AutoProp video resources

It’s been about a month since we launched AutoProp, and over 4,700 members have downloaded it so far. It’s available to you as part of your MLS® fees.

AutoProp is a powerful tool that helps you retrieve, export, and visualize real estate data from multiple sources and create reports for your clients. Watch this short video that shows you what AutoProp is and what it does.

Here are some video tips that show you how to perform common tasks in AutoProp:

Changes for PDP coming in 2020: What you need to know

Together with the BC Real Estate Association (BCREA), the real estate boards around the province recently announced details of a new framework for the professional development program (PDP) that’ll take effect on January 1, 2020.

What's changing?

Under the new framework, you’d be required to complete 18 professional development hours in your two-year licensing cycle rather than 18 PDP credits.

You’ll complete 12 of these hours through PDP-accredited courses. The remaining six hours will be accumulated through either additional PDP-accredited courses or through ‘self-directed’ development hours.

What is self-directed learning?

The concept of self-directed learning is intended to give you more flexibility and choice in your professional education. It's used in other professions.

Some self-directed learning possibilities could include in-brokerage learning, conferences or professional learning outside organized real estate. This means you'll be able to get credit for some of the learning you already do.

What about Legal Update and other courses I need to take to re-license with Council?

Education needed to re-license with the Real Estate Council of BC (RECBC), such as Legal Update, will no longer be PDP accredited under this model. This is due, in large part, to RECBC’s recent moves to separate its relicensing education program (REP) from PDP.

Council will likely continue to require you to take Legal Update as well as other courses per cycle.

If I’m in the middle of my licensing cycle on January 1, 2020, what will happen to my credits?

To help ensure a smooth transition, any PDP credits you’ve earned as of December 31, 2019, will be directly converted to accredited hours under the new framework.

How can I learn more about these changes?

BCREA hosted the webinar below to go over these changes in more detail. 

If you have questions about this webinar, email us at education@rebgv.org.

We’ll communicate much about the changing PDP model in the weeks and months ahead.

New WEBForms coming July 18

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) will introduce a new version of WEBForms for our members on July 18.

This new version of WEBForms contains the existing features of the current WEBForms (WEBForms Legacy), plus unlimited cloud storage for your forms and kits, a customizable client management dashboard, and the ability to create tasks and checklists to help you stay on track when sharing tasks.

Watch this short video to get a feel for the new WEBForms. If you want to learn more, CREA has created videos, guides, and other training like webinars to help you learn how to use WEBForms. Click here to visit this resource page.

WEBForms Legacy will continue to be available to you until the end of this year. Any clauses and templates you have in WEBForms Legacy will be imported into the new version of WEBForms under your account. You’ll also be able to select and export any existing kits you’ve created in WEBForms Legacy to the new WEBForms.

All your current integrations, such as DocuSign for example, will also continue to work in the new WEBForms as they do today.

All brokerage forms that were programmed into WEBForms Legacy will be added with no additional cost. Any discrepancies should be brought to the attention of CREA Member Support at support@crea.ca.  

Changing gears

A buyers’ market means buyers have many more listings to consider. It also means not as many properties are selling. It’s the opposite of a sellers’ market where sellers have the upper hand. I doubt this is a secret to any of us.

What may not be so clear, if you’re thinking about doing some mid-year planning and goal setting, is how do you change prospecting gears from a sellers’ market to deal with a buyers’ market?

If during the last sellers’ market most listings sold, then during the current buyer’s market we’re going to need to take a lot more listings to produce the same number of sales. I’m sure you’ve heard your managing broker, the top REALTORS® in your office, and sales trainers say as much.

If I were back in the saddle again, I’d probably focus my efforts in two places: getting my listing numbers up and increasing my pool of qualified buyers.

There are many things you can do to take more listings, like mass prospecting and building better websites. I was never big on mass prospecting, but it produces great results for members who are impervious to the word “no.”

If I had to do things over again, I’d probably target a group of sellers who’ve already indicated they’re interested in selling, namely sellers whose listings have expired. Sure, some of them are fed up with the whole idea and want to take the summer off, but there’ll still be a lot left who want to sell so they can move on with their lives. What’s the secret? Have a compelling story to tell and anticipate the most common objections you’ll get. And, if you can, talk to the sellers about reducing their price while asking for a longer-than-usual listing duration.

