New Westminster Real Agents Association

On October 19, "13 men engaged with realty business" resolved "that an association be formed known as the New Westminster Real Agents' Association," to establish standards of business practice and to elevate the industry in the eyes of the public.

New Westminster Real Estate Exchange

A re-organization of the association's structure and function brought a new name - New Westminster Real Estate Exchange - and a new constitution to the group on April 27, 1939.

New Westminster Real Estate Board

On November 26, 1947, the organization was again re-named.

The New Westminster Real Estate Board's amended constitution had these objectives:

• To cultivate and enforce fair dealings, and foster good fellowship among its members in their business of buying, selling, renting, and managing real estate.
• To conserve and develop the urban and rural wealth and resources of our Province.
• To promote individual ownership of homes in the cities, towns and villages and of the farms in the country.
• To encourage British Columbia investors to invest in British Columbia.

Board members were so convinced that Multiple Listing would become the modern method of real estate marketing that they financially backed the development of the Multiple Listing Bureau.

On October 17, the first sale through the new Multiple Listing Bureau was recorded. A property on Colbourne Street, New Westminster, was listed at $7,950 and sold for $7,700.

Westminster County Real Estate Board (WESCOREB)

On December 17, 1958, the name of the real estate board was changed again.

By the late '50s, most of the member firms had branch offices in Fraser Valley communities and the New Westminster headquarters of the Board had gone from being at the centre of the Board's district to being almost at the western-most edge.

W.E. Dempsey, president of the Board, stated in the annual report: "The law of condominium is already a fact in 38 of the United States. This is relatively a new field in ownership of real estate. The owner of each suite in an apartment can take title to it, his title indicating he owns a part of the roof, lobby and land, etc. Legislation enabling us to sell apartment suites and give title in this manner will probably be forthcoming."

The gross sales on the Multiple Listing Service® exceeded $10 million for the first time.

The changing market and greater travel involved for some members to attend Board meetings and use the Board facilities led, in 1969, to a move into larger and more central premises in the Guildford area of Surrey.

On July 1, 1973, the boundaries between WESCOREB and the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) were redrawn; WESCOREB conceded New Westminster and South Delta, and gained agreement that listings were to be filed according to jurisdiction, not by the Board affiliation of the agent.

This is the basis of our reciprocal agreement with REBGV, which still stands today and is frequently acknowledged as an ideal model of cooperation between boards.

In June the new computer, nicknamed 'Flossy,' was welcomed aboard to help speed the processing of listing and sales information.

The WESCOREB Pictorial Publication of properties for sale was introduced - this became known as the "tear-sheet system." Members were sent weekly updates on each listing on MLS, and they would update their own books accordingly. Because they handled paperwork for each listing every week, members had a personal knowledge of each listing.

At the AGM in 1976, salespeople were given active membership status. Prior, only broker/owners could vote on the affairs of the Board; now all members could.

The Board purchased two adjoining lots on 104th Avenue for future expansion. An adjoining strip of land was made available for a mere $12,000, which the Board also purchased for its investment potential. This additional strip of land, now often referred to the "back 40," is still undeveloped.

Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB)

The Westminster County Real Estate Board, now 1,142 members strong, applied to the Registrar of Companies to officially change the Board's name to the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board.

Ken MacKenzie joined the Board as Executive Officer.

Improvements were made to the Board's new computer system, affectionately called FVRED (Fraser Valley Real Estate Data). Over 80% of Board members had terminals in their offices, an unprecedented usage rate, well beyond the Board's expectations.

The same year, FVREB approved the production of a catalogue for MLS® listings.

The design for the future Board building is reviewed. Plans were developed for a three level building, with two levels occupied by the Board and the third level open for tenants. The design of the building included expansion options to add a fourth floor, if required.

The Board switched from the old tear-sheet system of distributing listing information to the MLS® catalogue system.

Surpassing all Boards in Canada, the Board was recognized as the best at public service and community involvement, and is presented the Mortgage Insurance Co. of Canada Community Services Award.

On February 24, FVREB staff moved into the Board's current headquarters at 15463 - 104th Avenue. Local MP Benno Friesen performed the ribbon cutting. The Board leased out its old office building until 1986, when it was sold.

A particularly poor market led to some staff members being laid off, and a full review of funding methods. As a result, the Board moved to a system of charging dues monthly instead of annually to provide cash-flow relief for members.

The Contingency Reserve Fund was created to ensure that the Board had reserves to weather an economic downtown such as the one experienced the previous year.

Demands on our computer system were so high the directors opted to speed up the purchase of a new computer, and brought new hardware online in October 1984.

The Board was once again recognized for public service and community involvement with the Mortgage Insurance Co. of Canada Community Services Award.

Professional of the Year award, later re-named the Johnny Armeneau Professional Award, was first presented to an FVREB REALTOR® for projecting a positive professional image of the real estate industry, displaying high standards of business ethics, and for contributing to their community and to organized real estate.

The Board invited offers to purchase the "back 40," but no sale resulted.

The land west of the Board's building was purchased for a future parking lot.

