Like the show? Send me a text (if you don't like it, shhh ;)
Embark on a transformative journey through the complex maze of real estate compliance with me, Jacquie McCarnan, as we sit with Greg Dent, the brainchild behind the Really Trusted app. As we unravel the tangle of anti-money laundering regulations, Greg shares the inception of an app that promises to revolutionize how realtors and clients tackle cumbersome compliance forms, saving everyone precious time. This episode peels back the layers of the real estate industry's shift from self-regulation to stringent government oversight, illuminating the path that led to the creation of a tool that's not just a convenience but a necessity in staying ahead of the curve.
Discover the ins and outs of anti-money laundering training for realtors, a domain where Greg and Really Trusted are pioneering change. We shed light on the often misunderstood obligations that agents face, moving beyond mere form-filling to a deeper comprehension of their key role in preventing financial crimes. The conversation steers through the choppy waters of FinTRAC documentation, identifying politically exposed persons, and the uncharted territory of new regulations—revealing how tools like Really Trusted can make navigation a breeze for industry professionals.
Wrapping up, our dialogue takes a candid look at the broader implications of remaining compliant amidst the ever-changing tides of real estate regulations. As professionals in the field, we underline the significance of ongoing development and the importance of seeing regulations not as an obstacle but as an anchor of integrity. With this episode, turn the imperative of compliance into an opportunity for professional growth. For those hungry for more insights, continue the conversation at NorthVanHomeSales.com/podcasts, where your real estate curiosity finds its match.
Like the show? Send me a text (if you don't like it, shhh ;)
Embark on a transformative journey through the complex maze of real estate compliance with me, Jacquie McCarnan, as we sit with Greg Dent, the brainchild behind the Really Trusted app. As we unravel the tangle of anti-money laundering regulations, Greg shares the inception of an app that promises to revolutionize how realtors and clients tackle cumbersome compliance forms, saving everyone precious time. This episode peels back the layers of the real estate industry's shift from self-regulation to stringent government oversight, illuminating the path that led to the creation of a tool that's not just a convenience but a necessity in staying ahead of the curve.
Discover the ins and outs of anti-money laundering training for realtors, a domain where Greg and Really Trusted are pioneering change. We shed light on the often misunderstood obligations that agents face, moving beyond mere form-filling to a deeper comprehension of their key role in preventing financial crimes. The conversation steers through the choppy waters of FinTRAC documentation, identifying politically exposed persons, and the uncharted territory of new regulations—revealing how tools like Really Trusted can make navigation a breeze for industry professionals.
Wrapping up, our dialogue takes a candid look at the broader implications of remaining compliant amidst the ever-changing tides of real estate regulations. As professionals in the field, we underline the significance of ongoing development and the importance of seeing regulations not as an obstacle but as an anchor of integrity. With this episode, turn the imperative of compliance into an opportunity for professional growth. For those hungry for more insights, continue the conversation at NorthVanHomeSales.com/podcasts, where your real estate curiosity finds its match.
Hey everybody, welcome back to Keeping it Real, the Vancouver and area residential real estate podcast that aims to cut through all the rubbish that you hear about real estate in the Lower Mainland. My name is Jackie McCarnan and I am your host for Keeping it Real. I am also a residential realtor here in the Lower Mainland and I am always happy to take your questions or provide you with guidance wherever you may need it. In order to keep myself out of trouble, I like to put in a little disclaimer at the beginning of each of these podcasts. It's really short, I promise. It's just to say that anything you hear on the podcast is my opinion, coupled with my research and my experience, and everybody has different opinions or different experiences, and they're all valid. I just these are mine and you can let me know what yours are in the comments On today's episode.
