Annual Report 2021

F RAS E R VA L L E Y R E A L E S TAT E B OA R D

Annual Report

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On October 19, 1921, thirteen Realtors® gathered and “resolved that an association be formed to be known as the New Westminster Realty Agents Association.” The association would be renamed several times until 1979, when it became known as the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board.

Source: Orignal notes from the first meeting of the FVREB.

Board of Directors

Message from the CEO

Market Snapshot

Department Highlights

Finance Report

CONTENTS

TABLE OF Message from the President

Financial Statements

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Board Committees

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FVREB Team

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Page 1

E WAY

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

H O M

A Real Opportunity for REALTORS® This was an historic year for Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, and not

just because we marked our 100th anniversary. It seemed like every other month we were setting new records – record highs for sales, record lows for listings.

Fraser Valley REALTORS® sold over $28 billion in real estate and ended the year with benchmark prices up by nearly 40% compared to last year. Some might say that there’s never been a better time to be a Realtor – many did, as we added 734 new members to the Board.

Perhaps, but for every house that sold in two days or for 20 or 30 per cent over asking, there were 10 other deals that fell through – in spite of non-subject offers over asking price!

The part of the story that doesn’t get told is the toll it takes on buyers, especially first-time buyers who ride the rollercoaster of stress and emotion, only to see hopes and dreams dashed when a reasonable offer is rejected. Any Realtor worth his or her salt will feel that pain and disillusionment because we share it with them.

Markets like the one we’ve seen over the last couple of years don’t help. All the hype about prices tends to give our profession a bad rap. But make no mistake: the market forces at work here – the pandemic, low interest rates, deficient housing policy – are beyond our control. Affordability is fast becoming Canada’s number one crisis and governments at all levels are scrambling to fix it.

Realtors have an opportunity to rise to the challenge and become not just a part of the solutions but a driver of them. Let’s start by proudly advocating for our profession. Let’s press regulators for accountability and policy-makers for better solutions. Let’s post less often on social media about record deals and more often about the families who have simply given up. Above all, let’s continue doing what we do best: guiding, advising and protecting the public on the most significant transactions of their lives.

It has been an incredible and enriching year for me. I’ve had the privilege to work closely with talented Board staff who truly go above and beyond in everything they do. And I’ve had the honour of being part of a team of Officers and Directors who are passionate about the Board’s best interests. It gives me confidence that our century-long legacy of professionalism and commitment to communitybuilding is stronger than ever.

And that bodes well for the next 100 years.

Page 2

Larry Anderson President

Social media was a lot more social in 1934. A crowd gathers outside Hotel Abbotsford to hear a radio address of the results of the World Series game between St. Louis and Detroit.

Source: City of Vancouver Archives, Thomson, Stuart.

Page 3

DIRECTORS

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Larry Anderson President

Dale Barker

Gin Dhillon

Darcy Reddicopp Broker Division Chair

Jasbir Sandhu

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Sandra Benz President-Elect

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M Marylou Leslie Vice President

Baldev Gill CEO

Narinder Bains

Angela Evennett

Ishaq Ismail

Linda Sue Peaker

VISION

Chris Shields Past President

Collette Squires Public Advisor

Our members are publicly valued for their skill, professionalism and contribution to their community.

Page 5

Weather events are a part of the Valley’s history. The great flood of 1948 destroyed hundreds of homes and displaced thousands of citizens throughout the Fraser Valley region.

Page Source: Norm 6 Amundsen Collection. Surrey Archives

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MESSAGE FROM THE CEO

Looking Forward – the Next 100 Years

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The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, putting us in rarified company indeed. To get to one hundred years of operation takes a solid foundation — for FVREB, it’s our members.

Our sense of community and shared purpose sets us apart from other boards and guides everything we do. No doubt it has contributed to consistently high member satisfaction levels over the years, which according to our Member Survey, conducted in November, remained virtually unchanged over the past two years, at close to 80%. This puts us among the top three real estate boards in the country, many of which saw declining satisfaction over the same time during the pandemic.

To truly capitalize on this solid foundation requires four complementary and equally important pillars: good governance, thought leadership, fiscal strength, and a motivated staff. We are fortunate to have all four. Our Officers and Directors are dedicated, passionate and better equipped than most volunteer boards, thanks to effective training. In particular, the exceptional efforts of our Governance Committee have allowed for continued modernization of our by-laws to meet – and exceed – our future needs.

Initiatives spearheaded by our Chief Operating Officer have seen the FVREB not simply gain a seat at the table but occupy a leading role concerning larger issues impacting the future of our sector.

On the fiscal front we are in the best financial position of our 100-year history. We ended 2021 with a substantial surplus position, thanks in part to a record year of sales, but equally important, thanks to a strong cost containment mindset on the part of senior management and unprecedented member growth.

