It’s hard to believe the 2022 Indiana REALTORS® Stakeholder Meeting is just six weeks away – if you haven’t registered yet, what are you waiting for? We’ve got a memorable lineup planned for our first in-person Stakeholder Meeting since 2019, including sessions on the State of Indiana’s new marketing campaign, the ins-and-outs of building partnerships with local economic development organizations, maximizing your IAR member benefits and more.

As the market changes, your REALTOR® associations are picking up the pace to help you lead the pack. Don’t miss the release of IAR’s new strategic plan and remarks from NAR 2022 President-elect Kenny Purcell on his vision for the future at the national level. Get registered today – we look forward to seeing you in Indianapolis on September 19th.

Heading into a license renewal year, there’s extra pressure to stay ahead of continuing education requirements – we’ve got you covered with new member-benefit CE from IAR’s Real Estate Certification Program.

This twelve-hour package includes insights on selling and showing smart home technologies (and raising your IQ on technical and compliance issues with connected homes). It also features a course on smarter negotiation strategies for winning deals with the always-engaging Robert Morris. Finally, two classes focused on doing those deals by the book: Lessons on the REALTOR® Code of Ethics (meeting the NAR training requirement) and the latest developments in real estate law and practice from IAR’s legal team round out the schedule.

More Indiana REALTORS® than ever before took advantage of member-benefit CE during the last 12-month cycle, and we’re looking to beat those numbers this year while giving you an edge on the competition. Login soon.

From the stock market to the supermarket check-out line, Wednesday’s announcement that inflation slowed to 8.5% last month was greeted by sighs of relief. The news adds to the emerging narrative from Indiana’s housing market: Sales are down, but conditions are improving for buyers.

IAR released data estimates for July yesterday, showing monthly home sales finishing nearly 10% below July 2021, down almost 4% year-to-date. Median sales price also dipped to $246,000 last month after reaching $250,000 in June; even though July prices are 10% ahead of last summer, this is the fifth consecutive month the gap between 2021 and 2022 has narrowed.

Price growth is slowing, mortgage rates are down from a mid-June spike and more homes are on the market – year-to-date listings are more than 2% above the first seven months of 2021. For determined buyers, the competition for homes is easing. IAR CEO Mark Fisher noted that July’s numbers offered reassurance to sellers, too:

“Home prices are settling towards a more sustainable pace, but still gained over 14% this year while the national economy shifted into reverse,” he said. “For Hoosier homeowners and sellers, that’s a sign that housing remains a great wealth-building investment and a valuable commodity even as we enter a more balanced market.” Read the full release here.

The General Assembly has wrapped up a special session fraught with obvious controversy along with competing visions for delivering inflation relief to Hoosiers. Now lawmakers can focus on interim study topics ahead of the long budget session in 2023 – including the Housing Task Force created by the legislature to study residential supply and development solutions. Read more about what happened and what’s next.

Knowledge is power when it comes to catching potential issues before they blow up at the closing table (or end up in court). As always, IAR’s Legal Team offers wise counsel prompted by recent calls to the Legal Hotline and other input from members:

While the market has cooled from the frantic pace of the past two years, it’s been common for listing brokers to field multiple offers as part of a competitive negotiation. Buyer brokers sought assurances that offers were indeed being presented in accordance with professional standards (and Indiana law), and professional standards now require a written acknowledgment (upon request) of a presented offer.  

In this video, Senior Staff Counsel Kelly Shonborn discusses this requirement and the Acknowledgement of Presented Offer/Counter Offer form created to easily meet it. 

More recently, we’ve seen an increase in purchase agreement cancellations (or attempted cancellations), primarily from buyers seeking to back out of transactions.

IAR President Andy Rudolph sat down recently with General Counsel Richelle Cohen Mossler to discuss purchase agreement contingencies designed to protect buyers and sellers, acceptable and unacceptable reasons to cancel an agreement (and potential legal damages involved), issues with third-party contract addenda and more!

Deals can certainly get sidetracked by issues arising from the home inspection…but when can sellers refuse to budge on requested repairs, how ironclad is the “as is” agreement and how do inspections impact future disclosures? Get up to code (the Indiana Code, that is) by inspecting the latest Legal Q&A.