Skip to main content
All Posts By

Blaine Morris

Blaine Morris is one of Marin County’s top producing Realtors and is a respected leader in the Marin and California Real Estate communities. Blaine is proudly affiliated with Compass Real Estate in Kentfield. Blaine lives and loves the active Marin lifestyle, and it shows in his Real Estate practice. Always just a phone call or email away, Blaine works seven days a week for his clients, providing them with the utmost in fast and efficient service and follow through. Blaine is consistently ranked among the top Realtors in Marin County.

Feb 17

SB407 and CAR Meeting Update – Blaine Morris’ 2014 President of Marin Association of Realtors 02/03/14 Monday Memo

By California Association of Realtors, Marin Association of Realtors, Regulations

Good morning MAR members!

Last week’s memo on SB-407, the new statewide water retrofit regulation, generated a huge amount of response.  Marin officials are still formulating their oversight plan, and MAR will get clarity on the changes. We will be doing so ASAP to determine the local criteria to trigger a need to retrofit based upon permit issuance.

Again, it is not a current point-of-sale requirement.  It is triggered by the pulling of permits for other things, starting this month.  However, starting January 1, 2017 (three years from now) every homeowner in the state will be required to retrofit their homes built before 1/1/1994, regardless of point-of-sale or permits… even if it’s not part of a sale.  Thus, it will become a point of sale requirement on January 1, 2017 for homes built before 1/1/1994.  Much like the recent rollout of required carbon monoxide detectors in all homes.

Some of you asked about disclosure requirements.  The Real Estate Transfer Disclosure Statement was revised over a year ago to reflect this new law.  On page 2 of the RETDS, the document specifically discloses much of this, but is brief in the description.  There looks to be an upcoming “Water Conserving Fixtures Disclosure (SB407)”, and I’m seeking clarity on when this form will be available.

MAR will continue to pass along info.

I promised to report back on the developments at last week’s CAR meetings in San Diego.  The other members of our CAR team will be reporting to back to me, and I will forward other relevant items as I learn about them.

So, in no particular order:

Transaction and Regulatory

I sit on this committee.  We voted on the following action items, and we later voted as the CAR Board to approve these action items. These are NOT new regulations; CAR is simply starting the process:

  • That CAR “SPONSOR” legislation to clarify the rules for the CalBRE to regulate the use of “Team” names by licensees.  This was an extremely busy conversation, as this subject is getting a lot of attention at the CalBRE.  Currently, brokers are supposed to file a DBA to cover team names working for their brokerages…and the broker officially owns those team name DBAs.  This policy needs clarification, and an update is planned for the May meetings.
  • That CAR “SPONSOR” legislation to require an auction company to indemnify or “hold harmless” the listing broker in a transaction against liability that results from the auction company’s actions in a short sale transaction.  This was THE big issue that everyone was talking about the whole week.  There is too much on this subject for this memo, I’ll be writing more on this soon.  Also, at the CAR Board of Directors meeting, the floor voted to direct CAR legal staff to look into the whole validity of our listing agreement, as some banks are now requiring short sale transactions to go out to auction after a purchase agreement is executed…effectively ordering the listing broker to abrogate a valid contract and turn the listing over to the auction company.  Everyone is very interested in this subject, stay tuned.
  •  That CAR “SPONSOR” legislation to prohibit short-lived communications like tweets or text messages from being considered “transactional documents” that must be retained in a broker’s file.  This will be an ongoing conversation, but for now your text messages are supposed to be retained.

Taxation and Government Finance Committee

We voted to “SUPPORT” legislation to study the revenue impact of allowing homeowners to transfer their property tax basis to a home anywhere in the state.  This relates to Propositions 60 and 90, where over-age-50 homeowners can transfer their tax basis once per lifetime.  Right now, this is governed on a county-by-county basis, and Marin does not allow a new homeowner from outside the county to transfer his or her tax basis into Marin (though an intra-Marin transfer is allowed).  I tried to discern the political will for this, and the answer was “stay tuned.”

