Tina Mak, Coldwell Banker Westburn Realty reports on Vancouver's housing market on "Shadow Flipping"…Overblown? Legal? Illegal?
Paul Prade, Managing Partner and President of Coldwell Banker Westburn Realty, a licensed Realtor since 1978 and is a past Member of the Real Estate Council of BC which is responsible for regulating the Real Estate Industry. Paul was the guest speaker on Tina Mak's weekly radio real estate show to share the update on the recent talk of the town topic '"shadow flipping".
Paul was invited to attend a meeting between REBGV/RECBC and Senior RCMP Investigators including the Director for Federal Serious and Organized Crime. They are working closely with FINTRAC and made it very clear that the Real Estate Industry is on their "radar" and more audits and investigations and reiterated, "Willful Blindness by Realtors which will not be tolerated". Paul and the Council emphasized that salespeople have not been fully trained in identifying high risk offenders and there is a real disconnect between our industry’s expectation of completing FINTRAC forms and what the RCMP/FINTRAC expect us to do with further screening of our buyers and sellers.
Paul also suggested what the public should do when choosing a realtor. Education and being informed is the key!
Here are the topics Tina addressed on her show on Feb 20, 2016.
1. Explain the Roles of the RE Board and RE Council to protect the public in all real estate dealings, providing education and governing the Provincial laws for all Realtors to follow.
2. Assignments: what are assignments of RE contracts? and how to protect yourself as a Seller
3. Flips and Lifts: what's the difference;
4. "Shadow Flipping": what does this mean? Where did this term come from?
5. RE Council Rules require the Realtor to use a form called a "Disclosure of Interest in Trade"
6. Bad Realtors: It is a "privilege not a right" to be in the Real Estate Profession and a Realtor as alleged by these news stories is breaching the Council Rules they should be punished severely
7. The Media and Politicians: We should all keep in mind that Media loves to investigate different industries and to expose illegal and/or immoral practices, which is great provided the reporting is fair and true. Some Politicians are quick to criticize the opposition party especially if they can gain widespread public attention and possibly further their careers, they should look much deeper into each accusation to be fair in their judgment of the industry and its regulators.
