This Just In: US Senate Overwhelmingly Passes Flood Insurance

The US Senate overwhelmingly passed the bipartisan flood insurance reform legislation that the House approved earlier this month by a 72-22 margin. The President is expected to sign the legislation in the next few days.

The legislation that passed today:

•  REPEALS (the original Senate bill only delayed) the property-sales provision in the Biggert Waters law (sec. 205) that has triggered the most excessive and inaccurate premium increases over the past year. 
• REFUNDS (the original Senate bill would not refund) excessive premiums to those who have already seen an increase but were not warned by FEMA prior to purchasing the property. (This would apply to ALL purchases of property including purchases of a second home or commercial property). 
• RESTORES (the original Senate bill only delayed) the grandfathering of lower rates when new flood maps are issued by repealing Section 207 of the law before any increases can be implemented. 

Thanks to all of you for your hard work in getting this done over the past couple months. This is a major success for REALTORS®, homeowners and families all over the U.S.

One million international listings on REALTOR.com

The National Association of REALTORS® reported today that REALTOR.com/international has broken the 1 million listing threshold! The site, which launched in November at NAR’s Annual Conference in Anaheim, now boasts listings in 12 countries around the globe and is translatable into 11 languages. Click here for details on this powerful new tool for both REALTORS® and their globally-minded clients.

At the close of 2011 REALTOR.com launched a new global site featuring international listings, translation services in 11 languages, and currency & unit conversion features. In the short amount of time since the site launched, there are more than 4 million active listings already on the site, including over 1 million International listings. Realtor.com® International increases the exposure of agents' listings currently on REALTOR.com® to global buyers and strengthens the site's presence in international markets. NAR continues to work with its global partners to aggregate non-U.S. listings and in the coming months additional countries will be featured.

Tell Us! Take our Survey on Global Real Estate

Are you interested in global real estate? Just getting started? Been doing global real estate for many years?

Tell us! SBAOR is interested in learning about your experience in global real estate and what kind of services we can offer to help you improve your business. Please take a few minutes on this survey, and share it with your colleagues.

Take Our Survey

Want to buy an island? Oh yes you do.

The National Association of REALTORS® points you to some tips they found for checking out island deals. These are some great ideas to pass along to your clients.

Our friends in the Bahamas have compiled some sage advice for folks looking to take advantage of island bargains, but their information applies to all buyers hoping to score a sound investment. We hope you will share this with your members and encourage them to pass this advice to their global buyers.

RSPS course, November 21 in San Gabriel Valley

Don't miss this great opportunity to work on your RSPS certification on November 21 brought to you by our friends at the West San Gabriel Valley Association of REALTORS®. See the attached flyer for more information.

Interested in taking your CIPS course somewhere special? Study CIPS in Costa Rica, January 2012

The Costa Rica Global Association of REALTORS® is offering the popular and comprehensive Certified International Property Specialist (CIPS) program January 9-14, 2012. Take this required course in order to work toward your CIPS designation and join the worldwide CIPS network.

More information about CIPS is here. Check out the Costa Rica CIPS flyer here, and see the calendar of other CIPS programs around the world here.

Looking for a TRC course in Southern California? Look no further!

The Arcadia Association of REALTORS® is offering the Transnational Referral Certification course on October 20. From their website:

Thursday, October 20th starting at 12:00 p.m. at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Arcadia. This certification will prepare real estate professionals to make and receive compensated referrals using the Transnational Referral system. Be prepared to work with agents in other countries! Attend the course for FREE to learn fantastic information. If you would like the certification upon completion of the course, the fee is $130. You must RSVP for this event. No walk-in's will be accepted.