Resources to help you learn the new WEBForms

New resources and training are available to help you learn the Canadian Real Estate Association’s (CREA's) new WEBForms platform. The old version of WEBForms will continue to be available to you until the end of December.

Please invest the time to learn the new WEBForms over the next four months to ensure that this change doesn’t affect your business.

CREA has moved your contract templates and clauses to the new WEBForms. Your transaction kits, old contracts, will not be transferred over automatically.

You can, however, migrate your kits to the new WEBForms individually.

We’ve created a video that explains how to move your transaction kits to the new WEBForms. Watch it below:

We’ll have more webinars to share with you over the next few weeks. We’re also working on a training course that should be ready in October.

Reporting issues

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

While this is a CREA initiative, we know this is a big change for you. 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.

We’re also using your feedback to create training resources. The webinars we’re developing are based on your most common questions.

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.

Help resources

Our transition guide has tips, FAQs, and step-by-step instructions and videos that show you how to perform common tasks on the new WEBForms.

You can also visit CREA’s resource page for more videos, guides, and other resources.

Register for our fall member meetings

Join us at one of our four Member Breakfast Meetings next month. Here’s the schedule:

• Friday October 18 — Fairmont Waterfront, Vancouver
• Wednesday, October 23 — Seymour Golf Club, North Vancouver
• Monday, October 28 — Sandman Signature Airport Hotel, Richmond
• Thursday, October 31 — Executive Plaza Hotel, Coquitlam

These annual meetings are an opportunity for you to have breakfast on us and connect with your professional association.

We’ll provide the latest updates on WEBForms, upcoming changes to the Professional Development Program (PDP), results on the effectiveness of our REALTOR® ad campaign, and insight into funding model challenges that we’re facing along with some of the solutions we’re considering.

Registration and breakfast will begin at 8 a.m. Presentations will start at 9 a.m. and the meetings should end around 11:30 a.m.

There’s no cost to attend these meetings, but please register by contacting Member Services at 604-730-3090 or memberservices@rebgv.org so we know how much food to provide.

We hope to see you there!

The Ethics Guy®: Lending strata documents: Understanding the risks

Here’s a question: Is it wrong to help a colleague by sharing the expensive “rush” strata documents you’ve just bought for your own listing?

Your colleague’s in a bind and needs the documents tonight so they can sell another unit in the same building. The seller’s REALTOR® for that listing hasn’t yet received the strata documents they ordered 10 days after they listed the place. (More on that another time, but if you want a spoiler alert now, check out Rules of Cooperation, Rule 6.04.)

Whether it’s wrong to share your documents depends on which standard you have in mind, and there are quite a few, so read on.

The lending Realtor is helping a colleague, and in that context, I doubt either of them (or many members) would think this wrong. Ditto for the buyer who’d have no documents to review without the lending Realtor’s help. So you might think, “Move along; nothing to see here, folks.” But there are other affected parties. What might they think?

Strata property managers: They’re the custodians of a strata’s documents. They have a duty to ensure documents are accurate and complete, to distribute them when authorized, and to keep them otherwise confidential. Like us, they’re also licensed under the Real Estate Services Act and insured by the Errors and Omissions Insurance Corporation of BC. But if we get documents from a third party, is that party insured against risk if there’s something wrong with the documents? I doubt it, because they may be acting outside of a trade in real estate. Even if they aren’t, that wouldn’t stop a lawyer from naming, in any litigation, both the lending and receiving Realtors who used those documents. Also, are the strata documents subject to a sort of “copyright? Perhaps. Can they be used without risk if the strata hasn’t given its consent? I doubt it.

Strata owners: Some strata documents, for example, strata council meeting minutes, may contain personal information of individual strata owners which must be protected and can’t be used without consent. Would a strata owner, whose personal information had been revealed to a third party without consent, have grounds to make a fuss in court, at Council, to the Board, and at the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner? In a word, yes.

Privacy commissioner: Would the commissioner be concerned if a strata owner made a complaint alleging that a Realtor’s unauthorized dissemination and use of the strata documents had resulted in their personal information being revealed to third parties without consent? I think so. Remember, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has the power to investigate and sanction those who have breached the Personal Information Protection Act, the governing statute.

