Realtors' body in pact with US counterpart

The National Association of Realtors-India (NAR-I) has signed a bilateral agreement with the National Association of Realtors-US (NAR-US) to facilitate realtors from both countries to source properties for buying and rentals.

NAR-I, a New Delhi-based non-profit society registered in Bangalore, aims to streamline and promote professionalism in real estate brokerage in India to achieve transparency, accountability, fair dealing and ethical practices.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Farook Mahmood, president NAR-I said, "In addition to sourcing properties, a bilateral agreement between both organisations has also been signed to provide skills, education and to share best practices."

"Now local realtors in India can now extend their operations by transacting on a global level," he added.

Earlier in the day, Bangalore Realtors' Association "" India (BRA-I) along with its counterparts from Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Baroda and Hyderabad signed a protocol agreement with NAR-I. the California-based South Asian Real Estate Association of America (SAREAA) also signed a bilateral agreement with NAR-I to share information and conduct business.

In order to educate the Indian realtors to meet global standards, BRA-I facilitated Transnational Referral Certification (TRC) programme in Bangalore. The TRC programme was conducted by NAR-I in association with NAR-US and the International Consortium of Real Estate Associations of US (ICREA) .

Norman D Flynn, senior consultant ICREA, said the TRC programme empowers realtors to make transactional referrals. "For example, a local real estate broker whose client is getting transferred to the US can refer that client to a US broker and vice versa," he pointed out.

According to him, the local player stands to gain significantly with the referral fees typically ranging from 20 per cent to 30 per cent of the receiving broker's commission. "The US commissions are on an average 3 per cent per side. Besides the monetary aspect, the local broker has now a reputation of being an international broker," he added.