REBGV’s 2022 Board of Directors election starts January 14

The election for the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver's (REBGV) Board of Directors starts on Friday, January 14, 2022, and runs until Friday, January 21.

Ahead of the election, we want to ensure you have the information you need to understand REBGV’s election process, the role of the Board Development Committee (BDC), where you can learn more about the candidates, and how and when to vote.

Election details

Nine candidates are running to fill five positions in next year's election (four 2-year terms and one 1-year term).

In early January, you’ll receive a link to our candidate information website. On this site, you’ll be able to review each candidate’s bio details and personal messages.

On January 14, you’ll receive an email with a link to the voting website. Members will be able to vote until 12 noon on Friday, January 21. You’ll also be able to access the voting website from our member website (www.rebgv.ca) and the candidate information site during the voting period.

Learn more about the BDC

The BDC is an appointed group of members that works year-round to ensure there are always candidates with the skills, experience, competence, character, and commitment for members to choose from in REBGV’s annual Board of Directors election. Their work also includes evaluating and recommending candidates for your voting consideration.

Learn more about the BDC’s work with the following resources:

• A road map of the BDC’s year-round work
• Answers to your most frequently asked election questions
• A video of past-chairs explaining the importance of good governance and the value of getting involved in your profession
• Information on governance training that makes effective directors

You can also contact any of your BDC members:

• Chair: Jack Bernard, Rennie & Associates Realty
• Lynn Dequanne, RE/MAX Crest Realty
• Colette Gerber, Heller Murch Realty
• Carsten Love, Macdonald Realty
• Tina Mak, Macdonald Realty
• Terri Smith, RE/MAX LifeStyles Realty
• Michael Uy, Oakwyn Realty
• Doug Williams, RE/MAX Crest Realty

Visit our website or email becomeadirector@rebgv.org for more information.

Listen to the latest episode of REBGV's Standards Matter podcast today!

The second episode of Standards Matter, your Board’s professionalism podcast, is out now on all major podcasting apps!

Each episode we explore scenarios inspired by real professional conduct and arbitration cases to give you tips and insight on how to handle different situations or ethical dilemmas you may face as a REALTOR®.

In our latest episode, we cover a case that involves altered listing contracts, MLS® integrity, and how not knowing when to say "no" to clients can put you offside with your professional obligations.

We also talk with experts and answer your questions about professionalism in real estate.

Click below to listen to our podcast, and subscribe to it, on your preferred platform:

Listen to Standards Matter on your favourite podcast platform:

• Apple
• Google
• Spotify

Missed our first edition of Standards Matter?

In the inaugural episode, we look at a case of good intentions gone wrong and how, in real estate, asking for forgiveness rather than permission can result in disaster.

This episode also features interviews with Ethics Guy® Kim Spencer and lawyer Kaitlin Smiley with Norton, Rose, Fulbright.

Click here to listen.

BCFSA’s cooling off period consultation details: What you need to know

The BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) released more details about the consultation process they'll follow as they work to develop proposed legislation for a cooling off period for all residential real estate sales in the province.

BCFSA plans to invite key real estate industry organizations and experts for consultations in the coming weeks. We’ll share more information with you as we receive it. This consultation period will complete in mid-February 2022 and BCFSA plans to send its recommendations to the Minister of Finance by early Spring.

Until then, you can email your thoughts and opinions to BCFSA at coolingoff@bcfsa.ca. Please copy us on your email at coolingoff@rebgv.org. 

BCFSA’s terms of reference

The terms of reference for BCFSA’s consultation work are posted on their website.

BCFSA’s goals in conducting this work are to:

1. Consider appropriate parameters and provide advice for implementing a cooling off period, including:

• the appropriate length of the period, and
• whether or not to include penalties for exercising the right to rescission.

2. Examine existing practices involved with selling a home such as:

• blind bidding, and
• other practices that may be identified as consumer protection risks.

3. Examine rules, requirements and other activities related to the process of buying a home including those related to condition waiving such as:

• home inspections,
• financing, and
• other conditions that may be identified.

4. Provide advice to government respecting any potential improvements, changes or prohibitions to the activities related to the process of buying and selling a home as outlined in number 2 and 3 above.

5. Engage the real estate industry to explore opportunities for collecting additional data to better understand current market practices.

6. Review practices in other jurisdictions.

Visit BCFSA’s website for more information. 

VOW rhymes with wow

Do your eyes glaze over when you read densely worded rules and terms of use copy in documents? Mine do. Because now I can’t even see the fine print without using an electron microscope, not to mention my tolerance for wading through industrial-grade bureaucratic prose has dropped to almost nil.

Here’s a question: “What’s a virtual office website (VOW)?” It’s a feature you can add to your website, allowing visitors to create an account by identifying themselves to you. The intent is to make the MLS® information you could give in a face-to-face meeting available to a potential client should they show up at your virtual front door, similar to the way it would be available if they showed up at your brokerage’s door. In both cases, the visitor identifies themself to you and wants real estate information.