The Board replaced its outdated computerized system with a powerful UNIX-based, state-of-the-art system. The new Stellar III program allowed REALTORS® to include on-screen digitized colour photographs with each listing.

Number of members reached an all-time high at more than 3,200 members and then declined steadily until 2002.

Realty Watch fan-out program developed to assist local police in the search for missing persons and vehicles.

FVREB members commemorated the 40th birthday of its Multiple Listing Service®. Forty years after it was first established, the MLS® recorded a sales volume of more than $2.5 billion in Canada.

Agency disclosure is introduced across Canada.

The Board now in its 75th year of service, partnered with the Canadian Real Estate Association to provide access to MLS® listings information to its members and to allow an international audience of consumers to view listings via the website www.mls.ca.

In recognition for outstanding efforts and leadership by providing constructive input to all three levels of government, the Board was presented CREA's Political Action Committee Award in Ottawa.

A Commercial Division was formed within the Fraser Valley Board.

FVREB developed the Housing Price Index, a statistical tool that compares the estimated change in price on a typical and constant quality property over time. Subsequently, this statistical model was adopted by several boards across Canada.

Several projects are initiated through the Inter-Board Cooperative Task force, made up of representatives from the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, and the Chilliwack & District Real Estate Board. The first project involved research on cooperative MLS® operations and technology, and another involved a multi-board Intranet website.

An Agreement brokered by FVREB between Kwantlen University College, University of BC (UBC), and Open Learning Agency (OLA) allows courses taken at Kwantlen to be credited toward a Bachelor of Real Estate Studies degree offered by UBC and OLA.

FVREB launched a website to provide the public with statistics and general information on Fraser Valley communities and REALTORS®, at www.fvreb.bc.ca/history.php.

Along with several other real estate boards and associations, FVREB launched REALTOR Link®, a national intranet site with information and tools for REALTORS®. WEBForms, an online real estate forms management program for use by REALTOR Link® partners, was developed by the FVREB.

Once again, the Board was presented CREA's Political Action Committee Award for outstanding efforts and leadership by providing constructive input to all three levels of government.

FVREB received the Ministry of Attorney General Provincial Corporate Award for outstanding leadership in and contributions to crime prevention and community safety.

FVREB offices are renovated.

WEBForms and WEBImages, online forms and image management applications, are introduced.

Members actively fundraised for fellow REALTOR® John Ryan, who crossed Canada in an effort to raise money for research to help those with spinal cord injuries.

The Spirit of Cooperation, an agreement signed between FVREB and the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver to share access to MLS® listings, is expanded to become the Pledge of Cooperation, an agreement between all 12 boards in BC.

Standardized MLS® forms are introduced province-wide.

Brokers Division formed to ensure Broker/Owners a voice on the Board of Directors, and to provide a forum to discuss issue of importance to broker/owners.

As sales picked up in the Fraser Valley, the Board of Directors waived membership dues for December, and reduced MLS® fees, saving members over $500,000.

Supreme Court Decision officially recognized and upheld FVREB's commission trust by-law, set in place in 1988 to protect real estate commissions in the event of the insolvency of an agent. Many real estate boards across Canada now have included a commission trust in their By-laws.

New software, called Aurora, was introduced, along with a simple web-access program at www.bcmls.net. These two new programs allowed access to MLS® listings from Hope to Whistler.

The MLSLink project is officially launched, with the objective to create a single, seamless Lower Mainland MLS® for members of all three Boards.

With a significant number of members now using email, the Board launched an email newsletter, called eLink, which was very well received by members.

The REALTORS® Make Good Neighbours awards were launched. The awards recognize the volunteer contributions of members in their communities.

A 16-seat computer learning centre, called the TLC, opened for members. The first sessions included training on Aurora, and basic Microsoft Office tools.

The Board began to investigate partnering opportunities with Habitat for Humanity.

In August, Residential MLXchange was launched for all REALTORS® in the Lower Mainland. In November, Commercial MLXchange was launched, and Lower Mainland REALTORS® joined Edmonton and Calgary REALTORS® on a single Commercial MLS® system.

In conjunction with the implementation of MLXchange, the Rules of Cooperation were adopted. This historic undertaking combined the rules and regulations from the Fraser Valley, Greater Vancouver, and Chilliwack real estate boards into a single document.

The mortgage on the Board building was paid off completely.

Members petitioned the Board to hold a Special General Meeting regarding the transfer of listings information to www.mls.ca. At the meeting, all resolutions brought forward by the petitioners were defeated, and the transfer of listings information (timing and content) continued as is.

As part of the Abbotsford Downtown Business Association’s Bench Art project, the Board sponsored a bench entitled Shelter, the seventh in a series of unique benches throughout Abbotsford’s revitalized downtown. Shelter was created by a local Abbotsford artisan, Dave Doerkson, and features a comfortable wooded bench protected by striking copper and cedar canopy. The bench stands on the corner of Essendence and West Railway.

