Our sense of right or wrong and our tendency to do one thing over another thing is instinctive. Decision making is often navigated on auto-pilot. In most cases a REALTOR’S auto-pilot or instincts are aligned with the Code of Ethics. Ethics Over Instincts: Sharpening the Real Estate GPS (Suburban West's 2019-2020 Required Membership Training Course) will address common scenarios where instincts and ethics clash giving attendees an opportunity to adjust their practice as needed.

The course objectives are to:

(1) Raise awareness of unrecognized inherent conflicts of interest between agent and client

(2) Demonstrate, compare, and contrast the differences in attitudes and behaviors needed to address these

(3) Identify best practices and tools available to make corrections and work professionally, legally & ethically

Ethics Over Instincts classes are now scheduled through August. The class will continue to be offered frequently through December 2020. All SWRA REALTOR members must take this 3.5 hour course by December 31st, 2020.

Last week, Suburban West was pleased to present awards to deserving local students in Marple-Newtown School District. A total of six awards were given to students who have shown significant improvement to their studies throughout the 2018-2019 school year.

REALTOR Brian Kane attended the award ceremony at William Culbertson Elementary School and gave out the Most Improved Student Awards to Patrick Berry, Kylee Foreacre, Nolan Lauer and Skyler Yee.

Additionally, REALTOR Steve D'Antonio was on hand to present the Most Improved Student Award to John Angelina and Jyoti Coelho of Paxon Hollow Middle School.

The Association has a long standing tradition of promoting education in our region and firmly believes that its ongoing participation with local schools will further enhance opportunities available to students in the area.

As part of the fiscal 2020 budget negotiations, the Kenney administration and City Council have agreed to increase the property-tax homestead exemption to $45,000, which would shave an additional $70 off a homeowner’s tax bill. The homestead exemption allows residential property owners, who use the home as a primary residence, to deduct the designated amount from their property assessment to determine the tax bill.

With a $45,000 exemption, the owner of a home valued at $100,000 would pay taxes on $55,000 of that value, yielding an annual bill of $770, as opposed to $1,400 on the full amount. With a $40,000 exemption, the bill would be about $840. Because property tax revenues are split between the city and the school district, the increase in the exemption would have resulted in a loss $6.5 million loss for the city and $8.5 million loss for the school district. But officials negotiated to have the city absorb the entire $15 million loss, by adding an extra $8.5 million to the city’s allocation to the school district for fiscal year 2020. Read more.

For more news items from the Suburban REALTORS Alliance, click here to access their Weekly News Briefs.