Over the past year, we have seen staff step up time and again in response to operational and market challenges whether it be processing record numbers of sales and listings, exercising sound cost control, or revamping our Professional Standards processes. Our IT Department, working with the Tech Task Force, has mapped out a vision, which over the coming years will see us regain our innovative stride and place us first among equals across the country.

In the face of unprecedented market dynamics and a shifting regulatory landscape, this may well be a watershed moment. Regardless, FVREB must look to lead on behalf of members and in support of our profession. With superior fundamentals we are poised to take the Board into the next century with our progressive legacy well in hand.

Baldev Gill CEO

Page 7

MARKET

SNAPSHOT

$ Sales Volume

# of Sales 2021

Detached

# of Listings

2020

Townhomes

Apartments

Benchmark Prices

2021 2020

$1,500,000 $1,079,500

$765,800 $576,200

$549,200 $438,300

Days on Market

2021 2020

24 39

14 34

20 40

Highest annual increase in benchmark home prices

46.6% Abbotsford

37% South Surrey/ White Rock

32.8% Abbotsford

Highest annual increase in sales

47% White Rock

46% North Surrey

148% North Delta

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In 1969, the Board moved into new premises at 15483 104 Avenue where it remained until moving into our current location.

Source: FVREB Archives

Page 9

What came before REALTOR.ca? The mighty MLS® Catalogue! FVREB staff preparing MLS® Catalogues for distribution to brokerages and Realtors®.

Page Source: FVREB10 Archives

27,692

19,926

39%

35,629 🏚 31,693

🏚 12%

Sales in 2020

Sales in 2021

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MLS

Sales Processed

HIGHLIGHTS

With market sales and listings shattering all records, the MLS® Team had scant time to attend to other business throughout the year, but somehow they managed to fully revise and update Residential and Commercial Data Input Forms and transition members through the retirement of SentriCard (while dealing with near weekly crises regarding lockbox vandalism). But the big story was the historic market of 2021 – and the numbers say it all.

Listings Processed

New listings 2020

New listings 2021

Highest single month listings

3,329 📃

131%

March 2021

Over March 2020

Call Volume

34,334

876

Total calls fielded

Total phone hours logged

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Total Medallion Qualifers Individuals Teams

Individual, Team, and Commercial Medallion Qualifers

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MEMBERSHIP & EDUCATION

HIGHLIGHTS

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Despite another year of virtual sessions, Membership & Education was kept busy between hosting regular and new course offerings, and signing on record numbers of new members.

In addition to the long-awaited update to the Commercial Real Estate Manual (available April 2022), the department developed and added new courses to its curriculum: • • • • • •

Paragon Connect (mobile) Social Media – Advanced, for Real Estate Professionals E-Signatures with Authentisign 2.0 Creating Value: A Selling Strategy for a Successful Real Estate Practice Strata Wind-up and Termination: The Basics Due Diligence in Commercial Real Estate: A Guide to Best Practice

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New Member Orientation Seminars

New 25+ year members

7,847 Members trained

4,379

2021

3,645

353 Webinars Hosted

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FVREB staff attending the trade show booth with an early precursor to the dream home lotteries we see often these days.

Source: FVREB Archives

Page 13

Throughout the 90’s, REALTORS became more and more creative with the tools in their marketing kit bags.

Source: The Reach, P8699 Page 14

Advising the Membership & Education Department on FVREB course and curriculum matters

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Working with the Board-level committees to amend FVREB’s practice and procedures regarding complaints about member conduct

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Undertaking a more directly active and strategic role in supporting the work of the Government Relations Committee

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Written formal complaints

IT

HIGHLIGHTS

Tickets logged

PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

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HIGHLIGHTS

In addition to fulfilling its primary mandate on the Arbitration and Professional Conduct Committees, the Professional Standards team supported a number of departmental and Board-wide initiatives including:

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Federal all-candidates meetings sponsored

In 2021 the IT Department led or supported numerous enterprise-wide projects to improve processing and data flow, including: •

Re-engineering data integrations for Paragon (RESO Web API), MMSI and Higher Logic, our newly launched member engagement and communications platform

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Process improvements to CREA Data Load, FVREB email notifications and automations, Title Search administrative penalty, and Member Direct Billing reporting

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Completed the first generation of FVREB Connect, a redevelopment of our web-based module, including support for mobile devices. FVREB Connect marks a new era of innovation for member digital communications and services.

7,887 Helpdesk tickets logged

8,667 Calls fielded

Page 15

While today’s market is in a new league altogether, it’s not the first time we’ve seen high demand. In 2008 these buyers waited for hours to have a chance to purchase at Radiance at Sunstone in North Delta.