Speaker 1:I have a guest. His name is Greg Dent and he is the co-creator of an app for realtors called Really Trusted. The thing about Really Trusted is you guys probably don't realize that we have to fill in a million compliance forms and a lot of them are just they're difficult to fill in. And a lot of them are just they're difficult to fill in. And so Greg and his brother created this great app to make things super easy for both realtors and for the public, and it means that we don't have to bug you 50 million times for a whole bunch of different things. So, without further ado, meet Greg. Hi Greg, pickleball. That sounds like a good deal, in fact, Except that I tend to play pickleball for five hours at a time and then I'm exhausted and then I can't move for like four days after. These are good problems to have, Are they? These are good problems to have.
Speaker 1:Why don't you introduce yourself to our loyal listeners?
Speaker 2:Sure Well my name's Greg Dent I said that already, I guess, so that's fair. I'm a realtor in the Lower Mainland and one of the founders of Really Trusted, a technology company focused primarily on anti-money laundering, of all things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we could talk all day about money laundering.
Speaker 2:Everybody's favorite topic is anti-money laundering.
Speaker 1:I know I get it. And you created this app with your brother. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So my brother and I I mean to give you some of the history of it about six years ago when, you might recall, we lost control of the Real Estate Council here in this province and with that Just for people who are listening.
Speaker 1:What Greg means is that we used to be self-regulated, but then people were behaving badly. Some people were behaving badly and the government said you know what?
Speaker 2:no and if I think they're currently trying to do the same thing to lawyers right now, is what I yeah, I know we shouldn't be the only ones who have to disclose every single aspect of our business all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anyway, sorry, go ahead, we got unregulated.
Speaker 2:We lost our regulator. Well, we lost control of our regulator, and then the government brought in a bunch of new forms, and those forms were a pain in my business is the nice way of phrasing it you can replace business with some other word if you'd like is the nice way of phrasing it. You can replace business with some other word if you'd like. And so I wanted to create a way for my team and I to make it a little bit easier for us to comply with these new requirements. I called my brother who was delving into a whole bunch of weird tech stuff. He's always done just kind of like random tech things over the years, so he's the smart one.
Speaker 1:Then, is that what you're saying? I'm just the sales guy. Yeah, yeah, fair, I'm a realtor. I thought I clarified that at the beginning. Sorry, yeah, we're not that bright.
Speaker 2:I'm literally unqualified for anything else. My degree's in canoeing, so Canoeing.
Speaker 1:Well, not exactly Mine's in recreation management, which qualifies me for for canoeing that's fantastic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love it. No, I'm actually very thankful for acadia, but that's a whole other story anyhow, that's a different podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll get you on that a different one.
Speaker 2:We uh. I called my brother and I said look, I want to do this and I think we could do this with software, and he said anything's possible. It's going to take me a lot longer to build this than I think you realize, though, and if I do it, I want to make sure you're going to go and, like, sell it so that I can recover some of the costs of doing that. Well, that, seems fair. That seems reasonable.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that began a journey that has now spanned six years, and we've grown to a team of 10 now serving over 550 brokerages across the country yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:It's kind of fun yeah, it is kind of fun. So I think, I think, um, what we need to. So this podcast is primarily for the public, even though some realtors do listen to it, okay, and I think what we really need to do is explain, like, unless you bought or sold a home in in canada, you probably don't know what fin track is true, or even know what the bcfsa is or any of those things.
Speaker 1:So we gotta I think we need to scale it back to where we're explaining exactly what those government forms from six years ago and now they are. There's so many more of them.
Speaker 2:And growing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and growing, never ending. In fact, we just got a new one. Anyway, explain maybe to our listeners what the idea of the forms were, sure, yeah, and I think I would actually draw it outside of the forms.
Speaker 2:Realtors tend to see anti-money laundering as filling in this one ID record and I think that's a useful. But I guess if I were to explain what fin track and what anti-money laundering actually is to most people, I would put it this way when criminals do bad things, they do it generally to make money. And when they do make that money, the problem is that it's not typically in the legitimate financial system. It's not stored in banks. You can't transfer the proceeds of a drug deal or sex trafficking crimes or murder for hire any of those kinds of things.
