Bums in Seats
| June 11, 2013
As a broker, what are your hiring practices?
Do you interview prospective practitioners? When they’re transferring from another brokerage, do you ask them about their disciplinary history or current investigations? Does the existence of a history or current investigation bother you? Are you simply trying to put bums in seats, so to speak?
The reputation of your brokerage is only ever as strong as its weakest link. When you hire, there are certain steps you can take to determine a real estate or mortgage professional’s “fit” with your brokerage and to ensure he or she will positively represent your brokerage.
If you’re considering having someone join your brokerage, some questions you may want to ask them include:
- Have you ever been disciplined by RECA?
- Are you currently under investigation by RECA?
- Is there anything you need to tell me now that would affect our relationship when I find out about it later?
Something else you might want to consider is formally requesting a disciplinary/authorization history from RECA. Generally, you’ll receive a response from RECA to that request very quickly; typically no more than a couple of days.
Of course, a disciplinary history from RECA won’t give you any information about current investigations. To that end, you can have your potential new registrant send a letter to RECA requesting that PAST disciplinary outcomes, and information about CURRENT investigations be released to you as his or her prospective new broker.
By making a few quick inquiries into an industry member’s past, you can be that much more confident that he or she will represent your brokerage in a professional manner with a good reputation. This not only helps your business, but the industry as a whole.
Does your brokerage have any minimum hiring standards when bringing in new industry members?
