REALTORS^® From Eleven States and Brazil Accepted Into Challenging Six-Month Program

CHICAGO (Date) – Seventeen REALTORS^® who have demonstrated personal and professional success in their respective local markets recently were selected to participate in the 2012 class of the National Association of REALTORS^® (NAR) Leadership Academy, an initiative designed to nurture and inspire new leaders in the real estate industry.

              The 2012 Leadership Academy class is comprised of REALTORS^® from 11 states, and our first ever international participant from Southern Brazil. The participants will gain and expand upon existing leadership skills and abilities while learning more about NAR as the voice for real estate.

Academy participants, who had to undergo an application and interview process conducted by the Academy Advisory Board, will undergo a challenging series of team-building exercises and workshops scheduled over six months.

Since the Academy was formed in 2008, over 100 REALTORS^® have graduated and many advance to serve in volunteer leadership positions within their respective state and local associations, as well as within NAR.

These REALTORS^® were selected for the 2012 Class:

• Eric Sain, GRI from Palm Beach, FL
• Tray E. Bates, CCIM, SIOR,  from Corpus Christi, TX 
• J. Russell Boyce, CRS, GRI, from White Plains, MD 
• Nikki Jean Boyd, ABR, GRI, PMN, from Twin Falls, ID 
• Jennifer Branchini, CRS, GRI, SRES, from Pleasanton, CA 
• Brett C. Brown, ABR, CIPS, CRB, CRS,  GRI, RSPS, ePRO from Naples, FL 
• Alexander R. Chaparro from Chicago, IL 
• Brian Copeland, ABR, CRS from Nashville, TN 
• Scott Lalli, CRS from Kaysville, UT 
• Kaki Lybbert, CRS from Denton, TX 
• Heather G. Ozur from La Quinta, CA 
• Gary J. Reggish, CRS, SFR from Novi, MI 
• Alessandro Ricardo Stüpp, Blumenau, Santa Catarina, Brazil  
• Tamara Suminski from Redondo Beach, CA 
• Linda J. Trevor, ABR, CRS, PMN, SFR, ePRO from Cary, NC
• Duane “Dewey” Uhlir from Fargo, ND 
• Karen Valentine-Pond from Laramie, WY 

 The National Association of Realtors^®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing more than 1.1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

RAPB has received a letter from Twin Lakes South Condominium Association in Stuart, Florida concerning proper interviews for new residents and or/renters. Please be aware, that any client or customer preparing to buy or rent in Twin Lakes South, must go through the interview process before occupancy. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please call Donna M. DeVries, President  of Twin Lake South Condominium Association at 772-283-6099

Developers aim for foreign capital via investor visas

MIAMI – July 8, 2010 – Finding traditional bank financing for a mixed-use project in Hollywood, Fla., was highly unlikely in the midst of today’s credit crunch.

That’s one reason developer Charles “Chip” Abele turned to an investor visa program as an alternative financing vehicle.

Abele and his partners in the Gold Coast Florida Regional Center are launching efforts to attract foreign nationals to invest in real estate projects, as a way to secure a green card.

“The capital markets have basically shriveled up and the banking industry has pulled back from real estate,” said Abele, chairman and chief executive of the Coral Gables, Fla.-based center. “We’ve got a lot of projects in the pipeline, and we decided we needed to get into the capital business ourselves.”

And Gold Coast is not alone. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has approved 10 regional centers in Florida alone.

Depending on the location of the project, the minimum investment is either $500,000 or $1 million. The visa applicants must also show that their investment generates 10 jobs.

While the EB-5 investor visa program was created by Congress in 1990 for new business development and job creation, industry experts say that during the past year it’s increasingly becoming a popular financing tool for the real estate industry.

“The program has been totally underutilized until recently,” said Ronald Fieldstone, a corporate tax attorney with Arnstein & Lehr in Miami, who has worked on eight EB-5 project approvals across the country, including Gold Coast.

“All of a sudden it’s become a cause celebre, and more people are trying to take advantage of the opportunity,” he said. “It’s a cheaper source of capital to undertake a project that would not otherwise be feasible in this economy.”

Gold Coast just launched plans to begin seeking investors, setting up marketing offices in Venezuela, Mexico, South Africa, Great Britain and China.

Copyright © 2010, The Miami Herald, Elaine Walker. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune News Service.

Join the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches in August for the Florida Real Estate Networking and Study Tour and hear a presentation from Al Zucaro, World Trade Center Palm Beach in reference to the EB-5 VISA and how it can help your foreign clients purchase property in the US. http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/2010-Florida-Realtors-Inbound-Trade-Mission.cfm