When that’s done virtually, you’re allowing visitors (called registrants) to your VOW to create an account and login so they can access pretty much all the MLS® information we see in Paragon, except for REALTOR® Remarks and sellers’ names. Meaning, a registrant can see for themselves all reported sales, including those deals that have not yet closed. More on that later.

Some of you have VOWs very ably set up and monitored. I suspect by someone other than you. Or perhaps you are able to do the monitoring yourself but just haven’t been able to find the time necessary to ensure that the registrants using your VOW are using the information they glean in an appropriate way, meeting your VOW’s terms of use.

“Wow,” you say, “my VOW-Board agreement requires me to do something other than to pay the entity that hosts it?” Indeed it does. A few years back we worked with legal counsel to write language governing the creation and use of VOWs by our members for inclusion in the Rules of Cooperation. We intended to follow the terms of the order regarding VOWs made by the Competition Tribunal against Toronto Real Estate Board as a result of the Competition Bureau’s long-running case. We provided a draft to the Competition Bureau for review and comment in advance of implementation. The VOW standards now comprise Rules of Cooperation, Section 9. Also relevant are parts of Section 11, as they relate to the use of personal information.

Click here to access the Rules of Cooperation and scroll to Section 9 and Rule 11.02 to learn more.

Also relevant is the Privacy Notice and Consent Form you have buyers, sellers, and unrepresented parties sign. Its’ wording defines the permissions we have to use someone’s personal information. This requirement comes from the Personal Information Protection Act. For example, information collected for one purpose mustn’t be used for another purpose unless it’s been agreed to. You can view the relevant passage below.

Why is my personal information collected, used and disclosed?

Your personal information may be collected, used and disclosed for some or all of the primary uses set out below.

1a) To list/market your property on the MLS® System in accordance with the terms and conditions of the MLS® System and the boards.

1b) To allow members of real estate boards (including REALTORS® and appraisers) to value your property.

1c) To market your property through any other media (both print and electronic).

1d) To help you locate a suitable property to buy or lease.

1e) To facilitate the purchase and sale or lease transaction both before and after the completion of your transaction or entering into of your lease (including by cooperating with financial institutions, legal advisors, government departments and agencies and third parties engaged in connection with the purchase and sale or lease transaction, such as photographers, appraisers and other service providers, and by communicating with you to coordinate any of the foregoing or to ensure your satisfaction with any of the foregoing and the real estate services provided to you in connection with the transaction)

1f) To allow the boards (including REALTORS®) to compile current and historical statistics on sales and property prices and lease rates, and to conduct comparative market analyses. Information about your property will be retained in the MLS System and handled in accordance with its and the boards’ terms and conditions, and published by the boards from time to time for these purposes after your property has sold or leased or your listing has expired (if you are a seller/landlord) and after you have purchased or leased your property (if you are a buyer/tenant).

1g) To enforce codes of professional conduct and ethics for REALTORS® (by cooperating with the boards, BCREA, RECBC, CREA and other regulatory bodies).

1h) To comply with legal requirements and to act pursuant to legal authorizations.

The above-mentioned primary uses are a necessary part of your relationship with the REALTOR® to whom you are giving this consent.

Bolstering this is Rule 11.02, which says, “no Member, or their unlicensed assistants or administrators where permitted by the Board, except in the ordinary course of their business (bolding is mine), shall make available to any unlicensed person, firm or corporation information distributed by the MLS® System.” 

So, for example, it would be okay to use uncompleted property sale information to prepare CMAs for clients. But it wouldn’t be okay to provide that same information to those who haven’t asked for it, e.g. to create a recent sale flyer for distribution in a neighbourhood, or to provide this information to someone, or an entity, intending to use the information for a commercial purpose. (Piling on, Rule 8.06 also restricts members’ advertising of sale prices before they are publicly available through a government registry.)

There’s more. Rule 9.07 says, in part, information obtained by VOW registrants “is intended for and may only be used for the Registrant’s personal, non-commercial use;” (that the) “registrant has a bona fide interest in the purchase, sale or lease of real estate of the type being offered through the MLS® VOW;” that the registrant will not “copy, redistribute or retransmit any of the MLS® VOW Data or information provided;” and that the registrant won’t “display, post, disseminate, distribute, publish, broadcast, transfer, sell or sublicense any of the MLS® VOW Data to another person.”

Section 9 also requires VOW operators to ensure their registrants respect the VOW’s terms of use.

Do these requirements prevent members from providing market or MLS® information (including sold prices of property deals not yet closed) if asked to do so by consumers? The answer is yes and no. Whether or not this is ok depends on the reason for which the information is being requested. In this regard, the standard is the same for VOW registrants or anyone who contacts you by phone, text, or with smoke signals. If the information is to be used in the normal course of your business (as described in the privacy consent form), fine. If it’s to be used for some other purpose, then it’s not.

Here’s what Rule 9.26 – Restriction on Use of MLS® VOW Data – says: “MLS® VOW Participants must not permit any portion of the MLS® VOW Data to be used or provided to any person for any purpose other than those expressly provided for in the Rules of Cooperation and other Board rules, regulations, bylaws and policies.”

