If you’ve never attended the Arizona Association of REALTORS® Industry Partners Conference, there’s no time like the present! The conference, celebrating its 10^th anniversary this September at the Chaparral Suites Resort in Scottsdale, combines the three engines of our industry: REALTORS®, lenders and title/escrow officers, and details how important it is to work together as partners in the transaction. The conference has grown every year, and last year marked the largest attendance ever: over 400. 

Today’s marketplace requires us to have more than just a working knowledge of the purchase contract. With new issues like short sale negotiations, foreclosures and financing changes daily, as REALTORS® we owe it to ourselves and our clients to become as educated as possible. The information provided at this conference is valuable the minute you leave. Many designated brokers use the scenarios to teach at office meetings and in their newsletters, as do the title/escrow officers and lenders who attend.

With the current housing crisis and the media frenzy telling consumers to blame their real estate agent and lender for the mess they are in, it is more important than ever to work together and help our clients. In order to close transactions and continue to earn our living, we must have an idea of who does what. The Industry Partners Conference gives each of us practical guidance and a true picture of the roles we play in daily transactions.

The guidance and knowledge from this conference will help you close more transactions by reworking your market plan, writing better contracts and more effectively handling closing issues. Part of the conference will be reviewing residential market trends. Even with the high amount of residential inventory, declining prices, a buyer’s market and the liquidity crisis in lending, residential sales in the Valley have been increasing. Since January 2008 sales of 2,912 (the low point for sales in any month this century), sales have increased every month this year. In fact, the 5,637 sales in May of 2008 was an increase of 94 percent over January 2008 sales! But the mix of sales has changed. For example, residential sales by home price range and how properties are being financed is dramatically different; i.e., FHA purchases have increased over 1,000 percent compared to last year. (Statistics from the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service, www.armls.com) Part of the reason for the increase in sales is that agents are realizing the necessity of learning how to close transactions in today’s market. You will walk away from this conference with a good understanding of how to close resales in our market.

The premise of the conference is simple. Roundtable discussions based on pre-written real life scenarios create a forum for professionals from each industry to explain how they would handle or deal with an issue in a transaction. The scenarios are written by a committee of lenders, title and escrow officers, and REALTORS®, and are taken from actual experiences. There are over 20 topics for the tables, and attendees can select the topics of interest to them. Each roundtable session lasts just under an hour, so participants can sit at several different tables during the day. Some of this year’s hot topics include FHA Financing, Fraud, Cancellations and Earnest Money Disputes, Cure Period Notices, and Addenda Issues. Since the conference is attended by all three industries, it is more than likely that a working REALTOR®, lender and escrow officer will be present at each table, creating a healthy dialogue and different points of view for all of the scenarios. There are other relevant topics and an incredibly informative “Ask the Experts” question and answer session at the end of the day featuring Michelle Lind, assistant CEO and general counsel for AAR.

Online registration is simple: log onto  www.regonline.com/63342_608290M

 (credit card payments only)

EVERY CONFERENCE SINCE 2001 HAS SOLD OUT… REGISTER EARLY!

(Mary Frances Coleman (mfcoleman@cox.net) is the owner of The Real Estate Academy of Learning, and ”Coach Me MF,” a real estate coaching and consulting company. Fletcher Wilcox (fwilcox@gcta.com) is the vice president of Business Development for Grand Canyon Title. They are the co-chairs for this year’s Industry Partners Conference.)