The recently elected president of the Bahamas Real Estate Association (BREA) has called for greater cooperation, consultation and participation with the newly-elected government, declaring "Together we can help drive one of the most important engines of the Bahamian economy."
Christine Wallace-Whitfield, president of the association of property professionals, offered congratulations to the incoming government, adding she hopes the organization and government can strengthen ties to promote, oversee and grow the multibillion-dollar industry.
"BREA has a laundry list of issues to deal with and we look forward to working on those together with the new government," said Wallace-Whitfield, a broker with Island Living Real Estate.
Chief among those issues, Wallace-Whitfield said, is the establishment of a land registry.
"We are one of the last countries in the world that still does not have a land registry. Although the increased use of the multiple listing service is helping greatly in this regard, having a registry will help to elevate the industry to the next level. We are all but using paper and pen in a digital age, and the lack of a registry prevents us from providing basic information that is available in other places, including comparable prices, length of time a property in a certain area remains on the market and other basics that today's buyer needs to know. With most property searches starting online, the prospective buyer expects to see this information and we simply have no way to provide it absent a registry."
Wallace-Whitfield said BREA also wants to see a real estate advisory board, a concept introduced by another leading broker, Mario Carey, and discussed with the previous administration. The proposed board would advise on key issues such as short-term rentals, minimum investment for accelerated consideration of residency, stamp tax matters, ease of refinancing-related requirements, Crown land and generation property issues, the latter two among the most important issues for the new BREA board. For Wallace-Whitfield, industry ethics tops her personal agenda.
"We have excellent cooperation with the attorney general's office on ethics matters when they reach a certain level," she said. "I want to focus our attention on ethics before they reach that point. The success of our industry and the confidence people place in Bahamas real estate is tied to perceptions about honesty and integrity."
Wallace-Whitfield said BREA would consider ways to step up broker responsibility for new agents, both in knowledge and in standards of conduct. "One new agent I know of, for instance, showed so much promise, passing her real estate exam with flying colors and being greeted with open arms by the firm she joined because she had all the right attributes: enthusiasm, personality, intelligence. And then she went out on her first few visits to take a listing or show a property based on a call that came in to the office and she felt so lost. Eventually, she just gave up and moved on to something else," said Wallace-Whitfield. "She was a real loss and it should not have happened to her after all her commitment. But we have no way to ensure proper post-exam training in the field and other agents often don't want to impart or share what they have learned. To keep any industry vibrant and vital, you need fresh ideas."
Along with Wallace-Whitfield, others elected to the board include Sally Hutcheson, Mike Lightbourn, Jolika Buckner, Hartman Longley Jr., Stuart Halbert, Anthony Wells, Heather Peterson, Elbert Thompson, Cara Christie (secretary), Laura Kimble (vice president), Christine Wallace-Whitfield (president), Sara Callender (treasurer) and Helen Dupuch.
Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian
