The National Association of REALTORS® is helping to foster ethical practices on a global scale, signing an accord last week with a coalition of Central and South American nations to reaffirm a commitment to the Code of Ethics in the region.
The move came during the III Latin American Real Estate Congress, a meeting of the Confederación Inmobiliaria Latinoamericana (CILA) and the Costa Rica Chamber of Real Estate Brokers, in San Jose, Costa Rica, last Thursday and Friday. Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado Quesada attended the conference and acknowledged that a real estate market founded on a strict Code of Ethics will allow the economy to grow and become a hub for foreign investment.
“You are not required to learn the trends that are impacting your industry,” Joseph Schneider, NAR’s director of global alliances, said at the conference, thanking attendees for taking extra steps to protect the industry’s reputation. “You are not required to grow as a professional. Yet you all are here. By attending this conference, you are taking the steps necessary to raise your own level of professionalism and, in turn, force your competitors to raise theirs as well."
The accord CILA signed with NAR lays out a number of measures CILA will take to protect and promote the Code in Central America, including:
- Encourage a nondiscriminatory environment in the real estate industry—one that respects different cultures and "economic ideologies."
- Establish adherence to the Code as a requirement for CILA membership, promoting this value to Central American consumers.
- Coordinate conferences, seminars, and forums on real estate ethics, which will aid and encourage ethics training among practitioners.
- Prepare a manual of ethical guidelines that other Latin American organizations can use as a blueprint.
- Create a tool to evaluate and certify ethical conduct in real estate.
"For a real estate market to grow, it is essential for its leaders to acknowledge the faults within the system and strive to work towards improvement," Schneider said. "This is a process that we are currently in the middle of in the U.S., as we are redeveloping the REALTOR® brand with the goal to keep the REALTOR® at the center of the transaction for years to come."
—REALTOR® Magazine
