These questions were unable to be answered during the AGM, but have been published in full for transparency, with responses below.
Q. I am curious if there is further thought about the pre-registration education that is being provided currently. In fairness, I don't know how it has changed since I went through it almost ten years ago; but with the changing landscape of real estate, is there going to be more updating to the information regarding best practice and TRESA? When I went through it, it was very dogmatic and didn't really prepare me at all with regards to being a realtor in reality. It was a bit like jumping into the deep end while building my floatie.
A. RECO sets education standards for those interested in, or who are already trading in real estate in Ontario.
The programs to become a salesperson and a broker were completely renovated and launched in 2019. Both programs follow the flow of a transaction to help learners better understand the content in context and include simulation sessions to allow learners to apply the learning under the facilitation of experienced salespersons and brokers. Beyond the programs, we also expect brokerages to provide their own training in respect of their business models and any onboarding for success.
Current education landscape
Real estate education is currently delivered by Humber College and NIIT. As you note, the current pre-registration education program is in transition following updated Ontario legislation, the Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2002 (TRESA), which came into effect in late 2023.
I’d like to assure you that all learners have access to RECO’s 2024 Update Course: Introduction to TRESA, just like registrants do. This is either in Course 5, in the post-registration Compliance course, or through RECO’s website.
In terms of updating the entire program to reflect TRESA changes, Humber is working on that, but it will take time to review all 400, or so, hours of content. With learners at various stages of the Humber pre-registration program, new elements of course content are integrated in a consistent manner to avoid confusion.
Future education landscape
RECO is preparing to move towards an expanded open market for education delivery. We are currently assessing expressions of interest from a number of providers and will share the names of successful applicants in the coming months. RECO believes that an extended range of providers will enhance the learning experience by ensuring a range of options to pursue real estate education. We expect this to be implemented by Summer, 2025.
RECO appreciates feedback from registrants and consumers. If you have specific comments or suggestions for improvement, we encourage you to contact education@reco.on.ca.
Q. With the elimination of the reference to Minister for Consumer affairs, who is the Minister being referenced under the new change?
The minister responsible for the legislation that RECO administers is the Hon. Todd J. McCarthy | Legislative Assembly of Ontario (ola.org). The name of the ministry is Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement. The Minister spoke to RECO members during the AGM, and you can view his full address if you missed it.
Q. If the meeting was in progress during the technical difficulties and these difficulties continue during the voting then should it be declared null and call another meeting?
A. Thanks for joining the AGM. It was unfortunate that our keynote speaker did have some technical difficulties, with his Wi-Fi connection dropping out during his presentation.
Fortunately, we were very pleased that he was able to quickly rejoin the call and continue with what, I hope you agree, was an insightful discussion.
All of the AGM’s formal proceedings and voting occurred without any technical disruptions, and Parliamentarian, Dr. Kapur, was in attendance to ensure that all governance requirements were met and that the proceedings were valid.
Q. RECO has collected over a billion dollars and does not produce anything. Why is this extremely wealthy private corporation tax exempt?
A. Thanks for your question. We provided the following answer when asked this same question at last year’s AGM, which was posted to RECO’s website, and we include it again here:
The registration of RECO as a not-for-profit is done through the laws we are required to follow.
When you talk about an accumulation of assets, the assets we have are defined as reserves. The reserves are in place and are intended to support the organisation in the event that something happens, or something is required. They are not an asset we use for future investment.
We get regular confirmation that our status as a not-for-profit is valid and we make sure that we are sticking to the rules.
Q. Member Services - RECO renewal process. Members are required to respond to RECO within a certain timeframe (3 days). Is there a reciprocal time frame in which RECO is to respond to registrants? I experienced a time frame of four (4) months between communications from the RECO client service rep. Eight (8) months to renew my RECO license seems unreasonable. I could not find a means to escalate. Can there be a better process for registrants?
A.Thanks for your question and I'm sorry to hear that this has been your experience. We pride ourselves on being responsive.
Our standard for a properly completed renewal application is four days on average and for a new applicant, it is eight days. We are proud to be meeting these established targets and RECO exceeds the service level agreement for processing complete and properly completed registrations.
At times of high volume, we prioritize non-renewals since they are deemed to continue even if it's not processed. Whilst most delays are related to registrants failing to provide the required materials for a registration to be verified in line with our regulatory requirements, we have had some technical issues, and our team will be able to work with you to understand where the delay is and how to resolve it.
That said, without knowing the specifics of your situation, it's difficult for us to answer, so I have forwarded your question directly to our registration team, who will contact you directly. In future, our phone number is toll free: 1-800-245-6910 and our email is registration@reco.on.ca. Thanks for participating in the RECO AGM.
Q. Am I correct that 165 to 283 members are voting to make decisions for 112,000 members?
A. We appreciate you taking the time to attend and participate in RECO’s AGM. We would love more members to attend.
We actively communicated and promoted the event. More than 1,200 members successfully registered to attend. Whilst the number of people who participated and voted on the day was significantly smaller than those who registered, the AGM was duly constituted with quorum and on that basis, the business of the meeting proceeded.
RECO’s next AGM is currently set for spring 2025. Please encourage your colleagues to attend and participate, as it's an important opportunity for feedback and engagement.
Q. Some members were not allowed to vote today as they were told they registered as non-members and were told to reregister at the last minute. Why did RECO not just automatically allow the members to vote as they did recognize them as members?
A. We had over 1,200 members successfully register to attend the AGM.
RECO is obligated to verify the eligibility of voters at its AGM. We do so by confirming the information provided with that on file with RECO and accessible to each registrant via MyWeb. We sent out reminders about the registration process and the deadline to register to all registrants.
We are aware of a handful who used different details (email address, name etc.) from what RECO has on file for their registration, which meant that they were able to attend but not vote.
We are always looking at ways to simplify the registration process and will look for further opportunities for the next AGM.
Q. What ongoing steps is RECO taking to strengthen the real estate process? Based on the current situation where buyers or sellers are defaulting, mortgage defaults, customer complaints, agent complaints, lock box issues, what steps is RECO taking to ensure that training and industry standards reflect these current issues and can identify the interventions RECO has done to protect the registrant and the consumer? Is RECO using any metrics for continuous improvement?
A. Thanks for your question. The entire team at RECO is committed to continual improvement by listening to feedback and tracking progress.
In fact, we regularly publish the metrics we track on our website, including:
- Progress reports on Auditor General recommendations - currently 72% of all action items completed.
- Service levels - RECO’s goal is to answer calls within an average wait-time of two minutes or less, and in 2023 we were well within this target with an average call wait time of 52 seconds. (See more on our service standards).
- Registration process - 99% of new salesperson applications were processed within eight business days.
- Complaint tracking – takes an average of 86 days to close.
- We regularly survey both registrants and consumers to help inform our approach.
An important focus for the latter half of 2023, and into this year, is to ensure that registrants are aware of TRESA (etc.). As you are aware we make numerous continuing education courses available and share bulletins and other information with registrants regularly. We also recently developed the RECO Information Guide – a comprehensive resource for both consumers and registrants.
This is an industry that constantly deals with change – either from economic or market dynamics or things like the pandemic. We are always impressed by the ability of registrants to adapt and change. If you have specific comments or suggestions for improvement on how we can support registrants further, we encourage you to contact RECO by email at: recocommunications@reco.on.ca.
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