No new transaction kits in the old WEBForms starting December 16

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) will remove the ability to create new transaction kits in the old version of WEBForms starting December 16.

You’ll still be able to update and complete existing transactions, print forms, and migrate completed transaction kits to the new system.

Keep in mind that access to the old WEBForms will end January 2. If your transaction might close after this date, we encourage you to start it in the new system.

Help resources

We’ve developed a training manual for the new WEBForms. This step-by-step manual covers every aspect and function of the new system and will help you get going right away.

We’ve also created a directory of the forms available on the new WEBForms. This resource sorts the forms by category and by the organization responsible for the form to help you more efficiently find what you need in the new system.

This guide also explains how to update out-of-date forms in your templates.

WEBForms webinars 

We’ve developed four webinars to help you with this change. They are:

Creating a transaction

Adding clauses to a form

Creating a template

Migrating your transaction kits

WEBForms course

We’ve also developed an in-person course to help you learn the new WEBForms. All members can take the course one time at no cost until March.

The course will show you how to create transactions, build and manage a personal clause library, and access the most up-to-date forms and contracts.

We’ve added four more course dates and seats are available. Register for a date and time that works for you.

A free, pre-recorded version of this course will be available online in the coming weeks.

Other resources

Our Transition Guide has everything you need to move from the old WEBForms to the new system.

CREA’s resource page has more information, guides, and how-to videos to help you learn the new system.

Extended Help Desk hours

We’ll extend our Help Desk hours in January to help with the transition. Our team will be available:

• Weekdays 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
• Weekends 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

You can contact Help Desk at 604-730-3020 or support@rebgv.org.

Reporting issues

Since the launch of the new WEBForms, members have identified a few bugs and other issues with the new system.

While this is a CREA initiative, our focus is on getting you the information and resources you need to minimize the impact of this change. We’re documenting every bug and issue you send us and sharing that feedback with both CREA and Lone Wolf, the company that created the new WEBForms platform.

Please continue to report issues you encounter to both CREA (support@crea.ca) and our Help Desk (support@rebgv.org). You can also call our Help Desk with other WEBForms questions at 604-730-3020.

REBGV’s advertising campaign showing early improvements in public perception

The early results from our advertising campaign show improvement in the public’s perception of REALTORS®.

We hired an independent research firm to help us measure the impact our campaign is having with the public.

This research shows the campaign has helped enhance public trust and value in the services Realtors provide by approximately 10 per cent. The number of residents who view the profession positively has also increased approximately 15 per cent over the last year.

Your Board launched the advertising campaign last November with TV, radio, online, newspaper, bus back and social media ads in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Punjabi.

As we created the advertising content, we also developed a robust system for measuring our progress over time.

There are two primary ways to measure a public perception campaign like ours:

The first is to track its reach to determine how much exposure our campaign is isgetting with our target audience.

The second is to track how our advertising is affecting the opinions among our audience.

Here’s an overview of how both measures are doing.

Campaign reach

The reach of an advertising campaign is measured in units called impressions. This is the advertising industry’s standard. An impression is counted any time your audience interacts with your advertising. For radio, this means listening to your ad. For video, an impression is counted when your target audience views your ad and an online impression is counted when someone scrolls over, clicks, or sees your ad.

To date, our campaign has received 105 million overall impressions.

This includes:

• 32 million TV impressions,
• 12 million radio impressions,
• 20 million online impressions,
• 5 million pre-roll video impressions, and
• 36 million bus back advertising impressions.

Bonus coverage has played a significant factor in helping us achieve these impression totals.

Of our total impressions, 27.6 million came from bonus coverage, which means no extra cost. This is valued at over $273,000.

We gained 13.8 million bonus impressions alone from securing Public Service Announcements (PSA) status for our ads.  Because of our not-for-profit designation, we were able to successfully apply for our ads to receive PSA status. Our television ads ran over 600 times as PSAs. This is valued at over $192,000.