Speaker 2:That's literally cash, and if you're a criminal and you have lots and lots of cash, you need to figure out a way to get it back into the legitimate money system so that you can spend it on things that you want to spend it on, right the whatever planes and boats and fancy houses and all the rest, what are some of the most popular ways to launder money? Well, any of them, that work, I think would be the answer.
Speaker 2:Right, and I guess that's where Fintrack and the AML sector comes in, which is it's kind of a never-ending battle of as criminals try to launder their money through different means. The regulators in the space, Fintrack and the reporting entities, including Realtors and a bunch of others, are trying to figure out where that might be happening, and that's why Realtors in this country are required to do that ID record that you were talking about. It's basically the only way that Fintrack, who's the regulator in the space, can ensure that the reporting entities are fulfilling their duties.
Speaker 1:Right, that makes sense. It's interesting to note too, I think you know, when we look at Fintrack and we talk about anti-money laundering and we talk about anti-money laundering, I think people in the public might have the impression that lots of transactions are laundering money. And for someone like me, I mean, of course, I've never come across anybody who's trying to launder money through real estate in my own business and I don't know a whole bunch of people that have. But that doesn't mean that it's not happening a lot, it's just. But when I look at the forums I'm like, oh my God, yeah.
Speaker 2:I would push back a little bit on that. Funnily enough, Would you? I would. I would push back on that to say that you don't know of any laundering that's happened through any transaction. You don't know of any transactions you've been involved in True Right and that's.
Speaker 1:I generally know my clients really well though, so I think that's part of it, probably yeah.
Speaker 2:But you don't know the other side necessarily.
Speaker 1:No, oh, that's true, I never thought of that. Yeah, okay, good point, there's another half right there, right.
Speaker 2:Right, right, all of your transactions. What do you mean? Well, and I think there's also our industry, if I'm, if I can take a shot early at organized real estate.
Speaker 2:I think our industry has done a really poor job of understanding what it is we're trying to do. If I talk to realtors, most of the time they think FinTrack is just filling in the form and that's their obligation, and that's a really, really poor lens of understanding. And it's not that you're looking for bags of cash either. That's. The other thing I hear from a lot of realtors is oh well, where's that? I've never seen a bag of cash. Therefore, money laundering wasn't happening.
Speaker 2:Well, no, the evidence for realtors it shows up in inconsistencies between what the client says they're doing and then what they actually do. Or it shows up in high risk, uh, ownership of, like a ownership of a cash intensive business, where you as a realtor, should be able to see that there might be a mismatch between what their income levels probably are and what they're actually doing like if I'm selling a car wash, for example, right, like if you're selling a car wash, you don't know how much they've actually made through the car wash right and you, you're obligated, in fact, to take a deeper look at the ones where there is a higher risk of money laundering and, like it or not, those ones would have a higher risk of money laundering.
Speaker 1:Right, and actually even just being in my offices in West Vancouver. So we are automatically at higher risk for money laundering in the in the OK for people listening who don't know what a FinT is, or um and I there's an acronym. I don't know what it is, but um for people who don't know what it is. There are a bunch of questions, and one of the questions we have to answer yes to is are you at high risk for money laundering in your area?
Speaker 2:and you're talking about the uh, the korea templates, the forms that korea produces for us.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes that's a whole, is the Canadian Real Estate Association, the Canadian Real Estate Association has produced what I think is a.
Speaker 2:well, look, they've told us it's a template. Right, you're not actually supposed to use that form as a brokerage until you've done the policy work to make sure that that form fits what your policy is. So I always laugh a little bit when agents say, oh yeah, no, that's those 17 questions. That's the way FinTrack told us to do it. That's just not true.
Speaker 1:That is incorrect, all right. Well, I've answered those questions a few times, so let's move on to the next. Nothing wrong with the questions.
