Our Platform for AIPORESP

The primary functions of the Integrated Professional Organization of Real Estate Practitioners in the Philippines (IPORESP or some people call it AIPO or AIPORESP) specified by the R.A. 9646 are (1) development of CPE substance, (2) development of curriculum of the degree in real estate service, (3) development of code of ethics and responsibilities in real estate service, (4) nomination of the PRB-RES, (5) enforcement of anti-colorum operations, (6) coordination of oathtaking of new licensees. These functions cannot be undertaken without IPORESP.

Aside from these functions enumerated above, there are also other relevant Special Reforms that the IPORESP needs to undertake and implement in form of Projects. Below are my 17 high priority projects that I developed when I used to entertain the thought of becoming a Trustee/Officer of IPORESP (but I already dropped the aspiration for some reason). These projects will (1) protect the consumers, (2) ensure the sustainable income of real estate professionals, and (3) secure the business interest of real estate developers as it will eradicate illegal practices (colorum), anomalies, scams, schemes, and buyer-seller matching difficulties in real estate service.



#1. BREAD AND BUTTER FIRST

(1) CONSUMER PROTECTION THROUGH DUE-DILIGENCE CERTIFICATION. One of the interesting project I have in mind for AIPORESP is something I consider as a magic pill that will make the RESPs relevant as a profession. The value added will be a mechanism that will ensure that consumers are ultimately protected.

FOR BROKERS. I will push for a national policy that a "Full-Disclosure Certificate", duly certified by a licensed Broker, must be required before any propery will be offered for sale to the public. This will be supported by a post-closure policy that all Contract to Sell or Deed of Sales must have a Due-Diligence Certificate by a Licensed Broker before it will be Notarized.

FOR APPRAISERS. I will push for a national policy that a "Appraisal Certificate", duly certified by a licensed Appraiser, must be required before any property will be offered for sale in the market. This kind of Due-Diligence Certificate will prevent rip-off.

FOR CONSULTANTS. I will push for a national policy that a "Consultant Certificate", duly certified by a licensed Consultant, must be required before any Developer's Project Plan be approved by HLURB. This kind of Due-Diligence Certificate will prevent violations of PD 957.

These required Due-Diligence Certificates will be our day-to-day bread-and-butter income as professionals. The amount/rate of professional fees that will be charged by Brokers, Appraisers, and Consultants for the issuance of full disclosure certificate, due diligence certificate, and appraisal reports will be rationalized and standardized by AIPO, in compliance with the Price Tag Law.


#2. PNLS - THE SAFEST PLACE TO BUY AND FASTEST WAY TO SELL

(2) DEVELOP THE PHILIPPINE NATIONAL LISTING. The AIPO will develop and operate the Philippine National Listing System (PNLS) for the benefit of all subscriber Real Estate Service Practitioners (RESP), sellers, and buyers. With this PNLS, which we will enjoy at the tip of our fingers, have the following benefits:

• PNLS will help us compare prices and monitor the general economic trend of the real estate sector.
• PNLS will help each broker serve buyers and sellers with utmost transparency and confidence.
• PNLS technology will make transactions faster and easier.
• PNLS will eradicate real estate transaction-related tax evasions because the system will also be equipped with a feature that will automatically generate correct calculation of taxes to be paid for a particular transaction.
• PNLS will be used to promote transparency of who handled the client and customers and prevent buyer-seller-broker-salesperson disputes on payment information.

3) DEVELOP THE NATIONAL DIRECTORY. With this project, customers will come to our offices, we will become dignified professionals like doctors, architects, and lawyers. We will no longer be some kind professionals who peddle services the way street vendors do. In my platform, the AIPO will develop and operate the National Online Directory of all IPORESP Members. This directory will be very useful for all real estate practitioners, developers, and customers in general. It will promote business networking. It will make our customers come to us instead of us running after them. This directory will enable our customers to easily find and contact the nearest professional. It will help the developers easily find the updated information about the address of brokers for the purpose of project presentation. This will make real estate owners easily find brokers nearby in case they need help in selling their property or in case they need a professional property manager in the neighborhood if they immigrate abroad. help This will also enable us to quickly determine if a person is licensed/registered or not.

(4) CPEs LEADING TO MASTERS AND PHD IN REAL ESTATE SERVICE. I don't like the professionals to get a CPE that is repetitive and always similar to Comprehensive RE Seminar and Review (CRESR). I would like the CPE to be contributing to the individual's progressive career in real estate service.

