New Rules for Realtors in BC
Prince George, B.C.- The Provincial Government has announced new rules which it hopes will curb shadow flipping.
Shadow flipping happens when a person makes an offer to buy a property and before that deal closes, the offer is “reassigned” at a higher price to another “buyer”. The original seller of the property had not approved that change, and wasn’t likely to see the cash benefits of the resale of the contract.
“Government will not tolerate unethical predatory conduct in the real estate market,” said Premier Clark “These rules will increase transparency and make sure that sellers’ best interests are protected. Real estate licensees must act in the best interests of the client – not themselves.”
Under the new rules, licenced realtors who write up the offer to purchase, must include two separate terms about contract assignment. One requires the seller’s consent to have the contract transfered, the other requires any resulting profit from such a transfer to be returned to the seller.
“When people decide to sell their homes – potentially one of their biggest assets – we need to make sure they have all of the information they need to make a decision about what is best for themselves and their families,” Finance Minister Michael de Jong said. “Contract assignment fulfils a legitimate role in real estate transactions, and in certain situations can protect consumers if their circumstances change during a transaction. The changes we have made empower sellers by providing for full disclosure, informed consent and the opportunity for sellers to insist they receive any resulting financial benefit.”
Any buyer who wants to have those two terms removed from the offer must notify the seller of that change. The seller then has the opportunity to accept, or reject the offer or insist one or both of the terms be included.
Sellers’ licensees are also required to discuss with their clients whether the proposed contract would be assignable and whether there would be any conditions on assignment, including whether the seller is entitled to any profit.
The new regulations apply to offers made on or after May 16, 2016.
Comments
It all looks good on paper, until you get to the enforcement part of these new real estate measures, of which there will probably be very little, in my opinion… after all who is the chair of fundraising for the BC Liberal Party, but real estate developer; Bob Rennie, himself a contributor of tens of thousands of dollars to the party last year. Lots of foxes in the BC Liberal hen house and they get to have audience with the head hen house keeper at $10,000 – $20,000 per plate.
www .theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/donor-lists-reveal-bc-liberals-greed-for-power/article29535533/
Good old BC, the only province in Canada where democracy is for sale!
You just gotta wonder what’s on the plate ? If I were to pay that kind of grift , it better be nice .
So you’d create another well paid layer of permanent bureaucrats charged with policing every real estate transaction, would you? And charge the cost of this whole new regime of public protectors to what? No matter what you ‘pretend’ it’s going to be charged to, i.e. real estate agents, or, more likely, the companies they work for, it’ll simply be added on to the price of the house. Aren’t they expensive enough already? Of course the NDP salivates every time real estate values rise, thinking of all the extra dough they wring out of anyone who deigns to actually ‘own’ a home in additional property taxes.
I wonder why anyone talks about them as professionals, Sales People and nothing else, don’t think you are something better!
“Good old BC, the only province in Canada where democracy is for sale!” You’re a few bricks short of a load if you really believe that.
NO WAY…Realtors are not honest who would have thought
I had recent dealings with a real estate agent that showed high integrity/ethics. I was interested in buying a residential unit but was cautioned by the agent due to the past history of the developer involved. The recommendation was, if after checking into the developer, I was still going to buy one to give my money to my lawyer for safekeeping until all liens etc. were taken care of and it was determined to be safe to give the money to the developer. After reading the disclosure statement of the developer and running the name through local newspapers search engines and google and ‘court services online’ and talking to some local people whom had previous dealings with the developer I decided to look elsewhere for a home. So my real estate agent missed out on a commission on selling my current place and a commission on buying the new place by cautioning me when the agent didn’t have to say anything.
Ah theres good and bad, honest and dishonest people in every profession.
In fact, I’ll bet there are even honest and ethical politicians, and used car salesmen out there, somewhere.
metalman.
They are just sale people…make their money from getting you to buy.. They charge way to much for what they do. Their commercials making people scared/worried about using other house selling like property guys etc is appalling. they will say what you want to hear to make a buck.. Just like any other salesperson.
This measure will do very little to control house pricing. Cheap money and poor policy have swollen housing prices. Low interest rates have given people more to spend on housing. And the fools ran with it, driving up prices and, in extreme cases, leading to bidding wars.
Housing prices should follow wages, the gap is getting a little wide as of late.
What goes up, must come down. It’s not “different” this time.
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