How can mobile technology educate consumers, and help real estate professionals comply with new rules?
The Real Estate Council of British Columbia is a regulatory agency established by the provincial government in 1958. Its mandate is to protect the public interest by enforcing the licensing and licensee conduct requirements of the Real Estate Services Act.
We have worked with RECBC on several projects, helping them leverage the digital medium to connect in new ways with real estate professionals and consumers. Most recently, we have worked with RECBC to help educate licensees about the changes to agency rules and disclosure requirements and provide tools to allow licensees to comply with new consumer protection rules. You can also read more about our work for RECBC building a knowledge base for real estate professionals.
Licensees spend a lot of time out of their office and often meet consumers at their listing locations. We worked with the Council to understand licensee needs and situations such as busy open houses. We wanted to find a way to help licensees where they were and have them be able to comply with consumer protection rules while saving time. To address these needs, we built a custom app for mobile devices that provides a safe, secure way for licensees and consumers to review and sign disclosure forms together. We designed a brief how-to video and animated tips to provide licensees with a quick walkthrough to set up and use the app. Features such as pre-filled licensee’s information and digital signature collection allows the experience to be streamlined. As well, the app automatically delivers copies of the signed forms to all required parties - licensees, their brokerages and consumers, with one tap. Licensees can also use the app even if they are offline. The app is designed to help consumers understand the licensee/client relationship while protecting their personal information. Initial feedback from licensees has been very positive.
