Leaders of the Real Estate Association of Lebanon seem to be determined to clear the distorted image built throughout the years in Lebanon about real estate brokers. With the late boom that took place, that image worsened. Almost everyone became a broker, unwillingly playing a negative role by driving the market in distorted directions (not to speak of the countless unethical behaviors resulting in hundreds of legal cases).
In order to join the Real Estate Association of Lebanon (REAL), it is now mandatory to register for an academic course in real estate. A partnership has thus been concluded between REAL and EduDMG, a Lebanese professional-education institution headquartered in San Francisco.
The 1-credit 15-teaching-hours course, called introduction to real estate brokerage, will cover the following topics essentially, as per the course syllabus:
- Types of Real Estate.
- Real Estate taxation.
- Roles of stakeholders.
- Real Estate brokerage.
- Broker, agent, technologies, MLS, advertising.
- Real Estate law in Lebanon.
- Real Estate contracts.
- Construction Law.
- Real Estate finance.
- Valuation and Appraisal.
- Government possession: public and private restrictions.
Learners will not have to worry about the costs of this course, as REAL will be covering them out of the members' registration fees.
To go through more information on this avant-gardist partnership program, EKARUNA met REAL's board member, head of REVIEW SARL brokerage firm, Samer Abdallah, and Dr. Jihad Ghannam, CEO of EduDMG.
According to Abdallah, brokers are meant to be "agents of the best use of land", and to be so, they need to understand their roles, rights, duties, ethics and professional procedures, rules and regulations, especially in the absence of any legal framework that controls their profession, like it is the case in advanced countries of the world.
"Professional brokers need to be certified for many reasons. It is first a way of differentiation from the wide-spread mickey mouse brokers, and also it is essential for REAL's members to know their rights, to know how to read legal data, how to protect themselves, how to do accurate valuation of properties, etc..." explains Abdallah.
"And the most important of all is the understanding of our profession's ethics. We're eager for ethics to become deep-rooted in our culture and in our ways of doing anything. We worked hard for that and now we're proud to have agreed on a code of ethics that everyone joining REAL will have to sign" he adds.
But will such a certificate guarantee ethical and professional behavior of REAL's brokers? "Any broker who would not be working according to the learned guidelines may be easily reported by any customer who falls victim of that broker's behavior. And that will allow REAL to blacklist this person. We have an image to build and credibility to maintain so REAL has interest in taking all measures to guarantee the reliability of its certification" he answers.
Abdallah raises high hopes on this certification program, which will be launching very soon, and believes it will start repairing the damage caused by unprofessional brokers, in addition to being an extra step forward towards the long-awaited syndicate, by introducing better quality of service, better practice of expertise, more trust, accountability measures, respect for the brokerage sector, proper education, proper appraisal techniques, reducing scam, etc...
"Customers need to know who to work with" he concludes.
Dr. Ghannam on the other hand exposes to EKARUNA the high reliability of EduDMG's program, especially that classes are being given by highly-renowned and highly-experiences professionals, officials and ex-officials, with whom students can support their theoretical education by practical experience and real-life case-studies.
Experienced professionals from the real estate directorate, the urban planning department, the central bank, from legal courts, official valuation professionals, judges, are all giving classes within EduDMG's program and offering excellent insights to students.
It is to note here that the course subject of partnership with REAL is only a 1-credit course. Normally, it is part of a complete academic program that ends with a professional certificate, accredited by ISET in San Fransisco and most importantly by the Order of Engineers and Architects in Beirut.
"We're not yet however offering bachelor degrees but we are working thoroughly on it especially that our courses and the way they are presented fit very much in that category. It's a matter of few months and that will be achieved hopefully" says Dr. Ghannam.
"The market is sensing the very high need for professionally trained staff working in real estate. Several companies and big developers are appreciating the experience of our certified students and are encouraging their employees to enroll for our programs as well" he adds.
Dr. Ghannam finally sees a great vision behind REAL's step towards certifying its members and hopes to expand the partnership to reach various sub-fields (residential, commercial, asset management, property management, etc...) that will make up the different chapters within the association.
© Ekaruna 2010