From a professional standards perspective, what should we remember when we’re prospecting expired listings? Here’s a list:

1. Be prepared for seller frustration. They’ve probably been keeping their property in top shape for months, with no result. There could’ve been a large side order of raised-and-dashed hopes every time the place was shown. They’re annoyed they didn’t get their price. So, expect to get an earful asking, “Why didn’t you sell the place when it was listed?” A handy thought to throw out in response might be, “That’s a good question.” Another good question might be, “Why didn’t the property sell?” followed by “I have a proven 10-point sales plan – a fresh look at getting your place sold might be all you need…” or something similar. I’m pretty rusty in the scripting department, but you get the idea. One place you don’t want the conversation to go is whether your colleague did a good job. The sellers may ask you to weigh in on this. Remember REALTOR® Code Article 19 and Rules of Cooperation, 6.08 b). A reasonable thing to say in response could be, “Let’s keep the focus on what I can do for you now.”
2. Has the property been relisted? Maybe the seller’s Realtor was successful in getting the listing extended before it expired. The paperwork could’ve been turned into the office but not yet broker-loaded into the MLS®. Check the address before you contact the sellers, but as noted, it’s possible the place has been relisted so choose your words carefully until the seller confirms the listing has indeed expired. And if the seller says the property has been relisted, thank them for their time and move on. Resist the temptation to get into a conversation about their property, their Realtor, and the current market. Remember, you’re now talking to someone else’s client under contract. (Realtor Code Article 19 and 20; Rules of Cooperation 6.05 and 6.07 and possibly, 6.08 if you cross the line.)
3. Have the potential sellers you’re about to contact asked for privacy protection? See Rules of Cooperation, Rule 6.06. If they were sellers and their property was listed on the MLS®, it’s easy to check. Just pull up the expired listing and look for ***privacy-protect*** in the sellers’ name field. You mustn’t ever contact these sellers about that listing because they specifically asked not to be contacted. Of course, if they contact you directly you can talk to them. Remember this before your assistant mails or delivers your “expired listing” package to the sellers the day after their listing expired.
4. If you have written information to show or leave with the sellers, look to see whether you've remembered Rule 6.07 “This communication is not intended to induce a breach of an existing agency agreement” and make sure you include the full name of your brokerage (Realtor Code Article 13) while remembering that your package will be speaking for you long after you’ve left the sellers’ place. Does it reflect well on you?

My last column about invasive plants touched a bit of a nerve. I intended it to be an interesting heads-up about a potential issue Realtors might encounter and what to do about it. It doesn’t hurt to plan for the many different things that can happen when we act for buyers and sellers. That said, I wasn’t suggesting we should all become invasive plant experts. BC is still a caveat emptor province, meaning buyers are expected to do their own due diligence. But it doesn’t hurt to ask the seller if they’re aware of any invasive plants on the property. In the case of Japanese Knotweed or Giant Hogweed, there’s little chance they wouldn’t know about these. You just want to be able to show your regulator or a court that you made a reasonable effort, within the expected standard of care (we’re not botanists), to ascertain whether your client was aware of an invasive species when the place was listed. I doubt anyone expects you should do a forensic audit of all the plants in the back yard.

Home ownership rates; Delta growing

Home ownership rates decline across Canada

Home ownership rates declined by two per cent province-wide and by one per cent across Canada from 2011 to 2016. Higher-income households are more likely to own homes and have mortgages.

Read more.

Delta City Hall

Bucking the trend is Delta, where there were 50 more homeowners in 2016 compared to 2011 – largely the result of population growth, REALTORS® attending a Delta information session learned.

Read more.

Our REALTOR® advertising campaign reach - May update

Our REALTOR® advertising campaign launched last November with radio and online banner ads. We ramped up the campaign in January with online video and TV ads and online banner ads, followed bus-back ads in April.

We’ve been tracking the reach, or exposure, of the campaign. This is measured through a metric called “impressions” – the advertising industry’s standard. An impression is an interaction between your target audience and your advertising. For example, an impression is counted when you hear a radio ad or when you’re using Facebook and view an ad.

