Washington REALTORS® have negotiated a discounted fee for the SafeShowings™ app! Now, WR members can take advantage of a free 30 day trial. After 30 days, the app is only $3.75/mo or $37.50/year. SafeShowings™ is the first real estate safety solution of its kind in a simple-to-use mobile app. It captures a facial image, in real time, of someone entering the property with you. If you are unable to end a showing, it sends the image of the potential perpetrator as well as your geolocation to your emergency contacts. This strategy is a proactive safety deterrent. The app's goal is to create the tools that could save lives, while keeping people and properties safe. Real estate professionals and their loved ones feel more secure knowing that SafeShowings will automatically notify emergency contacts with identifying details and geolocation in an emergency. DOWNLOAD THE SAFESHOWINGS FLYER for instructions on how to get started.

What if you had no-cost-access to a game-changing real estate tech tool? Turns out, you do. It’s RPR®.
RPR® has recently been redesigned and “refreshed”! It now offers powerful features in a simpler, more intuitive interface. It can help you build your pipeline with potential business-building activities such as:

• Tips for building a real estate farm
• Generate listings with your new farm

RPR® can also transform the way you operate and do business. With it, you can take care of current clients with transactional-focused tasks such as:

• Researching any property
• Creating CMAs
• Preparing impressive listing presentations

Team up with RPR® today! It has improved and increased thousands of new agents’ skills and capabilities. Don’t miss out! Visit narrpr.com to activate your account and supercharge your business.
Create your account →

               Make Housing Available and Affordable
It’s time for the residents of Washington across the state to come together and address the numerous obstacles associated with buying and owning a home. For most Washingtonians, home ownership is out of reach because of sky-high prices and low inventory. Whether you live in a rural area or a busy metro neighborhood, opportunities for home ownership simply don’t meet the need.

Practical, proven policies are available now to address this issue. As a state, we simply need to come together and make it happen.
This involves:

• Greater emphasis on planning for the housing we need
• Ensuring urban densities for housing are provided near transit
• Providing long-term funding for long-term planning
• Erase Out-Dated Racial Covenants
  
  Read more at: myneighborwa.com

Ecology is pleased to announce that the Skagit River Basin Mitigation Program is now open for new users in an area along the mainstem of the Skagit River. Eligible landowners may now apply to Ecology on a first-come, first-served basis for water under this mitigation program to build new homes.
Ecology purchased water from Seattle City Light, securing legal water for new users in this program. The water supply flows continuously into the Skagit River from the Gorge Reservoir, guaranteeing a legal water supply and providing more water for fish in the Skagit.
Please see our webpage for more information on the program, including an interactive map of the mitigation zone, frequently asked questions, and how to apply:
Skagit River Basin Mitigation Program
Skagit landowners have new mitigation option for water

This Major Medical Health Insurance Exchange provides NAR members with access to qualified (ACA) major medical insurance plans. Through the exchange, you can research health insurance information, obtain quotes, compare plans, and purchase directly online. All of the insurance plans offered in the Major Medical Health Insurance Exchange are Affordable Care Act qualified plans from top-rated insurance carriers.
Find out more about other Insurance options; including Dental, Vision, Life, Home, Auto.. and even pet insurance!

 A long goodbye to natural gas furnaces and water heating -- and possibly other gas appliances -- could begin with action by the Washington Legislature this winter. As initially conceived, Washington state would have forbidden use of fossil fuels for heating and hot water in new buildings by 2030. The plan sought to convert existing buildings to electric heat by 2050 The scope of the measure was revised earlier this month when Inslee's allies in the state legislature introduced identical proposals in the House and Senate to amend the state energy code. The 2030 date to ban heating with fossil fuels in new construction remains. There is no mandate to convert existing buildings from gas to electric heat, but an expectation that utilities will offer incentives for conversions.
"If we don’t start with clean new buildings, we’re going to be bailing water out of a boat while we’re still drilling holes in the bottom of it," said state Rep. Alex Ramel (D-Bellingham), the prime sponsor in the House. "That's why we need to accelerate and strengthen our state’s energy code." [Read more on Goverment Affairs page]

WASHINGTON - In an effort to promote affordable and sustainable homeownership, especially among credit-worthy first-time buyers, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) today published a long-awaited final regulation, and policy implementation guidance, which establish a new condominium approval process.