Howard County Association of REALTORS^®
May President's Report
by Ilene S. Kessler
May 6, 1999

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Congratulations to every homeowner in the state of Maryland! Everyone was a winner with the passage of SB677/HB897 making semi-annual taxes mandatory in the State of Maryland. Thank you for all of your calls. You were great. This was the single biggest victory for Maryland Association of Realtors^® and it could not have been done without the strong grass roots efforts of all of us. Every homeowner owes us thanks!

Thank you for stopping by to thank our Howard County state delegation for their support of our bill. Our legislative breakfast on April 30 was a huge success. For those of you who were not there, please thank your local delegates if you have the opportunity. We ran into no opposition with our forward thinking delegates in both the House and the Senate.

Special congratulations to Phyllis Cook, Chairman, and Beverly Hicks, Vice Chairman, of our Fair Housing Committee. Not only did Howard County have the most entries in the Year 2000 Fair Housing Calendar, but we had three winners. Therefore, one quarter of the year of pictures will be from Howard County students. Our local winners were:

Congratulations to our Social Committee, co-chaired by Sara Lenes and Kathy Smith, for another awesome Spring Fling. A fabulous time was had by all. Special thanks to Tommy Roland and his band, Overdrive, for a spectacular job. Please note the sponsorship list that is enclosed and thank those people who gave their money to underwrite this event. A flier is enclosed for our June 8th trip to Atlantic City. Please sign up now!

The Realtor of the Year, Distinguished Sales Associate, Community Service Award, and Affiliate of the Year Breakfast will be held on Thursday, June 10, at the Ten Oaks Ballroom. The breakfast will be from 8:30 until 10:30. A flier is enclosed for you to sign up for this event.

The Education Committee, co-chaired by Vivian Feen and Norm Judd, had another outstanding program, "Appraisal Forum". Their next program will be on May 20th, entitled, "Residential Rental Basics". A flier is enclosed for your information as well as the ever popular Regional Educational Calendar.

Also, I would be remiss if I did not give you your monthly reminder to give a donation to RPAC. We truly could not have achieved the legislative victory that we did without your donations. We need a donation from every realtor to make the kind of achievement we had this year possible in the future. And for those of you who have already made a donation--thank you for insuring these kinds of victories.

Finally, I would like to remind all agents that listings must be entered into the MRIS inventory within 48 hours. If you suspect an agent has not entered a listing, please call MRIS and have them investigate. MRIS will enforce strict fines beginning at $100.00.

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