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Marilyn D. Glazer, GRI, CRS, CRB, M.S.Ed.

RESPA Do's (Allowable activities)

Under RESPA (Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act) Settlement service providers are real estate brokers and agents, mortgage brokers and bankers, title companies and title agents, home warranty companies, hazard insurance agents, appraisers, flood and tax service providers and home and pest inspectors.

A title agent provides a food tray for an open house, posts a sign in a prominent location indicating that the event was sponsored by the title agent, and distributes brochures about its services.

A title company hosts an event that various individuals, including real estate agents, will attend and posts a sign identifying the title company's contribution to the event in a prominent location for all attending to see and distributes brochures regarding the title company's services.

A real estate agent and mortgage broker jointly advertise their services in a real estate magazine, provided that each individual pays a share of the costs in proportion with his or her prominence in the advertisement.

A lender pays a real estate agent fair market value to rent a desk, copy machine, and phone line in the real estate agent's office for a loan officer to pre-qualify applicants.

A title agent pays for dinner for a real estate agent during which business is discussed, provided that such diners are not a regular of expected occurrence.

Source: NAR's Real Estate Outlook, April 2005
More information available at:
www.REALTOR.org/GAPublic.nsf/pages/respadosdonts

Today I was on the telephone with one of my clients, one frustrated client named Keri. She told me that she had been sitting at her computer for a few hours trying to find a picture she thought had been saved. I could relate to her pain.

I asked her to press her Start button, then press the Search tab, or in her case, Find. I told her to list the words she used when naming this lost picture file in the appropriate spot and press Search . Keri was amazed at what she found, lots of files but not the phantom picture.

We then tried to retrieve her recently saved documents. Again we started with the Start button but this time we went to Documents and- voila- a list of recently saved files appeared. Keri found the picture she needed in that list!

To email the photo, I showed my client how to right click on the document to find a menu that included Send to. Selecting this option automatically opens an email message with the document attached!

If you happen to be working in Word you can easily send a document as an attachment to an email message. With the document on your screen click on File then click Send to . You will see several choices, one of which is Mail Recipient . This choice will attach your document to an email message. Fill in the address, type your message and press Send . Try it!

Chris Puszynski
Chris@Concare.com.