The Oregon Association of REALTORS® (OAR) will be holding an annual convention this year, for the first time since 2007.

Stampede to Success will be taking place in Sunriver, OR, September 25-28th. The convention promises a variety of networking opportunities, educational events, and fun. Featured speakers include Dr. Lawrence Yun of the National Association of REALTORS®; Karel Murray, a real estate expert and humorist; and Jeff Beals, an author and motivational speaker.

RMLS™ will be in attendance at the convention, including having a booth at the trade show.

Instead of producing our usual RMLS™ Fall Trade Fair event, we’ll be joining forces with OAR and other Oregon MLS organizations at the trade show, which will have over 40 vendors. SentriLock will be in attendance as well—if you still haven’t had the chance to view the new SentriLock lockbox system, the trade show will be your last chance before our exchange events begin!

See you in September!

Register for Stampede to Success, the 2013 OAR Convention.

This Week’s Lockbox Activity

For the week of December 3-9 2012, these charts show the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened Supra lockboxes in Oregon and Washington. The numbers in both Oregon and Washington fell this week.

For a larger version of each chart, visit the RMLS™ photostream on Flickr.

The Pacific Northwest gets a lot of rain, and stormwater runoff can be challenging to manage. Many cities in the region are starting to build green street facilities in residential areas to reduce the risk of flooding and provide other benefits.

The City of Portland recently released a guide for REALTORS® and homeowners called “Buying or Selling a House with a Green Street Facility.” The guide outlines basic information about these facilities, including how to report a need for maintenance.

Additionally, the caretakers of these facilities remind REALTORS® and homeowners of the following:

• Place “for sale” signs in yards rather than green street facilties or between curbs and sidewalks.
• Inform clients that green streets are publicly owned stormwater management facilities.
• If a green street facility near a property on the market needs maintenance, contact the City of Portland.

Facilities like these exist outside of Portland as well—REALTORS® in other areas may equally benefit from reviewing these materials.

Corbett, Oregon is located between the Sandy River and Crown Point on the Columbia River Historic Highway. It is at the mouth of the beautiful Columbia River Gorge twenty miles east of Portland on the way to Hood River. The town website proudly proclaims, “Corbett Oregon – We love it here.”

This community was named for Senator Henry Winslow Corbett, one of Oregon’s prominent pioneer citizens. In 1885, Mr. Corbett purchased a nearby farm from Ervine J. Taylor, who had moved down to the Columbia River about the time the railroad was built in 1882.

One of Corbett’s biggest annual events happens this week – A Hometown Fourth of July Fun Fest. This is an all-day East County celebration. The day starts with a Pancake Breakfast and includes events like an old fashioned parade, talent show, auction and ends with the only fireworks show in East County. It also happens to be the third largest in in the Portland Metro area.

This lively tight-knit community of approximately 3,000 people is also known by many Twilighters as one of the locations for the first movie in the Twilight franchise. If you’d like to get a sense of just who lives in Corbett you can visit the Corbett Connector. The blog is run by RMLS™ subscriber Michelle Smith who interviews different residents for each post.

Spotlight: Open Houses

By Nick Church and Mary-Frances Makichen

The National Association of Realtors® has scheduled “National Open House Weekend” for April 28 and 29. This is a great opportunity for Realtors® to showcase the amazing properties currently on the market.

This event actually started in Washington State! For years, several Washington REALTOR^® Associations conducted open-house events. They were so successful that the first state-wide open house weekend was held in 2009. In 2010 the concept went national and nearly every state participated. Once again this year the National Association of REALTORS^® is helping to promote this event. 2012 will be bigger and better with hundreds of thousands of open houses across the nation and currently in 13 other countries! The event has gone global.

What you may not be aware of is that many real estate websites, including our public site www.rmls.com and the National Association of Realtors® site: www.realtor.com, display open house information. This information comes directly from properly entered open house information in RMLSweb.

We know many of you are going to join in on National Open House weekend and want to remind all subscribers to get the most out of your advertising by making sure your open house information is properly entered in RMLSweb. Check out our “How to Enter an Open House on RMLSweb” tutorial for clear instructions and help.

For some quick tips on holding an open house, check out these ideas from Realtor Magazine .

This April, take advantage of free RMLSweb training

Here’s a quick rundown of upcoming real estate events & education for April in Oregon & Southern Washington. If you have an event that is not listed here, please let us know by commenting below. For future events, please send an e-mail to communications (at) rmls (dot) com.

Featured RMLS™ Events:

– April 1: 2010 RMLS™ Trade Fair – 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. – Oregon Convention Center 

Events around the Region:

– April 1-2: The Roseburg Realtors® Exchange Group presents the Southern Oregon Commercial Real Estate Marketing Conference.

– April 10-11 & 17-18: Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland presents The Ultimate Open House New Homes Tour.

– April 12: Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors® (PMAR) hosts Create Your Dream Team!

– April 13: Earth Advantage® presents “What’s Green Building?” class.

– April 16: Grants Pass Association of Realtors® hosts annual Realtor® Of The Year luncheon.

– April 16: East Metro Association of Realtors® hosts Citizen Of The Year Banquet.

– April 22: Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors® (PMAR) presents At Home With Diversity educational event.

– April 22-23: Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland presents EcoVative Building Conference and Expo.

– April 23: Fair Housing Council of Oregon presents its 20th Anniversary Event.

– April 28: Women’s Council of Realtors® Portland Chapter hosts a Fashion Show.

Also, if you’re an RMLS™ subscriber, we have lots of FREE opportunities for continuing education credit at a location near you; click the link for your area to view the April Training Calendar:

– Coos County
– Eastern Oregon
– Eugene
– Florence
– Gresham
– Hood River
– Portland
– Roseburg
– Salem
– Vancouver

RMLS™ will no longer be printing contracts or input forms