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 provides employers and clients with instant confirmation of advanced levels of education and experience.

In our newsletters we will be focusing on the new RI’s that are joining REIBC, sharing with you their experience, their communities, and their everyday lives. We welcome these new RI’s into our community.

Help us welcome these two new RIs

Nick Harrison:

I started my career in real estate with BC Assessment after completing my business degree in 2015 at the University of the Fraser Valley. My first position at BCA was as a Property Information Collector for approximately nine months before I was given the opportunity to become an appraiser for the IC&I team.

I am currently working for BC Assessment as an appraiser for the Lower Mainland IC&I team where my focus is predominantly with Industrial properties. Other than BC Assessment, I also work as a Paid-on-Call Firefighter for the city of Abbotsford.

With Vancouver, being one of the most desirable cities in the world, it is interesting to me to see how areas learn to adapt to certain changes such as densification and as a result, how it may influence valuation of real property. I enjoy the opportunity to be able to work and communicate with the great people at BC Assessment as well as other members within the real estate industry. Throughout these years, it has definitely helped develop my professional character and knowledge about the local real estate markets.

After completing my Post-Graduate Certificate in Real Property Valuation (PGCV) at UBC, I am excited to be taking the next step in pursuing higher education where I have enrolled in the Fall 2019 MBA program at Thompson Rivers University.

John Tam:

I graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2004 with an Applied Science Degree in Integrated Engineering. After specializing in mechanical and civil engineering, I launched my professional career at Metro Vancouver designing pipelines and pump stations. It was interesting work for a fresh graduate, as I designed and replaced valves up in the alpine lakes, where the only means of transportation was a helicopter. Additionally, I managed the condition monitoring of pipelines and outfalls, involving robotic cameras, ultrasonic technology, and dive teams, to reach sea bed depths of upwards of 110m coming out of the Iona Wastewater Treatment Plant. After obtaining my Professional Engineer designation in 2008, I joined TransLink where I applied my knowledge and experience towards asset management of the region’s public transit infrastructure. I was responsible for asset condition by forecasting infrastructure lifecycles and determining asset rehabilitation and renewal requirements. Throughout this time, I also represented Coast Mountain Bus Company’s real estate affairs; stickhandling acquisitions, leases, and integration of transit infrastructure with third party development projects. Project such as Marine Gateway Station and New Westminster Station, where TransLink worked closely with third party developers to fully integrate their development with transit infrastructure, sparked my passion for transit-oriented developments. In 2017, I joined TransLink Real Estate’s Adjacent and Integrated Development (AID) team to manage such projects, in order to protect transit infrastructure and passengers from adjacent construction activity. In my current role as Senior Manager, Development Services, I manage the AID team to work with transit-oriented development initiatives along the system.

Outside of work, I enjoy wrenching on cars and traveling the world. I have owned and rebuilt a 1989 Porsche 944 S2, a 1995 Mitsubishi Evo3, and a 2004 Audi S4. I now drive a 2010 Civic Si Sedan due to my new family priorities. Although more challenging to travel with a 2-year-old son, we try our best to visit at least one new city a year as a family.

Member News

Congratulations to Keith MacLean-Talbot, RI as he and his wife Courtney and son Connor welcomed Paige Elizabeth on July 8, 2019. Everyone is doing well and as Keith noted, “sleep-deprived”.

REIBC Scholarships Awarded

Each year REIBC awards two (2) Diploma in Urban Land Economics students for achieving the highest mark in the program and the second highest. The criteria of the award is that the student must be a Nominee member of REIBC for at least one year. We are pleased to advise that the recipients this year are Warren Alexander who achieved the highest mark and received $1000 and to Mary Kotyakova who received the second highest mark and received $500. Congratulations to you both.

REIBC Skytrain Tour

REIBC members were given a rare and fantastic tour of the Skytrain Control Room and Operations Maintenance Yard. When we started at Edmonds Skytrain station there were a lot of rekindled hugs and new connections by members as we walked to the Operations Centre. The guests were excited about this tour and it did not disappoint. Derrick Cheung, RI Vice President Strategic Sourcing and Real Estate Translink was the facilitator of the tour. The Skytrain system now and into the future are very important to the real estate market and development and the community plan development. Currently Translink has 58 million sq. ft of development underway which includes over 200 projects across the region. We enjoyed a history of the original in 1986 with 21 km track of SkyTrain with 20 million riders annually to 2019 with 80 km in track to over anticipated 110 million riders annually and already a single day record of over 400,000. Trends at anticipated 2.9% annually increase to future projections of construction of tracks and stations. Then the tour moved to the operations control centre to see how the systems are managed, communicated and controlled. Very impressive to the level of training and detail to each second of each train to keep the tracks running on time and safely. The third part of the tour was having the unique opportunity to learn and experience the undercarriage of a train and its’ systems. A special thank you to Derrick and his crew for the informative and interesting tour.

REIBC Charity Golf Tournament

Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2019 REIBC Charity Golf Tournament. It was a beautiful day and the enjoyed by everyone who attended. Each year we are reminded of what this tournament supports when we hear the Make-A-Wish family talk about their wish and how important it is to them to forget about the illness for a while and just have some fun.

All that being said there is always fierce competition on the course and this year was no different than other years. The top prize goes to team 14A - Masters Building Services consisting of Todd Mikl, Colby Johannson, Dan Hunt & Colin Murray.

2nd Place to Team 17A – of Urban Analytics – Michael Ferreira, Garry Wong, Darren Trester, & Kerry Nagy

3rd Place to Team - 10A – of BFL – Paul Murcutt, Daren Selo, Gareth McDonnell & Jim Allison

The Most Honest Team was won this year by Team 2B – Jim Harrison, Petery Dyck and Randy Brown

Skill Prizes:

Men’s KP – Brent Morgan
Women’s KP – Cherie Mak
Men’s Long Drive – John-Erik Grain
Women’s Long Drive – Joan Bird
Longest Putt – Paul Murcutt

FIRST PLACE TEAM – TEAM 14A

SECOND PLACE TEAM – TEAM 17 A

THIRD PLACE TEAM – TEAM 10 A

MOST HONEST TEAM – TEAM 2B

Upcoming REIBC events

Presidents Luncheon
Save the date: December 12, 2019
11:30am - 2:00pm
Guest Speaker: Kevin Desmond CEO of Translink

Webinar: Highest and Best Use Analysis
September 26, 2019
12:00pm – 1:00pm
Join us for a webinar with Charles Johnstone, RI, Managing Director from AEC Property Tax as he shares his expertise on the topic of highest and best use.

Mark your calendars! More information and registration to come.

Career Opportunities

Faculty, Real Estate - BCIT

TL Property Management Agent (20170850) - Translink

Candidate Appraiser and Research Analyst - Kent-Macpherson Appraisals