Read the latest updates on the new rules

It’s been nearly two weeks since the government implemented new rules that ban dual agency and increase disclosure requirements.

In that time, we’ve created a Facebook group for members to share their experiences and pain points under the new rules. We’ve had over 1,600 members join and we’ve received great feedback so far. If you want to join our Facebook group, click here.

We’ve also met with Council to share some of this initial feedback, and request that our membership have greater opportunities to see input on new rules before final decisions are made. We also talked about the impact of the new rules when dealing with visitors at open houses.

Public education

One June 15, we issued this news release to our media contacts and on our public website and social media feeds. Board President Phil Moore also did television interviews with Global BC, Breakfast TV, Omni TV, and other media outlets. Click here to watch Phil on Global BC.

Earlier this week, we published this article on our public websites that helps explain what the public can expect when interacting with a Realtor in the new regulatory environment.

Forms in six languages

Council has developed the new forms in six languages: English, French, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Persian, and Punjabi. At launch time, some of these translations weren’t available.

Most of these forms are now available in WEBForms and through the Council’s website. Please note, not all translations for the Notice Regarding Assignment Terms are available at this time. We’ll update you as soon as Council provides them.

Council’s new app for disclosure forms

Using Council’s new Forms App will allow you to digitally fill out the Disclosure of Representation in Trading Services and the Disclosure of Risks to Unrepresented Parties forms with your clients.

• Download the Forms App
• How to Use the Forms App
• How to Add the Forms App to Your Mobile Device

Registration for new required course open for all licensees

Click here to register for Council's new required Rule Changes: Agency and Disclosure course.

Remember to save the letter you receive after you complete this course. You'll need to include it when you renew your license. Click here for more details.

Support resources and feedback

Looking for help with the new rules? Check out the Council’s Licensee Knowledge Base or read our “All You Need to Know” guide.

We’re also asking members to provide us with feedback on the new rules and forms so we can provide it to Council. Please let us know how they can be improved by emailing feedback@rebgv.org.

Meeting with the Real Estate Council

It’s a disruptive period for our profession and we appreciate the member feedback and engagement we’re seeing.

I’d like to give you an update on the conversation I had recently with Real Estate Council of BC CEO Erin Seeley. We met to discuss a list of issues you’ve been reporting to the Board on our new members’ Facebook group.

Thanks for that and please continue to relay your experiences. Council is interested in making the recent rule changes work. I was pleased with Erin’s willingness to create an environment where the regulator isn’t at odds with REALTORS® and Brokers.

Very soon, a number of our Brokers will meet face-to-face with either, or both, Erin and the Superintendent to have a candid conversation about the current environment and how we can make it better.

In the meantime, some of the things I brought to her attention on your behalf included: giving our members more opportunity to have input on new rules before final decisions are made, asking for a commission calculator to be included in their app; discussing how the app could accommodate other languages; discussing the content and practicality of the licensing course; and explaining the impact of the new rules when dealing with visitors at open houses.

These are only some of the issues we’re bringing to Council’s attention.

BCREA is also asking us to share your input with them to help them continue to advocate on your behalf as well.

I encourage you to join our new Facebook group for members. We developed this group to make it easier to send you information and hear your experiences adjusting to the new rules.

Thanks to the more than 1,600 members who have joined already.

We’ll regularly update this group with news, tips, and other resources.

Sincerely,

Brad Scott
CEO, Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver

Join our Facebook group and share your experiences under the new rules

We’ve created a members-only Facebook group to make it easier to send you information and hear your experiences adjusting to the new rules.

We’re in regular communication with the Real Estate Council of BC (Council) and we need your feedback to help shape the improvement requests we make.

When the new rules took effect on June 15, Council launched a new mobile app containing the new forms. Members were quick to identify concerns with the language in the automated email that the app sends to clients.

These concerns were promptly relayed to Council and the wording in those emails were changed the following day.

We must continue to discuss how these changes are impacting you and your clients.

“Having a Facebook group exclusively for REBGV members provides a convenient platform for you to give feedback and get the information you need to do your job,” Phil Moore, Board president said. “I encourage all members to join this group today.”

How to join

To join our Facebook group, click here. You’ll need to enter your name and V number.

You can also join this group by searching “REBGV” in Facebook and clicking on “groups” on our page. From there, click “join” beside the REBGV Members’ Facebook Page.

What am I to you?

The title of my article for this edition sounds a bit like a song or even the opening to a conversation about breaking up. But it isn’t.

“What am I to you?,” could be your opening words in the first substantial conversation you have with someone with whom you may do business. By “doing business,” I mean someone to whom you will be providing trading services as defined in the Real Estate Services Act.

As of June 15, consenting adults can have only two relationships in a real estate deal involving a licensee: agent-client and agent-unrepresented party. Dual agency in the same transaction is now, for us in Metro Vancouver, impossible or, “impracticable,” as the superintendent puts it.

Behind Door A is us acting as agent for our client. An agency relationship is taken very seriously both in the courts and by our regulator. I’ve said before there’s only one other human relationship a person can have with another person in this life with more responsibility: it’s called marriage. An agency relationship isn’t too far away from marriage, but the difference is that when you’re an agent, your responsibility to be loyal and to disclose all material information ends with the transaction. But your duty of confidentiality to that client lasts forever.

Behind Door B is us creating a real estate transaction between two consenting adults, only one of whom we represent. We represent one person as agent; the other person stands alone without representation.

You could ask why on Earth anyone would want to be unrepresented in a real estate deal? Motivations vary. The reasons I most often hear are, “I’m a sophisticated person, I don’t need an agent;” or “I want a piece of the action and if there’s only one REALTOR® involved I think I stand a better chance of getting a piece of the pie,” or, “I’d rather deal with just one Realtor so buyer-seller communications have less chance of being misunderstood.”

