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Are you planning to sell or rent your property?

Posted by Cédric Salesse on 11 October 2022
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IPI broker campaign

Why use a real estate agent – broker as part of a real estate transaction? Given the complexity of the real estate market, you could easily get lost in the many steps involved in selling or renting your property. Conversely, the real estate agent – broker is perfectly aware of the legislation in force and will take care of the various stages of a process that can be energy-consuming and time-consuming. 

By using a real estate agent – broker, you not only have the certainty of entrusting your property to a real estate professional, but you can also count on various protection mechanisms. Thus, your real estate agent – broker is required to respect a Code of Ethics, he must have a third-party account as well as professional liability insurance and surety. In addition, he must retrain annually in order to keep abreast of regular legislative changes and must also meet various conditions in order to bear the title and practice the profession of real estate agent – broker. 

As a Professional Institute of Estate Agents, one of our legal missions is to ensure that estate agents carry out their profession in an ethical manner, which therefore has a positive impact on you as a consumer. 

What is a real estate agent-broker?

The profession of real estate agent is subdivided into three distinct professions, namely the real estate agent – broker , the real estate agent-syndic and the real estate agent-manager. In general, it is the real estate agent-broker that comes to mind first when evoking the profession. This will play the role of intermediary in the relationship between the buyer and the seller or between the lessor and the tenant. In this context, he will provide his client with decisive assistance with a view to the sale or purchase of real estate, etc. It is around this profile that we have built our campaign.

We take this opportunity to remind you that the title of real estate agent also covers the activities of trustee (management of the common parts of co-ownerships) and manager (management of the property(ies) belonging to an owner not falling within the trustee’s domain). 

Your real estate agent offers you…

Guarantees

Access to the profession is regulated

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t invent yourself as a real estate agent – broker overnight, access to the profession being strictly regulated. This framework is essential given the complexity of the real estate market, the many skills to be mastered and the constantly changing legislation to understand and know. 

Thus, those who wish to bear the title and practice the profession must first register with the IPI , provided that they have the required diploma upstream (at least a bachelor’s degree or the business manager training diploma) . The application for registration is the first step in a internship course well supervised, which must allow the candidate to acquire practical experience as well as to assimilate theory .

After the presentation of a competency test, which allows the candidate to assess the state of his knowledge, the internship can therefore begin. The latter must be carried out over a period of at least one year and includes the equivalent of 1,500 hours of professional practice to be carried out with an internship supervisor who will therefore pass on his knowledge. Alongside the practice, the trainee is also required to follow theoretical courses related to real estate.

At the end of the course, the trainee must pass a practical aptitude test which consists of a written test and an oral test. These exams, which must be presented to the IPI, make it possible to verify that the trainee has the knowledge required to independently exercise the profession of real estate agent – broker.

It is therefore a long journey that awaits candidates wishing to practice the profession.

A quiet mind

Your real estate agent – broker takes care of everything for you!

Calling on a real estate agent-broker means delegating the entire sale or rental process to him and relieving you of this task, which represents an undeniable saving of time and energy for you. Although he will obviously keep you informed throughout, your real estate agent – broker can take care of all the formalities for you .

The transaction begins with good preparation. Your real estate agent – broker will gather the title deed, PEB certificate, town planning information, technical building information, etc. and he will ensure that all the administrative formalities are in order.

Thanks to the approval of the IPI (Professional Institute of Real Estate Agents), you know that your real estate agent – broker will carry out his mission meticulously and correctly , in accordance with the laws and regulations in force. The real estate agent – broker has indeed the obligation to collect and verify the information necessary for the accomplishment of his mission as stipulated in the Code of Ethics with which he must comply. More on this in this article.

Moreover, you can count on the expertise of your real estate agent – broker throughout the sale or rental process. Thus, he will best estimate the price of your property, organize the visits, lead the negotiations without forgetting the fact that he will constitute a solid sales or rental file. 

In this article, you will find more information on how your real estate agent – broker accompanies you throughout the transaction.

Expertise

Hire a professional for the sale or rental of your property

Among the many duties incumbent on the real estate agent – broker is the obligation of continuing education , essential in a constantly changing legislative context. In this way, the real estate agent – broker regularly updates his knowledge , keeps abreast of news and can thus offer you a quality service . Your real estate agent – broker knows the market, he knows what are the best chances of making a sale or a rental and can thus manage and finalize it as well as possible. 

As part of this permanent training obligation, the real estate agent – broker is required to follow 10 hours of training per year and per column . Note that the real estate agent can be listed in the “broker” or “syndic” column, or even in both. 

The IPI provides real estate agents with a wide range of training courses, which covers both technical and general (non-technical) and legal topics.

Security

Your money is safe

Several mechanisms give you the guarantee that your money is safe thanks to the third-party account and the professional liability insurance and bonding .

Indeed, the real estate agent – broker is legally required to have a third party account protected by law. This account gives you the certainty that the guarantees and deposits linked to a transaction will be protected and transferred to the beneficiaries in complete security and within an acceptable period.  

The third-party account makes it possible to clearly separate the real estate agent-broker’s own funds from those he holds for third parties as part of his mission . This means, for example, that if your real estate agent – broker goes bankrupt, your money is protected. Additionally, funds deposited in this account cannot be used to repay preferred creditors of the Realtor – Broker.

In addition, all real estate agents have professional civil liability insurance and surety bonds, thanks to a collective insurance contract taken out by the IPI covering all real estate agents. The insurance also includes a surety bond which can be activated in the event of insolvency.

Integrity

The IPI keeps an eye on the grain and keeps out unscrupulous real estate agents

The IPI oversees access to the profession and ensures that real estate agents comply with the Code of Ethics. To do this, the IPI has Chambers whose mission is to verify that real estate agents exercise their profession in accordance with the rules and obligations incumbent on them, and sanction them if necessary . No IPI aggregation? No real estate agent – broker!

If you notice ethical breaches on the part of your agent, you can lodge a complaint with the IPI. The latter will then be the subject of an in-depth investigation carried out in complete independence by a legal assessor (appointed independent lawyer). If he considers that the facts are established and sufficiently serious, he will forward the file to the Executive Chamber of the IPI, which may impose a disciplinary sanction at the end of the procedure. 

In addition, the IPI also conducts proactive inspections in real estate agencies via experts appointed by the legal assessor. 

Discover here more information on the profession of real estate agent – broker.

This article comme from the website of the institutes of the real estate professional in Belgium. Find the article in French here. https://www.ipi.be/vous-comptez-vendre-ou-louer-votre-bien

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