Page 16 Source: Boaz Joseph photo, Surrey Leader Photograph Collection. Courtesy of Surrey Archives

NewsReal articles published

74k+

Page views on www.fvreb.bc.ca

64

eMemos issued

Media Engagement

+178% Editorial coverage

1,200 News article mentions

Social Media

17,697

414,852

Engagements

Social Media Impressions

45,000 Shares of 328 FVREB articles

Community Impact

$25,421 💰 739 🥼 Raised for the Blanket Drive

Bags of clothing collected

27 📢 Charities served

$134,633 🚑

COMMUNICATIONS

199

HIGHLIGHTS

Member Communications

Raised and donated to flood relief (with REBGV)

$50,000 🛒

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Donated to food banks

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FINANCE COMMITTEE CHAIR REPORT

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Fiscal Health for Future Growth The Board had budgeted a deficit from operations of $674,067 for the year ended Dec 31/21 but managed to achieve a surplus from operations of $1,767,460. When actual investment income and our realized and unrealized gain on investments are added in, we ended the year with an excess of revenue over expenses of $2,075,046.

This represents a turnaround of 2,750,000.

This was a record-breaking year for MLS® sales activity. MLS® service fees processed by the Board amounted to $5,322,730 – an increase of 57% over 2020.

Membership revenue hit a new high as well. We added 734 new members during the year & finished the year with 4,379 members. This increased our revenue from Board dues and fees by almost $900,000 or 30% over 2020.

Salaries and benefits are always the largest expense category for a service organization such as ours.

This is the combination of all costs related to staffing: direct payroll costs as well as costs for employer premiums and benefits. Total expenditures for the year were held below our 2021 budget amount.

This was accomplished while filling several vacant positions and reducing the cost of benefits.

The Board was able to contribute a total of $318,000 to support our communities – including the Red Cross Flood & Fire appeals, Fraser Valley food bank support and a grant to the Fraser Valley REALTORS Charitable Foundation.

Other operating expenditures were held to a 1.8% increase over the prior year despite inflation running at double that number.

The effective stewardship of the FVREB team is also to be commended. The volume of activity during the past year, coupled with the challenges of a COVID-19 environment required an outstanding effort from everyone at the Board. They continued to deliver an exceptional level of service to our members while controlling expenditures.

The result of this year’s robust market and our controlled expenditures is a strong financial position with full funding of our Operational, Technology change and Fees & Dues Reserves. This provides a solid base for future FVREB strategic initiatives.

Page 18

Marylou Leslie Vice President

Some FVREB members are old enough to remember when agents’ commission cheques were printed on continuous form paper and checked, then signed manually – a laborious process.

Source: Stan McKinnon Collection. Courtesy of Surrey Archives

Page 19

Non-Consolidated Statement of Financial Position Year Ended December 31st 2021

Assests Current Cash Short-term Investments [note 4] Accounts receivable Inventory supplies Prepaid expenses Total current assests Loan receivable [note 3] Investments [note 4] Intangible assets, net [note 5] Property and equipment, net [note 5] Liabilities and members’ equity Current Accounts payable and accrued liabilities [note 7] Total current liabilities Commitments [note 8] Members’ equity Unrestricted Internally restricted Total members’ equity

2021 $

2020 $

1,234,271 5,400,000 624,523 57,263 180,355 7,496,412 116,172 3,985,800 65,338 3,435,438 15,099,260

3,062,585 2,999,999 741,144 63,337 168,405 7,035,470 116,172 1,665,585 106,425 3,461,859 12,385,511

1,349,064 82,782 1,431,846

731,455 62,260 793,715

4,654,018 9,013,396 13,667,414 15,099,260

4,076,972 7,512,824 11,591,796 12,385,511

The complete set of FVREB’s 2021 Audited Non-consolidated Financial Statements are available on REALTORLink®.

Page 20

Non-Consolidated Statement of Operations Year Ended December 31st 2021

Revenue Fraser Valley Real Estate Board dues and fees British Columbia Real Estate Association [“BCREA”] dues Canadian Real Estate Association [“CREA”] dues Multiple Listing Service fees and charges Listing fees Education seminar fees Other income Brokers discount for early payment Expenses Oranization Costs — external BCREA assessments CREA assessments Organizational costs — internal Donations, sponsorships and grants Education seminars [note 9] Legal, audit and professional Salaries and benefits [note 9] Administration overhead Fixed overhead [note 9] Excess of revenue over expenses before other items Realized and unrealized gain on investments Investment income Excess of revenue over expenses for the year

2021 $

2020 $

3,976,438 573,072 1,233,627 5,322,730 766,640 527,365 155,814 (549,108) 12,006,578

3,077,100 528,907 1,137,580 3,387,961 714,551 474,523 147,661 (472,083) 8,996,200

573,072 1,233,627 806,151 318,029 414,546 529,804 3,931,444 1,851,928 580,517 10,239,118 1,767,460 221,291 86,295 2,075,046

528,907 1,137,580 613,652 14,443 444,002 502,403 3,440,262 1,708,274 606,445 8,995,968 232 57,417 101,631 159,280

The complete set of FVREB’s 2021 Audited Non-consolidated Financial Statements are available on REALTORLink®.