CPEs of Brokers must cover subjects that are required to (1) gain knowledge to pass the exam for Appraisers and (2) gain units credited to master's degree in Real Estate Service. A Broker who passes the Apraisers Exam gets an Appriser's License plus a Master's Degree in Real Estate Service.

CPEs for Appraisers must cover subjects that will help the individual (1) gain knowledge required to pass the exam for Consultants and (2) gain units credited to PhD in Real Estate Service. An Appraiser who passes the Consultant's Exam gets a Consultant's License plus a PhD Degree in Real Estate Service.

Real estate practitioners who wants to earn a living in lectures may develop his/her own seminar topic that is related to real estate service and office management. He/she may present it to the CPE Council for approval and valuation of hours, and have the substance of the lecture copyrighted under his/her name. A lecturer with approved lecture may be invited as guest speaker by other practitioners or association of practitioners and theparticipants will get CPE Credits for attending the lecture. Professional fees for lecture hours will be standardized by AIPO.

(5) REALISTIC TRAINING HOURS REQUIRED FOR SALESPERSONS. If you look at the IRR of RA 9646 now, "they" crafted it in such a way that it is becomes almost IMPOSSIBLE for salespersons to register because they made the training requirement a 120 hours. It costs around P50,000 for a salesperson to attend a 120 hours training. But don't worry, when AIPO is established by the democracy and PRB-RES is replaced, we will reduce the salesperson training requirement to 16 hours to cover only training on RA 9646, PD 957, and Codes of Ethics. The Brokers will be the ones who will train their own salespersons and provide certification for the training. In this way, we can successfully integrate the salespersons in the registration and regulation system without compromising the necessary values-formation training requirement.

(6) CRESR and CPE MUST INCLUDE MANAGERIAL COURSES. The current coverage of the CRESR and CEP is lacking. There are two elements that makes a Broker successful -- (1) Technical Skills, and (2) Management Skills especially in Salesperson Supervision and Office Operations. We need to incorporate training on Management Skills.

(7) DEMOCRATIZE THE PRB-RES NOMINEES SELECTION PROCESS. The posting of representatives to the Professional Regulatory Board of Real Estate Service (PRB-RES) should be democratized. Vacant positions will be broadcast to the attention of all members (RESPs). Every member will be given the right to apply for the vacant position. The selection process is a huge workload, wherein the following must be done: 1. Advertise the vacant position to the attention of all members, 2. Receive individual application from interested members; 3. Ranking the applicants; 4. Panel interview of top contenders, 5. Panel selection of final nominees; 6. Recommend of nominees to the PRC.

(8) CONDUCT HIGH-IMPACT ADVOCACY ACTIVITIES. The following activities need to be done:

8.1. Develop Information, Education, Communication, Advocacy (IECA) materials like posters and primers on the risk and penalties of colorums, and they should also know where to go to become registered.

8.2. Outreach to Homeowners Associations of condominiums, subdivisions, and other compact communities. We will present RA 9646 advocacy lectures and also take the opportunity to introduce our members who live in their neighborhood. This is a effective way to eradicate colorums by educating the consumers and also great way for our members establish a network of customers nearby.

8.3. Provincial Outreach Program. We need to send-out Teams composed of Brokers, Appraisers, and Consultants to remote places in the Philippines to improve the population's awareness of our professional existence.

8.4. Participate in Online Forums to answer questions from members and general clients through social networking sites like Facebook.

(9) RESTORE THE INTEGRITY AND IMPROVE THE TRUST RATING OF THE SERVICE. The following workload needs to be done:

9.1. Develop and provide the practitioners with a standard (a) Colorum Warning Form and (b) Colorum Reporting Form.

9.2. Encourage all members to be responsible in identifying colorums in their respective neighborhoods. Members will be "deputized" as watchdogs and will be empowered to apprehend violators.

9.3. Receive Colorum Report from members and validate it.

9.4. Take the role as lead complainant, transmit Colorum Report to PRC and/or HLURB, diary follow-up, issue a press release, and appear in hearing.

A CPE in coordination with the Philipine National Police will be provided to train the members in this deputized law enforcement function. A reward system will also be put in place for those who can make successful apprehensions, and I am thinking about half of the Fine Penalty will be given to the apprehending member as a reward (fine is around P200,000 per Sec 39 of RA 9646)



(10) VALUES FORMATION ANNUAL ONLINE CERTIFICATION. All practitioners must take the Annual Online Quick Training/Exam in Code of Ethics and Responsibilities (CER) to keep them refreshed with the values we want to form among ourselves.

