by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Most counties get along with just one association. Now, St. Johns County has two as the Jacksonville-based Northeast Florida Association of Realtors has formed a St. Johns Council.
On the surface, it will directly compete with the established and active St. Augustine/St. Johns County Board of Realtors but Kay Seitzinger, the 2006 NEFAR president who oversaw the new council’s establishment, said it was just an indication of NEFAR’s growth since the merger of the Jacksonville Beach and Jacksonville boards of Realtors in 1996 and establishment of councils in Clay and Putnam since.
According to NEFAR, 2001, there were 3,057 Realtor members in 2001. Today, there are almost 7,000.
We asked the principals of the two associations their opinions.
Why did NEFAR do it?
“The rationale for setting up the St. Johns Council was to provide a mechanism for NEFAR members who work in the SR 210, World Golf Village and Palencia corridor to hold Multiple Listing Service caravans, which in turn benefit the sellers and buyers that we are working with in this area,” said Seitzinger. “In addition, Realtors in the area will have greater opportunities for education, networking and the ability to discuss work related issues in the field. NEFAR’s intent is to be of service to our members in the same way as our Beaches, Putnam, Clay County and Northside councils currently function. The Council is set up in the same way as those area councils in that it is self supporting by the members who participate rather than by NEFAR.”
Who is it for?
“We are doing something unique in that you do not have to be a NEFAR member to attend these council meetings,” said John Chapman, general manager of Century 21 A1A Realty and chairman of the new council. And Realtors don’t have to be a member of NEFAR to join the council caravan.
“Plus, they can even put the properties they have listed in the caravan. The biggest thing is that the area, especially the WGV, is like ‘no man’s land’ and it needs to be seen.”
NEFAR’s council will hold a monthly breakfast and a weekly caravan of properties.
“The monthly meetings last about an hour,” said Chapman. “The idea is to share information, marketing and bring in some speakers on topics that affect our business.”
Chapman is a past chair of the Putnam Council, past president of the St. Augustine/St. Johns County Board of Realtors and a recent Florida Association of Realtors District one vice president.
Getting the ball rolling
“In December of 2005, NEFAR president Linda Sherrer of Prudential Network Realty sent a letter to the St. Augustine/St. Johns County Board of Realtors asking for a meeting to discuss the issues that we both faced due to the tremendous growth along the SR 210, WGV and Palencia corridor,” said Seitzinger. “Also to attend that meeting was NEFAR attorney Jeffrey Marks, to assure that the two associations did not violate any antitrust laws as we are contiguous associations crossing the geographic boundaries set up for us.”
The meeting happened, but nothing was finalized or decided.
What does St. Johns think?
Karen Palmer, the president of the St. Augustine/St. Johns County board, thinks the new NEFAR St. Johns Council is a great idea, and she’s interested in working with NEFAR to address the lockbox, MLS and caravan issues.
“Since NEFAR has taken the lead and done it, what I would like to see now is us all working together and coming up with a common solution,” said Palmer. “This area from WGV up to St. Johns County line and maybe into Duval County was really not served by either board. Now that our area is exploding, it’s becoming more and more important to have access to both boards.
“If there is someone showing a house and the people are looking in Northeast Florida, the NEFAR agents need to be able to show our listings and the St. Augustine agents need to be able to show their listings. What has happened is that we have to have two lockboxes on all of our listings - and they all go into two separate MLS’s with different rules and regulations.”
How is St. Johns reacting?
In response to the growing needs of the Realtors in St. Johns County, the St. Augustine/St Johns County board is opening up a satellite office on CR 210. They have also added a second caravan for the WGV and CR 210 corridor to be held on Thursdays.
Chapman said since they started this caravan, he doesn’t want to reinvent the wheel by also having a caravan, but NEFAR members can’t participate or show listings in the St. Augustine/St. Johns board caravan unless they are secondary members or the board decides to allow non-St. Augustine/St. Johns County members to put their listings on the caravan. Until that happens, a NEFAR council caravan of NEFAR and St. Augustine/St. Johns County board properties in the WGV and CR 210 corridor is still needed.
“The St. Augustine/St. Johns County Board of Realtors responded to the need by opening a satellite office because it is in St. Johns County and NEFAR is responding by creating a separate council and hopefully these two groups will work together,” said Palmer. “We need to get the two groups together, find some common denominators and figure out the solutions to those three things: lockboxes, MLS and the caravan. I think the solutions are right there, we just have to figure them out.”
How can the associations work together?
Both have the same goal: to facilitate shared lockbox access and shared MLS information, allowing members of the separate associations to access each other’s property listings and information.
The St. Augustine/St. Johns County Board of Realtors use InnoVia MLS and NEFAR uses FlexMLS.
NEFAR’s Flex MLS system has tools in place to allow the sharing of information from other MLS systems, as does the InnoVia MLS.
Currently, both boards use the same Supra electronic lockbox system. Both have their own keys and boxes.
“We want to have a shared ability to go in through the lockboxes so it benefits both parties,” said Seitzinger.
Did You Know?
• Twelve percent of recent home sales were completed by the sellers themselves. Of those FSBO (FRED: WHAT”S FSBO?) transactions, 40 percent of sellers knew the buyer. Sellers in small towns and rural areas are more likely to sell without the assistance of a real estate agent than those in urban, resort or suburban locations.
(2006 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers)
How will two associations benefit brokers and agents?