Speaker 2:Really, it's about understanding. Again, it goes back to my fundamental belief that most agents so here's what I actually believe around anti-money laundering. I think most realtors, 99.9% of realtors, would agree with the statement that they don't want money laundering to happen in our sector. Yeah, of course, I also think that those same percentage of realtors generally have literally no idea what it is they should be doing and how they should be complying, other than by filling out the form, and that, I think, is the the sad reality of what our industry has and hasn't been able to achieve in terms of training our agents.
Speaker 1:Okay, so how is really trusted changing that?
Speaker 2:Well, amongst other things, we offer a training platform.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And I think really it's about the work we're doing right now, and our signature product is to work with brokerages to develop a new policy framework for them, which is a little bit geeky and outside of the scope of where this podcast probably makes sense for your brother in there, because he's obviously the geek yeah, well, you go a little bit too far, but I think the from that comes the opportunity to train agents around what actually matters to them.
Speaker 2:so one of the training courses we offer our fintrack express clients, which is that policy worker I'm talking about is a course titled f FinTrack for Real Estate Agents and the whole. It's about an hour of content but it talks to agents about what their actual day-to-day is. And I think that's been the big difference between our training and a lot of the other training that's offered, because a lot of the training that's offered is here's all the policy, regulations, legalese, framework that you're supposed to know and you look at it and you go blind going. I don't even know what it all means.
Speaker 1:Well, not for nothing, and you know this as well as I do. In addition to the FinTRA forms that we have to fill out, there's 500 other forms that we have to fill out to be compliant and to grow on. So it like once we get to a form that we have to fill out to be compliant, then it's just, we just do it right like you, just don't think too much about it.
Speaker 1:You just do it and I and I would, I would explain to the public, to anybody listening, that in the past what you do is you have these pieces of paper called fin track. One is um, one is a personal identification. Yeah, so the person. What you do is you have these pieces of paper called FinTrack. One is a personal identification, so the person, your client. You're making sure that they are who they say they are by getting some identification driver's license, passport, something like that. That form also has some banking information that you have to get. And then there's another one called politically exposed persons. I haven't run into any of these, but they do exist, and that's an entirely different form. And then there's the receipt of funds FANTRAC, which is also another form, yeah. And then now there's a new one. I can't remember what it was called, I saw it on.
Speaker 1:Anyway, the point is that before Really Trusted, we had to physically fill out all these forms and ask our clients these difficult questions, oftentimes during the transaction or even after, because the banking information they're not going to give that to you until after they have to use it Right. So so I think it's important to to note that this app makes both the realtor's life and the client's life considerably easier and less intrusive.
Speaker 2:I think that's you're absolutely right and you're onto exactly what I think, if I were to take these two thoughts at the same time. I think the process of the paperwork was a giant pain and I think we've made that easier, which I hope allows agents to better understand that it's not about filling forms. It's actually just about paying attention and looking at the details of the transaction, understanding the details. And you're right, probably nine times out of 10, probably 99 times out of 100, there's nothing weird to report and there's nothing strange. But when there is something that's different and when there is something that's abnormal, it's really important for that to get brought to the attention of your compliance officer, your managing broker, the person in charge of your program, because that's where our opportunity as professionals and I emphasize that word because it's something we talk about in our industry an awful lot and this is one of the things of being a professional is that you have obligations that come with it, including unfortunately to many realtors uh opinion anti-money laundering regulations.
Speaker 1:so before you came up with the app. What? What do you think would have been the biggest challenges that brokerages saw with FinTrack?
Speaker 2:It's actually the same challenge they still have today. My team talks with more brokerages than anybody in this country about anti-money laundering on a daily basis, on a regular basis anybody in this country about anti-money laundering on a daily basis, on a regular basis. And the problem that brokerages face still is that nobody got into real estate to become anti-money laundering experts. Good point and the people running the offices in many cases let me just interrupt.
Speaker 1:We got into real estate to be marketers really no, I I hope not, my goodness.
Speaker 2:You spend a lot of time marketing, yeah, well that's true, but I think most people got into real estate and like my why for being in real estate in the first place was because I could genuinely found a way I could help people in a meaningful way and build a relationship and help them through by offering expertise, guidance and opinions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's me too, and that's why I do this podcast, for exactly that reason.
