Shawn O'Hara: Joining me today is Jim McCaughan, who is a Professional Services Support Advisor with the BC Real Estate Association. Jim has more than four decades of experience in the real estate sector as a realtor, a managing broker, and an instructor. He has also served in various governance roles, often referred to as organized real estate. Jim was first licensed in 1977, became a broker in 1979, and has managed more than 120 associates. He is a past president of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board and the Chilliwack Real Estate Board. He was on the Real Estate Council of BC and on the Errors and Omissions Insurance Corporation of BC, and is also a former past president of the BC Real Estate Association. Thank you for joining us today.

Jim McCaughan: Thank you for having me. What motivated me to get into real estate? After high school, I worked in a family furniture business for 10 years. At the end of that time, my parents wanted to retire, and my wife and I had long discussions but decided that we did not want to continue in the retail furniture business. So I found myself unemployed. After a period of unsuccessfully looking for a new job, someone mentioned that I should think about getting into the real estate field. I thought about it for a bit, and since I did not have many other options at the time, it seemed like it might be interesting.

So I enrolled in the course, probably still hoping to get a regular job before the time came to make a decision. But that did not happen. Fortunately for me, that did not happen. I came into the business in sales, and what has followed has been a wonderful 45-year journey, as you mentioned, from sales to management, to training, support, recruiting, teaching, and now in my current role for two years at the BC Real Estate Association, serving the needs of our profession and specifically now managing brokers.

Shawn O'Hara: What do you love about this industry and about what you do?

Jim McCaughan: It is always changing, and the job variety is ongoing. While I was practicing real estate, I really enjoyed the opportunity to help people who needed or wanted to buy or sell a house. It came naturally to me, I guess, because growing up in the furniture business and working in it for 10 years, I was primarily driving a truck, delivering furniture. But when things were busy, I was asked if I could go and talk to customers, and I did not even realize I was getting real-life sales training and customer service training. I believe that may have helped me become fairly successful fairly quickly.

Then, as a manager, I got to work more one-on-one with salespeople, helping them solve issues and problems. I often say that maybe there is something wrong with me because I actually kind of like conflict. I like being able to help people fix challenges and solve issues, and I get great job satisfaction from that.

In my current role, I am really excited to be working along with Marty Douglas in the new Professional Managing Broker Support Line. Our primary goals are to provide resources, tools, referrals, and correct information to our managing brokers in the province of BC. We want to help make their jobs a little more enjoyable and efficient, and help ensure they stay in compliance with all the various rules, regulations, and requirements in the industry.

Shawn O'Hara: Was dealing with furniture and conflict in your early days helpful for couples selecting furniture for their house and deciding what would go where?

Jim McCaughan: I actually stayed completely away from furniture. One of the things I dislike is moving things for people, because I did that for 10 years, driving a truck and carrying deep freezers, queen size beds, and heavy items. I prefer not to do that any longer.

Shawn O'Hara: They were heavier then—freezers and fridges and so on. What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your role now?

Jim McCaughan: On a broad scale, just keeping up with the constant change. Many people have said it in many ways, but the only thing that is certain right now is change. We seem to be having it at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels. I also had the privilege to serve as a school trustee for six years when my kids were younger, and it was the same back then in the eighties—lots and lots of change. Another challenge is keeping up with my 10 grandchildren as they grow into life.

Shawn O'Hara: Ten! That is neat. Wow.

Jim McCaughan: Yes, we have been blessed.

Shawn O'Hara: Good size family. Happy Christmases and holiday gatherings.

Jim McCaughan: We had our preliminary family dinner last week with 21 of us in the house, which was lots of fun.

Shawn O'Hara: I have five children, so I like having big families around.

Shawn O'Hara: Is it fair to say that there has been a lot more regulatory oversight in this industry in the past few years?

Jim McCaughan: Yes, very fair to say. Our profession has seen a continual increase in regulatory oversight driven by local, provincial, and federal governments. It comes from various regulatory bodies. The current regulator for the industry is the BC Financial Services Authority. We have FINTRAC, which handles anti-money laundering, and the Do Not Call list, which is federal, along with anti-spam and several others. The industry does not even look remotely the same as the day I started in 1977.

Shawn O'Hara: So you also have to be aware of the Do Not Call and the anti-spam list.

Jim McCaughan: Yes, we do.

Shawn O'Hara: Do you see more regulation coming, or leveling off? What do you think the future may hold?

Jim McCaughan: I do not profess to have a crystal ball, but I do not see it becoming less.

I think there is an ongoing desire to be looking at many industries. It is not just our industry going through all these changes. It is affecting banking and many other professions, probably medicine, law, and all the other major professions.

Shawn O'Hara: From your experience, what have you seen that has gotten real estate in BC into the position that it is in?

