What’s the difference?

Even amongst licensees, there seems to be a lack of knowledge around the differences between a Trading Services Licensee (your traditional “Realtor”) and a Rental Property Management Licensee.

The screenshot below is straight from the BCFSA website. The BCFSA is the new regulator for Real Estate Services, and they have included this table to make it plainly clear for the public (and more importantly the industry itself) as to what the difference is. I’ll highlight the most frequently confused service:

“Assist a prospective tenant to find a property for rent” At Greater Vancouver Tenant & Property Management Ltd. we call this “Tenant Representation” or “Tenant’s Rental Agent”. This is a trade in Real Estate on behalf of a Tenant looking for a rental dwelling to call home. This can only be done by a licensed “Realtor” or Trading Services Licensee and would be similar, but also very different from a “Buyer’s Agent” for a prospective homebuyer.

There is an opportunity for new realtors, and realtors who specialize in serving buyers to represent Tenants in their home search. #realtors should speak with their Managing Broker to discuss a service agreement and fees to put this together as part of their business strategy.

The main difference in this strategy is that unlike a buyer’s agent, very few to no Landlords currently pay a commission to a Tenant’s representative for bringing a successful Tenant to their property. This is where the business case arises for those Tenants who it makes more sense for them to pay a Licensee to represent them rather than trying to go about it themselves–the traditional route in Vancouver.

Immigration (interprovincial and international) which we have a ton of in Greater Vancouver, is the key here. For someone to come to this market, get a #hotel or #airbnb, and try to find a long term accommodation is a very expensive and stressful project to undertake. A much better solution for this is to hire a Trading Licensee from where you are, secure a home before you move or while you’re moving, and land with a home in place.

The Trading Licensee can find homes for the Tenant, complete showings with the client or not via video chat, get you the application for completion, negotiate lease terms, pay deposit funds from Trust (if needed), and cue up the lease to be signed to close the deal. There may even be value added to complete the move in inspection on the client’s behalf.

I encourage #tenants and #realtors to look further at this as its a valuable service which can smooth out the process of a rental real estate transaction.

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*The above information is not to be relied on as legal advice. If you require professional or legal advise for your personal circumstances, please reach out to us for a referral, or consult with us for property management services.

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