Judge: Consider the judge who’s deciding what to do in a case where a buyer was loaned incomplete strata documents. This happened because the buyer’s Realtor didn’t go to the strata manager for the documents. Instead, the buyer’s Realtor borrowed the documents from a friend or document-sharing service. Unfortunately, the friend either forgot to send the depreciation report to the buyer’s Realtor or never knew it existed. Consequently, the buyer didn’t have a vital piece of information about the building that the depreciation report would have revealed. He’s now suing his Realtor who claims this is all so unfair because how could he have known about a document he was never sent? The lending and receiving Realtors were once friendly. No longer, since the receiving Realtor’s lawyer had “third-partied” the lending Realtor into the buyer’s lawsuit. Evidence given made it clear that expensive remediation work on the building membrane would need to be done within five years. Sadly, the buyer hadn’t learned this and is claiming the property was misrepresented. How well do you think the two Realtors are going to do in this scenario?

Real Estate Council: To put pressure on the Realtors to cough up some cash, the aggrieved buyer has also made a complaint to Council. Council is considering whether it agrees with the idea of two licensees lending documents or using a sharing service, and also whether it’s permissible for a Realtor to provide a set of incomplete strata documents to a potential property buyer. We don’t have errors and omissions insurance for complaints made to Council. It’s white-knuckle time, I think.

Real Estate Board: Our Professional Conduct Committee receives notice of all Council discipline involving REBGV members. The committee reviews these cases as well as those involving “egregious” misconduct, and has jurisdiction to open and prosecute a Board-initiated complaint to investigate involved members. Would it open a file to consider whether two members who had lent or borrowed strata documents should be investigated? Maybe, maybe not. Who wants to take the chance?

Errors and Omissions Insurance Corporation of BC: All licensees’ biennial premiums are set according to the number of claims made over years. The success of the corporation in defending licensees and paying out damage claims in settled or lost cases is, obviously, a factor in the size of the premiums all Realtors pay when they renew their licences every two years. Notwithstanding E & O’s excellent track record in defending licensees against claims, would its lawyers be concerned about the risks coming from lending strata documents? I should think they would.

I never recommend lending strata documents either personally or via sharing services. The potential risks are high. I’m not in the business of propping up property managers’ business models—if it were me, I’d think twice about it. 

REALTORS® running in the federal election, REBGV co-sponsors election candidates meetings, and more

REALTORS® running in the federal election

The federal election is October 21, 2019. If you’re running or you know a REALTOR® running for election, we’d like to know. We’ve heard from one Realtor so far. Do you know others?

Read more.

REBGV co-sponsors federal election candidates meetings

We're co-sponsoring federal election candidates’ meetings over the next two months so you can learn more about the parties' platforms and policies.

Read more.

More housing coming to Burnaby

Burnaby, the province’s third largest city, released a detailed report that outlines plans to increase the supply, diversity and affordability of housing.

Read more.

Changes to the Heritage Conservation Act

The provincial Heritage Conservation Act was amended on May 31, 2019, bringing greater protection for heritage, archeological sites and objects throughout BC. There are also new requirements for property owners.

Read more.

Streamside protection 15 years later

If your clients are thinking of buying property located alongside or with a stream, river, creek, spring, ravine, swamp, marsh, gulch, or wetland they should know what they’re getting into.

Read more.

Maple Ridge REALTOR® changes a life with kidney donation

Debi Pearce, a REALTOR® with Royal LePage Brookside Realty in Maple Ridge, underwent life-altering surgery three months ago. She donated a kidney to Geoff Dunsire, a 31-year-old man from Mission, who had spent the last six years on dialysis.

“We were in two operating rooms and the transplant team removed my kidney and took it down the hall to Geoff,” said Pearce. “It felt good to know that Geoff would finally get to live his own life.”

It’s taken a couple of weeks for Debi to recover, and although she now has only one kidney, she feels great and has lots of energy.

Geoff’s recovery is more complex.

