Meet a Member

Whether you have years of experience or are new to the industry, REIBC is your key to career advancement and connection with the real estate industry. Professional members have achieved the RI designation, which provide employers and clients with instant confirmation of advanced levels of education and experience.

Alwin Au, RI

Alwin started his career in 2014 as a Junior Appraiser in a private firm in Vancouver. It was his first experience in the real estate sector and he was exposed to a wide range of ICI properties and appraisal assignments for various purposes including financing and expropriation. He recently joined Metro Vancouver as a Property Negotiator and his role includes performing complex negotiation work to acquire, administer and dispose of real estate properties. He also negotiates and prepares legal agreements including leases, licenses, right of ways, or purchase and sale agreements. Over the last 5 years Alwin had experience in the private sector taking up the roles as a Commercial Appraiser and Property Tax Consultant. He worked with a range of property types spanning from industrial properties, to residential or mixed-use development projects. His current position, working on behalf of Metro Vancouver allows him to expand his horizons and work with more unique real estate properties. Alwin is certainly looking forward to travelling in the not so distant future, and hopes that we can all return to a safer environment. He would love to spend some more time in various parts of Europe and Southeast Asia. A big part of Alwin joining the Real Estate Institute is to meet more people that are passionate about real estate and the future outlook of our region.

Welcome Alwin.

Karalee Stewart – Nominee Member

Karalee is currently in her last semester of her program, the Bachelor’s of Business Degree in Real Estate from UBC Sauder, and will be graduating in November of 2021. She previously completed and graduated from the Diploma of Urban Land Economics. She has always had a great passion for the overall real estate field, and she has been enjoying learning and applying practical and useful information and practices from her schooling into the real world. Currently, she is interning for Quadreal Property Group as an Assistant Property Manager. She started in January 2021 and will finish the internship at the end of this summer. Starting in the fall when she graduates, she is hoping to transition into full-time permanent employment with the awesome team that she currently works alongside. Her primary goal is to successfully finish the last couple of courses that she has left to complete her degree, then she wants to continue to network and gain exposure to further get her foot int the door and her real estate career started. Lastly, she is hoping to gain more experience in the field, and eventually transition her nominee membership to a full professional membership designation. She is very thankful for all the opportunities she has been given thus far, and she is thrilled to further accelerate her career. She believes this membership will greatly benefit her career and help her achieve her goals.

Welcome Karalee.

Member News

Business in Vancouver has created the BC 500 List – The Most Influential Business Leaders in British Columbia.

REIBC is pleased to note that on that list of leaders 2 RI’s stand out and they are Tom Knoepfel, Senior Vice President of Retail at Cadillac Fairview and David Podmore, Chairman and CEO of Concert Properties.

Tom Knoepfel, RI

Tom has spent more than 2- years with Cadillac Fairview, including 10 as senior vice-president and portfolio manager, Western Canada. He was appointed as senior vice-president of retail in January 2021. Tom has been a member with REIBC for 32 years. Congratulations Tom.

David Podmore, RI

David has spent more than 40 years in BC’s real estate and construction industry. Along with Jack Poole, he co-founded Concert Properties, which has grown to hold assets of over $2 billion. David served as chair of the BC Pavilion Corp between 2007 and 2012 and assumed responsibility to ensure completion of the Vancouver Convention Centre expansion in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. David has been a member of REIBC for 31 years. Congratulations David.

Also of note is in this list of leaders, are 6 people who we have had for speakers either on webinars or at events: Brendon Ogmundson, Bryan Yu, Leon Ng, Line Robert, Neil Chrystal and Shayne Ramsay. There are also 2 people that were huge supporters of our golf tournament; Ashley Cooper and Gareth McDonnell. We congratulate everyone who is part of this list.

About BC500

BC500 features business leaders who have a notable impact on B.C.’s communities, industries and economy.

They are visionaries, innovators and trailblazers. They embody the values of modern leadership: engagement, trust, corporate citizenship, inclusion and innovation. Some of them are household names; some of them are well known within their industries. All of them influence life and business in British Columbia.

How we did it

The process was editorially driven and based on input from BIV’s editorial team, months of research and in-depth conversations with stakeholders. BIV began by identifying sectors that are important and relevant to British Columbia’s economy. These were separated into more than 50 categories. Our team then researched prominent companies, organizations and individuals within those categories.

This year’s BC500 cohort were selected after evaluating a wide range of factors, including achievement within an organization or sector, professional contributions, peer recognition, awards and other recognitions, board appointments, community and political engagement, philanthropy and non-profit work, and more. Currently elected politicians are excluded from the list, with the exception of Indigenous political leaders, many of whom are directly responsible for economic development initiatives and the management of corporate and business entities.

Board opportunity

UBC Real Estate Club is looking for Board members that are alumni and under 40 – is that you? Please click on the link for more information. https://ca.linkedin.com/jobs/view/board-member-at-ubc-real-estate-club-2679418313

In Memory

Ken Sherk - 1956 - 2021

REIBC says so long to member Ken Sherk. Ken became a member in 2009 and served on the Board of Governors for 1 term. Ken was a Notary and practiced in West Vancouver beginning in 1983. He served on the Notary Board for over 30 years and served as Chair on the Notary Foundation of BC for two terms. Ken was a global advocate for BC Notaries. He was a founding director of the World Organization of Notaries, which evolved into the Common Law Association of Notaries, he was an active board member. Ken also attended many meetings of the international Union of Notaries (UNIL), which is the global advocacy body of Civil Law notaries, in attempt to draw the two groups closer together and to create advocacy opportunities where the two bodies are aligned.

