Legislative Session Ends with Significant REALTOR® Victories

The 2020 Session adjourned “Sine Die” on March 12 bringing a welcome to the biennial session. In Washington, the Legislature conducts “long sessions” in the odd years (105 days) where they adopt a budget and do the heavy lifting of policy work. The “short sessions” in the even years (60 days) are meant to serve as a supplement to the prior year and addressing any changes to the budget, and bills that were not passed the prior session.

Prior to the 2019 session we polled nearly 1,000 of our members to ask what our priorities should be in this two-year process. They clearly told us that we needed to work on real estate taxes and fees, supporting policies that led to new (preferably first-time) homeownership opportunities and helping restart the condominium market. We accomplished many of those objectives in the 2019 session, and added some significant victories in the 2020 session.

“The 2020 Legislative Session built on the successes we achieved in the 2019 session. We put money back in our members pockets, increased housing supply options for the entire state and defeated several bills that would have brought harm to our industry. It was a great session for our members, homeowners and those who want to become homeowners”

-Kitty Wallace, Washington REALTORS® President

 

TAXES & FEES

The 2019 session saw an unusual bill that lowered the Real Estate Excise Tax (REET) on many properties but raised it on high end properties, to include commercial real estate. All property sales under $1.55 Million (at least 90% of all sales in WA) saw a decrease in real estate excise tax. Predictably, we saw a rush in the commercial real estate market to complete deals before the bills effective date of January 1, 2020 that likely pulled some 2020 transactions into 2019 to avoid the increase. In most non-commercial transactions, you are able to tell sellers you helped put more equity back into their pocket.

We were also able to exempt Real Estate brokerage services from the B&O Tax increase applied to most service businesses. The 2019 B&O Increase came back to the legislature this year for clarification, and once again real estate brokerage services were not included in the service businesses that will pay the B&O increase.

Both bills took effect January 1, 2020 and we’re monitoring the impacts across the industry.

HOMEOWNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

The 2019 session saw the Legislature adopt HB 1923 which incentivized cities to adopt ordinances that would allow “missing middle” types of housing to be built. That bill was extraordinarily successful with over 70 local jurisdictions taking advantage of the bill.

The legislature built off of that success and in 2020 extended the deadline for the incentives and also removed population size restrictions. With this change, cities of all sizes can take advantage of these incentives. We know our smaller cities also want to build missing middle housing and now they will have more tools to make that a reality.

The legislature also furthered legislation on encouraging Accessory Dwelling Units in local jurisdictions, moving local comprehensive plan dates to correspond with data from the US Census, and added an extension of popular incentives in the Multi Family Tax Exemption bill.

WHAT DIDN’T PASS

Most sessions are defined by what bills passed, but bills that didn’t pass are just as important. The 2020 session was no exception to this rule we saw numerous bills that would have dramatically impacted Real Estate fall by the wayside. These included a bill that would have required lawyers on both sides of a transaction in any in-house listing, a new independent contractor test that could have taken away REALTORS® independent contractor status, rent control, just cause eviction, a bill that would have made it easier to implement additional real estate excise tax in certain areas, and a head tax on highly paid employees that would have applied to certain real estate businesses and brokers in King County.

The 2019-2020 Sessions are now a wrap. Our members made their priorities clear, and we were able to take steps to meet those priorities. More work remains- especially on first time home owner opportunities. We will continue to listen to our members and work with legislators in an effort to keep moving the industry forward.

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Why You (and Your Clients) Should be Obsessed with Homesnap

Homesnap has always been built specifically for agents and brokers, and that’s why we proudly provide it as one of our subscription benefits.

You’ll always find new tools that help agents and brokers work more efficiently and effectively. And you won’t find advertisements from other agents on your listings or an iBuyer program that competes with you for business.

But one of the most impressive things about Homesnap is how it can transform the way you work with your clients. Homesnap’s industry-leading client collaboration tools empower you to work better with clients while creating a safe haven so you can protect your client relationships.

Below, we break down these tools to help you understand why so many agents and their clients are obsessed with the Homesnap app.

Homesnap Is Better For Your Clients

Is there anything worse than hearing your clients have fallen in love with a home, and then having to tell them the property has been off the market for a week? You don’t need to worry about outdated listings inside Homesnap.

That’s because Homesnap doesn’t run off public record data, which could be weeks old before it gets refreshed. Our real-time data feed directly powers Homesnap so your clients can browse homes that are actually on the market. They see the same listings that you’d see if you logged into our portal (or Homesnap Pro!).

This direct integration with our data feed powers both Homesnap (for your clients) and Homesnap Pro (for you). It completely transforms their home search experience, so they don’t see all the outdated information that is prevalent in other third-party search portals.

You can still save searches for your clients and keep track of the latest market updates that way, but since your clients have the freedom to browse accurate listing details on their own, you can also empower them to take their home search into their own hands.

After your clients connect with you inside of Homesnap (more later on exactly how to do this), you’ll be alerted immediately whenever they snap or favorite a listing. You can instantly pull up confidential listing data and browse associated listing docs to get the full picture of the property before you discuss it with your clients.

You can also access your clients’ full list of favorites and snaps inside your Homesnap Pro account, so you can review the properties they’re interested in at any time on your phone, tablet, or desktop.

Another feature that agents and consumers love to use is Homesnap’s in-app messaging, which allows you to share new listings and have a conversation with your clients in a single message thread instead of fragmenting your communication through texts and emails.

Plus, any conversations you have about a particular listing will also appear under “Related Conversations” on the actual property listing for easy reference in the future (only you and your clients will see these comments).