He previously had a transplant to replace his liver and has experienced medical crises in the past, but he’s progressing quickly. He’s been doing things he hasn’t been able to for years, like driving himself to his medical appointments.

Regaining his independence was something he didn’t think was possible before this transplant. As Geoff’s mother, Tracey Dunsire, said to Debi “You gave me my son back.”

Without the transplant, he likely would’ve spent the rest of his life traipsing between hospital and home, dependant on machines to keep him alive.

It’s been almost a year since Debi choose to donate her kidney.

She heard the plea from Geoff’s family for a donor on the news one night, and she immediately volunteered to be tested.

After Debi was approved for donation she realised Geoff’s parents had been her clients a few months earlier.

Community Champion

The Municipal Advisory Committee on Accessibility and Inclusiveness (MACAI) recognized Debi as a Community Champion for her kidney donation. MACAI is a joint committee of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows that advises both councils on accessibility and inclusiveness.  

Transplant 5,000

This event marked another milestone, this time for transplant recipients and donors and their families in BC. Geoff was the 5,000th person in the province to receive an organ transplant since this life-saving surgery started 50 years ago.

BC has among the highest rates of living kidney donation in Canada and is an international leader in this area, according to Dr Jagir Gill, transplant nephrologist, St Paul’s Hospital. Living kidney donations happen when someone in good health donates a kidney for transplant. 

Gill said that scientific advances, along with new rules to expand living kidney donation, have improved outcomes for both the donor and the recipient.

Be a life saver

Register with BC Transplant to donate.

Metro Vancouver housing market sees summer uptick in sales

Home buyer activity increased to more typical levels in Metro Vancouver throughout the summer months.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential home sales in the region totalled 2,231 in August 2019, a 15.7 per cent increase from the 1,929 sales recorded in August 2018, and a 12.7 per cent decrease from the 2,557 homes sold in July 2019.

Last month’s sales were 9.2 per cent below the 10-year August sales average.

“Home sales returned to more historically normal levels in July and August compared to what we saw in the first six months of the year,” said REBGV President Ashley Smith.

There were 3,747 detached, attached and apartment properties newly listed for sale on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in Metro Vancouver in August 2019. This represents a 3.5 per cent decrease compared to the 3,881 homes listed in August 2018 and an 18.8 per cent decrease compared to July 2019 when 4,613 homes were listed.

The total number of homes currently listed for sale on the MLS® system in Metro Vancouver is 13,396, a 13.3 per cent increase compared to August 2018 (11,824) and a 5.9 per cent decrease compared to July 2019 (14,240).

For all property types, the sales-to-active listings ratio for August 2019 is 16.7 per cent. By property type, the ratio is 12 per cent for detached homes, 18.4 per cent for townhomes, and 21.2 per cent for apartments.

Generally, analysts say downward pressure on home prices occurs when the ratio dips below 12 per cent for a sustained period, while home prices often experience upward pressure when it surpasses 20 per cent over several months.

“With more demand from home buyers, the supply of homes listed for sale isn’t accumulating like earlier in the year. These changes are creating more balanced market conditions,” Smith said.

The MLS® Home Price Index composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver is currently $993,300. This represents an 8.3 per cent decrease over August 2018 and a 0.2 per cent decrease compared to July 2019.

Sales of detached homes in August 2019 reached 706, a 24.5 per cent increase from the 567 detached sales recorded in August 2018. The benchmark price for detached homes is $1,406,700. This represents a 9.8 per cent decrease from August 2018 and a 0.7 per cent decrease compared to July 2019.

Sales of apartment homes reached 1,116 in August 2019, an 8.9 per cent increase compared to the 1,025 sales in August 2018. The benchmark price of an apartment property is $654,000. This represents a 7.4 per cent decrease from August 2018 and a 0.1 per cent increase compared to July 2019.

Attached home sales in August 2019 totalled 409, a 21.4 per cent increase compared to the 337 sales in August 2018. The benchmark price of an attached unit is $771,000. This represents a 7.8 per cent decrease from August 2018, a 0.2 per cent increase compared to July 2019.