Public Policy Forum–General Home Inspectors

This forum was packed.  Believe it or not, there is no current statewide licensing requirement for general home inspectors.  We use these valued professionals in many of our transactions, and there are current industry standards in their trade associations.  But no statewide oversight.  Pest inspectors, engineers, electricians and plumbers all have a licensing requirement, and there is a discussion of creating such a licensing requirement for general home inspectors.  We voted on the Transaction and Regulatory Committee to establish a working group to explore this subject, and also to “explore options related to home inspectors contractual limitation of liability provisions…”   More on this later in the year.

Standard Forms Advisory Committee

The other big news from CAR is that there is a substantial revision of the Residential Purchase Agreement in the works.  The current draft will be available here http://on.car.org/rpa2014 until 2/14/2014, and there will be more revisions going forward.  Take a look, and we’d love to be able to pass along any feedback.

I wish you a safe and prosperous week ahead!

Blaine

Feb 13

Blaine Morris’ 2014 President of Marin Association of Realtors 01/27/14 Monday Memo – New Residential and Commercial Water Conservation Retrofit Rules–SB 407

By Marin Association of Realtors, Marin Real Estate News

The rest of the CAR Director team and I have been in San Diego this week at the winter meetings.  As usual, lots of stuff to report, discuss and learn across all spectrums of our business.

I was out last night after the meetings with a non-Realtor friend, and he wanted to know what in the world we do that requires us to come to these meetings three times per year.  I explained that the business and the regulatory environment are constantly changing. We need to be ahead of trends to respond to the needs of our members, clients and property owners.  We need to be ahead of the game with our government officials.  We need to coordinate the ever-changing transactional environment.  And most of all, we need to make sure that you, our members, have your voice heard at the highest levels of our profession.

I will have a more complete report from CAR next week.

New Residential and Commercial Water Conservation Retrofit Rules–SB 407

I want to make sure all of you are aware of an emerging new government regulation that became law on January 1, 2014.  Last fall, our friend and colleague Jim Fraser alerted me about the pending implementation of Senate Bill 407, which was passed by the California legislature in 2009 and signed by Governor Schwarzengger in October 2009..and promptly forgotten by just about everyone.  Net-net, there are some very substantial water conservation retrofit requirements on existing single family homes which are to be enforced when our clients and property owners go to get a permit…for just about anything they want to do to homes built before 1994.

This was news to all of us at MAR.  The law passed with little fanfare in 2009, probably because the implementation date was five years away.  When Assemblyman Levine was speaking to the Women’s Council of Realtors last fall, 2013 MAR Secretary Judy LeMarr asked him about it but he was not familiar with the law.  Later, 2013 MAR President Jack Wilkinson called the San Rafael Building Department, and his contact said he had just learned of the law the day before and they had no plan at the time for its required implementation.  Earlier this month, I was at a city inspection and asked the building official what the plan was and he told me that he and his colleagues were only now starting to formulate an implementation plan.

In a nutshell, SB407 requires that “On or after January 1, 2014, for all building alterations or improvements to single family residential real property, as a condition for issuance of a certificate of final completion and occupancy or final permit approval by the local building department, the permit applicant shall replace all noncompliant plumbing fixtures with water-conserving plumbing fixtures.”

Low-flow toilets, faucets, and showerheads.  It’s déjà vu all over again!

You can read the text of the whole bill here:  http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920100SB407

Given our current extreme drought and MMWD’s request this week for a 25% reduction in water use, it’s hard to argue with the spirit of these regulations.

What does this mean for us?  Well, this is not a point-of-sale requirement, so it shouldn’t come into effect for our transactions closing.  But it is absolutely something we need to alert our clients about, because as the law is written, ANY permit will require these retrofit requirements.  And what about the very common case where a homeowner got a proper permit for work to be done, but didn’t close out the permit when work was complete?  Does that mean that to close some 5-year-old permit our clients will need to replace all the toilets, faucets, and showerheads?  Really?  That’s certainly something that might come into play in the last days and loose ends of a transaction.  This area of the law is unclear.