If you operate a VOW, please remember this. You’re obligated as a VOW operator to ensure that your registrants are accessing and using the VOW in line with its terms of use. If they’re not, you’re entitled to (and must) deactivate their access to your VOW. And you, as a member, must (please) respect the member VOW requirements as described in the Rules of Cooperation.

Top tip: Some restrictions apply

We’ve all seen the television ads selling a wide range of goods at rock-bottom prices, along with a condition: “Some restrictions apply, contact us or go to our website for details.” Article 15 of the REALTOR® Code frowns on this practice because it requires that we put “significant exceptions to an offer” into the advertising copy. Nobody makes an offer without at least some restrictions. This goes for insurance companies since their insurance contracts all have exceptions to the coverage the insured has bought.

With all of the recent weather disasters and their knock-on effects, including flooding, slides, erosion and heaven knows what, it seems reasonable to remind your clients, especially buyer clients, to check their insurance coverage should they want to buy a property. The magnitude of the risk from forest fires, floods, and slides has caused insurance providers to take a step back, sometimes refusing to provide the insurance coverage they once provided without a second thought. Do you think it will be easy in the future to get flood insurance if the property is in Sumas Prairie or building insurance in a lovely, forested area in Lillooet? Think again. Only time will tell.

Your buyers may not understand how much the insurance landscape has changed during the past few years. We’re not insurance agents, but we can certainly suggest to our buyers that they should have a chat with their insurance agents as a part of their due diligence into any property that interests them.

Ethics Guy® at your Brokerage meetings

If you’d like me to drop in via zoom to your brokerage meetings in 2022, I’d be happy to. Please ask your Managing Broker to book me at kspencer@rebgv.org.

A big 'thank you' and holiday greetings to all

I’m of the Christmas persuasion, so if you’re of like-mind, I hope you have a merry one. And I wish us all, of like mind or not, the happiest of the season. May you and yours have good health, happiness, success and prosperity in 2022, with a heaping side-order of normalcy. Thank you, everyone, for being so very cooperative and great to deal with. I appreciate this more than you can know.

Don’t let your accounts get hacked – four cyber security best practices to stay secure

Cyber criminals are getting increasingly sophisticated. This year alone, cyber criminals shut down key infrastructure in the US, crippled Newfoundland’s health care system, and stole millions of customers’ personal information from a major US telecom.

Even within our Board area, cyber criminals were able to hack members’ email addresses, log into their lockbox accounts, and gain access to homes listed for sale.

A cyber security breach can not only be a headache to deal with, but it can cost you thousands of dollars and negatively impact your reputation.

To help you keep your accounts as secure as possible, here are four cyber security best practices.

1. Practice good password hygiene

Your password is your first line of defense against hackers. Never share your login credentials.

Always use a unique, complex password that includes numbers, letters, and special symbols for each account you have. To keep track of these passwords, use a secure password manager like 1Password, Google Passwords, or LastPass. If the service offers multi-factor authentication, enable it.

2. Keep your phone clean

Your phone is a prime target for hackers, containing a wealth of personal information. While companies like Apple and Google are working hard to keep their devices secure, hackers have uploaded malicious software to official app stores. This is particularly important for Android users – the Google Play Store has leaner security checks and more malicious software.

With that in mind, always be suspicious of free apps and ensure that they can only access what you allow. Nothing is free these days!

Never unlock your phone’s bootloader or jailbreak it to sideload apps. Never trust app links, or app update links, sent via text messages, and avoid using QR codes.

3. Keep your apps and operating system up to date

Software companies strive to improve the security of their products. Staying one step ahead of hackers can be difficult, but keeping your apps and operating system (i.e., Windows, MacOS, iOS, or Android) up to date will help close security gaps and deter malicious actors.

4. Be a human firewall

Cyber criminals use social manipulation to access your system. They’ll impersonate colleagues, clients, and more to manipulate you into providing personal information or installing malicious software.

The best defence against these attacks is to become a human firewall. This means you’ll need to be vigilant with all incoming communications. Avoid clicking strange links or providing personal information when prompted. If you receive a message from someone you’re not expecting, confirm the details with the contact directly by phone or through a link you know or can Google.

For example, if you receive an email from a shipping company telling you your package will be returned to sender, don’t click any links in the email. Instead, navigate to the company’s website and enter the tracking number to see any details.

New price analysis feature now available in Paragon!

Black Knight, the makers of Paragon, aded a new price analysis tool to the system on December 8.

This new tool shows you the number of potential buyers when you set or adjust the list price for your listing. Potential buyers are calculated based on current Paragon and Paragon Connect saved searches that would include the property based on its current price and are assigned to clients set up for auto-notifications.

You can access this price analysis tool for your listing from the menu bar at the top of the listing maintenance screen.

Paragon Connect user experience enhancements

The December 8 update also included updates for Paragon Connect. These enhancements focused on giving you a smoother user experience when performing common tasks to manage your contacts list like adding, deleting, searching for, and composing texts or emails to your clients.

Call the Help Desk at 604-730-3020 if you have questions.