Interesting. I wonder if RE is controlled by Shadaloo? :ahwow: Realtor who spoke up about industry's failings tossed from Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver Quote:
The day after a top realtor said he was voted off the professional standards committee of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver for drawing attention to its failings, the board tossed out a short, promotional video about why homebuyers and sellers should use its agents.
“Let the public know” that agents “stand for professionalism,” urged an email to the private board’s nearly 13,000 members. It asked agents to step up as candidates for videos that can be shared on social media. The mini-campaign came with a nudge for agents to “share your own stories on Twitter,” using the hashtag #goodapples.
This attempt by the board to better position its agents comes as the public is seething with real estate frustration. Off-the-chart prices, bidding wars and the fear of buying for too much or selling for too little has everyone — from consumers to agents and the province’s highest real estate regulator — scrutinizing the board, even as a major investigation into the industry is underway.
On May 11, Re/Max agent Keith Roy, who had served on the board’s professional standards committee since 2014, wrote board president Dan Morrison with a list of concerns: “We don’t control housing prices, but it is our job to ensure that the public feels they have a fair playing field when buying and selling a home. Unfortunately, we have failed the public by not responding quickly enough with comprehensive reforms to address their concerns.”
He called for the following ways to improve the landscape: mandatory English-language interviews to ensure agents understand the rules and ethical codes in a market where some are handling transactions mainly in Mandarin; an online registry so multiple offers are visible; and a public listing of professional conduct decisions.
About two weeks later, the board decided not to renew Roy’s position on the committee, citing a need for diversity of members from different firms.
“I’ll let you decide if it’s a coincidence,” Roy said. His ousting inspired another board member to resign and, said Roy, an overwhelming number of supportive phone calls, text messages and posts from colleagues and the public.
“It’s not like I revealed anything that (the public) doesn’t know. The public feels they aren’t getting a fair shake. The public would like to see changes,” Roy said.
Morrison reiterated the board’s position that the committee was shuffled to adjust the number of Re/Max agents on it. He said he thought Roy’s suggestions “were great” and had taken them to the board’s internal task force. “He doesn’t have a monopoly on wanting to do the right thing.”
More generally, Morrison spoke of the “stress-cracks” caused by a frenzied market, the kind he hasn’t seen “in 25 years in terms of activity, price increases and volume of sales … There is lots of money changing hands and some people are doing things they shouldn’t be doing. We are making changes as quickly as we can.”
Carolyn Rogers, superintendent of real estate at the province’s Financial Institutions Commission and chair of the independent advisory group examining the regulation of real estate services, said in an email she didn’t want to pre-empt the upcoming report, expected at the end of June.
However, she said real estate boards “are given their mandate and powers by their own members, (agents). Their accountability is to (agents.) So when they intervene in the handling of consumer complaints and disciplining of licensees, they create confusion and duplication. And over time, this has undermined the regulatory regime. That needs to change.”
Another major complaint about private real estate boards is their control over the MLS system, which they run for their fee-paying members. The system, however, also contains some pricing and historical information that could lead to the uncovering of questionable practices by agents, as well as a list of disciplinary decisions. After feeling their complaints were rebuffed or dismissed by the board, some whistle-blowing agents and consumers recently leaked information from the MLS to media, including The Vancouver Sun, hoping to draw attention to unsavoury practices. The board responded by temporarily shutting down the system and requiring all 12,800 agents to change their passwords.
“It’s all about secrecy,” Roy said. “They are not moving as fast as the market in dealing with the issues.”
“They are far more concerned with managing their message and protecting their image rather than doing tangible things to change the industry,” Roy said. “They are saying, ‘Realtors are good people. There are some bad apples.'”
jlee-young@postmedia.com
REAL ESTATE COUNCIL OF B.C.: Regulatory agency established by the provincial government to oversee the conduct and discipline of B.C.’s 22,000-plus licensed real estate agents, in accordance with the Real Estate Services Act. The self-regulating body has overseen the industry since 2005. It licenses agents and hands out fines and suspensions.
B.C. REAL ESTATE ASSOCIATION: A professional association representing the interests of more than 20,000 agents in B.C. and the 11 member boards to which some 90 per cent of them belong.
These boards, including the REAL ESTATE BOARD OF GREATER VANCOUVER, represent different regions. They are private and follow mandates set out by their members. They are accountable to the agents themselves. They discipline their own members with fines up to $30,000 for violating a professional code of conduct, but the cases are not made public. They cannot cancel an agent’s licence, but they do control access to the MLS system.
| The more I read, the more I want to refuse buying property within the GVRD. |