Page 21

COMMITTEES & PANELS

ARBITRATION COMMIT TEE Dan Corsie, Chair Dale Barker Alisa Larson Don McParland Bill Morris Jasbir Sandhu Gary Sanghera Gary Shepherd Jake Siemens Ty Sztuhar

Mansour Hozar Wes Jamison Drew McLean Linda Sue Peaker Sandra Perry David Rishel Delia Schatz Natalie Tarrant Michael Trites Charles Wiebe

PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT COMMIT TEE Investigations Marylou Leslie, Chair Jameel Ahmad Francis Ali Michelle Carlson Rob Christensen Gin Dhillon Jashan Grewal Sukhi Kang Peter Kiriakov Craig Mitchell Taryn Myddleton Kelvin Neufeld Ben Ochitwa Vince Pontaletta Bettina Reid Gopal Sahota Hearings Sadaf Baig Trevor Beauchamp Robert Blair Carolyn Carson David Herman

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FINANCE COMMIT TEE Marylou Leslie, Chair Dale Barker Manny Chatha Angela Evennett Norm Flemig Ty Sztuhar Ray Werger GOVERNMENT RELATIONS COMMIT TEE Chris Savage, Chair Candy Ashdown Narinder Bains Jeff Chadha Shen Po Chen Manny Deol Gurtej Gill Jesse Gill Sharon Greysen Tore Jacobsen Colleen O’Keefe Herman Sandhu Joel Schacter Sid Sidhu Charles Wiebe

2021 BROKERS COUNCIL Darcy Reddicopp, Chair Kevin Anstey, Vice Chair Larry Anderson Malik Dillon Raj Gill Bianca Myddleton Delia Schatz Natalie Tarrant Del Touet GOVERNANCE COMMIT TEE Sandra Benz, Chair John Barbisan Tore Jacobsen Sandy Nijjer Jasbir Sandhu Michael Trites NOMINATING COMMIT TEE Gopal Sahota, Chair Sadaf Baig Paul Belhumeur Trisha Bongers John Corrie Bonnie Moy TECHNOLOGY TASK FORCE Ishaq Ismail, Chair Paul Belhumeur Raj Dhaliwal SP Gill Bianca Myddleton Paul Penner Ray Werger

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Before the White Rock Pier became the iconic attraction it is today, it was once used as a track for auto races.

Source: White Rock Archives

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FVREB STAFF

ADMINISTRATIVE & EXECUTIVE Baldev Gill, CEO Rock Lefebvre, Executive Director & COO Irene Wyper, Executive Assistant Darcie Rosenberg, Meetings, Events, and Operations Coordinator COMMUNICATIONS Anthony Boone, Manager Lilian Choi, Assistant Manager Shafiq Jamal, Consultant Vanessa Cheng Monique Eucapor Gulshan Josan FINANCE Susan Milne, Controller Elena Yang HUMAN RESOURCES Shriya Rishi, Manager INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Ovidiu Mot, Director Anthony Ball Greg Batchelar Warren Brown Steven Fishburn Robert Hu Hemant Kumar Hannah Kuo Gregg Medwid Maricar Paraiso Roshan Perera Brian Thai Carlos Torres MEMBERSHIP & EDUCATION Denise Harris, Manager Amarjeet Chahal Navdeep Cheema

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Janette Cholette Shaista Nazir MLS ® TEAM Cheryl Camara, Manager Maria Gayanelo, Assistant Manager Nida Aslam Susan Burgis Victor Cornejo Tony Hong Michelle Liu Jeanne McGibbon Brenda Murphy Giulia Stadnik Sonia Riglietti Raj Virk PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS Aaron Bockner Alana Martens Michelle Sparrow

Connect with us!

@FVREB Facebook

@FVREBchannel YouTube

i @FVREB Twitter

@fvreb.official Instagram

Fraser Valley Real Estate Board LinkedIn

Fraser Valley REALTORS® Network

Building cranes are omnipresent throughout the Fraser Valley, as one of the hottest regions in the country continues to build and prepare for the next 100 years of community growth.

Source: Povazan, Jozef, 2019, Large Crane on Construction Site. Metro Vancouver

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Elm Street, White Rock, ca. 1920 Source: White Rock Archives

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Fraser Valley Real Estate Board

www.fvreb.bc.ca

15463 104 Avenue

communications@fvreb.bc.ca

Surrey, BC V3R 1N9

604.930.7600