Public perception

Next, we measured perception to determine whether the campaign is changing how people view Realtors.

Our target audience is Metro Vancouver residents between 30 and 60 years of age who are thinking of buying or selling a home in the next three years.

Prior to launching the campaign, we worked with the Mustel Group to research public opinion about Realtors. This provided a baseline measurement prior to our ads appearing.

After our ads had appeared for several months, we again measured public perception to understand the impact our campaign was having.

In the first year of the campaign, our research partner counseled us to target public perception increases of approximately 10 per cent. Reaching or surpassing this level is considered a statistically significant improvement.

So, what did we find?

Our research shows that the people who recalled seeing our advertising are 10 per cent more likely to trust Realtors than those who didn’t recall our ads.

The results also show that those who recall seeing our advertisements are approximately 10 per cent more likely to believe that working with a Realtor is “extremely important”.

For people intending to buy a home in the next three years, 61 per cent of those who recall seeing our ads believe it's very important to work with a Realtor compared to 50 per cent among those who don't recall our ads.

Among those intending to sell  their home in the next three years, 57 per cent of the people who recall seeing our ads believe it’s extremely important to work with a Realtor compared to 47 per cent of those who don`t recall seeing our advertisements. 

Perhaps the most critical question related to our campaign focuses on overall perception.

In response to whether you have a positive or negative opinion of Realtors, our research found that 44 per cent of Metro Vancouver residents held a very or somewhat positive opinion of Realtors in 2018. One year later, that number has jumped 15 per cent among the public who were exposed to our campaign.

“We’re pleased that the early results of our campaign are positive. The research shows that our advertising is breaking through to the public,” Board CEO Brad Scott said. “These measurements indicate that the campaign is generating statistically significant improvements in the public’s perception of Realtors. We’ll continue to monitor the trends over time and report back to you.”

We’re working with our advertising firm to revise and develop new advertisements for 2020 that we’ll share with you in February.

ICYMI: President's message: Your Board of Directors approves funding model changes

How do we evolve REBGV’s funding model to meet your future needs? Your Board of Directors has been wrestling with this question throughout the year and discussing it with you at our fall Realtor and Broker meetings.

As leaders, we must ensure that REBGV has long-term financial stability in order to serve REALTORS®’ and Brokers’ ever-changing needs. To help address this issue, your Board of Directors recently approved MLS® and member fee increases of between $8 and $13 a month beginning January 1.

Let me explain why.

Aside from a $10 per month increase to create the advertising campaign in 2018, we’ve maintained the same member dues since 2008. MLS® fees haven’t changed since 2002. By contrast, your Board’s annual expenses have increased 30 per cent since 2008.

What accounts for this increase?

The short answer is that technology is expensive and getting more expensive. We’ve also added more than a dozen new services over the last ten years and inflation has risen 15 per cent in Canada over the same period. A weaker Canadian dollar has also driven up our costs.

We can’t continue to maintain, build, and improve the products and services we provide with the funds we have. We need to invest in the future, and we need your support.

Our funding model must evolve with the times. We’ve spent considerable time analyzing the best ways to do this.

The market has been tough this year. We want to minimize the financial burden on you, keep the increase as low as possible, and spread it fairly across the membership.

The changes we approved will result in our monthly REBGV member dues (which include REBGV dues and technology fees) increasing by $8 a month.

Those of us on the monthly MLS® access fee will see that fee increase $5 per month. Any of us not on the monthly access fee will see a $25 increase in the MLS® end fee, which is paid when we complete a deal on MLS®.

Starting in 2021, we’ll institute an annual cost of living increase based on inflationary trends measured by the Consumer Price Index for Metro Vancouver. This will help our funding model adapt to incremental inflation that occurs over time. It’ll also keep us on a more sustainable footing and help us avoid the more disruptive cycle of introducing larger fee increases after prolonged periods of no change.

The Ethics Guy®: Dog bites man. Man bites dog.

