As plans unfold for its 7th Annual Commercial Summit coming early next year, take a moment to consider what membership with the Ottawa Real Estate Board (OREB) can do for you as a registered commercial real estate practitioner.
OREB is one of the two largest real estate boards in Ontario outside of the Greater Toronto Area, with thousands of registered brokers and salespeople, all of whom share the distinction of being able to use the trademark REALTOR®.
It is distinguished company to keep, and OREB makes it an enriching experience with all kinds of educational and networking opportunities of interest to commercial and residential members alike.
OREB’s mission is to help members succeed and one of the ways in which it does that is through its education program. For example, OREB held 57 learning opportunities for its members in 2018. These included a commercial summit, brokerage leadership information sessions, new member orientations, technology training sessions, courses, designation programs, workshops, and lunch and learns.
Here are a few examples:
The 6th Annual Commercial Summit (2018)
This full-day event, hosted by the Commercial Services Network, featured a keynote address from Derek Lobo, CEO and founder of SVN Rock Advisors. SVN is the master franchise for the largest privately held commercial brokerage in the world and Lobo shared great insights with attendees about building a presence in the marketplace.
Next came a panel discussion from Fotenn Consultants, RoyNat Capital and Argue Construction about build-to-suit projects, and the steps to follow to get from land sale to finished product.
Attendees also heard a presentation from Pinchin Ltd. about how to survive the hurdles of environmental assessments, while lawyers from Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall helped attendees understand the key legal issues found in an 80-page commercial lease.
Annual trade show
The 2018 edition featured more than 85 vendors, exhibiting products of interest to commercial and residential OREB members, and drew almost 600 attendees. This year’s trade show takes place in October and is exclusively for OREB members.
Annual golf tournament
OREB’s annual tourney is a networking event that supports the REALTORS Care® Foundation. OREB members raised a total of $92,180 last year through their various charitable activities. These funds provided grants to 25 local shelter-related charities.
And on the continuing education front:
Multi-Res – The ins and outs:
Realtors received expert advice about commercial classifications, zoning, retro-fit history and compliance, the Residential Tenancies Act, the eviction process, implications of a lease, and buyer and seller goals.
Commercial numbers:
Realtors learned how to properly calculate the price of commercial property – including cap rates, cash-flow worksheet analysis and equity return – with a financial calculator.
Tenant rep 101:
Topics covered included the types of transactions, from the basics of tenant prospecting and how to get hired, to how commissions work, finding available properties, basic negotiating strategies and (most importantly) how to make sure you get paid.
Commissionectomy:
The nitty gritty of how to negotiate your commissions as part of your listing presentation, reasons commissions get attacked, when and why clients attack your fee, protecting your fees from a client attack and strategies to repel a fee attack.
Other learning opportunities include legal issues in a real estate transaction, certified negotiation expert designation, LRT commercial update, new mortgage rules, cannabis update, Condo Act updates, MPAC 101, optimizing matrix settings, GeoWarehouse training, standard forms, FINTRAC legal … and much more. OREB even holds self-defence training for members four to six times per year.
Did any of this catch your interest?
To learn more about membership with OREB, to keep up to date on learning and networking opportunities open to non-member registrants, and for the latest updates on our 7th Annual Commercial Summit coming early in 2020, please visit oreb.ca/contact.