Jim McCaughan: Over the last few years, society as a whole has been experiencing ongoing, ever-increasing accountability and scrutiny from all levels of government and regulatory bodies. Sometimes governments make decisions without fully thinking through the ramifications. Then it is left to the regulatory bodies to create regulation and try to work with industry and profession to make things workable for the government and the regulator, and more importantly, the general public.

Shawn O'Hara: How do you think the public perceives that?

Jim McCaughan: If you just turn on the news, I do not think people spend a lot of time thinking about the real estate industry. Certainly, housing prices and all the media around the housing crisis are constant. The industry, as we always have and always will, works with the regulatory bodies and regulations we are given, and tries to influence reasonable changes for the consumer. We have always had challenges and have always managed. We will continue to deal with them and work to comply with rules and regulations. We always want to influence good policy rather than have to deal with unfortunate policy.

Some of the media attention has shifted away from the real estate profession and onto the housing policies announced by the provincial government to create the tens of thousands of dwellings that are going to be needed. In the past, and in the future, there is a lot of comment and pushback on whether some of these rules and regulations on upzoning and streamlining are appropriate, and whether cities will have the infrastructure, schools, roads, parks, and transportation to handle it. Even if they could create several thousand houses quickly, will people have a place to send their kids to school? Will they be able to get transportation, park their cars, and have shopping? There are a lot of unanswered questions right now.

Shawn O'Hara: It ties in with the community plans and all the infrastructure that has to go into place. It will be interesting to see how that plays out. We live in paradise, and people will continue to move here from all over.

Jim McCaughan: Yes, it is still the land of opportunity. It is a wonderful country. I feel blessed to have won the lottery to be born in Canada. I am delighted that many other people who were not born in Canada have the opportunity to come here and improve their lives for themselves and their families. It is just wonderful.

Shawn O'Hara: In the area you live, is there a lot of debate about high density versus low density?

Jim McCaughan: Not anything that I am completely aware of. We have a very restricted amount of land. There is a lot of land in Chilliwack, but much of it is in the land reserve, and no one I know is advocating that it be removed or changed. The only thing you can do when you cannot go out is to go up. We are seeing houses being torn down. Where there was one house, or two houses just around the corner from me here in Sardis, there are now seven row townhouses—four on one side and three on the other. They reconfigured the lot shape, and that is going on all over the province, but certainly here in the Fraser Valley.

Shawn O'Hara: It is happening here too—infill. In Victoria, where the single-family homes are, I live in the Langford area, West Shore area, and they are being torn down with a lot of pressure for mid-rise, like five stories and up.

Jim McCaughan: We have had the luxury of having Promontory, which is a large mountainous community that is relatively easy to get up to. It has a lot of rolling hills that were not in the Land Commission, so it has been developed. There is a massive amount of population residing up in the Promontory area, and that is now spilling over to the east to Rider Lake a little bit. I think that will likely continue.

Shawn O'Hara: We are doing the same here with the hills going up, although Victoria does not have a lot of farmland. Some areas do, but it is not the fertile valley that the Fraser Valley is.

Jim McCaughan: No, but it is beautiful with all the mountains surrounding Chilliwack.

Shawn O'Hara: My brother still lives in Chilliwack. He says whenever he travels, or when he used to travel, he loved coming back because of all the views.

Jim McCaughan: Whenever I go, people often say, “You were born and raised in Chilliwack; why do you still live there?” I do not even try to answer that question. I just say, “Come here for a week and take a little drive up to Cultus Lake, take a drive over to Harrison, walk along the Rotary Trail at the Vedder River where we have world-class steelhead fishing, go to the Fraser River where there is world-class salmon and sturgeon fishing, and other recreation.” It is just a remarkable area.

Shawn O'Hara: And a close drive to Vancouver and everything that offers.

Jim McCaughan: An hour to an hour and a half from the Canucks games if you want to go.

Shawn O'Hara: And the ocean for people who love that.

Jim McCaughan: White Rock.

Shawn O'Hara: In the US.

Is there any charity or nonprofit organization that you would like to give a plug to or support?

Jim McCaughan: We are big supporters of the Chilliwack Community Services. They do a broad range of things for the Chilliwack area, and there are lots of different things. At BCREA, at our recent Managing Broker Conference, the charity of choice was Covenant House, which also has a tremendous mandate. So those are a couple, if anybody would be interested.

Shawn O'Hara: Thank you, Jim. It has been a delight speaking with you.

Jim McCaughan: Thank you, Shawn, for the opportunity, and I look forward to talking to you again.

Links

• BC Real Estate Association
• Chilliwack Community Services
• Covenant House
• BC Financial Services Authority
• FINTRAC