Real estate group seeks recognition
There’s more to the real estate industry than just listing and selling a home.
But that is, of course, the bottom line and the thing most people know about. Get the house listed, get it sold and move on.
The Calgary Real Estate Board is the front line, acting as the main point of contact between the industry and consumers. But the industry goes much deeper than that in this province — to the Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA).
Newly-installed RECA chair Wayne McAlister says the agency goes about its serious business in obscurity — at least from a consumer perspective.
A practising realtor with Re/Max Landan in Calgary, McAlister and RECA executive director Bob Myroniuk have made it their business to raise the council’s profile. They have started with a series of focus groups aimed at boosting the provincial group’s recognition.
“We needed a baseline of input from consumers to assist us in setting our strategic plans for the coming five-year period,” says Myroniuk.
The main reason for the focus groups was to find out if people had heard about RECA, and if so, what its purpose was, says McAlister.
“The results of the consumer focus groups were not altogether surprising,” he says. “It confirmed to us that consumers are unaware of the existence of RECA, either as a source of information or a body to address complaints.”
So, what is the Real Estate Council of Alberta?
Simply put, it is an independent, non-government agency that is the licensing body for Alberta real estate — as well as mortgage brokers and brokerages, and real estate appraisers — setting standards of practice for all industry members.
To obtain a licence, individuals have to complete educational requirements and provide a certified criminal record check using fingerprint comparison.
Every year, industry professionals apply to renew their licence, where their suitability to be in the industry is reviewed.
Every second year, those working in the industry have to complete re-licensing education courses set out by RECA.
It also has established the standards of business practice expected of professionals through the Real Estate Act, as well as investigating complaints made by the public or industry professionals — much like the Law Society of Alberta does for lawyers and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta does for doctors.
RECA isn’t alone in the acronym business when it comes to real estate. There is CREB, the Calgary Real Estate Board; AREA, the Alberta Real Estate Association; and CREA, the Canadian Real Estate Association.
This family of three groups makes up an optional trade association — but everyone involved in selling real estate, brokering mortgages, or providing real estate appraisal services in Alberta must be licensed by RECA.
From a consumer perspective, there was an overall understanding in the focus groups that the industry had to have some type of regulatory body.
But the focus groups were unsure whether it was local, provincial, or federal.
When prompted to name the regulator, some people generalized by saying “some real estate board or association,” and some even mentioned CREB by name — but not one response mentioned RECA.
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