Improving the Role of Managing Brokers

In October at BCREA's Managing Brokers' Conference, the Office of the Superintendent of Real Estate (OSRE) reported on work to review the roles and responsibilities of managing brokers in BC. They released a discussion paper and asked for feedback on five short- and medium-term actions as well as three long-term concepts.

BCREA worked with member boards to facilitate seven focus groups with managing brokers from across BC. BCREA also conducted a survey that was completed by nearly 1,100 REALTORS®.

Recommendations
REALTORS® clearly support two of the short- and medium-term actions proposed in the discussion paper:

• more targeted relicensing education for managing brokers that's more hands-on, as opposed to simply more education, and
• developing best practices and related resources for managing brokers to provide clearer processes and more standardization.

There were mixed responses on the proposed long-term concepts. Many REALTORS® prefer keeping the status quo within an enhanced regulatory framework. Others prefer moving to a single licensing, where each licensee would basically be a managing broker, citing Colorado, California and Washington as successful case studies. Few REALTORS® we heard from support replacing the managing broker with a compliance officer, although many welcome more support from professional advisors employed by either OSRE or organized real estate.

Managing brokers and survey respondents provided their own creative suggestions to improve the role of the managing broker, including:

• mentorship for managing brokers and all REALTORS®,
• increased managing broker networking opportunities,
• raising the education bar for all REALTORS®, not just managing brokers, and
• shifting liability away from managing brokers.

BCREA's working with member boards to finalize recommendations so the real estate sector can provide feedback to OSRE with a unified voice. BCREA will recommend that any changes OSRE pursues are done in an exploratory manner in collaboration with REALTORS® to ensure on-the-ground experience and expertise rather than rushed policy that adds more burden without clear benefit.

BCREA will submit feedback to OSRE by the January 15, 2020 deadline and we encourage all REALTORS® to provide their own feedback to [email protected].

To subscribe to receive BCREA publications such as this one, or to update your email address or current subscriptions, click here.