Real estate chief’s rogue agent alert

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”.

Comments

Proguing says...

Once a rogue agent tried to charge me 6% for selling a property. I said hell no, I'm selling it myself...

Posted 7 July 2021, 3:57 p.m. Suggest removal

Dawes says...

You lucky, i heard they were trying to charge 10% if there was no building on it.

Posted 8 July 2021, 9:06 a.m. Suggest removal

realitycheck242 says...

"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"**Strong*

This is one sector that is appears reserved for the connected lighter hue persons of our society. I often wonder if there is some government policy to mandate this.The licensed firms look out for their own.

Posted 7 July 2021, 5:20 p.m. Suggest removal

DWW says...

WoW!

Posted 8 July 2021, 8:05 a.m. Suggest removal

DWW says...

Ironically there will be a written paper trail to easily prove the person was operating in the jurisdiction illegally. But the Bahamian Attorney would happily be complicent and facilitate the illegal transaction. Do we ever look at the rogue attorneys in this cunt-ry who allow enable the illicit activity to occur? no? oh. never mind then. carryon smartly then

Posted 8 July 2021, 8:09 a.m. Suggest removal

trueBahamian says...

This is an interesting article. It's good to know what's happening. What would be good is if Mrs. Wallace-Whitfield can educate us as to what to look out for from local agents that could be a red flag of an issue and how to handle the situations. I don't think I've seen the head of BREA speak to the media about issues before. So, maybe this should continue as means to inform those of us outside of the industry of what happens in the real estate sector.

Posted 8 July 2021, 11:43 a.m. Suggest removal

islandgirl says...

You make an excellent point for the consumer to be educated about the Real Estate industry.

Posted 8 July 2021, 1:15 p.m. Suggest removal

The_Oracle says...

Sorry, but for a cadre of people with so called high ethics, there sure are quite a few with the ethics of an alley cat.
I also believe they're upset that there are now too many Realtors, so therefore want to Suspend the exams and qualification system to become licensed.
Perhaps she might wrote an article on that subject also....
Seems an awful lot like closing the barn door to others once oneself is inside.

Posted 8 July 2021, 7:40 p.m. Suggest removal

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