By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Real Estate Association’s (BREA) president yesterday urged law enforcement to act against rogue foreign realtors engaged in property transactions in the Family Islands.

Christine Wallace-Whitfield, pictured, told Tribune Business: “We’ve got foreigners trying to take advantage of the COVID-19 situation and come in to conduct real estate transactions. 

“I know that I had a very good discussion with the minister for immigration, Elsworth Johnson, and he had vowed that he will work along with BREA but we still have to meet again to follow up and see where we’re at.

“Right now I’m in discussions with the National Association of Realtors in the US to keep them updated on people coming in to do appraisals on the Family Islands. It’s a big problem,” Mrs Wallace-Whitfield added. 

“There are foreigners who have their properties, and then they seek out an appraiser from where they are from, but they have to realise that they have to get a Bahamian appraiser because of all of the intangibles that goes with appraising a piece of property in The Bahamas.” 

The established practice is for foreign realtor to co-broke, and work with, their Bahamian counterparts when it comes to selling or auctioning properties in this nation. However, there is little BREA can do about them or unlicensed local operators aside from forwarding the complaint to the police. 

Turning to rogue local real estate agents, Mrs Wallace-Whitfield said: “There are people out there trying to mislead the public, and this is important for BREA and we will be beefing up our public relations campaign on this.

“Sometimes people are intimidated by large real estate companies and I want to let the public know to don’t be. We adhere to a strict code of ethics, and we’re all licensed and mandated by the laws of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. We have a Real Estate Act.” 

Mrs Wallace-Whitfield said that to become a licensed real estate agent in The Bahamas requires multiple examinations and a “sponsorship” from one of the licensed firms for at least three months, so that newcomers become accustomed to how the real estate business actually works. 

“We have to make sure, though, that we’re not hamsters on a wheel just going around on both local and foreign rogue agents,” she added. “We have to follow up and follow through with making sure that certain policies and rules, regulations and laws, are put into place so that the public is protected, because buying real estate is the best one of the best investments somebody will ever make in their life.” 

Ms Wallace-Whitfield  said that despite things being “a little quiet now” with rogue local real estate agents, “we’ve been getting some complaints that people are selling without a license. When we get complaints to BREA, if they’re not registered or licensed with us then we have to tell the person to file a formal complaint with the Royal Bahamas Police Force”.