12 minute read
Publisher’s Desk
One Year Later, Stronger Than Ever
It was a year ago this month—on March 20, 2020 to be exact—that we went into lockdown here in Connecticut, with non-essential businesses shuttering their doors, schools shifting to virtual learning, and travel restrictions firmly put in place. Like most of you, however, RISMedia never slowed down. We pivoted to a work-from-home environment, put new tools in place to keep our team communicating, connected with our clients and readers to find out how we could best serve them during this critical time, put forth a plan for virtual events, and forged ahead. Today, we reflect on the past year with sadness for the suffering and strife it brought to so many, but also with great pride and amazement for how we weathered the storm and are so much the better for it. One year later, and we’re reaping the benefits of the many creative ideas and important technologies we implemented that will continue on well past the pandemic. I know that many of you share a very similar experience. For example, in this month’s cover story (page 28), we do a deep dive into how the leaders at RE/MAX kicked into high gear to guide their global network of more than 135,000 agents to success throughout the pandemic. The results a year later? A host of modern programs and resources to give RE/MAX brokers and agents an important advantage for the future. As CEO Adam Contos says, “We’re never satisfied with the status quo. We’re always exploring new and better ways of getting things done.” As we move further into 2021, finding “new and better ways of getting things done,” as Adam says, will be a mantra for many real estate professionals and the brokers and service providers who serve them. That mantra will continue to drive us here at RISMedia, as well, starting with our next virtual event on April 8— RISMedia’s Spring Into Action, co-presented by the National Association of REALTORS® (action.rismedia.com)—the unveiling of our exciting new brand refresh in May, followed by a comprehensive revamp of rismedia.com. We are so excited by the creativity and expertise put into this project by our partners, Morgan Carey and the team at Real Estate Webmasters, and we cannot wait to share it with you! Remember, don’t slow down in the face of challenge—continue to innovate. Innovation will get you over the hurdles today and leave you standing stronger than ever tomorrow.
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John E. Featherston CEO & Publisher
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Agent/Broker Name Headshot Brokerage Logo Contact Information Website URL Property Listings
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Paycheck Protection Program: Forgiveness Options
This column is brought to you by the NAR Real Estate Services group.
by Erin Stackley
In its year-end 2020 Omnibus and COVID-19 relief bill (“Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021”), Congress reauthorized the Small Business Administration (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), adding $284.5 billion in funding and extending the program through September 2021. The new law also expanded eligibility to certain qualifying 501(c)(6) organizations and allows the hardest-hit small businesses to access second-draw PPP loans should they be necessary.
While these changes affect access to the loan program, some early borrowers are now beginning to think about forgiveness options for the loans they took out in 2020. For many, this process may seem confusing and burdensome, feelings that are compounded by the fact that the program’s requirements and its forgiveness application forms have evolved since it was created in last April’s CARES Act.
At the time this article was written, the SBA was offering three PPP forgiveness applications, each with different eligibility requirements. For all PPP borrowers, forgiveness applications must be filed with their SBA lender (not the agency itself), while borrowers have up to 10 months from the last day of their covered period to file before they must begin to make payments (and pay interest). Borrowers can also apply for forgiveness at any point before the maturity date, which is either two or five years from the loan origination.
Borrowers who took out loans of $150,000 or less are now eligible to use a simplified forgiveness application, Form 3508S. This form was created by Congress to reflect the reality that many of these borrowers are sole proprietors, independent contractors or very small businesses that lack the resources to consult with attorneys or accountants to review their applications and may struggle to complete the more complex forms on their own. Form 3508S is a single-page document (with an optional demographic-information page), which simply requires borrowers to self-certify that they have met the program requirements for forgiveness. (These borrowers should still maintain records backing up their certifications for at least six years after they file, in case they are audited.)
Borrowers who took out loans larger than $150,000 but who met certain program requirements are eligible to use Form 3508EZ, a threepage forgiveness application. To be eligible, the business must not have reduced employee salaries by more than 25% while keeping the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees on staff, or they must not have reduced employee salaries by more than 25% and were unable to operate at the same level as on Feb. 15, 2020 due to health and safety restrictions. This form has fewer calculations than the full forgiveness application and requires less documentation. Borrowers must account for how the loan was used and certify that they met payroll and employee retention requirements for forgiveness. In addition, documentation showing payroll and non-payroll costs during the covered period must be provided.
