real estate – Park and Protect

Don’t let your Alberta real estate expire and get deleted! You must register your license with an Alberta real estate brokerage like Park And Protect if you do not want to lose your credentials forever. This is a pretty important topic so let me explain it in more detail.

Real Estate License Costs Alot!

The cost of obtaining an Alberta real estate license is quite high and has been continually increasing. There is the financial cost of the course, educational materials and registration fees, plus there is also a large amount of time committed to the learning, studying and examinations. The overall personal investment to become a REALTOR, Agent or Broker in Alberta in quite significant. You definitely do not want it all to go to waste due to being unprepared or unaware of the rules surrounding Alberta real estate licensing.

Don’t Get Deleted!

In Alberta, a licensee must be registered with a brokerage to be an active Agent and trade in real estate. If you become unregistered for any reason, by choice or not, the clock starts on your deletion. Upon 3 years to the day from the last day you were registered with an Alberta real estate brokerage your license is deleted from the system and all of your credentials are lost. There is no exceptions made to this rule and many Agents have inadvertently lost their most valuable career asset due to being unaware of this policy.

What Can I Do To Keep My License Active?

Agents who wish to keep their credentials from expiring and being deleted need to register with an Alberta real estate brokerage before their 3 year expiration occurs. You should not wait until the last day, week, or even month to do this or you might be unsuccessful in having enough time to get the paperwork completed and filed with the Real Estate Council of Alberta. The process is not always fast.

Why Join Park And Protect?

Park And Protect is currently the largest and fastest growing specialty license parking brokerage in all of Western Canada. We are an Alberta based brokerage where you can park your Alberta real estate license for a flat affordable annual fee. We do not charge monthly fees like the franchise real estate offices do, nor do we do not charge outrageous office splits. We do allow all of our registered Agents to collect referral fees from other industry professionals and we let them keep 100% of those referrals (minus a flat processing fee only). There is quite simply no more profitable place you can park your Alberta real estate license and still get paid.

Who Would Join You?

If you want to see the most impressive collection of real estate industry veterans from across Canada, take a look at our Agents and Associate Brokers. Our office is home to some of the leading pre-construction sales Agents from Toronto, allowing them full access to the hot condo and single family construction market in Calgary and Edmonton for their investor clients. We also have Agents from the leading franchise brands (RE/Max, Coldwell Banker, C21, etc), literally the guys who have helped to build and shape the Canadian real estate industry for decades. Heck, we even have an Olympic Gold medalist! I can confidently say you can’t find a more diverse and experienced team of Agents anywhere in Canada.

What Should I Do?

The answer is, take action now. Don’t wait and put it off any longer because time is not on your side here. If you wait too long, we cannot help you. Contact us at admin@parkandprotect.ca and schedule a call with us. We can discuss your options and answer any questions you may have.

We have a stellar relationship with the Real Estate Council of Alberta and in many instances can have your license registered and saved within 24 hours of you sorting out your online payment. Our goal is to ensure our process is among the most streamlined and efficient in the industry. The only delay at this point is ……. you?

Frequently Asked Questions

For whatever reason, Agents sometimes find that they do not require to be licensed and actively selling real estate, but still wish to retain their credentials. These FAQs can provide answers to some common questions about parking your real estate license and about our Park and Protect brokerage.

Q: What is License Parking?
A: Parking your real estate license is the process of registering your Agent or Broker licensing with a Brokerage that has chosen to not join any local real estate board, Alberta Real Estate Association, or Canadian Real Estate Association. There are many of these type of real estate brokerages across Canada. When registering with them, you do not have to pay any ridiculously expensive monthly board dues, AREA fees or CREA fees. Thus joining a non-MLS Brokerage can be significantly cheaper. Your real estate license remains active with RECA, your professional credentials remain protected, however, you would not have access to MLS services and thankfully do not have to and cannot call yourself a REALTOR^®.

Q: What is the benefit of parking my license?
A: Real estate agents and brokers work very hard to obtain their licenses and we believe that they should have the opportunity to benefit from it even if they are not active in the business. By parking your license, you can keep your license status “active”. In other word, you will not lose you license due to inactivity, providing that you satisfy the minimum continuous education requirements (REP) should any be applicable for the licensing year. You can save thousands of dollars on unnecessary real estate board fees, yet you can still keep your license active so that you are entitled to earn referral fees and commissions on real estate transactions that you refer to other active agents. Then, at any time in the future if you decided to go back to full time real estate agent work, you do not have to go through the entire licensing, education, and examination process to return to the industry.

Q. Why should I park my license with Park And Protect?
A: Park And Protect is registered as a full licensed real estate brokerage with the Real Estate Council of Alberta. Our Broker is certified for Residential, Commercial, Agricultural, Condominium and Property Management and has over 30 years experience in the real estate industry.

Q. Can I sell or list homes for friends and family?
A: Park and Protect does not authorize our parked associates to work directly with buyers and sellers. We believe the consumer is best served by using a full service Agent that knows the local market place, current selling trends in the area and has access to local board sales statistics. Our Agents can be present in an advisory capacity but are only authorized to refer all trades in real estate to actively licensed Agents. As such, Park and Protect works directly with other licensed Agents, Brokers and Brokerages to achieve these cooperative referral arrangements and ensure all of our clients receive the highest level of service possible.

Q. Can I sell developer projects, new homes sales, or pre-construction projects?
A: Yes! Parked License Agents at Park and Protect may refer their clients to these types of construction projects and earn both applicable referral fees and sales commissions on completion. These projects and the role of our agents are to simply be referrals to the inhouse sales teams of the developers.

Q. If I am not actively selling, am I covered by errors & omission insurance?
A: Yes! All Park and Protect Agents and Brokers who are in good standing with RECA are covered by ARIEX errors and omissions insurance. This is just one way that Park and Protect helps protect it’s Agents.

Q. Can I earn referral commission?
A: Absolutely, in fact we encourage it. Our goal is for all of our Agents to take advantage of their ability and authorization to collect referral fees from other professionals in the industry. We literally pay out a 100% split on referral fees to our Agents.

Q. Who can I refer my clients to?
A: We have a list of preferred trusted referral sources based upon established relationships and past transactions. We ultimately let the Agent decide, but are happy to provide guidance and advice to help ensure a smooth and successful transaction.

Q. How long can I stay registered with your brokerage?
A: You can stay as long as you like, provided you maintain your educational requirements for license renewal by RECA each September. We plan to be around for a long time and know some of our Agents will return to full time industry members but that most will not. We will serve our Agents as long as they need us.

Q. I am not in Alberta. Can I still join your brokerage?
A: As long as you have an Alberta real estate license and are registered as with RECA you are welcome to apply to join Park and Protect. We are a specialty license parking brokerage, those who wish to park their real estate license are welcome.

Alberta Real Estate License Expiration