{"id":23766,"date":"2012-07-18T08:54:03","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T12:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=23766"},"modified":"2012-07-18T09:02:21","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T13:02:21","slug":"realtor-calls-for-amendment-to-real-estate-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2012\/07\/realtor-calls-for-amendment-to-real-estate-act","title":{"rendered":"Realtor Calls For Amendment to Real Estate Act"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Real Estate law<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the Real Estate Brokers & Salesman Act 1995, there exists a flaw.\u00a0 The Attorney General\u2019s office erred when it incorporated the Bahamas Real Estate Association into the Real Estate Board.\u00a0 The purpose of a Real Estate Association is to provide avenues for its members to improve themselves professionally and academically; and to advocate for policies on behalf of its members.\u00a0 The President and officers of an association ought to be elected by its members like it\u2019s presently done.\u00a0 The Real Estate Board\u2019s Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and directors should be appointed by the government.<\/p>\n

The present situation creates a blatant conflict of interest.\u00a0 No where in any civilized society or where the real estate profession is legislated is the President of the Association and the Chairman of the Real Estate Board one and the same.\u00a0 Not in the state of Florida, Nevada or California where therein are the pioneers of real estate law.\u00a0 And an additional conflict of interest is the Multiple Listing Service and the Real Estate Board relationship.<\/p>\n

Again no where in any civilized society is the MLS owned and managed by the Real Estate Board.\u00a0 The MLS is always owned and managed by a private company or the association, i.e., its members to avoid the perception of conflict of interest.\u00a0 It is unheard of for the MLS to be owned by the Real Estate Board, the body that governs the profession and gives licenses.<\/p>\n

I call on the Attorney General\u2019s office to review the Act and make amendments as soon as possible.\u00a0 I advise the AG\u2019s office to separate the board and association, and they (government) appoint officers to the board and allow BREA to elect its own officers.\u00a0 I advise BREA members to look closely at the MLS and ensure its license fees are not being used to finance the MLS.\u00a0 There ought to be no co-mingling of license fees and the MLS.\u00a0 In addition, I advise the AG\u2019s office to investigate the affiliation of any real estate board managing or owning the MLS and will find none exist, and will conclude ours is an inappropriate relationship.<\/p>\n

Members contact me almost everyday with complaints about the asinine policies being implemented which affects them negatively.\u00a0 For example, if a member\u2019s dues are late, he or she is struck off the register.\u00a0 And they are forced to complete the licensing process all over again.\u00a0 That is illegal, immoral, unconstitutional and discriminatory.\u00a0 This is one of the many reasons why the power ought to be taken out of the hands of BREA and given to a government appointed body.\u00a0 It is the right thing to do.\u00a0 This is just one of the numerous examples where there appear to be a goal to marginalize real estate agents in this country.\u00a0 If a member is late paying his\/her license fee, if there is any penalty, it should be a late fee.\u00a0 Just recently, there was another asinine policy approved by the Board concerning continuing education.\u00a0 It made completely, absolutely no sense.\u00a0 But it was mailed to the members.\u00a0 \u201cThis is what we are going to do!\u201d<\/p>\n

Obviously, anyone with half a brain should have known it could never go forward.\u00a0 Afterwards, members received a letter saying \u201cThe board will not move forward with proposed continuing education requirements at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In conclusion, let me be emphatically clear, the above are my views.\u00a0 I have held these views before Franon Wilson became President.\u00a0 And they are by no means any criticism against him.\u00a0 In fact, I\u2019m the one who initiated the thought in his head to be President of BREA.\u00a0 And I believe he will do a good job.<\/p>\n

Patrick Strachan
\nFormer 2 time President
\nBahamas Real Estate Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Real Estate Brokers & Salesman Act 1995, there exists a flaw. The present situation creates a blatant conflict of interest. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[49,28],"class_list":["post-23766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions","tag-law","tag-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}