Every time I prepare an issue of Commonwealth to print, I get a membership count that I send to the printer. When I started (a little more than five years ago) it was in the upper 30,000s; with the burst of the housing bubble it dropped to the … [Read more...]

VAR’s popular Residential Contract of Purchase (Form 600) has gotten an update for the Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) provision to help clarify the law for Realtors® and consumers. The June/July issue of Commonwealth – hitting your mailbox this … [Read more...]

File this under "got your back": Check out who’s spending the most money lobbying on Capitol Hill, courtesy of OpenSecrets.org: That’s $8.5 million so far this year. In 2012, NAR spent a total of $41.5 million (and was also the … [Read more...]

Congrats to Michael Wilmore of Coldwell Banker Residential in Sterling — he’s the winner of our second $100 Amex gift card for taking our 2013 member survey! If you haven’t taken the survey yet, you have through the first day of summer: … [Read more...]

Once upon a time there were two shamans in a tribe. They both tried to predict how bad the upcoming winter would be. One threw rabbit bones and predicted a harsh winter. The other threw squirrel bones and predicted a mild winter. The winter was mild, … [Read more...]

There are a handful of tax breaks for homeowners who improve the energy efficiency of their homes — essentially, the government reduces your taxes if you make your house greener. Now a bill introduced in the Senate by senators Michael Bennet … [Read more...]