Speaker 2:And, I think, most realtors. That's true, and the thing is well, occasionally we'll run into people who that's not true.
Speaker 1:You and I both have, I'm sure, but that's a whole different conversation, that's a different podcast, actually.
Speaker 2:That brings us back to why we lost control of council, if I think about it. But where I was going with, that is, the people who end up owning and running real estate offices were realtors and got into almost always and got into real estate for those reasons, have no interest in learning about fintrack, and they get put into this position where they're now responsible for a compliance program, barely understanding what that means, let alone how to do it, and for the most part, are already overburdened. And we keep talking about the additional forms. Well, that adds a burden to their life as well, and that's excluding the anti-money laundering forms.
Speaker 2:I'm talking about just the complexity of a standard real estate deal. It keeps getting more and more complex. The complexity of a standard real estate deal keeps getting more and more complex. The property disclosure statement, which is a document that sellers fill out during a transaction, as you know but for your listeners, I think when I started, I think it was two, maybe three pages and it's now up to like six, I think and the complexity means that those people in charge the managing brokers, the brokers of records, the compliance officers have so many new things to be that are constantly being thrown at them, and this is just one more of those things that ends up being noise to them, that they don't really want to deal with and, to be honest, don't have time to deal with properly.
Speaker 1:So yeah, but the alternative is that they could be held responsible in a real scary way. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I mean you're right. The average fine a Canadian real estate brokerage has received is $143,000.
Speaker 1:Awesome Over the last four years.
Speaker 2:So a really large number my buy books. Yeah, I think I'm willing to bet and I've've not done this, but I think it'd be interesting.
Speaker 2:I think if you were to go to the general public and ask them if that's a good thing or a bad thing, most of them would say that's a good thing, that defines the size of the fines yeah, and I think that's because there is a general level of frustration with our industry around not being willing able whatever to to clean, to clean our act up, and one of those ways that's transpired in this country has been anti-money laundering. And so I think, to answer your question, I think brokerages are still struggling to this day. As recently as this morning, my business development person took a call. First thing this morning she was on a call. The brokerage literally did not have ID records. That form you were talking about. That was not something they were using in their standard practice.
Speaker 1:When Like now.
Speaker 2:This is this morning, literally this morning A real estate brokerage on my business development manager's Zoom. This morning it's May 6, 2024. My managing broker would have a heart attack right, but but this is the compliance officer we're talking with. Oh no, who did not realize, did not?
Speaker 1:have. So what happens? They have to go back through all the transactions and get the well, we're going to help them through that.
Speaker 2:And and there's, there's a fin. Track does have a voluntary non-disclosure Sorry, voluntary non-compliance method. So much like if you fail to file your income taxes for a bunch of years, you can go say, hey, sorry, I'm going to make this all better. Fintrack has the same process for brokerages who or for reporting entities who were not in compliance and have made this realization and who are now moving towards compliance. So my guess is we'll go down that path with them, but we'll see.
Speaker 1:There must be some kind of oversight where Fintrack goes around and says, hey, they must ask brokerages if they are doing this. Yeah, they are.
Speaker 2:And they're going hard at our industry right now 2024, 50% of the examination that FinTracks is planning on will be between the real estate sector and what was the other sector they were picking on this year? Mortgage brokers. Not yet. Mortgage brokers become come under the jurisdiction on April, sorry, on October 11th this year. So not, not, not mortgage brokers yet.
Speaker 2:Oh, the money services businesses was the other ones so those two sectors, like payday loans, that yeah, that would be some of it okay, and some of that's more like the, the technical money services business. Like the, the, the new fintech startups that allow you to move money right, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, it's not my purview. No, no different world for me as well, honestly.
Speaker 1:So yeah, Um, I think, uh, I think I almost know the answer to this question, but I'm going to ask you anyway. But I'm going to speculate on what the answer is first so my question is what's been the biggest challenge with your rollout?