To date, our 2019 campaign has achieved over 33.8 million impressions, in addition to the 21.3 million achieved toward the end of 2018. Here’s a summary of the public exposure our campaign has achieved so far:

2018 campaign

Online

We advertised on REW, Kijiji, Ratehub, Facebook, and other sites that are frequented by people who are likely to buy or sell real estate in the next one to two years.

This portion of the campaign delivered over 9 million impressions and nearly 13,000 clicks to REBGV.org.

Radio

Our radio advertising generated 12.2 million impressions.

2019 campaign

The 2019 campaign launched in mid-January with television and online video, online banner ads, and newspaper advertising. Bus back advertising followed in late April.

Video – Television and Online

Our video spot ran in BC on the following television stations between mid-January and early March:

• CBC
• GlobalBC
• CTV
• City TV
• Sportsnet Pacific

Our ads ran during a wide-range of programming, from high-profile dramas like Grey’s Anatomy, Bull and 911, to sports like Hockey Night in Canada, Canucks and Blue Jays, and live events like the Grammy Awards and local news programming.

The ad is also running on OMNI television, specifically targeting the Cantonese, Mandarin, and Punjabi-speaking communities.

To date, the spot ran nearly 700 times and generated over 26.7 million impressions.

The video is also running online on multiple platforms, including the CBC, CTV, City TV, and Global BC websites and apps. This ad is targeting users who are in the market to buy or sell a home in English, Mandarin, and Punjabi. So far, the video has been viewed nearly 2.5 million times online, bringing over 23,000 visits to the specially designed landing page.

Five Ask an Expert and Open House editorial segments were also negotiated with Global. We’ve run one so far.

Online Banners

We’re currently advertising on REW, Kijiji, Ratehub, Facebook, and other sites frequented by people who are likely to buy or sell real estate in the next two years.

As of March 31, this portion of the campaign delivered over 4.6 million impressions and over 16,000 visits to the landing page.

We also received a branded online article on Global and ethnic websites.

Bus Backs

As of April 29, our bus backs launched throughout the region.  A total of 85 bus backs will run until mid-July and will generate close to 19 million impressions over this period.

Impression Summary

What’s next?

Online banner ads will continue through to the end of 2019. Our second round of TV ads will launch in early August and run until the end of September. Four Ask an Expert and Open House editorial segments will run on Global alongside a branded online article on Global and ethnic websites.

How your feedback fuels our Excellence Canada Program

Your feedback is a key component in how we plan new services and offerings for you, as well as how we measure the success of our efforts. We collect your feedback in a number of ways, from surveys and polls to focus groups and comments collected at Board events.

Our commitment to providing the best possible service has been formalized in our Customer Experience Plan, which highlights the many ways we serve you, our plans to ensure we continue to deliver excellent service, and the measurements we use to make sure we’re doing the job right.

There are plenty of examples of how we turn your feedback into new products and services. One is the new Schoolhouse Training Facility in Coquitlam. Those of you who live outside of Vancouver had told us about the inconvenience of having to make long commutes to attend PDP courses. This new facility makes it easier and more convenient to attend courses for the nearly 40 per cent of members who live and work east of the Vancouver/Burnaby border.

Paragon is another example. We receive regular feedback from members about the Paragon system and ways to improve it. We told Black Knight, the providers of Paragon, that our members needed updates to the system faster than they’d been providing, and we worked with them to strengthen our partnership and explore new ways for your feedback to influence changes within the system.   

We have a members-come-first mindset at the Board, but we take it a step further. We seek to provide an experience that is welcoming, responsive, helpful, knowledgeable, and service-oriented in our dealings with you, our members.

Your Board has been on an excellence journey since 1996. That’s when we began our relationship with Excellence Canada (formerly the National Quality Institute). Founded in 1992 by Industry Canada, Excellence Canada is an independent, not-for-profit corporation dedicated to advancing organizational performance across Canada.

What began as a way to expose our organization to leading business practices across the country has evolved into a workplace culture that fosters creativity, innovation, and a mindset of continual improvement. At the heart of it all is our people: our members, for whom we strive to provide the best possible service, and our staff, whom we equip with the tools and resources necessary to deliver that service.

We submitted our application for the Platinum level of Excellence Canada’s Excellence, Innovation, and Wellness (EIW) standard in March. Excellence Canada will let us know if our application was successful in the summer.

As we look forward, we’ll continue to provide the best possible services, products, and offerings in line with our commitment to excellence with you.