CEBU CITY – The Philippine Association of Real Estate Boards Inc. (PAREB) has complained about the proliferation of unlicensed real estate agents or brokers who unscrupulously dupe buyers despite a law regulating the practice of real estate service.
Jovencio Cainong, PAREB senior vice president, said unlicensed real estate brokers are already dominating the trade in social media, especially in Meta’s Marketplace platform where anybody can just offer to sell real estate.
He cited the Real Estate Service Act, saying no person is allowed by law to practice real estate service if he has no license from the government, adding real estate agents should be accredited and transact business under the direct supervision of a duly-licensed broker.
Those who are not working under a licensed broker are violating the Real Estate Service Act and can be fined with up to P100,000 or imprisonment of not less than two years or both, according to Cainong, saying “a person who sells real property without a license commits a criminal offense.”
Cainong said unlicensed real estate agents using social media or directly selling to buyers are also competing with licensed real estate brokers and salespersons. “At least 90% of real estate salespersons on Facebook are unlicensed,” he said, adding this malpractice resulted in loss of income for the licensed real estate practitioners and poses a high risk for the buyers.
He said real estate buyers are at risk of being offered by unlicensed real estate sellers fictitious properties or even with problematic or fake land titles and other documents.
Cainong said only a few segments of the population are aware that there are professionals whom they can deal with in terms of real estate brokering, appraisal, and consultancy. He urged prospective buyers of house and lot to be wary of sellers of residential subdivisions, saying there is now a boom of illegal subdivisions that even agricultural lands are also being developed into residential subdivisions, which is a violation to the local government zoning laws. (Minerva Newman)
