Brokers dash for licenses

By Mia A. Aznar

Friday, July 29, 2011

BEGINNING next week, real estate brokers and appraisers who have not renewed their licenses with the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) will not be allowed to practice in the real estate service.

Those who have not renewed their licenses with PRC began scrambling to complete their requirements, unaware that they had a deadline to meet or else they would have to take an exam to be able to continue practicing.

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This was after the Real Estate Service Act (Resa) of the Philippines was passed into law. It requires all real estate practitioners to undergo licensure examinations before they are granted a license to practice.

A complete college course will soon be offered for the profession.

However, for existing practitioners, the law’s implementing rules and regulations gave time to complete 120 hours of continuing education programs and convert their existing licenses issued by the DTI.

Luz Dizon of the PRC Applications Division explained that the announcements for this came out last year yet. She said those who were still working on their conversions yesterday were just working at the last minute.

A memorandum from Manila stated that the deadline is today. But since the PRC has no office hours on a weekend, Dizon said they will still accept applications on Monday.

As for sales agents, Dizon said they have yet to receive guidelines on how to go about them.

National Real Estate Association (NREA) Cebu president Abundio Gultiano Jr. said announcements for this have been published in newspapers and that his members have been informed two years ago.

He said those who did not work on it immediately probably ignored it until it was too late for them to realize the impact the law had on their profession.

Asked if any of his members may be scrambling to meet the deadline, he believes there are none, saying those who did not know about it are most likely those who do not have affiliations with real estate organizations.

Samuel Lao, an officer of the Cebu Real Estate Board and president of the Society of Cebu Realty Firms, said those who are still scrambling to meet the deadline probably had difficulty getting their clearances from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Long wait

The issuance of NBI clearances has hit a snag recently, with many waiting for days just to finish the process.

But for real estate broker Jose “George” Junco Espinosa, he wasted the whole day hoping to be able to convert his DTI license to the one issued by the PRC.

Espinosa, who has no affiliation with real estate organizations and is based in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, lamented there was no proper dissemination.

Espinosa said he was hurt that the DTI, which has been collecting the fees for his license for several years now, did not take the time to call him up and inform him of the new rules.

He added that when his license expired in 2009, he kept on asking what he was going to do but was advised to just hold on to it until they could work out the new regulations that came with the passage of the Resa law.

He pointed out that his contact numbers are in the forms that he has filled out for the past years.

Lesson learned

It was only when his wife was in Cebu and learned about the new rules that she immediately called him and told him to work on it.

“Ginerbyos gyud ko uy (I was very anxious),” he said, saying he was lucky that personnel at the PRC gave him special consideration because he was from out of town.

Espinosa said there are only four licensed brokers in San Carlos City and he saw no reason to be affiliated with real estate groups in Cebu because of the distance.

He will have to come back to Cebu on Monday to finish the process. Because of his experience, he is contemplating on joining an organization so he can be informed of the new regulations.

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on July 30, 2011.