Realtors Say Those That Break The Rules Should Take Responsibility

First time home buyers believe that buying a home for their family is a big challenge. It includes taking all their life savings and putting in into the hands of real estate agents who they trust to assist them find the best home for them and their families.

Ontario real estate agents are the most important of those professionals. They work openly with both home buyers and sellers taking care of over 200,000 residential home transactions in the Ontario restate market every year. A realtor’s livelihood depends on building long lasting relationships with people. Realtors are optimistic, outgoing people but lately a lot of them are getting angry.

Realtors are angry because a few other real estate agents abusing the trust of the Ontarian’s aiming to achieve the Canadian dream. And we want the rule breaking to stop. Leaders in the housing market are fighting for higher educational standards in order to be professionals in what they do. We proposed the idea to Premier Kathleen Wynne and she agreed, announcing a long overdue update to the industry rules.

The Ontario realtors are looking into the following changes in order to be in the lead in the North America housing market.

First, Ontario should make it tougher for everyone to get and maintain their housing estate license. The government policies are now outdated and this means that it takes longer to be certified as a hair stylish in our province than it does to get a real estate license. This makes no sense as getting a home is more complex and that the housing market is off higher value.

The Ontario government have to increase housing estate license and also set high standards for maintaining the license. The mandatory continuing education program administered by the industry regulator, the Real Estate Council of Ontario, is beneath the profession. It involves taking three online, multiple choice courses every two years that are not marked and can be taken as many times as it takes to pass.

Second, the estate industry have to reinforce its code of ethics which should set out most of the rules and obligations which govern the interactions between estate agents and home buyers. This code of ethics should also orbit shady practices that is overheating the market and discouraging home buyers in transactions with multiple offers.

Thirdly, Ontario will need to restrain from unethical behaviors and regulators that are not afraid to throw the book at violators. They should work on discouraging bad behavior during transactions and also create a rule that mandates the loss of income earned in the transaction when an estate agent breaks ethical obligations to a customer. And the regulator to step up and deal with agents who have broken the rules out of the profession.

With this situation, home buyers need to be positive that they are getting the best advice from housing agents because buyers need agents that they can trust and rely on. It is high time to increase the real estate education and throw bad people out because it’s time for Ontario to lead the North American professional services and high standards in the estate industry.