The following information provides an overview of the International Consortium of Real Estate Association (ICREA), of which NAR is a founding member and co-chair. To locate properties, professionals, real estate business practice information and more for ICREA member associations, go to WorldProperties.com.
Introduction| Why a Consortium?| Origins of ICREA| Value to Organized Real Estate | Value to the Practitioner | Value to Associations | Structure| ICREA Services for NAR Members| How to Log-in to WorldProperties.com|FAQs for WorldProperties.com Registration and Advertising Service | Download WorldProperties.com Graphic for Linking
International Consortium of Real Estate Associations
National Organizations Coming Together
to Form a Powerful Alliance
The International Consortium of Real Estate Associations (ICREA) is an alliance whose members are leading national real estate organizations in the world's major markets. Through a multilateral agreement and specific business practice protocols, this alliance provides significant benefits not only to its constituent members who seek to do transnational business but to its domestic constituents as well. ICREA's primary objective is to assist members of the respective organizations in efficiently and profitably facilitating transnational business, including through a Transnational Referral System and a Distinctive Properties Advertising service.
Why a Consortium?
As national real estate associations worldwide look to respond to industry issues for this new millennium, several factors converged that dictated the need for a strong global alliance:
- Globalization has had an immediate and powerful impact on real estate markets, attracting the attention of real estate professionals worldwide. Many practitioners with a local focus are looking to expand their businesses into the international sphere, and are turning to their real estate associations for advice and assistance.
- The rapid growth of the Internet has made the international market accessible to millions of consumers and to the most local of real estate agents. Current estimates are that more than 650 million people are online and by 2004 the number will have reached close to 1 billion. Most of the growth will take place in Asia, Latin America and parts of Europe.
- The value of commerce connected to the real estate industry is staggering. Residential real estate sales in 2000 for the U.S. alone approximately one trillion U.S. dollars. As a result, many well-established companies and newly formed start-ups view the global real estate market as a source for significant revenue potential. Professional associations need to work together to keep real estate practitioners central to the transaction and protect the best interests of their members.
Origin of the International Consortium Concept
In August 1999, representatives from nine national associations* met to discuss the globalization issues facing their respective members. The outcome was a consensus that an international forum was needed where real estate associations could come together to share information, discuss the forces of a global economy, and facilitate their members’ international activities. Participants agreed that for meaningful transnational business to take place, international norms and standards were needed to govern the real estate profession globally. Another perceived need was a central Internet-based networking system that would link association Web sites, facilitate transnational referrals among association members, and provide ready access to foreign market information.
Subsequent meetings of this group resulted in the formation of an international consortium made up of the leading real estate associations serving national markets. In November 2000, 24 real estate associations signed a letter of commitment to the Consortium. After nearly two years of laying the foundation, 23 associations signed the formal agreement on May 13, 2001 in Washington, DC, officially launching the International Consortium of Real Estate Associations (ICREA).
*REIA (Australia), SECOVI (Brazil), CREA (Canada), IAVI (Ireland), NVM (Netherlands), NEF (Norway), RGR (Russia), SISV (Singapore), and NAR (United States). FNAIM (France) joined March 2000 and IEA (Singapore) in August 2000, respectively.
What this Means to Organized Real Estate
While some view globalization and e-commerce as a threat to organized real estate, it is actually one of the greatest opportunities real estate associations will encounter. In developed markets, there have been few industry innovations in the past century. In just a few short years, however, technology has become a major change agent, forcing industry leaders to look at re-inventing the role of real estate associations. This has had direct impact on international real estate activities.
To ensure the professional interests of our respective memberships are protected, national real estate associations needed to come together to form an alliance more powerful than any single association could do on its own, and ensure that global industry advancements are made with the individual practitioner’s best interest in mind. This alliance is the International Consortium for Real Estate Associations.
Value to the Real Estate Practitioner
Real estate professionals around the world are looking for ways to better understand the globalization of real estate, and opportunities to expand their business activities into the global market by undertaking transactions that have transnational dimensions. Obstacles to achieving these objectives include a lack of readily available information on foreign markets, the absence of international real estate norms and standards, uncertainties associated with foreign market practices/legal systems, and the absence of an efficient international referral network that assures payment of earned fees and commissions.
To address these obstacles, ICREA adopted the following mission: "ICREA is a Consortium of the world's leading real estate associations who believe in the right to own and transfer real property. The Associations set standards for international real estate practice and transactions for the benefit of the industry professionals and the public they serve." The tangible value for both global and domestic practitioners includes:
1. The creation of an Internet-based menu of services, e.g., real estate goods and services purchasing program, e-commerce system for electronic payments and dues billing, country real estate profiles, real property advertising system.
2. The creation of international standards for professional ethics, best practices, and data transfer.
3. Networking and referral tools, including a roster of member association constituents and transnational referral system that includes means for electronic referral fee payment
4. Advocacy role to protect and promote private property rights and best practices worldwide.
Individual practitioner receive these benefits by virtue of their respective association’s membership in ICREA. There is no option for individual practitioner or company membership.
