Latest REC News

June got off to a great start when the Southwest Florida Real Estate Council relaunched itself to local real estate attorneys on June 1st. New President, Joseph Madden, Jr. welcomed guests and shared his objectives with local members. He then introduced Melissa Murphy, The Fund's Senior Vice President and General Counsel who discussed recent changes to the ALTATitle Commitment form.

The Bay Area Real Estate Council (BAREC) collaborated with Florida ARECS to present Using and Understanding the Residential Contract for Sale and Purchase to Pinellas County Realtors® on June 13th. Maggie Thumberg, The Fund's Senior Underwriting Counsel & Legal and Branch Education Manager, led attendees through a review of the new FR/BAR 5 contract. This course is part of Florida ARECS' Realtor® Education Library, which is available to REC members, and is accredited by the Florida Real Estate Commission so licensees earned 3 hours of CE credit.

Later that same day the Jacksonville Area Real Estate Council (JAREC) hosted a program on Stopping Cyber Fraud, presented by The Fund's Linda Monaco. JAREC also invited a vendor - PropLogix - to sponsor the event so attendees had a chance to learn about the growing problem of business email compromise and get to know a company that provides a lot of services used by real estate attorneys. Contact the REC Relations Manager if you are interested in finding a sponsor for your next REC event.

On June 15th the Escambia-Santa Rosa Real Estate Council hosted a presentation of Using and Understanding the Residential Contract for Sale and Purchase to over eighty real estate agents at the Pensacola Association of Realtors® (PAR) The REC also recruited a panel of five local attorneys who fielded questions from Realtors® following the seminar. A big THANK YOU to Sarah Singletary, Director of Operations and Professional Development at PAR! It was a lovely experience and we can't wait to work with her again.

The Real Estate Attorneys' Council of the Heartland (REACH) hosted its first industry-wide event on June 20th when they invited attorneys, real estate agents, lenders, CPA's and individual investors to a presentation of Seller Financing & Private Lending After Dodd-Frank by The Fund's John "Jay" St. Lawrence. Seller financing is very common in the area so it attracted a big crowd of nearly 70 people!

On June 22nd the Polk Area Real Estate Council (PAREC) hosted a 1-hour version of the FR/BAR Contract seminar to their attorney members. This program, which provides 1.0 hour of CLE provides a great review of the key changes to the FR/BAR Contract that went into effect on April 4, 2017.