Archive for: Skill Enhancing

Introduction to Trust Account & Fidelity Fund Online Course

This short 10-day course will take you through the basic understanding of what is required of the Property Practitioner by the Regulatory Authority when applying to become a real estate property practitioner and how to manage trust funds.

Our skill-enhancing online course carefully explains legislated requirements, so that any Property Practitioner entering the industry will be able to easily understand what the compliance factors surrounding both fidelity fund certificates and trust accounts.

The fidelity fund is insurance protecting the public against any misconduct he or she may encounter when concluding a property transaction with a real estate property practitioner. For this reason, it is regulated that all property practitioners must hold a valid current fidelity fund certificate, failing which they will not be allowed to trade.

Trust accounts are legislated by the Act, and all real estate firms must hold at least one trust account and adhere to the regulations surrounding trust accounts.  Non-compliance can result in a penalty and/or a jail sentence.

To buy this 10-day skill-enhancing Introduction to Trust Account & Fidelity Fund Online Course click “Take this Course” and get started on your real estate journey!

The FIC Act lists estate agents –as defined in the Estate Agency Affairs Act, 1976 (Act 112 of 1976) – as accountable institutions and requires them to be fully compliant with the FIC Act. Why are Property Practitioners listed in the Act as accountable institutions?

The property sector has been identified as being at risk of being abused by money launderers. This sector has been used to hide funds and as a vehicle to help criminals introduce their proceeds into the financial system.

The property space has the potential for criminals to put into practice all three aspects of typical money laundering activity: placement, laying and integration. Furthermore, they can clean or hide large amounts of money in a single transaction. The purchase of a dwelling, plot or building for a large sum of money, for example, may not raise too many alarm bells. For these reasons, estate agents can become easy targets for criminals wanting to use them to launder their illicit funds. Given that estate agents are familiar with their industry, their clients’ behaviour and their habits, these industry experts are also best suited to identify when certain behaviour is suspicious or unusual.

Central to being listed under Schedule 1 of the FIC Act as accountable institutions, estate agents are required to fulfil seven obligations to achieve compliance with the FIC Act.

FIC Compliance Course

Why was FICA amended? – The pressure to strengthen the Act came about following the infamous Fidentia Pyramid Scheme, one of South Africa’s biggest financial scandals to date. Fraudster J Arthur Brown was able to defraud 47 000 widows and orphans of their savings, amounting to more than R500 million. This showed that the legislation we had clearly wasn’t enough.

The biggest factor that led to the amendment was South Africa’s membership in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international regulatory body dedicated to fighting money-laundering. Prior years saw South Africa fall short of the requirements for membership, which meant we were under threat of being kicked out. And without membership, our local banks would have been unable to meaningfully participate in the global banking community.

All entities classified as “accountable institutions” in terms of Fica must comply, which includes the latest amendments.

Click the “Take this Course” button below for this 30-day FIC Compliance course and ensure that you and your agency remain compliant with FIC.

Valuation : SSETA US: 15078 : 15085 : 15075

If you want to be able to estimate property valuations and determine the highest and best use of a property, then this 12-week soft skills course is for you!  It is ideal if you are wanting to excel in property listings, both commercial and residential and should be taken by all Principal Property Practitioners so that they can guide their intern estate agents on how to prepare a valuation estimate, analyse the market and be able to determine property values.

Success in real estate depends largely on the number of sole mandates that you as a property practitioner attain, from single dwellings to retail and new developments.  This course will enable you to produce a professional estimated valuation report for an investor, giving him unbiased “highest & best use” of the property, and securing his confidence and trust in your ability to take his investment from base level and achieve his required return.

We provide you with learning material as well as videos, face-to-face events and inter-active webinars.

To become a Registered Professional Property Valuer read our Blog here, and view educational programmes registered by Council.

Valuation Skills Course

A property practitioner who has been certificated against or exempt from NQF Level 4 will receive 24 SAQA credits when completing their NQF Level 5 Real Estate with PropAcademy.  PropAcademy will issue a Certificate of Completion to every person found competent in completing this course.

The goal is to provide higher level, more targeted training, focused on some of the electives that enable performance in key business areas to all property practitioners.

This course aims to enable participants to develop working knowledge of the core elements, tools and processes of commercial and residential real estate valuation applicable to retail, office, and special trading properties, as well as development land.  It includes resource material, learning material and short videos for each of the four tasks.

The content of this course covers the following:

• Perform valuations of income-producing properties
• Perform valuations of agricultural properties used for extensive farming
• Perform valuations of vacant land

The outcome will ensure that the applicant can:

• Identify and collect information about income-producing properties and
• Analyse the market on different types of properties and
• Determine the values of different types of properties.

Task 1:

Identification of properties, classification of agricultural land, identification and classification of vacant land, general valuation concepts, the scope of a valuation assignment, legislation income, vacant and agricultural, town planning schemes, case law, guides and structural plans, preparing for site inspection and feasibility study.

Task 2:

Economic analysis, property potential, basis for valuation, market analysis, cultural and regional variances.

Task 3:

Valuation approach, valuation methods, the basis for valuation, application of direct comparison method, capitalization method and discounted cash flow method.

Task 4:

Perform valuations of income-producing properties, agricultural properties and vacant land.

If you want to advance your career in real estate, click the “Take this Course” button and start your 12-week Property Valuation course today!