Speaker 1:and I'm going to assume, or speculate, that it has been realtors saying, oh, another app or another thing that I have to learn, and I suspect also that there is a uh, a particular demographic that is consistent, consistently, um, uh, what? What's a good word? I can't think of the word right now. Obstructionist, yeah, or you know, just not willing to try it, right? So where am I on my? Yeah, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2:And it's a combination of. I think, in fairness to realtors, there's a lot being thrown at them Constantly, Like if you look at the federal budget, there's a whole bunch of stuff. You look at the provincial rule or provincial stuff, there's a whole bunch of stuff, and so there's a lot of noise and things that we need to learn on an almost daily basis. On my real estate team we our team leader actually just wrote out.
Speaker 1:Stop talking about you being a realtor. You're not here for that. Oh sorry, right, yeah, he's not the realtor. Don't call greg. Call me, this is my podcast. All right, fair enough. All right, I'm just kidding. What about on your real estate team?
Speaker 2:I interrupted yeah, that's okay, we um, we actually did up a full spreadsheet of all of the changes that we need to know about and it's like three pages between the, the flipping tax and the changes on the tendency. Yeah right, it's super useful, um, but because there's just so much to track right now that it's, and so I guess my point on this is that, in fairness to realtors, this is just one of those other things that they need to know that doesn't actually make them any money. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so you know I would, I would actually challenge that slightly. Well, it doesn't really make them money. It probably saves them time, which and time is money. So we're going to, I'm going to say that it yes Part of your bit. It's got to be part of your business.
Speaker 2:It's got to be part of your business, and that's the problem that the next part to the challenges we've had in rollout is that there's a lot of talk within the real estate community that we shouldn't be involved in FinTrack. It's not our place. How dare they make us All that kind of stuff? Good luck. Well, I know you and I know that ship has sailed, yeah, but I still hear that as well from compliance officers. Um, I've heard that from people in senior roles in organized real estate as recently as a couple years ago, right, and so the problem is that, if that's the tone at the top, realtors are still getting that message, and so realtors are even more backs up against the wall at having to do this so, yeah, I mean we do get.
Speaker 1:we are inundated with a whole lot of tech, totally, and I, whenever I look at something like I'm not gonna lie, I was not the first to jump on really trusted, which is unusual. I'm almost always the first one to be on the tech, but as soon as I went to the talk that you gave at my brokerage, I was right in there and the reason is anything that's going to save me time, I'm willing to put in the hour to learn it to save 500 hours going forward in my business.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So, in my opinion, really trusted is just now part of my professional business, which is absolutely required in order to be professional. I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great. Well, I thought you might I really do like that. That's great yeah.
Speaker 1:But I mean it's, I think, the general public. I think they don't realize that the steps that realtors and the real estate profession go through to ensure that we are not participants in money laundering.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would agree with that. I think I can play both sides of that, though, right, because I think the general public may not realize what we do, and the general public also doesn't care, because that's just what they think a professional should do.
Speaker 1:No, but they care when there's an article in the newspaper saying Realtor B in wherever just got fined for Sorry, I mean doesn't care from like has no sympathy for us there's?
Speaker 2:oh no, that's true they they just, like you, know what you want to be a professional and make the the money from doing these deals in those forms? Damn, you do this and you do this properly, and that's the cost of doing business.
Speaker 1:I do think, though, that, um, here's for me, the big thing is with Really Trusted is when I meet a new client and we're in our first, or likely the second meeting. So after they decide that they want to work with me, I can pull out the Really Trusted app, and it's lickety split. I get everything all sorted all in one, and then I don't have to bug them 50 times going forward or after the end of the transaction. So that's what I really like. Yeah, I mean, I'm not here to sell it because that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you could, I could have, I guess, if you don't mind, no One of the things I always like to. Well, actually, is there anything else you'd like to say about?
Speaker 2:Really Trusted. Oh, I don't know. There's so much I could say, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, not for realtors for people For real people. For people For regular people, not realtors.