The three Lower Mainland boards, Fraser Valley, Greater Vancouver and Chilliwack, introduced Touchbase, a web-based messaging service that allows members to communicate directly with one another without having to play telephone tag through the office.

With elections at all three levels of government in a single year, the Board was very active in government relations, co-sponsoring candidate meetings with local chambers of commerce.

The Board, along with all Boards across BC, approved and launched the Professional Development Program for all members across the province. The program is tied to licensing, and members are required to complete 18 credits within their two year licensing cycle. The eighteen course credits are made up from an approved selection of mandatory and optional courses.

Realty Watch, the fan-out program to assist police in finding missing and abducted children and adults, was expanded to include the members of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. Now, over 11,000 REALTORS® can be paged details in less than 30 minutes and can be on the lookout for missing persons. The program is a partnered with Amber Alert.

In conjunction with the Canadian Real Estate Association, The Fraser Valley Board introduced its new pages on the national Intranet for REALTORS®, called REALTOR Link®. The Board worked closely with the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver and the BC Real Estate Association to ensure members’ needs were front and foremost in the design process.

The Board adopted BCREA’s Quality of Life program. Quality of Life provides a framework for the real estate profession's government relations, community outreach and communications activities, helping build influence, credibility and trust. The five principles form the foundation of the Quality of Life philosophy: ensuring economic vitality, providing housing opportunities, protecting property owners, building better communities and preserving our environment.

The Board, along with the Real Estate Foundation, bestowed a combined pledge of half a million dollars, $100,000 from the Board and $400,000 from the Foundation, towards the naming of the Simon Fraser University Surrey library and an endowed lecture series in Urban Sustainability in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. For many years, the Board has worked to secure a full post-graduate and research library south of the Fraser River.

In March, the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board Academic Library is officially unveiled at a dedication ceremony held at the Simon Fraser University campus in Surrey.

The www.howrealtorshelp.ca website was launched by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) to help explain what REALTORS® do, how to interview a prospective REALTOR® and offers helpful tips and useful checklists for consumers.

In May, the Board released a mobile browser version of bcmls.net. Members can now access a specially-designed webpage — http://mobile.bcmls.net — for quick and easy access to listing information.

The 13th annual REALTORS® Care Blanket Drive set a new record, members from across the Fraser Valley, Greater Vancouver and Chilliwack brought in 4,199 bags of warm clothing and blankets for people in need in our local communities.

The REALTORS® Make Good Neighbours Awards were expanded to include a special Corporate Award category in order to recognize the extensive community and fundraising initiatives of real estate offices.

The Board hosted its first ever electronics recycling drive. An astounding 1,000 electronic items were provided to Vancouver's Electronic Recycling Association. These items were distributed schools, charities and other community based organizations.

Over $10,000 was raised for local food banks at a silent auction held during the Board's Medallion Awards night.

Realty Watch was presented with a Certificate of Appreciation at the Surrey RCMP's third annual Officer in Charge (OIC) Awards. The program was recognized for outstanding community services which assist law enforcement with cases involving abducted children, missing or lost persons.

19 REALTORS® from across the Lower Mainland graduated from the first Facilitator of Ethical Leadership in Real Estate program. This training program has graduates commit to engaging and guiding fellow members about ethics issues during meetings, workshops and mentoring.

In July, CREA launched a new web site: www.REALTOR.ca. It includes the best of the existing mls.ca site, along with a highly detailed interactive mapping system by Microsoft Virtual Earth.

After 30 years, Ken Mackenzie retired as Executive Officer. Rob Philipp was hired as his replacement.

In April, the Board received the Most Innovative Political Action Committee (PAC) Program award from CREA in recognition of efforts to address public safety issues related to illegal drug operations. Also in April, the Board was presented with the 2008 CREA Ethics Award for its many initiatives to enhance ethics and professionalism amongst members.

The White Rock RCMP credit Realty Watch for helping them locate a missing, vulnerable senior within one hour of asking for their assistance, marking Realty Watch’s third success in the Fraser Valley.
 
WEBForms, developed by the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board and shared through CREA with Boards across Canada, celebrated ten years of success and remains a popular tool, with over 42,000 REALTORS® signing in during September to work with 658,000+ forms.

The Board becomes the first real estate board in North America to launch its Automated Data Transfer (ADT) service. ADT takes the listing contract and data entered by Fraser Valley REALTORS® on WEBForms and automatically sends the data directly into MLXchange, pending approvals.    

For the first time, Realty Watch partners with the BC Crime Prevention Association (BCCPA) to host its flagship event for police at the BCCPA's two-day regional crime prevention symposium. In doing so, the Breakfast achieved its greatest exposure and highest attendance ever with almost 200 REALTORS®, police and crime prevention advocates from across the Lower Mainland and BC coming together.

In November, the Board donates $10,000 to YWCA Vancouver in support of a new housing development for single mothers in Surrey.

The 16th annual REALTORS® Care Blanket Drive saw its most successful year to date, collecting over 5,186 bags of warm clothing, blankets, sleeping bags and bedding for dozens of charities across the Lower Mainland.