What happened at the NAR Midyear Legislative Meetings? A LOT. Board President Steve Ray, MLS President Mary Jane White and CEO Sandy Carroll attended the four day conference in Washington DC on behalf of the Berkshires. In addition to attending many meetings and forums held by the National Association of REALTORS, they also were able to meet with Legislators representing the Berkshires, our data attorney Mitch Skinner about ongoing syndication and legal issues, with FlexMLS and Listhub leaders about industry issues and the future of MLS, and were able to arrange for live trainers to visit the Berkshires from FlexMLS and List Hub.  There were several constant topics, both in the classroom and in the hall…

• Realtors Property Resource’s new venture to serve as the back-end MLS system for some associations, and as the back-end system for a mega project by a consortium of franchises.

• Realtor.com’s efforts to retain their number 1 status as market leader for real estate buyers.

• Ever increasing policies that require immediate compliance by local MLSs and members, Professional Standards changes
• Legislative Issues addressed by leadership to members of congress.

• The DANGER report, a tomb describing the 50 issues that keep brokers, sales associates, associations, and MLSs up at night.
• RESPA / Tila Changes and our Hope for Delayed Penalties until the beginning of 2016, while Implementation kinks are ironed out [link to great powerpoint]

Because of the scope of the issues, we are breaking them out into several detailed posts, linked above.