Upcoming Meetings
April 1: General Membership Meeting. Meeting. MLS Tour.
April 8: MLS Meeting. MLS Tour.
April 15: MLS Meeting. MLS Tour.
April 22: MLS Meeting. MLS Tour.
April 29: MLS Meeting. MLS Tour.
The purpose of a home inspection is to reveal the pluses, minuses and maintenance issues in a house. There is no such thing as a perfect house, but a home inspection gives buyers a good idea of issues and expenses they'll be facing. A certified home inspector will belong to an organization such as CREA/ASHI and the report may include over 1000 detailed items.
For more information contact your local REALTOR® or Home Inspector.
The president of the National Association of REALTORS® is asking members of the association to join him
in a campaign to halt a proposal under consideration by the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department
that would allow federally chartered banks to engage in real estate brokerage and property management. "Should
this regulation be adopted, several large financial services holding companies will quickly dominate our industry
by buying up brokerages or driving others out of business," NAR President Richard A. Mendenhall said. "In a
short time, through sheer market power, a few huge banks could control a significant portion of real estate
brokerage, relocation and management businesses and change our industry for the worse," Mendenhall added.
"Banking-controlled real estate brokerages will become marketing arms of mortgage departments and other services
banks sell. We're concerned they will be more interested in making a loan or selling mortgage insurance than
helping a buyer find the best deal," Mendenhall noted.
Mendenhall said the rule could lead to higher costs for consumers, should banks "bundle" and cross-sell products
and services through captive real estate brokerage subsidiaries. "Banks will control the real estate transaction
end-to-end, creating opportunities for extra charges and add-ons that consumers may not need," he said. Mendenhall
added that NAR is also concerned that banks would be able to share confidential customer financial data with their
captive real estate brokerages, jeopardizing privacy and creating an unfair competitive advantage over independent
brokerages.
In October 1944, twelve association members attended a dinner meeting held in the Hotel Tioga.
They came to hear an update by representatives from the F.H.A. office in San Francisco. Today,
our association has five hundred members. Ninety members attended our last meeting.
In 1944, the association rented office space. In 1996, we moved into our new building on Main
Street in Merced. The back entrance of our building opens onto the Arts Alley. We share the
Arts Alley with the Merced Multicultural Arts Center, the Merced Civic Center and the Shannon
Parcade. Our members and guests enjoy the free parking in the Parcade. Our main meeting room
can accommodate 250 members. The Hotel Tioga is still a Merced landmark. In fact, it is right
around the corner from our Association office.
The entire real estate section on homes for sale in the Merced Sun-Star in 1944 was contained
in two columns. Descriptions were brief. The term "modern" was used a lot, along with the
number of rooms. Today, there is a section in the Merced Sun-Star devoted to real estate
using approximately eight pages each Saturday. The last monthly Home Search publication
contained ninety pages. Although property descriptions are extensive, the term "modern" is
seldom used. The number of rooms has been changed to the number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
Over the years, REALTORS® have made important contributions to Merced County. McConnell
State Recreation Area was named after our 1946 association President W. F. McConnell. Recently,
our members worked closely with local community leaders to promote the building of the tenth
campus of the University of California at Merced.
The population of Merced County has grown from 47,000 in 1944, to more than 215,000 in 2006.
We are centrally located between Fresno and Modesto. Our office is one mile north of Highway
99. We hope you will stop in to see us, if you are ever in Merced.
The doors open at 7:30 a.m. The programs begin at 8:00 a.m. Only MLS Participants and Subscribers are allowed to go on the MLS Tour.
When making an offer on a house, experts advise that a home inspection should always be a contingency.
A competent home inspector should look at all of a home's systems:
Submitted by: Consumer Protection Committee, Merced County Association of REALTORS®
In October 1944, coffee was twenty-nine cents a pound, the average price of a "modern"
six room home in Merced County was $6,500, and the Merced County Association of REALTORS®
was founded. Today, the median price of a three bedroom home in Merced County is $345,000.
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