(11) ESTABLISH AN OPEN REAL ESTATE LIBRARY. Acquire real estate books and videos locally and from other countries. This is a very important resource towards achieving educational advancement of our members through time.

(12) ADMINISTRATION OF SEAL OF EXCELLENCE. This is the institutionalization of a real estate service seal of excellence that will be administered by AIPORESP. This will function like an ISO Certification in the Philippine Real Estate sector. Realty companies and developers who pass the staff qualification review of AIPORESP will be given the right to bear the Seal of Excellence as part of their company image or profile. All brokers and salespersons of companies with this Seal of Excellence may have the Seal embroidered in their company polo-shirts and uniforms.

(13) ESTABLISH A NON-STOCK SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATION FOR REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS. This is a self-help system that will enable the AIPORESP to operate tax-free businesses such as banking (deposits and loan), health insurance packages, pension system, trainors/speakers bureau, bookstore and apparels. We can also use this facility in very close coordination with the Associations. This financial institution will also be utilized as the retirement and disability insurance system of real estate practitioners.

(14) ACQUIRE THE REALTOR TRADEMARK*. The AIPORESP will get the right to use the Realtor Trademark from NAR-USA and all AIPORESP members automatically become "Realtors" regardless of Association. I included this as a project, although I think it is just an "add-on". There is something in me that tells that this is not a vital project because it is already a duplicate of the AIPORESP Seal of Excellence.

Updated Note (11/12/2011): this program is already obsolete in July 2011 because we already have Realter (Rltr) title c/o Realter Society.

(15) FOREIGN TRAINING SCHOLARSHIPS. Assist in sending out deserving members to foreign trainings to learn from the Best Practices abroad and bring it back for application here. A good example is the Harvard Real Estate Masters Program -- we should be sending a member for scholarship in that program every year. The only way to guarantee our competitiveness in the global arena is to catch up with the global standards and technology.

(16) ESTABLISH A REAL ESTATE CENTER BUILDING. This is a build project that will house a museum of project scale models. This will also be the offices of AIPO, PRB-RES, and other major national associations. All real estate related services such as brokerage, appraisers, consultants, engineering firms, architects, developers, banks, mortgage companies, home insurance companies, Pag-Ibig, and Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) will have branch offices in this building.

(17) ALIGN THE RA 9646 WITH PAG-IBIG FUND, NHMFC, and HGC.

Through the PARTY, I have requested VP Binay to sign the memo below.

1. To protect the real estate consumers and the public fund, Pag-Ibig Fund, National Home Mortgage and Finance Corporation, and Home Guaranty Corporation will no longer approve accreditation to real estate developers who sell their projects using marketing agents who are not duly licensed and registered by the Professional Regulations Commission under the rules of Republic Act No. 9646 and Housing and Regulatory Board rules on Presidential Decree 957.

2. All developers who are currently accredited will be reviewed on their compliance to RA 9646 and PD 957. Accreditation of violators will be revoked.

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A Need for an IPORESP member in Senate

LEGISLATIVE AGENDA: (A) TAX GRACE PERIOD OF 5 YEARS FOR NEW PRACTITIONERS, (B) MANDATORY DUE-DILIGENCE CERTIFICATE BY BROKER BEFORE AND AFTER PROPERTY SALES, (C) MANDATORY APPRAISAL BEFORE OFFERING PROPERTY FOR SALE, ETC.


After we straighten-out the real estate service sector, we also have to address the badly needed Real Estate professional negotiator and think-tank to get a seat in Senate. Almost all major problems in the Philippines are real estate related.

Traffic congestion is is a land use restriction issue and is real estate related. Sovereignty disputes that is rooten on land-grabbing complaints in Mindanao is a real estate related issue. Squatters prevention and demolition is real estate related. The issue of homelessness of majority of our empoverished people is real estate related. Low collection of property taxes is real estate related. Business and investment are all real estate related. Envronmental degradation is real estate related. Right-of-way issues for government projects is real estate related. Corruption in government acquisition and sale of land is real estate related. Territorial disputes with other nations is real estate related.

We look forward to live in a progressive nation. As Real Estate Service Practitioners (RESPs), there are bigger battles in Legislation that we need to face. But the first step is, we have to achieve perfection and righteousness of our army of real estate service practitioners.