Speaker 2:For regular people. I would say the following I think is reasonable for any human to have done. Truly, the vast majority, and I mean like literally everyone I've talked with wants to comply and wants to do this properly, and almost the exact same amount of people have no idea how to do that and really are just lost. And I'd like to think we're making a difference in that.
Speaker 1:I think, too, if you are somebody who is buying or selling real estate in British Columbia and you have not seen a FinTrack, you need to review that process with your realtor or their brokerage. Yeah, Because that's you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I would say like there's. I think I think a lot of that comes from being within the industry and our own fears, because when I walk into a bank, when I walk in to work with a financial planner, when I walk in to work with a financial planner, when I walk in to work with a lawyer, I don't think it's weird that they ID me. I think that's perfectly normal and I think our, for some reason, realtors get uncomfortable about having to ask for personal information.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I don't think the public thinks it's weird.
Speaker 1:You're probably right. I think it's because we have anybody who's been in the industry for longer than a minute has had different processes that they have used throughout their career, and so if the process is so, we're talking now. Just a kind of quick aside.
Speaker 1:We are talking now a lot more about exclusive buyers agency, which is very topical, and I'm going to do a whole podcast on that, but I got to get my managing broker in here to talk about it. Plus, everybody's heard about my managing broker Cause I put a little disclaimer on the beginning of every podcast for her. Anyway, exclusive buyers agency is a form. That form, it's a form.
Speaker 2:It's a form.
Speaker 1:Shocker that you have your buyer sign, or is it a relationship that form? It's a form.
Speaker 2:it's a shocker that you have your buyer sign, or is it a relationship that we're building?
Speaker 1:it is a relationship, but there is a signature on a form and in that case, uh it, it just ensures that you and the buyer are working together, and the buyer is not. Well, they could be, but they generally are not working with another agent, right? And so a lot of agents, a lot of realtors, have trouble with the notion of this. But if you walked into a lawyer's office, you would be signing an NDA or something, right?
Speaker 2:Or a retainer or something yeah.
Speaker 1:So I agree with you. It is. It takes some getting used to when you have to change processes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do think we get in our own way sometimes. I think as realtors we're uncomfortable with uh. I think we all generally fall back to this statement that we're professionals and then I'm not sure we actually act like it all the time, and to me, the exclusive buyers agency is just part of being a professional. Iding your clients is just part of being a professional, and our fears around doing it are our own fears about maybe we're not as professional as we think we are sometimes.
Speaker 1:I point to that. Actually, I think that and I've talked about this before on the podcast real estate is unique in that there is a huge emotional component to it. So when we are meeting clients, we are required to be and most of us want to be empathetic and build that relationship. So there's the whole personal relationship and professional relationship and the lines get blurred quite a bit in this profession in particular. And the lines get blurred quite a bit in this profession in particular. Yeah, I think, and I think that might be one of those things that kind of makes it more difficult for people to talk about the professional side.
Speaker 1:You know some there. I think you know we're all on a scale. So there are the super professional realtors who have an office and go into the office every day and have staff and blah, blah, blah. And then there are the ones that are who are more relationship based and you know, don't have an office or don't go into the office, or you know, and they're and everybody's in between those two, somewhere in between those two, and so I think that might be one of the reasons that we have difficulty with the um.
Speaker 2:I agree. I agree. I think that I think we could do a lot for our industry if we cleaned up either the bar to entry or the requirement to be a realtor or in some way, shape or form kind of made it more difficult to retain that being a professional on it and I mean I don't have a solid. I have some thoughts on how we could solve that. That's probably outside of the scope of this podcast. The public again, the public just doesn't care to be honest with you.
Speaker 2:But I think that when you have a realtor who can also drive an Uber or work, at. Starbucks, yeah, or, and nothing wrong with either of those two things, just that, like, if that's, if you're doing that 40 hours a week, how do you also give advice on the current real estate markets? How do you keep track?
