San Francisco. “I got into bat collecting because I thought it was very interesting to collect a piece of history.”

And that’s where this hobby could have ended, with a few prized bats and the satisfaction of holding baseball history in his hands, if not for Malta’s real estate mind working overtime to analyze the way the bats were being sold.

“I started doing some research and it seemed like there were a couple of experts who knew about baseball bats but were also selling them,” he said. “So they wound up authenticating the very bats they were selling. In real estate, we call that a ‘conflict of interest.’”

Worse still, some of the bats for sale weren’t exactly priceless memorabilia worthy of glass display. But it would take years of conducting research and scouring decades-old factory records before Malta could decipher the legitimate from the lies.

“I bought a game-used Jackie Robinson-autographed bat and thought, ‘wow that’s really cool,’” Malta recalls. This cool factor quickly thawed when he returned to the bat years later, armed with extensive knowledge about its production and make. He analyzed the model, concluding the bat was rendered in 1973; a fine year for the Oakland Atheltics to defeat the New York Mets in a seven-game World Series thriller, but for Jackie Robinson—who stopped playing baseball in 1956 and passed away in 1972—using that bat would have been, well, impossible.

“People were telling you things and giving you stories about the bats that just weren’t accurate,” Malta said. “I think the bat needs to speak for itself.”

It’s a dictum that can resonate in real estate as well as baseball—an agent can stage a house with all the shiny bells and whistles, even provide anecdotes about how much fun the home owner’s children had playing in the spacious backyard, but in the end, the property must speak to the buyer.

However, it still helps to have those words interpreted by someone in the know.

“There will always be a person out there who will sell you something,” Malta said. “You need a facilitator with knowledge guiding you through the process.”

To Malta, this is why authenticating bats can’t be an act of whimsy; it must be a serious practice—as complex as a real estate transaction—determined by things like labeling, wood type, and the hitting characteristics of the player who purportedly used the bat at that time.

Even the National Baseball Hall of Fame staff keeps extra copies of Malta’s book, “A Complete Reference Guide Louisville Slugger Professional Player Bats,” on hand. The publication is widely acknowledged as the most comprehensive manual for collectors of Hall of Fame players’ bats. The Guide was a labor of love for Malta, who worked in conjunction with Jack Hillerich, grandson of John A. “Bud” Hillerich—maker of the first player-customized baseball bat—to gain access to Louisville Slugger factory records.

Since its release in 2007, the book has established Malta as one of the foremost authorities on bat collecting. More than just a baseball textbook, it weaves the history of the sport throughout its pages, in a narrative enriched by Malta’s own experiences meeting the greats of the game. “Many of the players are so warm and personable,” Malta said, listing Ernie Banks and Brooks Robinson among those he enjoyed speaking with.

But some of his most frame-worthy baseball encounters occurred on the job. At an NAR meeting in 2005, while sitting with his wife, 13-year-old son, and 1984 Hall of Fame inductee Harmon Killebrew, (an invited guest at the event), Malta’s wife casually mentioned to the right-hander that her son was having a tough time at the plate. Immediately, Killebrew stood the struggling young player up and began to give him a batting lesson. “It’s all in the hips,” he instructed, as REALTORS®—and the Maltas—watched in awe.

“We still have the picture of Harmon Killebrew giving my son tips,” Malta said. “I love that players are so open and such great ambassadors of the game.”

As an ambassador of homes, it’s easy for Malta to see the connection between his favorite sport and the real estate profession. “We provide a valuable service,” he said. “People can consider what we do like baseball bat authenticating: We make sure they get what they expect.”

The Senate this week is taking up legislation to even the tax-collection playing field between Internet retailers and bricks-and-mortar retailers. It’s an important issue for commercial real estate professionals, because their clients face a disadvantage against out-of-state Internet retailers on tax collection.

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It’s not that no tax is due when something is purchased in a different state over the Internet. A tax is in fact due, but states have no way of systematically collecting it. And a Supreme Court case from 1992 prohibits them from requiring out-of-state retailers to collect the tax on their behalf.

As a result, it’s largely been up to buyers to pay the tax, in the form of a “use tax,” but they rarely do. Correcting this disparity is the rationale behind the Marketplace Fairness Act, S. 366, which the Senate is set to pass any day now. Lawmakers and analysts generally agree that the bill will in fact pass, and then it needs to be taken up in the House, where the outcome is less clear.

NAR supports the bill, mainly for two reasons. First, it will help the commercial real estate sector, which finds the playing field tilted against it as buyers go online to buy things from vendors in another state that, if bought in a store, would require them to pay state tax. Second, it’s a good bill for states, because it will bring in tax revenue that’s owed to them, helping those with a budget gap improve their bottom line. By some estimates, states are losing out on more than $20 billion a year.

Critics say the bill equates to a new tax, but in fact the tax is already in place. The bill is intended to make it practical and simple for states to collect what they’re owed.

There are plenty of arguments on both sides of the issue, but for the real estate industry, it’s simply about creating an even playing field between them and Internet retailers. In the 4-minute video above, NAR Government Affairs analysts talk about the bill and why NAR supports it.

Access NAR’s letter in support of the bill.

Real estate Web site Doorsteps has released an infographic that shows demographic and financial data on first-time home buyers, which includes data from the National Association of REALTORS®’ 2012 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. Among the key data points:

• First-time home buyers are more willing to compromise on the house, but not on the neighborhood.
• Most first-time home buyers cut out on luxury items (42 percent) and entertainment (35 percent) to save for a home.
• The average age of the first-time home buyer is 31.

Click on the image below for the full-sized infographic.