Vancouver real estate: Edward Zhang, “star agent”, costar of Layla Yang in reality show, not a licensed realtor - The Georgia Straight | Canada News Media
In the deadly world of secret agents, Edward Zhang might be the equivalent of a spy who is not licensed to kill.
In the staid world of real estate agents where Zhang operates in real life, he’s someone who is not licensed to sell.
As of this post Friday (February 19), Zhang is identified as one of the “star agents” of Dracco Pacific Realty.
A button below Zhang’s image on Dracco’s website leads visitors to a personal website called the Edward Zhang Group.
However, he is not currently licensed by the Real Estate Council of B.C.
The RECBC is the body created by the provincial government to regulate real estate practitioners in accordance to the Real Estate Services Act.
Zhang also costars with Dracco founder and well-known realtor Layla Yang in a new reality series titled Agent Unbreakable.
The RECBC’s website provides consumers the ability to search for licensed realtors.
Zhang’s name cannot be found.
The RECBC did not make a spokesperson available for an interview when the Straight asked about Zhang.
Instead, the council issued a statement Thursday (February 18) stating that its records “confirm that Edward Zhang is not currently licensed”.
According to RECBC, Zhang’s licence expired in 2020.
“Our compliance team is aware of this fact, as well as recent reports related to Agent Unbreakable, and is reviewing the matter,” the council stated.
The Straight sought Zhang for comment.
“Why does it matter?” Zhang said in a phone interview Thursday (February 18).
He was asked about why he is still being identified on the Dracco website as a realtor and the same in a media release for Agent Unbreakable.
“It’s for entertainment purposes,” he said.
The Real Estate Act provides that a person “must not provide real estate services…for or in expectation of remuneration, unless the person is…licensed”.
“I just decided to take a break,” Zhang said.
The legislation also states that a brokerage must have a managing broker.
The said managing broker is responsible for the “conduct of the brokerage’s real estate business, including supervision of the associate brokers and representatives who are licensed in relation to the brokerage”.
Dracco’s managing partner is Tim Xu.
Xu, Yang, and Zhang are the top three “star agents” on the Dracco website.
The three also go back a number of years ago as colleagues with Maxcel WestCoast Realty.
Yang cofounded Maxcel with two other realtors, and the partners eventually parted bitterly.
Legal action followed the breakup.
Maxcel accused Yang, Xu, Zhang, and Yang’s sister of allegedly sabotaging its business.
Going back to Zhang, the “star agent” told the Straight by phone that he was “still a realtor” when shooting started for Agent Unbreakable.
“Now I’m moving on to doing bigger business, but also in the real estate,” Zhang said.
“It’s going to be announced in the season of the show,” he continued. “So just wait for it. Something good is really coming.”
According to Zhang, he decided not to renew his licence.
“I have a managing broker licence, so that means I have five years,” he said. “Anytime I want to reactivate it, I can reactivate it.”
Zhang expressed surprise that his Edward Zhang Group site remains online.
“Once the show comes out,” he said, referring to Agent Unbreakable, “everything’s going to be in the clear.”
According to Zhang, there’s “something new” that he is currently on.
“Real estate is a pretty tough business,” he said.
Told that reports indicate record highs for business in 2020, Zhang disagrees.
“No, not really. The market was spare last year. This year, the market is really good,” he said.
And so until Zhang reactivates his licence, he might as well be considered as a sleeper agent.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
