By Shauna Jemmott

WITH a massive boost in housing and community development in Guyana, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Fabulous Homes, Karis Munroe, is calling on government to design and pass legislation to deal with the management and execution of real estate services.She said the trust in real estate in Guyana has been broken by mismanagement and skullduggery, but with an established legal document to generally manage the business here, it can be restored to a better place.
FRAUDSTER IMAGE
In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Munroe said, “Since the value of real estate is so severely diminished in this country, people don’t understand the impact that real estate and this industry have on a developing country. The average person that you’re gonna talk to about anything real estate related is gonna tell you, ‘Oh my God, those people, they are either fraudsters or a scamp .That’s the brand that real estate has in this country and it upsets me in so many ways because not everybody is like that.”
She said with no guidelines for real estate agents to follow, some people decide to do it as just a “hussle,” thinking merely of monetary gains, with no idea of what they really are doing.
“So if there’s no educational requirements that are available, then guess what, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing, but I think that if you find me and you told me that your house is for sale and I find somebody to buy it, then you are supposed to pay me for my service’.”
Munroe, a U.S. citizen who has post-graduate qualifications in the field, has introduced a certificate programme in Real Estate at the Critchlow Labour College, encouraging Guyanese at home to break into the industry.
She has also recommended that a degree in Real Estate Management programme be introduced at the University of Guyana (UG), since there is need to understand the impact of real estate on Guyana’s development.
IMPACT
“Because they do not understand the impact this industry has on this country, they put it to the bottom of the barrel and they don’t care whether there are legislations that protect the consumers, whether there are legislations for the people that actually are representing the consumers. There is nothing!” Munroe told the Guyana Chronicle.
She said she made the recommendation to a few influential individuals but the industry needs “people who would make it happen.”
“We believe that education is important. For you to be able to go to GRA (Guyana Revenue Authority) to pick up a licence and claim that you are a real estate agent, we believe that you should have at least gotten at least 75 hours at the minimum of real estate training, so you would be properly equipped to assist anyone in that industry.”
Outside of that she said, “…You’re asking to be robbed, you’re asking for somebody to defraud you. Because they don’t know what they’re doing, you don’t know what you’re doing, but you are faithfully trusting that individual with your property and in some scenarios your finances.”
She pointed out that while there are no laws to hold anybody accountable, there are people who are selling other people’s properties, presenting “bogus power of attorney” documents.
With laws in place, she said, “In the event you are gonna take somebody’s money and run off with it, you will go to jail for a very long time [since] if [someone is] not being held accountable for [their] mistakes, [they] are gonna continue doing it. Since there are no laws in place to protect the consumer, there’s no legislation in place to protect the consumer and also the agents,” there would always be confusion.

FOREIGN INVESTMENT
She said establishing such laws will also attract foreign investment in the field of housing and community development.
“If investors felt confident in coming into Guyana, knowing that there is a large expanse of land, I can come in here and I can bring millions of U.S. [dollars] knowing that my investments will be protected.”