We need some clarification, and it’s a work in progress.  Our cities are just now working through the implementation process.  The building official I spoke with this month said that the enforcement overhead requirements to fully retrofit a house for ANY permit are just about impossible from a time and budget standpoint.  He said that it’s possible that for “minor” permits (roofs, water heaters, etc) there will just be a handout informing the homeowner of these requirements.  For a remodel or “major work” it will absolutely be required.  Where is the line drawn?  No for water heaters, yes for kitchen remodels?  What about a window or siding project?

So let’s all feel our collective pain together.

We are on it at MAR.  We will continue to press our local building officials for clarity about these new requirements.   And to bring it back to CAR, yesterday we received a report from the Land Use and Environmental Policy Committee suggesting that, given the current drought and recently enacted legislation, the CAR 2014 Budget be modified to include funds for education of the public and our members on these developments.  This should be brought for a vote before we leave San Diego.

Be aware, tell your clients that this is a developing issue, and I assure you that we will have more info for you shortly.

Have a great week!

Blaine

 

 

 

 

Feb 11

Blaine Morris’ 2014 President of MAR 01/20/14 Monday Memo

By Marin Association of Realtors, Marin Real Estate News

Good morning Marin Realtors!

Those of you that attended our General Membership meeting last Tuesday were informed and entertained by two excellent presentations, one by Steve Dickason on the Marin marketplace and Carole Rodoni’s keynote presentation on the Bay Area and national outlook.  We had a record turnout!  A few of you were not able to get in, as the event sold out.  The best way ensure your spot in the future is to get these events on your calendar early and register online.

My key takeaways from Steve were that December was great, last year was obviously great, but we are short on inventory going into the new year, a situation we found ourselves in for most of last year.  If the market had continued along its long-term trend line, minus the ups, downs and ups of the last decade, Marin’s prices are approaching where they historically should be.

Carole was quite bullish on the next 3-5 years.  If we think the residential market was hot last year in Marin, Carole informed us that Palo Alto was up 40% in the last year!  Amazing.  Carole described the newly affluent class of late 20s and early 30s buyers driving the market in the City and on the peninsula.  Carole describes these “Young Affluent Buyers, 25-35 years old” as 28% of the market Bay Area-wide.

As I mentioned last week, these “Millennial” buyers are a huge and emerging demographic.  At the CAR meetings in October, I attended a panel discussion called “Understanding Today’s Consumer:  The Impact of Demographic Trends.”

The discussion kicked off with Riva Froymovich, a business writer from New York, self-described Millennial and aspiring home buyer who currently happens to live at home with her parents as she saves for her first house.

She was asked “What do Millennials want, and do they want to own real estate?”

  • Millennials want to own real estate
  • Millennials want density
  • Millennials want quality of construction and design over size of house
  • Millennials like to work
  • Millennials want to communicate “their way” (text, etc)

The two professors (Dr. Dowell Meyers, a professor of policy, planning and demography at USC and Dr. Susan Brown, associate professor at the Sociology School at UC Irvine) then chimed in on the Millennials.  They are coming of age in the most volatile home-buying environment for young people since World War II.  Meyers described it as “the Big Pause” for this generation.  They are waiting to see what happens on the other side of the Great Recession.  What will be the “new normal?”

This is a great question.  Generally at this point in a recovery from a recession, 50% of the home buying market is first time homebuyers.  Right now in California, it’s 33%.

Dr. Meyers said the low first-time-buyer proportion makes perfect sense.  In California, people don’t get married and buy houses until their 30s.  Millennials mostly aren’t 30 yet.  This huge generation of first time buyers just isn’t old enough yet.

Dr. Meyers said that “coming out of the recession, demography is on our side” as it relates to the real estate industry in California.

The panel generally agreed that these new Millennial buyers need and want more housing units geared toward non-traditional living arrangements.  Flexible units.  Mother-in-law suite.  Places that people can afford.  As for this type of housing, “Builders are ready to build, but neighbors are not supporting them at the planning and zoning offices.”

