How does RECO ensure compliance among real estate professionals?

RECO ensures compliance among real estate professionals primarily through audits and disciplinary hearings. This approach allows RECO to actively monitor the practices of real estate professionals, ensuring that they adhere to the regulations and standards set out in the industry.

Audits involve the systematic examination of records and procedures followed by real estate professionals, helping to identify any discrepancies or non-compliance with regulations. Additionally, disciplinary hearings provide a structured process for addressing violations, ensuring that there are consequences for non-compliance. This combination of proactive monitoring through audits and reactive measures through hearings helps maintain the integrity of the real estate profession and protects consumers.

In contrast, voluntary self-assessments, while beneficial for individual professionals who may want to evaluate their own practices, do not provide a comprehensive or enforceable method for ensuring industry-wide compliance. Training seminars offer educational resources but must be supplemented by accountability measures like audits and hearings to be effective in ensuring compliance. Mutual agreements between realtors do not constitute a regulatory framework and would lack the authority needed to enforce compliance across the industry.