Better For You

Homesnap Pro is the one place where you can centralize all your digital communication and access the most up-to-date listing data — but it also protects your client relationships and is free of third-party advertisements.

When your connected clients browse listings, the only agent they will see inside the app is you. Homesnap directs all their questions and comments to you as well.

Homesnap proudly follows Fair Display Guidelines, meaning search results aren’t given preferential ranking, listings are free of third-party agent advertising, and leads are sent to the listing agent for free. Their motto is (and always has been) “your listing, your lead.”

Best of all: Every feature of Homesnap Pro and Homesnap that we mentioned is FREE to both you and your clients as a subscription benefit.

How to Bring Your Clients Into Homesnap

We’ve made the process of bringing your clients into Homesnap really simple. To make a new client connection, just send out an invitation through the app. Once your clients accept it, they will be connected to you. You’ll enjoy one-to-one branding inside Homesnap and have the ability to start using the client collaboration tools we mentioned above.

You’re only two taps away from inviting clients on your desktop computer or mobile device. Here’s exactly how to do it:

ON A DESKTOP COMPUTER:

1. When you’re logged into your Homesnap Pro account, go to the Pro Agents tab and select Invite Clients.

2. A pop-up will allow you to invite clients by typing in their email address or by sharing your profile link. When you post your link to social media, anyone can connect with you through your public-facing Homesnap profile, just like on Facebook or LinkedIn.

ON A MOBILE DEVICE:

1. When you’re logged into your Homesnap Pro account, go to the Pro Agents tab and tap Manage Clients & Contacts.

2. To send a new invitation, select the headshot silhouette that has a “+” next to it. Then, you’ll see options to invite clients by typing in their email address or phone number, select people from your contact book, or share your profile link to social media (just like Facebook or LinkedIn, anyone can connect with you through your public-facing Homesnap profile).

Voila! Follow up with your clients to make sure they saw the invite and accepted it, and you’re ready to take advantage of the incredible client collaboration tools in Homesnap.

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Benton County Rural Water Supply Program

The Benton County Rural Water Supply Program went into effect on February 1, 2020. This program was established to provide mitigation for any new residential use within the Mitigation Area.

Background
The Department of Ecology has determined that the Lower Yakima watershed is over appropriated and has required Counties within the watershed to mitigate for groundwater wells being placed within the Lower Yakima watershed. Kittitas and Yakima County have already established water programs to mitigate and meter residential wells in the unincorporated areas of their counties.

In 2017, the Department of Ecology notified Benton County that the County’s rural water supply is at risk of impairment to senior water right holders and encouraged the County to take steps to develop a rural water supply program similar to those developed by Kittitas County and Yakima County. Recent studies conducted by State and Federal agencies have shown that groundwater wells in the Lower Yakima Watershed are in direct hydraulic continuity with the Yakima River.

In 2018, FutureWise appealed the County’s 2017 update to the Comprehensive Plan on the basis of a lack of water availability. As a result of the appeal, the County and FutureWise entered into a settlement agreement and the County agreed to develop a water supply program in order to mitigate for impacts on the Yakima River from residential exempt wells that have hydraulic continuity with the Yakima River.

The Benton County Rural Water Supply Program was established to provide mitigation for any new residential use within the Mitigation Area (a portion of the Lower Yakima Watershed known as WRIA 37, as shown on the official Benton County Mitigation Area Map – attached) in the form of acquiring senior water rights in order to offset groundwater use and managing the metering of wells.

To date the County has acquired 125 acre-feet of senior water rights and is in the process of acquiring additional water rights for the Benton County Water Bank.

About the Rural Water Supply Program
The Benton County Rural Water Supply Program went into effect on February 1, 2020. Customers wishing to apply for a new subdivision, short plat, or residential building permit for a dwelling unit within the Mitigation Area will be required to participate in the Program.

The Benton County Water Bank will have three (3) packages available for water mitigation:

  1. PACKAGE A: Available only to those parcels with access to outdoor irrigation. Package A allows an average of two hundred (200) gallons of water use per day for indoor domestic use only.
  2. PACKAGE B: Parcels without access to irrigation water may choose Package B which allows an average of three hundred (300) gallons of water use per day for indoor domestic use and outdoor irrigation of an area up to 1500 square feet.
  3. PACKAGE C: Parcels without access to irrigation water may choose Package C which allows an average of four hundred (400) gallons of water use per day for indoor domestic use and outdoor irrigation of an area up to 3000 square feet.

Customers who are required to purchase mitigation certificates as part of a subdivision/short plat application will be required to purchase a mitigation certificate for each proposed lot of the subdivision/short plat before the plat will be approved.

Customers who are required to purchase a mitigation certificate as a condition of a building permit shall be required to purchase a mitigation certificate and a meter for their residential well. They will also be required to agree to participate in the metering component of the Water Supply Program which will include monitoring of water use.

For more information about the Benton County Rural Water Supply Program, please contact Michelle Cooke, Senior Planner, Benton County Planning Department at 509-786-5612 or email [email protected].

Documents and More Information
Rural Water Supply Program Map
Rural Water Supply Packet for New Construction
Rural Water Supply Packet for Subdivision/Shortplats

About Benton County
Benton County is located in south-central Washington. The county seat is located in Prosser, and its largest city is Kennewick. Benton County was created on March 8, 1905 and was named after U.S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton. Benton County operates under the plural executive form of government with three commissioners and seven other elected officials. Benton County has offices located in Prosser, Kennewick and Richland. For more information, please visit our website.

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