1 on 1 with BCREA CEO Trevor Koot

Every industry has leadership positions who are responsible for the outcomes of others’ actions. They’re mentors, they guide other folks, and in the real estate industry, that role is the managing broker.

Not only do they provide mentorship to REALTORS® in their office and beyond. They carry extra liability and responsibility. There’s regulatory expectations and compliance requirements, and that puts a lot of pressure on the managing broker role.

I was a managing broker for many years and speaking from experience you’re getting pulled in a lot of different directions. There’s a lot of expectations on you, not just within the brokerage but beyond.

We’ve heard for years that the role of the managing broker is under threat, that there’s fewer people that are coming into the industry looking to become a managing broker, and as a result it’s organizations like the BC Real Estate Association that need to step up.

How can we make the role of the managing broker something to aspire to for agents and REALTORS® that are on the ground today?

What we’ve done is looked at different ways that we can establish support mechanisms for the managing broker and the role that they fulfill. We’ve established a Community of Practice, a webinar environment where managing brokers can get together a couple of times a month to learn about timely topics.

We partnered with the Pacific West Conference to provide a managing broker stream of content that is specific to the role of the managing brokers and the issues that are in front of them today.

We have the Managing Brokers’ Portal on BCREA Access, which is a one-stop-shop resource centre for managing brokers as they look for answers to their pressing questions.

We’ve created a Managing Brokers Polices and Procedures Manual Template that managing brokers can adopt for their offices and customize for their particular situation.

And finally we’ve launched something that I’m extremely proud of, the Managing Broker Support Line.

Though BCREA has created all of these support mechanisms for the managing broker role, we know that that role is going to continue to evolve. It is vital that we ensure that there is a succession plan for these leadership positions, and BCREA looks forward to working with the next generation of managing brokers to ensure they feel supported, and have an opportunity for success.