There have been some flood and storm-related questions that our members have asked, so we compiled the following information to help you during this time.
1.) Please Post Available Homes on the New Harvey Temporary Housing section on HAR.com
HAR launched the Harvey Temporary Housing section on HAR.com last week. It has already been reported on Local 2, ABC13, in the Houston Chronicle, Houston Business Journal and many national media outlets. The available homes have started to be posted, but there is obviously a great need.
Since these are intended only to be temporary, the maximum term allowed is 12 weeks. REALTORS®’ rental listings in the MLS will NOT automatically be populated on HAR.com in this section. You must go and enter any available on this temporary basis into this separate system. Your process will be faster though since we have already authenticated your identity through your MLS log-on. REALTORS® may enter as many properties as you would like. Again, this is intended only for those affected by Hurricane Harvey and not to replace short-term rentals currently available on HAR.com.
REALTORS® may visit HERE to enter properties available as temporary housing now.
You may watch this video to see how to add your properties to the Harvey Temporary Housing section on HAR.com:
2.) Update Your Listing Status in the MLS
If your client’s property that you have listed for sale or lease was damaged or destroyed in the hurricane and is no longer available for showing, please make sure to update the listing status in the MLS to “Withdrawn” so we may have the most accurate and up-to-date information. It will also allow you and your clients to not receive undesired inquiries or drive-bys.
3.) Did Your Listing Stay Dry?
New fields have been added to the MLS allowing listing agents to flag properties that did not flood in Hurricane Harvey.The fields were added based on the many requests received from members looking to better identify dry properties for their clients. The fields will only be available on a temporary basis to assist members during the recovery, after which they will be removed. The fields are not required and you do not have to say “Yes” to either questionListing agents: In add/edit, please select “Home Flooded in Harvey? = No” for properties that did not have any water in the house, and “Property Flooded in Harvey? = No” for properties that did not have any water up onto the property. It is recommended that agents obtain this information from the seller in writing (an updated Seller’s Disclosure Notice is required) prior to flagging the listing in Add/Edit.All agents can search for listings marked as “No” from the Tempo Quick Search and in Matrix by adding the field to your Quick Search at the bottom of the search page.
4.) Remind Your Clients to Submit an Updated Seller’s Disclosure
Regardless of the above MLS fields, this is a good time to send a note to all of your clients letting them know that they need to submit an updated Seller’s Disclosure if their home or property experienced flooding during the Hurricane Harvey. That would be a required disclosure by the seller.
Remember that the HAR.com team is here to support you, especially during times when you need it most. More than 5,000 of you have applied for assistance from the Texas REALTOR® Disaster Relief Fund, which has currently stopped accepting new applications. It is still accepting donations to the Fund to help those in need who applied already. You may go HERE to donate. If you applied for assistance, TAR is working through all of the applications and should be in touch with you in the next week or two.