Speaker 1:of the current real estate markets. Unless you're doing real estate full time, I don't think you can be up on all of the things. I think it's possible, but I think it's very difficult, sure, if you don't sleep? Yeah, yeah, well, you don't sleep. Don't you have a baby? You don't sleep. Well, that was fantastic. Anything new coming up for. Really trusted that we need to know that the public needs to know public needs to know.
Speaker 2:Well, uh, I guess we're, I don't know. Um, no, we're just continuing to build out our services and help more and more real estate brokerages across the country and likely going to help some mortgage brokerages as well, as the FinTrack covers them off. Just kind of helping them get through how to comply and their understanding.
Speaker 1:How do people get in touch with Really Trusted we're really bad at the social media thing but we do have a website wwwreallytrustedcom and if you want to get in touch with them, you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom where it says contact us. So I'm we're going to talk about that after, but, um, I always like to, uh, well, I always like to give my listeners a um, uh, a recommendation for something in North or West Vancouver, squamish, like, you know what's your favorite thing to do here in North Van.
Speaker 2:Well, I will tell you, I did live in well. Anyhow, I did live in North Van for a while. Deep Cove Stage Society is my answer to that.
Speaker 1:Oh. I haven't done them yet. No, no, that's great.
Speaker 2:So Deep Cove Stage Society is my answer to that. Oh, I haven't done them yet. No, no, they're awesome. So deep cove stage society, a little tiny community theater in deep cove, um, and I used to volunteer with them. I used to do lights and sound for them, actually years ago. And, uh, they do a terrific christmas panto.
Speaker 1:Yeah, every year yeah, good luck getting tickets. It's hard to get tickets.
Speaker 2:It is, but because they're so popular I used to bring my kids to it. I haven't't done it in a couple of years actually. We should do that again.
Speaker 1:You should do that again. Maybe you can get your tickets now.
Speaker 2:They're probably old enough now to enjoy it, and for us to enjoy it now.
Speaker 1:Well, wait, isn't there a new kid? No, no, our youngest is six. Jeez, yeah, anywho. Um and finally, uh, what are you reading? What are you? What's something that sticks in your mind is a really cool recommendation to people oh, that's a good question fiction, non-fiction.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty much all non-fiction. I actually listen to more podcasts than I do books right now. Oh, what podcast, but my go-to podcast is acquired, oh no, okay, acquired is a deep dive into all sorts of businesses that have gone really big, like they're currently working through Microsoft, and the first half of their episode was three and a half hours.
Speaker 1:So it's a long long four podcast. You spend a lot of time in your car, like I do, so it's great to have a three and a half hour podcast to listen to.
Speaker 2:That's my go-to. The other podcast I listen to is All In. I haven't heard that one either. It's a bunch of tech. There's four tech guys who have all made their money. There's an ex-Facebook guy, an ex-Google guy and they talk all things political, all things business Interesting. They actually do a really good job of informing themselves. They do have a slight bias and I think it's worth like disclosing that at the front, but they have. But they do a decent job of unpacking it and then allowing you to explore the issue in a bit more of a like free way. It's not necessarily what the media is reporting what was that one called again?
Speaker 1:all in all in great. Well, I'll have to take a look for those. There you you go. Thanks so much, greg.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I appreciate the chat. Always nice to do so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, and apparently you're starting your own podcast, so I guess I won't be getting you back anytime soon.
Speaker 2:That's okay, we'll have you come on to ours. Exactly what would I talk about? All things anti-money laundering.
Speaker 1:So exciting. You actually you made this talk very interesting and I think that a lot of people might. I'm going to make this subject line really interesting too, so that people will tune in. But yeah, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you, that's it for me this week. Thanks so much for joining me on Keeping it Real. You can get Keeping it Real on Spotify or anywhere. You get your podcasts Like and subscribe so you do not miss an episode. You can also get it at NorthVanHomeSalescom slash podcasts and if you have any questions or you just want to chat about real estate, you know where to find me.