Real estate brokerages have licences restricted
Joanne Lee-Young
The Vancouver Sun
Two fast-growing Vancouver area brokerages have had restrictions placed on their licences by the Real Estate Council.
The council will not say when it placed the restrictions, and details about possible misconduct and consumer risk have only been publicly accessible since the regulator made changes to its website this month.
“Conditions may be placed on a licence for a variety of reasons. We recommend that anyone with questions about the circumstances that led to conditions being placed on a licence or the length of time the conditions have been in place, should ask the licensee about those issues,” the council said in an emailed statement.
The council has ordered that Metro Edge, which says it completed over 400 transactions in 2015, appoint a managing broker approved by the council who must sign-off on all listing information ahead of it being posted. The managing broker must also submit monthly reports with details about all transactions where the company represents both the buyer and seller and detail the use of any unlicensed assistants and their exact duties. Authority for trust account signing, including for electronic transfers, must be approved in writing and ahead of time by the council. It must also alert the council of any listing that offers any form of “commission bonus.”
At Nu Stream, the council has imposed many of the same restrictions, plus ones appeared aimed at containing the company’s expansion. Nu Stream may not “submit any applications for the licensing of any additional office locations or branches other than the office currently under construction (in Burnaby).” Without consent by the council, it may not “have more than 200 related licensees … 15 teams … and more than 12 licensees on any team.”
Until now, the spotlight on aggressive training practices, as well as shadow flipping and taking of commissions, among other things, has been focused on New Coast Realty, which has been under intense public scrutiny and official investigation. The new details reveal the council’s interest is beyond just one firm.
“Restrictions are imposed in advance of a public hearing when the council thinks the public might be at risk, so they are a very serious thing and there is reason to be concerned,” said David Eby, NDP housing critic.
“The entire industry has known about these,” said Lawrence Jin, president and owner of Metro Edge Realty, which has offices in Vancouver, Richmond and Surrey. “They are not new.”
Jin said that the conditions were placed after the ones imposed on New Coast Realty in April because the council was concerned “many agents from New Coast were moving to Metro Edge and (another Vancouver-area firm) Nu Stream and they were afraid that there would be the (same) conduct or the same behaviour.”
Wells Peng, an owner of Nu Stream, did not reply to a message left on his cellphone.
Metro Edge and Nu Stream are thought to have been set up around 2014, and staffed by agents who used to be affiliated for and/or work for New Coast Realty.
In April, the council issued a list of seven license conditions on New Coast “to ensure that the business complies with provincial laws for real estate brokerages” and also said it was actively investigating the company.
Changes this month to the council’s website also allow the public to search and see the nearly 20 conditions placed on the license of Metro Edge realtor Wendy Yang, including one that forbids her from referring any clients to or providing “contact information for (her husband and RBC Royal Bank of Canada mortgage adviser) Jian Robert Sun for the purpose of obtaining financing or mortgage advice or services.”
Yang was a top-producing agent and, in 2014, qualified for the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver’s Medallion club, which selects members from the top 10 per cent of its agents.
Yang has been ordered to remain under the direct supervision of Metro Edge’s managing broker, to whom she will file quarterly reports about her team’s transactions. She may not sign “any documents on behalf of her clients, either in her own name or in the name of her clients.”
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