Some buyers and sellers will happily sacrifice agency representation for money (until there’s a problem). And, as I’ve also said before, it’s all fine until it isn’t. What could possibly go wrong in a deal in which one person has an agent and the other one’s standing alone?

Most real estate deals come together beautifully and close without a hitch. Over 100,000 a year, in fact, over the past few years in BC. A tiny number of these end up on the rocks, with an even smaller number involving concerns about agency. But, whatever the number, a real estate deal gone wrong—especially one in which one side (or both) question the Realtor’s role—is sure to capture the Council’s attention. And we don’t want that.

So, getting back to the “What am I to you?” conversation, think about using those words to kick off a conversation with that special someone you may be about to deal with. They, and you, need to understand, before confidential information is exchanged or advice given, exactly who you are to them. Once the relationship is established, you’ll work out how information, instructions, and advice (if any) will be exchanged. It’s like building a good boat. Lay the keel well and you’ll have a good vessel. Lay it badly and you’ll probably end up on the rocks.

Timing is important. A colleague uses the phrase “Miranda warning” to describe the first substantial conversation he has with someone who may want to buy or sell real estate.

If you’ve watched TV you’ll be familiar with the Miranda warning: “anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law,” etc.  “What am I to you?” could be used in a similar way; for example, “I need to know what our relationship is going to be before this conversation goes any further.”

You could, with the suggested opener and your own scripting, tell the person you already have a client and alert them before they tell you anything about themselves what their options are—that is, not being represented by you or getting their own agent to guide them.

So, first comes the “Hello, I’m happy to be talking to you about real estate” bit.

Right after that, comes the “What am I to you?” part of the conversation so you and the person you’re talking to clearly understand whether you’re their agent or not.

And, right after that, comes the Council’s Disclosure of Representation in Trading Services form either filled out on paper and signed or, electronically, via Council’s handy new app.

Don’t forget that if you’re dealing with someone who accepts not being represented in the deal, you’re required to also have them sign the “Are you absolutely, positively, sure you don’t want an agent in this deal form,” otherwise known as Council’s Disclosure of Risks to Unrepresented Parties form.

Reduce your property taxes, CRA taking actions, and new funds for housing

Property tax time

Property tax notices were sent to home owners and businesses in June and are due in July. Here's what you and your clients need to know about paying, reducing and deferring property taxes.

Read more.

Beware tax cheats

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is coming after tax cheats, including anyone who flips property and fails to report the business income resulting from this transaction. Learn about CRA's many detection methods and what happens to anyone who’s caught.

Read more.

New funds for affordable housing

If your clients are interested in renovating or repairing affordable housing projects, loans and funding are available through a new federal program.

Read more.

Zillow to include Canadian listings after partnering with Century 21

The US-based real estate listing website Zillow will display Canadian listings by the end of the year after signing a partnership deal with Century 21.

This is the first such deal Zillow has made in Canada. We haven’t, as yet, received brokerage requests to send MLS® listings to Zillow.

This announcement comes on the heels of www.rew.ca signing an agreement to post sold data registered with the Land Title Survey Authority (LTSA).

How do listing sites get their data?

The data in MLS® is owned by you, the members of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. As your professional organization, we act as the custodian of this data. Sometimes offices request that we share their listings with third-party websites they use to promote their listings.

These third parties must sign a contract that explains what they can do with the data. Once they agree to these terms, we provide them with the information that you, or your office, has requested that we send.

Can sites post listings that aren’t from MLS®?

Our rules apply to MLS® information. They don’t apply to external data sources such as LTSA or BC Assessment data.

Sites may also get their information from back-office systems. These are listing databases unconnected to the MLS®, maintained by individual offices. Even if these offices are Board members, they decide where the data they maintain appears online.

Commercial real estate sales down from robust 2017 activity

Commercial real estate sales in the Lower Mainland declined in the first quarter (Q1) of 2018 compared to the active market experienced in the region last year.

There were 523 commercial real estate sales in the Lower Mainland in Q1 2018, a 10.8 per cent decrease over the 586 sales in Q1 2017, according to data from Commercial Edge, a commercial real estate system operated by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV).

The total dollar value of commercial real estate sales in the Lower Mainland was $3.031 billion in Q1 2018, a 38.5 per cent decrease from the $4.927 billion in Q1 2017.

“Our commercial market returned to more historically normal levels in the first quarter of the year compared to the heightened activity we experienced in 2017,” Phil Moore, REBGV president said. “This shift to more typical activity is mirroring the overall economic trends we’re seeing in our province today.”

Q1 2018 activity by category

Land: There were 221 commercial land sales in Q1 2018, which is a 3.9 per cent decrease from the 230 land sales in Q1 2017. The dollar value of land sales was $1.594 billion in Q1 2018, a 20.5 per cent decrease from $2.005 billion in Q1 2017.

Office and Retail: There were 173 office and retail sales in the Lower Mainland in Q1 2018, which is down 15.6 per cent from the 205 sales in Q1 2017. The dollar value of office and retail sales was $1.076 billion in Q1 2018, a 51.8 per cent decrease from $2.232 billion in Q1 2017.

Industrial: There were 113 industrial land sales in the Lower Mainland in Q1 2018, which is down 7.4 per cent from the 122 sales in Q1 2017. The dollar value of industrial sales was $0.280 billion in Q1 2018, a 12.2 per cent increase over $0.250 billion in Q1 2017.

Multi-Family: There were 16 multi-family land sales in the Lower Mainland in Q1 2018, which is down 44.8 per cent over the 29 sales in Q1 2017. The dollar value of multi-family sales was $0.081 billion in Q1 2018, an 81.5 per cent decrease from $0.441 billion in Q1 2017.