That sounds a lot like the housing discussions we are having right now in Marin County.

The panel concluded with the overall statement that “there is a lot of rebound ready to happen” as this new generation comes of age. For me, this was all very refreshing.  I’ve heard many times in the past few years that the next generation of Americans just doesn’t view home ownership at the same priority level that previous generations do.  These scholars didn’t see it that way at all.

Later in the conference, CAR Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young told us that the biggest market opportunity in 2014 is with the Millennials and first-time buyers.

The rest of the CAR Director team and I are off to the CAR Winter Meetings next week, and we will report back on the important info and data that we gather.

Blaine

Jan 06

Blaine Morris’ 2014 President of Marin Association of Realtors 1/6/14 Monday Memo

By Marin Association of Realtors, Marin Real Estate News

Blaine Morris, President, Marin Association of RealtorsAs the 2014 President of the Marin Association of Realtors, one of my responsibilities is to write a weekly column for distribution to our 1400 members.  It’s commonly called the “Monday Memo”.  Since I have quite a few friends, clients and business associates who are not members of MAR, I thought it would be useful to post those columns here as well.  As such, here is my first column of the year, which was originally published on 1/6/2014.  We will post the others that were already published this year over the next couple of weeks until we get caught up.

Happy New Year Marin Realtors!  It’s an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to serve as your President in 2014.

I hope to see you at the next MAR General Membership meeting on January 14th, where the always-delightful and informative Carole Rodoni will help us make some sense of the market and opportunities for the coming year.

I want to take a moment to thank three people for their contributions in 2013.  First of all, thanks to Jack Wilkinson for stepping in to serve as our Association’s President in 2013.  Thank you to Edward Segal, our recently-departed CEO, who was a wealth of information and vision as I navigated my year as President-Elect.  Finally, I want to thank Mary Anne Heffernan for stepping in and seamlessly taking the reigns as our Interim Association Executive while we have been conducting our search for a permanent executive.

It’s been a good year for the business…it’s been a great year for the business!  Sales are up.  Prices are up.  Membership is up at MAR.  A growing membership is a healthy membership.  A healthy industry.

Looking forward to my term as 2014 MAR President, we have many opportunities as an association.  First and foremost, MAR will continue with our advocacy efforts on behalf or our members.  The association will also be focused on service and giving back to our members, our colleagues and our community.  We are launching the Young Professionals Network (YPN) for our newer members.  We are also looking into re-launching an MAR-sponsored volunteer effort, to give back to the community that has given so much to us.

As I said in my remarks at the MAR installation last month, our efforts as an association can be simply focused and measured on three criteria:  Are we promoting the Productivity, the Profitability and the Professionalism of our members?

Regarding Productivity, are we giving our members the tools to be as productive as possible, with as few distractions as possible?  Are we?  Is the municipal resale inspection process a help or a hindrance to our member’s productivity?  Do our members have the very best and most responsive MLS?   As an association, we must promote the productivity of our members.

Regarding Profitability, are we doing what we can to ensure that our members are as profitable as possible?  We must look out for and advocate for the best interests of our members and property owners with our local government and regulatory agencies.  We don’t want legislation that impedes our ability to conduct business.  Whether we are advocating for local control of planning and building decisions, advocating against additional fees for building and transacting Real Estate, or taking a position on pending legislation, advocating for our members is at the heart of promoting our Profitability.

Regarding Professionalism, we must provide for the education, professional development, and professional standards of our members.  We must promote the highest level of professionalism through our shared code of ethics.

So it’s pretty simple:  everything we do at MAR must be focused on the Productivity, Profitability and Professionalism of our members.

One last thing:  get involved in 2014!  Whether it’s with your neighborhood, local community, helping your colleagues, or helping those less fortunate, make it a point to get involved and give back!  And don’t get too caught up with the time commitment…however small your contribution, you will make our community and our industry a better place with your involvement.

I wish you a wonderful and prosperous 2014!

 

 

Close Menu