6/14/2010

RA 9646 Eradicates the Unlicensed Real Estate Agents


[ADVOCACY SERIES] - 95% of sales-agents in the Philippines are in-house sales persons of the developers and at least 99% of them are unregistered and unlicensed, without formal training on government regulations, and they don't follow the Code of Ethics that protects consumers and clients

QUESTION: How many are the unlicensed real estate practitioners in the Philippines and what is the impact of their existence to the general consumers, to the government, and to the licensed real estate professionals?

ANSWER:

The street-level rule of the thumb in the Philippines is that, EVERYONE CAN practically be an instant real estate service practitioner without fear of getting punished by government. You can casually see them all over the place handing you out fliers of developers with their names as agent-contact of the project.

Did you know that at least 95% of sales-agents in the Philippines are in-house sales persons of the developers and at least 99% of them are colorum, without formal training, and they don't follow the Code of Ethics that protects consumers and clients? Too bad they are being exploited by developers.

I think it will interest you to read about the anomalous Treachery of the Current Professional Regulatory Board of Real Estate Service (PRB-RES) in developing the Implementing Rules and Regulation (IRR) of the RA 9646. The exploiters are now at the verge of succeeding in their manipulative scheme to exclude the in-house sales-agents of developers from this very wonderful protective feature of the RA 9646.

Between August to October 2009 (three months), I hired people to go out to the malls and streets in Metro Manila, call the advertisers in classified ads in the national newspaper, and search the internet to gather data and material evidence. We were able to gather 2,867 names of persons selling real estate in the open. I analyzed and processed the data in reference to the roster of registered practitioners of HLURB.

My finding shows that 2,723 were in-house agents of developers and only 28 of them are in the roster of registered salespersons and brokers in the HLURB website. Out of the 2,723 only 28 are registered as salesman or broker. Out of the 2,867 were 172 names that can be found in the roster. I have contacted the HLURB to complain the colorum names but TOO BAD they said they charged me P1,010 for every piece of complain. Though, the HLURB confirmed they can be charged for violation of the IRR of the PD957.

It's really funny. Some junkie-minded people are trying to challenge the scientific approach of my study to discredit it. Strange though is that they do not care about the 2,695 persons roaming nationwide who sell real estate without proper registration, license, and code of ethics.

The scenario in the provinces could probably worse.

Did the HLURB did something about this? NO
Did the DTI did something about this? NO
Did the PAREB did something about this? NO
Did the REBAP did something about his? NO
Did the FORESP did something about this? NO
Is the current PRB-RES inclined to doing something about this? NO

But in this article, I would like to recognize the licensed brokers in Cebu. I have heard a lot about their courage to coordinate with DTI and HLURB in making attempts to eradicate the colorum.

If I am Chairman of PRB-RES, I would not tolerate one incident. People have the opportunity to get formal training and licensure exam in real estate service, there should be no one who will dare to is practice without license and registration. I will forgive this 2,695 colorum names in my file, but will publish a warning in major newspapers that we are full swing in implementing the law on a specific date. On the start of the law-enforcement day, anyone who violates the law, goes to jail. Anyone offers a bribe, goes to jail even longer. That is my commitment.

As to the impact of unlicensed real estate agents to the general consumers, to the government, and to the licensed professionals, I will practically be discussing these three issues in three separate blogs that will circle around the framework of the Code of Ethics in Real Estate Service. The licensed practitioners follow a certain Code of Ethics that the unlicensed ones don't.

Nevertheless, the three main negative impact of unlicensed practitioners are:

1. Hazard to consumers
2. Disregard to government regulations
3. Unfair practices against fellow practitioners

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Eradication by Means of Integration

QUESTION: Sir John, so the RA 9646 intends to exterminate the unlicensed real estate sales agents by putting them all to jail?

ANSWER: No no no no no. Not exterminate. RA 9646 eradicates the unlicensed real estate sales agents by means of integration. We want all forces to work-out a plan to make the unlicensed agents get a formal training, get them supervised by a licensed professional, and get them governed by a common Code of Ethics that protects the consumers and fellow practitioners. The keyword is Eradication by means of Integration.

Another way to eradicate the colorum is to launch a sustained advertising to warn the public about the hazard of dealing with colorum real estate sales agents. One idea is a sticker campaign in all houses nationwide. I have many many many many ideas, projects, plans, and vision related to this. This is the aspect of the advocacy that needs funding support from international non-government organizations such as the World Bank and other foreign government grants.

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May I ask a Favor?

If you know some unregistered real-estate salespersons who ever worked under the unlicensed in-house sales directors of developers, kindly please ask them to read the Code of Ethics in Real Estate Service and ask them to write down their sad experiences of unfair practices.

I need to receive those documentation so we can develop a draft Code of Ethics and Responsibilities in such a way that it will address those modern problems. I already have a few stories in my file, I just need more. Perhaps you guys can help me with this project. Thank you.

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I dedicate this blog to my Facebook friend/s listed below who celebrate their birthday today. Defensor Santiago Miriam, Ichigo Kurosaki, Miguel Dadole

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

John, in my opinion, I think you are the father of the real estate industry of the Philippines. Happy fathers day.