Last Friday, the new officers and leadership team for the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors were ceremoniously installed for the 2015 year with Reyne Stapleman taking over as president of the association.
It was my privilege to recount the association’s accomplishments over the past year.
The most important accomplishment would be the changes to the Santa Barbara City Zoning Information Reports that were approved by the Planning Commission and will be before the City Council in February. While not addressing the big issue of inaccurate reports over the past few decades, which thousands of buyers have relied upon, it will define what the city will consider an immediate enforcement issue and what it will allow until a homeowner wishes to improve his or her property.
These changes were the result of many hours and meetings by our ZIR task force committee over the past five years.
The next big accomplishment would be the SBAOR public facing search portal. This portal offers many of the bells and whistles found on Trulia, Zillow or Realtor.com and, being tied directly into our Multiple Listing Service, it has the most current and accurate data for consumers. It puts contact information for listing agents directly with their listings, making it easy for consumers to get further, firsthand information.
We also started a survey of ethical behavior in our association. We requested that members report what violations they have seen but haven’t submitted to our Professional Standards process. Members may not report violators because of the burden of time and effort, or for fear of retaliation.
We hope to use this to gauge our association’s level of professionalism and determine what ethical education can benefit our members and, ultimately, the public.
Lastly, we will be holding our association’s annual Christmas Unity Shoppe Breakfast and Auction. We have a goal of raising $50,000 for this local charity that does so much to help local families through tough times and on the road to self-sufficiency.
Hoping everyone has a wonderful holiday season this year!
— Ed Fuller is a real estate broker with San Roque Realty Inc. and president of the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors. Contact him at ed@sanroquerealty.com or 805.687.1551. The opinions expressed are his own.