I’ve never been in the newspaper business. But there’s an anecdote about an editor explaining to a novice reporter what makes a story interesting. A “dog bites man” story isn’t interesting. But write a story about, “man bites dog” and you’ll have everyone’s undivided attention.

In our world, a seller phoning the Board demanding a listing cancellation is unremarkable. But a seller demanding to stay in a listing contract - this is unusual.

How bad would a relationship have to deteriorate for us to want to fire a seller? Pretty bad, I’d say. Relationships flounder. We all know that agent-client relations can be difficult to manage. When things are good, they’re great. When things are bad, they’re terrible. And since we’re usually bound to sellers via contract there are only a few ways out. Sell the place, getting the deal done as quickly as possible, or, exit the relationship.

If there’s no contract, getting out of the relationship is pretty straightforward. One party says adios to the other. There may be an argument, hurt feelings and irritation, but that’s about it.

If the relationship is governed by a contract, for example our MLS® Listing Contract, getting out of it is more complicated. It isn’t sufficient to simply say adios, and hope for the best. It’s a contract. Contracts can only be changed with the mutual agreement of the parties. And, in our world, the REALTOR® Code of Ethics (Article 5 – Written Service Agreements) and Rules of Cooperation (3.08 – Signing Authority) expect listing contracts to be made (and changed) in writing, with the signatures of the parties to those contracts.

Again, how bad would things have to be for us to want to fire a seller? We’re not talking about mere eye-rolling stuff here. We’re talking about, “I can’t stand to be in the same room with this guy any longer. And, I’m willing to walk away from a potential commission so I never have to deal with him ever again,” kind of stuff. Whatever the cause, if your seller relationship has developed a bad case of gangrene, the only solution may be to sever it. This should be done with empathy and civility because the alternative isn’t likely to be healthy for anyone’s career.

Contracts are agreements describing the promises parties make with each other. They can be simple. They can be complicated. We know contracts can be changed if both parties agree. Wouldn’t life be lovely if parties always agreed to change contracts as needed? Sadly, they don’t. A good way of preventing contractual misunderstandings is to put them in writing and get them signed. That’s why the Board gives you a suite of standard-form contracts to use in your day-to-day business.

On the menu today is the Multiple Listing Contract. It’s been around a long time. It has multiple pages and lots of fine-print. But nowhere in all that fine print is there a right of an early cancellation, for either party. The contract’s provisions start on the effective date and end at midnight on the expiry date. If things sour you can, if you want, offer to cancel a listing contract using a standard conditional Listing Cancellation or Unconditional Release Form. Those forms, when signed by the brokerage and seller, are evidence the parties have changed (in this case, ended) a listing contract.

Now we come back to man bites dog. About 99.9 per cent of the time it’s the seller who wants to cancel a listing contract. This makes it easy to get the seller’s signature on a form to end the contract. What if a seller doesn’t want to be cancelled, but you do? Weird, I know, but it can happen. Recently, a member wanted to unilaterally cancel an MLS® Listing Contract. Unusually, the seller didn’t want to be cancelled. An Unconditional Release Form signed only by the brokerage, was broker-loaded with the result that the listing was removed from the MLS® Service. In the member’s mind, the listing “had been cancelled.”

Not so fast. A cancellation document with only one party’s signature doesn’t, technically, cancel a listing contract. The property had indeed been removed from the MLS® System. But was the contract still in effect? You be the judge. Had both parties, the brokerage and the seller signed a cancellation form? No, they hadn’t. Only the brokerage had signed. The Board isn’t a party to listing contracts but it can remove listings from the MLS® System. Does removing a listing from MLS® end a listing contract? This is a good question to ask. Think about this: A central promise made by the member to the seller namely, listing the property on the MLS® System, has now been broken. So, while the contract may be on its deathbed, it isn’t officially dead. A death certificate in the form of a signed cancellation form is still necessary.

With uncertainty being the enemy of good risk management, why leave things to chance? Get your cancellation forms signed by all parties to the listing contract.