Vote No on Amendment 4

Once praised by Amendment 4 supporters as "emblematic" of their cause, St. Pete Beach has now become living proof that Amendment 4 is an extreme, unworkable and costly measure that promotes higher taxes, fewer jobs and endless litigation.  When residents of St. Pete Beach began urging Florida voters not to make the same mistake, Amendment 4 proponents began desperately trying to dodge the St. Pete Beach comparison. 

In this edition of the Rapid Response Room, Ryan Houck of Citizens for Lower Taxes and a Stronger Economy, gives you the full story on what happened in St. Pete Beach.  With Florida's economy and quality-of-life on the line, Florida voters deserve to hear the whole story on St. Pete Beach: An Amendment 4 Testing Ground.  If you'd like more information on St. Pete Beach, please take a moment to visit our "Let's get the facts straight" page by clicking here.

Michael Castleman, a resident of St. Pete Beach, once supported his town's experiment in Amendment 4.  After witnessing the side-effects of this measure first-hand, he warned Florida voters not to make the same mistake.  In a letter to the Florida Times-Union, Mr. Castleman had this to say about Amendment 4:

"Now, a handful of well-to-do lawyers are attempting to impose the same ill-conceived idea on every Florida hometown.

They are even using the same rhetoric. They are telling voters that this proposal is just designed to "give the people a say."

Don't let them get away with it.

Don't let them do to Florida what they already did to my hometown."

-Michael Castleman, St. Pete Beach 

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July After Hours Networking Event a Success!

About 55 people attended a very successful RCA After Hours Networking event in Delray Beach on July 29th.  The event was hosted by Bill Bathurst of Pristine Properties and co-sponsored by Northern Trust Bank.  Among the attendees were Delray Beach Mayor Nelson S. "Woodie" McDuffie and Francisco Perez-Azuo, Economic Development Director of the Delray Beach CRA.  Prominent commercial real estate developers were in attendance to showcase their current projects in the Delray Beach area.  The event was held at a beautifully restored historic cottage at 114 1st Ave.  The cottage is currently available for lease as an office.

• Francisco Perez-Azua and Mayor Woodie McDuffie

Special Legislative Update Breakfast 7-13-2010

Don't miss the special legislative update breakfast coming up on Tuesday, July 13th!  Register today at www.irem19.org .  Speaker John Sebree, VP Public Policy at Florida Realtors will discuss Amendments 3 and 4 and how they will affect your business.  Full Buffet breakfast is included.  Bring your flyers for the networking table.  Registration deadline is July 12th at noon.

• Legislative Update

Recent RCAPB CIE Enhancements

Catylist recently released software upgrades for the RCAPB CIE including a discussion forum, expanded search results, company inventory reports and a single-agent SiteLink option (AgentLink). These improvements were almost entirely generated based on user provided feedback, which is always welcomed by RCAPB and Catylist. Read below to learn more about the exciting new enhancements.

Collaborate with fellow RCAPB members with the CIE Discussion Forum

The RCAPB CIE now has a built-in forum, where you can discuss local commercial real estate topics, ask questions and share expertise. Take advantage of this platform to discuss current trends, local news, changes in the marketplace, etc. It’s a great way to show off your knowledge and network with other professionals in the area. You’ll see the latest forum activity in your Market Monitor, and can receive automatic updates via email.  

To visit the RCAPB discussion forum, look for the link on the CIE homepage or on the Market Monitor page once you’ve logged in.

Easily create company inventory reports

Creating inventory reports is a common task for any company, whether for clients or for internal use. For instance, you might need to generate a report (or a CSV export) of all active listings including expiration dates so that your admin can make calls to verify pieces of information. Or, you might want to generate a report of all property represented by your firm for distribution to a potential investor, or maybe you just need a nice, printable PDF displaying all the details for your current Industrial offerings.

A few changes have been made to make generating these reports much easier:

• Increased limit on the number of items in a report.
• Added the ability to include expiration date when creating a report with your own listings. You’ll see this option on the “Customize Report” page.
• You can now include expiration date in the CSV export format when exporting your own listings.
• Links to the company admin console and your company’s profile page have been added to “Generate Inventory Report”, which automatically rounds up all your company’s active listings to be included in any of the printable, customizable, PDF report formats.

A few other notable changes…

• The RCAPB CIE now has a built-in Blog where CIE leadership will communicate important information, upcoming events, etc. You’ll see all the new posts in your Market Monitor.
• When managing your own listings, you can now “Select All on Page” or “Select All” which automatically selects all listings, comps, or properties on all pages. This should save a lot of time and a lot of clicking.
• Maximum size for uploaded listing attachments increased to 10mb.
• “Economic Developer” and “Auctioneer” have been added to the list of selectable user roles, and AICP was added to the list of professional organizations.

Use AgentLink to connect your RCAPB properties to your personal website

In addition to the core system improvements, Catylist has bifurcated the SiteLink product into AgentLink and CompanyLink due to demand for a single-agent option. The new AgentLink option is perfect for agents with a small number of property listings and is available for only $30/month. CompanyLink is available for companies with 2+ agents or individual agents with a large number of property listings. CompanyLink is $800/year for 2-9 agents and $1200/year for 10+ agents. Catylist is offering 50% off CompanyLink set-up to RCAPB members through August 31 ($300 value).

For more information on any of the new system enhancements, contact Anna Winters (anna@catylist.com or 813-784-9556)