Finally, the full forgiveness application—Form 3508—is for all other borrowers (although technically any borrower can use it). At five pages long, it is the lengthiest form and includes a “PPP Forgiveness Calculation Form,” the “PPP Schedule A” and the Schedule A worksheet. Combined, these forms require that borrowers show how loans were allocated while recording employee numbers/salary levels during the covered period. Documentation verifying payroll and non-payroll costs as well as salary levels and any reduction in FTE employees is also required.
Regardless of which form a borrower uses, questions about what they are required to provide should be brought to their SBA lender, who can guide them through the process. Additional resources can be found at the SBA website (SBA.gov) or at NAR’s coronavirus page: nar.realtor/ coronavirus. RE
Erin Stackley is NAR’s senior representative of Commercial Legislative Policy.
Big Data: We Have It—Now What Are We Doing With It?
MODERATOR:
Cindy Ariosa
Senior Vice President, Regional Manager, Long & Foster Real Estate, Chantilly, Virginia; Liaison for Large Firms and Industry Relations, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR)
PARTICIPANTS:
Matthew Gardner
Chief Economist, Windermere Real Estate, Seattle, Washington
Joan Docktor
President, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, REALTORS®, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Lacey Conway
President, Latter and Blum, Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana
Mark Stark
CEO/Owner, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Arizona, California, Nevada Properties, Las Vegas, Nevada
The Power Broker Roundtable is brought to you by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) and Cindy Ariosa, NAR’s liaison for Large Firms & Industry Relations. Watch for this column each month, where we address broker issues, concerns and milestones.
Cindy Ariosa: Big data! We have only to look at the pop-ups on our computer screens to know that Big Daddy Data knows more about us than many of our closest friends, from what we like to read in bed to where we’re dreaming of going on our next vacation. As brokers, we have more big data readily available than many of us yet understand. So, we begin this month’s discussion with a man who’s been using big data for the better part of his career. Matthew, what do we need to know?
Matthew Gardner: To begin with, as we’re all aware, we can’t look at housing in isolation. The market is influenced by many things: demographics, interest rates, joblessness, the economy—a whole range of facts and figures to be interpreted. For me, it’s pulling from a plethora of sources—the Labor Department, the Census Bureau, the Case-Shiller Index on forbearance, construction lending, to name a few—and parsing through the data to pull out the trends that can aid in making housing predictions.
CA: The kind of indicators you share with the industry through your quarterly Gardner Report…
MG: Right. It’s one of many data insights real estate professionals can use to help them win and sell more listings.
Joan Docktor: RealScout, a listings alert platform we like, uses our own listings and the Buyer Match by Buyside solution. It pulls together all the buyer data in our databases and matches it with our listings. Our agents like having it all in a single dashboard. It’s smart data that brings them closer to their clients. Whether it’s platforms like these or the chat feature on our website, AI is such a powerful tool.
Lacey Conway: No question, most of these aggregated data platforms know our customers better than we do—and sometimes we feel like we’re not on the cutting edge if we don’t dive in to make the most of it. At the same time, it’s a delicate topic. We know it would give us a better understanding about buyer and seller behavior, but our agents are a little wary about sharing their CRM client data.
Mark Stark: We use Buyside, too. It’s been a great prospecting tool. But we’re careful about the analytics we adopt. Every decision we make is based on what’s best for our customers—so the technology we use has to be hyperlocal and provide real-time data. We’re not there yet with all these analytics.
- MARK STARK CEO/Owner, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Arizona, California, Nevada Properties
CA: You don’t see them as a way to move the needle?
MS: Analytics don’t create deals. If there are 5 million sales in a year in the country, how much is my share going to change if I pay for more analytics?
JD: Ideally, these services complement each other. We don’t want technology on top of technology, leaving less time for human interaction. But we’re open to listening to the vendors who come to us with amazing programs.
MG: For one thing, they answer the questions our clients ask us every day: Is this a good time to buy? Where are prices trending? We want our agents to be trusted advisors. Big data can help them do that.
LC: We are certainly more aware of the data. Sometimes, it’s almost scary how AI gives you information whether you want it or not—like Netflix telling us what we want to watch. But we haven’t been focused on evaluating platforms. Maybe it’s time to do more of that. RE
8For an expanded version of this article and other NAR Power Broker Roundtable topics, please visit www.rismedia.com.