Value to the Association
The impetus for a Consortium may have been grounded in need to help facilitate transnational business—a significant service in today’s global market—but member associations also realize benefits that serve their members involved primarily in domestic transactions. Involvement in ICREA should appeal to domestic constituents of associations as it positions them to more easily facilitate an occasional transaction with a non-domestic component, and to position themselves uniquely in their local market as a broker/agent with global resources and worldwide access to buyers. More importantly, ICREA’s efforts to ensure technology doesn’t displace practitioners, but instead keeps them central to the transaction, is a vital benefit to all members.
To help state and local REALTORŪ associations communicate to members about ICREA, articles have been prepared for reprint in state and local REALTORŪ publications. They can be used to educate members about ICREA and the products and services automatically available to them through their NAR membership. Access State and Local Board ICREA articles.
Consortium Structure
ICREA is structured around a series of rights and obligations based upon a multilateral agreement. This agreement binds member associations and, through them, the business entities and individuals that make up their membership, to a series of “basic commitments.” These basic commitments pertain to operation of a web site, sharing of core membership data through prescribed standards of electronic data transfer, enforcement of a code of ethics, and financial responsibility for its involvement in the Consortium.
These basic commitments, however, are just the framework for success. True success will be achieved when standards are applied to all transnational transactions undertaken by the real estate professionals represented by its member associations. A second order of standards and best practices are developed as “protocols.”
Protocols are subordinate agreements and member associations can choose which protocols, if any, to sign. However, to gain access to the processes, entitlements, and obligations embodied in a particular protocol, a member association must sign it, signifying agreement to be bound by its terms, rules and standards, and to provide its members the opportunity to voluntarily agree thereto.
ICREA Services for NAR Members
As a member of NAR, all U.S. REALTORSŪ benefit from NAR's affiliation with ICREA. A wide range of industry information and news is available at the ICREA Web site, but NAR members should take note of two core services: 1) Transnational Referral System and Certification and 2) Distinctive Properties Ads service.
The Transnational Referral System is available to any member of an ICREA-association that has signed the Transnational Referral Protocol (NAR signed in November 2002). This Protocol provides for a standardized process for making and receiving a referral from outside the U.S. and also provide for an arbitration system, should there be a dispute regarding this referral. Information about the Protocol and the Referral Contract are available at the Member's Only side of the ICREA Web site.
NAR members must register at the ICREA site to access the Member's Only portion of the site. For the one-time registration process you must use your NAR NRDS ID (the site provides a link to REALTOR.org for accessing your NRDS ID # if you don't know it. As part of the registration process you must provide an e-mail address (which will serve as your user name) and a password. This process ensures that ONLY members of NAR may access the information provided on the private side of the site.
Information on the Transnational Referral System can be found under the "Referral Network" link. Here you can access the Referral Protocol, a list of ICREA countries that have signed the Protocol, and the Referral and Arbitration forms. Before using the Referral form it's important to read the Protocol and understand your obligations if you choose to use the service. For the Referral Service to be upheld, you should confirm that the broker to whom you are entering into an agreement is a member of an ICREA-member association that has ALSO signed the Protocol. Finally, as referrals and shared commissions are often not common outside the US, you may need to spend time discussing the concept with the broker involved.
To educate brokers worldwide on the practice of referrals and to train all ICREA-affiliated brokers on how to make and receive compensated referrals across borders, ICREA offers an online Transnationl Referral Certification training program. Learn more about this certification and its benefits at the "TRC" page at Realtor.org.
The Distinctive Properties Advertising service is also available to any member of an ICREA-member association. For NAR members, U.S. based listings must be available at REALTOR.comŪ, and then through the Enhanced Listing Service, can be flagged as "Internationally Featured" properties. Only Internationally Featured properties in the U.S. will be visible at WorldProperties.com. As of January 2006, there is no charge for the Internationally Featured flag (subject to change), but NAR members pay to be subscribers to the Enhanced Listing service at REALTOR.comŪ. For more information on both the Enhanced Listing service and the Internationally Featured product, contact REALTOR.comŪ at 1.800.878.4166. U.S. REALTORSŪ can individually post ads for distinctive properties that are located outside the United States directly at WorldProperties.com.
Log-in to WorldProperties.com
Begin Registration Process for WorldProperties.com - NAR members will need their NRDS ID. For complete instructions, Download the Attached Instructions (PDF)>>.
Frequently Asked Questions on WorldProperties.com Registration and Advertising Service
Click here for a list of common questions that pertain to the registration process and WorldProperties.com advertising service for distinctive and featured properties. Note: This information is pertinent to US NAR members. ICREA-affiliated brokers from outside the US should contact their national association for information regarding WorldProperties.com registration and advertising.
Linking to WorldProperties.com
U.S. REALTORŪ organizations are encouraged to link to the ICREA site from their association Web site and to help education members on the resources available at this site. The attached graphic may be used to identify the link. The URL for the link is: WorldProperties.com.
Download .GIF WorldProperties.com logo>>
Download .JPG WorldProperties.com logo>> |
