ALBERT HEPP COMPLETES SERVICE AS REALTOR ASSOCIATION CHAIR

My year in Executive Committee leadership of the Realtor Association has ended. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve and to meet so many excellent professionals in the real estate industry. The service has made me a more informed professional, and I look forward to more involvement in the future. I would like to thank lots of people for their assistance, but I don’t think you necessarily want to read a list of names. However, one person that must be mentioned is Mike Hoffman-thank you for setting an excellent example of how to lead.
I am proud of what the Association accomplished. The two biggest accomplishments were improving professional education requirements and supporting legislation that was signed into law that bans Private Transfer Fees on real estate transactions. Private Transfer Fees are insidious fees that require a fee to be paid to a private party every time a real property is sold. They were created by some crafty developers who put this requirement on new homes, with the plan that they would earn money forever, whenever that home was transferred from one party to another. Not surprisingly, the legislation did not have a single “no” vote against it.