The boards have had a working relationship since 2003 under a reciprocal agreement.
“Understand, we have a working relationship with NEFAR and the Flagler County Board of Realtors,” said Blanchard. “With that, we have people who cross over jurisdictional lines. We accommodate them as they accommodate our people. A contiguous board is one that we offer reciprocal information to.”
Blanchard said they also service Realtors from Duval, Putnam, Clay and Flagler counties plus Daytona Beach.
“I’m sure NEFAR is in the same boat we are,” said Blanchard. “Because we are such a large county and the same thing with Duval, they are trying to service those crossover members that are down in this area and vice versa.
The agreements that we have in place, we’ve had for a long time which has to do with reciprocal agreements to share MLS information among members. As far as lockbox and key card, they are available to members of the MLS under the reciprocal agreement.”
Blanchard said most boards have some type of agreement with associations that have agents who wish to do business out of their area.
“As long as the listing that is put in our system is put in the primary MLS, they can come down here and ask to be a reciprocal broker that allows a single agent or multiple agents under that broker to use the system if theywish. NEFMLS offers us the same agreement,” said Blanchard. “Agents in St. Augustine, as long as their listings are in the their primary MLS, which would be here, can go up and put their listings into the NEFMLS and only the broker or the agents under that broker who wish to use the system can have access. Those agents and the broker can utilize the system under the reciprocal agreement and vice versa. We offer that to basically anyone in District One.”
Blanchard said the offices are only billed for the specific agents and brokers who want to use the system. Also, an NEFAR agent can put a single property in the St. Augustine/St. Johns County Board of Realtors MLS system for a fee under the reciprocal agreement, they just wouldn’t have access to the MLS.
The reciprocal agreement has been in place since 2003, but the agreement does not address the current issues of lockboxes, caravans and the sharing of all MLS information.
“We are all under the same umbrellas,” said Blanchard. “We all have basically the same bylaws and rules and regulations because we are chartered under the National Association of Realtors. Under that is the Florida Association of Realtors and each board has its own bylaws and rules and regulations. In that context, we all, not just NEFAR and St. Augustine/St. Johns County Board of Realtors, try to work together in some shape or form within the limits and bounds of their bylaws and board of directors.
“I can tell you that we have had some issues, but it takes a while to iron everything out and find solutions. I know our board certainly has been discussing a variety of things and I’m sure their board is too. I think this year is going to hopefully be a very positive year. I’d like to think so. We have our new office opening on CR 210. Just like anything that has growing pains, we continue to try to serve the membership to the best of our ability. I think NEFAR does the same thing. With that said we are all going to work together hopefully and strive to solve any issues we have.”
If indeed, NEFAR is expanding its territory, is Nassau County next?
“At this time, development in northern Duval County, while expanding dramatically, has not reached the same ‘critical mass’ for our members and their sellers and buyers as in northern St. Johns County,” said Seitzinger, a Realtor with Watson.
“I feel sure that as the population growth of the greater Jacksonville area continues to move to the north, NEFAR will look into forming a council in the area as well. Again, we would also like to work with the Amelia Island/Nassau County Association with regards to lockbox access and data sharing in order to make it easier for members of both of our associations to market and sell their properties.”
The NEFAR council held its first meeting a few months ago to discuss the lockbox, caravan and MLS issues. Blanchard, Seitzinger, Chapman, Palmer and Ron Stephan, executive vice president and general manager of Northeast Florida Multiple Listing Service were all there to participate in discussion. By the end of the meeting, representatives from both boards said they would take the issues back to their respective boards to discuss finding a solution.
Stephan, who offered up several scenarios that could work for both boards said from an MLS perspective that he estimates it taking about a year for all of the issues to be resolved.
“I think the meeting went very well,” said Seitzinger.
Chapman agreed.
“What we need to do is to get the two boards talking via a task force, board of directors, presidents or whatever it takes to maybe work some of these issues out,” said Chapman.
Since the last meeting, Stephan announced that the NEFMLS board has voted to approve its participation in MLS Advantage, which gives statewide visibility for all brokers and Realtors in the state of Florida to have access to their private listing data.
“OK. We have half of our issues have been solved on the NEFAR end,” said Chapman. “Some of the reasons the Council was formed were shared lockbox access, caravans and sharing of the MLS system. Obviously MLS Advantage, if we can get everyone on board will solve a lot of our MLS problems. Also, the board unanimously agreed that if you are a St. Augustine primary member and you have St. Augustine Supra keys and not NEFAR keys, your keys will open NEFAR lockboxes at no additional charge to you once we get Supra to do their thing. That’s half the battle.”
If St. Augustine Board of Realtors would get on board with MLS Advantage and have SUPRA update their boxes to allow NEFAR members access. many of the problems would be solved and customers better served as a result, he said.
“I want all St. Augustine members to talk to everyone and say that NEFAR is doing it for us and all that they are asking is that we reciprocate,” said Chapman. “Then the NEFAR members can then open St. Augustine boxes. We still are battling on caravan, but we are going to work on that a little bit more.”
Palmer was also in attendance and said her board has formed a task force and is still considering their options.
“It is possible and I’m sure if the accessibility of the lockboxes can go one way, it can go the other,” said Palmer. “One of the problems is the compensation. If someone has access to a house, but not access to compensation (through MLS) they may not get paid. But if both boards decide to the MLS Advantage, then that solves the problem. That’s why he (Chapman) said we are halfway there.”