Real Estate

The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) proclaimed in 2015 that all real estate brokers must retain copies of successful and unsuccessful purchase offers. HKA Data worked with a large broker to define a document imaging and data management system to help all brokers comply with this mandate. Recent money laundering concerns have led to renewed interest in these data as FINTRAC is now penalizing brokers for their failure to secure and deliver data per the RECO mandate. HKA’s proposed system receives copies of the offers to populate the database, there is no further work needed by the agents or the broker. By using unique identifiers for all parties the database is critical in identifying money laundering activities, incomplete data and lack of reporting compliance. In addition to the indexing and imaging of all offers to purchase which are the crux of the RECO mandate, the information held on all offers form a massive source for analysis of the industry.

Commercial real estate brokers need detailed information to represent their customers and their properties effectively. They spent millions every year amassing information on every commercial building, as did their competitors. While the data itself was critical to their business, data acquisition and management was not their strength. HKA Data and The Building Owners and Management Association (BOMA) formed a new company. HKA collected all the data which was the basis for industry wide reports for both members and interested parties alike. Data acquisition costs were slashed and sales revenue offset the development and maintenance costs.