News Bytes August 2019

Renewals will open August 19 for brokers; August 26 for everyone else

Brokers can begin renewing their brokerages can begin renewing their licence on August 19, 2019.

Brokers must renew their brokerage before any associates or associate brokers at the brokerage. Renewing your brokerage as early as possible ensures your associates have enough time to renew. Associates and associate brokers can begin their renewal process on August 26, 2019.

Brokers should keep in mind that they must report any brokerage amendments BEFORE they begin a renewal. This includes brokerage address changes, corporate structure changes, trade name changes and more. You can find a complete list of potential brokerage amendments on reca.ca.

It is important to remember that RECA’s call and email volumes increase drastically as the renewal deadline approaches on September 30, 2019. Save yourself the call and renew early!

Look for RECA News in your inbox when renewals are officially launched August 19 and 26.

Real estate brokerage policies and procedures template now available!

With today’s tough market, brokers are focused on real estate transactions and serving clients. They may not have time to develop a comprehensive policies and procedures manual for their brokerage.

Well, brokers spoke, and RECA listened.

RECA has created a comprehensive brokerage policies and procedures manual template for use by industry. This was a tremendous effort, starting with researching, writing, editing, and formatting, and ending with rounds of feedback from RECA staff experts and from brokers directly through our practice advisors. Thank you to everyone who participated in developing this useful and usable template.

The template is completely customizable while being comprehensive. All you need to do is:

• download the Word document
• review the policies and procedures
• edit the information to fit your brokerage

The manual is available for free download under Industry Guides & Checklists.

Feedback from brokers so far:

• Thank you for this. It is a great help for a small brokerage
• Oh my!!! This is an amazing tool you are providing us. Thank you so much!!

New mortgage re-licensing course for 2020 & AMP credits

RECA has launched a new re-licensing education course for mortgage brokers, Mortgage Broker Update 2020: Managing Broker. The course is the first of its kind in Canada. It’s now available to managing mortgage brokers through myRECA, but it’s not necessary to complete until the 2020 renewal deadline (September 30, 2020).

Mortgage Professionals Canada (MPC) approved the course for 3 continuing education credits in the compulsory category. MCP is also giving credits for RECA’s commercial real estate broker re-licensing courses. Industry members who have the Accredited Mortgage Professional (AMP) designation can claim these credits by self-reporting their course completion by logging into their MPC account at www.mortgageproscan.ca.

New advertising clarifications are just two months away from taking effect

On October 1, 2019, industry professionals will need to adhere to the new advertising clarifications passed by Council in October 2018. It is important that all industry professionals have a clear understanding of the latest advertising guidelines.

Thank you to those industry professionals who have taken a proactive approach and reached out to RECA over the last 10 months to further clarify and to ensure they understand the new clarifications correctly. This professional approach is appreciated and expected.

Resources are available

RECA has put together extensive resources to help all industry professionals, including:

• A Visual Guide: includes examples of advertisements that meet and that do not meet requirements across various platforms
• A Social Media Visual Guide: includes multiple examples of social media profile pages, and what to include in individual posts across multiple social media platforms
• An Advertising Checklist: a step-by-step process to ensure your advertisements meet the latest guidelines
• FAQ: provides answers to the most frequently asked questions about advertising
• Broker Presentations: brokers can request a presentation to their brokerage by contacting our practice advisors. Many brokerages across the province have already done so.

For more information, visit RECA’s advertising page.

Note: RECA will give industry professionals, teams, and brokerages an additional six months (until March 31, 2020) where they may advertise with “formerly known as.”

RECA wins ARELLO and CLEAR awards

Every year, the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials (ARELLO) recognizes organizations around the world for exemplary leadership in certain areas of real estate regulation.

This year, RECA received three awards from ARELLO:

• Best Education Course: Real Estate Update 2019 (All Professionals)
• Education—Miscellaneous: RECA Booksite
• Communications Project: The Regulator newsletter

RECA has won a total of 15 ARELLO awards for communications, education, and investigations.

Also, two RECA employees, Cheryl Rumpel and Holly Childs, won the CLEAR 2019 Investigative Excellence Group Award. CLEAR (the Council on Licensure, Enforcement, and Regulation) recognizes exceptional performance in a particular case. Cheryl and Holly worked on a complex fraud file involving multiple properties and industry members.