Ken was only one of two North American members of the London Scrivener Notaries an honor awarded to him by the London court of Notaries and the Worshipful Company of Scriveners when he was admitted as a member in 2005.

Ken leaves behind his loving wife of 42 years, Marjorie, his two sons Derek Sherk and Cameron Sherk, his daughter in law, Maria-Jose Gandolfo, his parents Marie and Ronald Sherk, a brother and two sisters along with thousands of clients and friends around the world.

Ken will not only be remembered as being a tireless advocate for Notaries but even more so for his love and compassion for all people he met and worked with. Ken’s love for life, good food and a good glass wine will be remembered by all those who knew him.

REIBC Grapevine

DID YOU KNOW - Referral Program

Have you heard about our Referral Program? At the Real Estate Institute of BC, we have a program that rewards our members for each successful referral they make. If you know someone who could gain value from an REIBC membership, refer them and win a one-night stay at a hotel on us. We have a list of excellent hotels across the province that you can choose from. These include Prestige hotels, Fairmont hotels and Marriott hotels and much more. The maximum cost is $300 per night.

We have already had 4 members who have qualified and won their free night’s stay. All REIBC members are eligible for this program, though BC Assessment employees must refer someone outside of their organization in order to qualify.

Click here to see the full list of participating hotels.

Board Message

Hello REIBC Members,

I hope you all have had a good summer. I am pleased to provide this brief report on the Board’s activities.

The REIBC Board of Governors had a busy couple of days on behalf of the Institute in June. On June 10th the Board met virtually for our regular meeting.

The Board approved a new Exception Entrance Policy for applicants to the Professional Membership category who do not qualify with the stated education requirements. The policy is intended to allow applications from individuals that are engaged in leadership or executive positions and whose careers in the real estate profession demonstrate a commitment to excellence and ongoing learning. If you have colleagues who may qualify under this Policy, please encourage them to visit our website and consider applying to the Institute.

The Board also discussed the evolving matters relating to Indigenous issues, including the tragedies of the Residential School system. Board members will be participating in educational activities intended to broaden our awareness and understanding of Indigenous issues, challenges and opportunities. Ultimately, the Board is looking to develop a thoughtful and considered position statement in support of respectful Indigenous relations.

The Annual General meeting was also held on June 10th. Thank you to all who attended.

On June 11th the Board completed our annual Strategic Planning exercise. The Institute has been successful in maintaining goal targets, in spite of the challenges brought on by the pandemic. There were no significant changes made to the Strategic Plan for the upcoming year.

If you have any questions at any time, feel free to reach out to the Governor for your area. We would love to hear from you. Contact information for each Governor can be found on our website at https://www.reibc.org/board_of_governors.html

Kind regards,

Cindy Nesselbeck, RI
President-Elect

Webinars

August 4, 2021

On August 4, 2021 REIBC held a Market Overview webinar with Carl Gomez, Paul Richter, RI and Matthew Popow from Co-Star. The webinar was well attended and there was a lot of great information that was shared with the registrants from all asset classes. The webinar went the complete hour and we are sure that there could have been more time taken to discuss further topics. Thanks to CoStar for presenting for us and we look forward to hosting you again in the future.

Carl Gomez

Paul Richter, RI

August 26, 2021

On August 26, 2021 we hosted BC Transit and had a great presentation about Land Use Planning and Transit. Chelsea Mossey and Maria Lockley walked the registrants through what is happening and what is likely to change moving forward with emerging technologies and evolving demands. Great questions were asked and answered and we learned that connectivity is something that BC Transit is looking at and in the near future expect some changes. A great informative webinar. Thank you.

Chelsea Mossey

Maria Lockley

REIBC Events

September 9, 2021
Carla Guerrera - Purpose Driven Development
Register here

Save the Date
September 30, 2021 12:00 noon – 1:00 p.m.
Social Purpose Real Estate
Research Findings from 2020/2021

Industry Information

Reminder: Retirement of PDF Forms for Land title Applications on September 12

PDF versions of the following land title applications will retire on September 12:

• Form A Freehold Transfer
• Form B Mortgage
• Form C Release
• Form C Charge

Once retired, Web Filing forms will be required for submissions in myLTSA. PDF versions will only be accepted if they were executed or e-signed before September 12, 2021.

Web Filing Enhancements

New functionality continues to be introduced to Web Filing to further increase accuracy and efficiency in the myLTSA submission process. Customers can now validate a package, add a Land Owner Transparency Registry (LOTR) reference,  and view status directly in Web Filing. For packages where all forms are created in Web Filing, customers will also be able to submit directly from Web Filing. Contextual help is available to provide guidance.

Register for the next live Web Filing webinar or watch a pre-recorded video.

For more information and to view how-to videos, visit ltsa.ca or help.ltsa.ca.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Did you know that we are on social media? Are you following us? Check us out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.