Real estate agents regularly come near the bottom when it comes to public opinion polls on the most trustworthy professions, but leading real estate network @realty is looking to flip the script, appointing an industry veteran to the newly established role of head of compliance.

Former Real Estate Institute of Queensland State President, Ray Milton, has joined the agency in the new position, which will ensure it continues to raise the bar with the highest possible ethical and professional standards.

CEO James Taylor said he started @realty in 2014 with the goal of a nationwide agency with the highest standards of professionalism.

“When I started this company, I wanted it to stand out for our high level of professionalism and education of agents and make sure they are doing what the act and legislation require,” Mr Taylor said.

“By appointing Ray to the role of compliance officer, we are making our standards as rigorous as possible and that creates both transparency and reassures the public of our professionalism.”

Mr Taylor said Mr Milton, who served on the board of the Real Estate Institute of Queensland for more than 20 years, will ensure agents are adhering to the regulations and legislation that govern the sale and purchase of property.

While this differs from state to state, in Queensland this includes the Property Occupations Act 2014 and the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014.

Mr Milton said he joined @realty after Mr Taylor called him to discuss compliance.

“I’ve been retired on the Gold Coast and when CEO James Taylor asked if I’d like to talk to him about joining @realty, I was quite impressed with what I saw,” Mr Milton said.

“I don’t know of any other real estate network other than @realty that has a system for head office to check every form. It is very innovative.

“Over the years there have been big changes to the legislation and regulations and it’s just a matter of getting through to the agents the importance of completing the documentation correctly.

“That is why having appropriate oversight from experienced compliance officers is so important, because if forms are not correct, they can be invalid, and create problems down the track.”

Mr Milton, who started in the industry in 1971 working for his father’s agency, said the most common disputes agents encountered were regarding deposit monies and incorrectly completed agent appointment forms.

He said he was looking forward to getting stuck into his new role with @realty.

“The buzz for me is being able to resolve an agent’s problem,” he said.

His advice for budding agents was to “communicate regularly with clients” and “always tell the truth”.

Mr Milton isn’t the only former REIQ executive to join @realty.

In 2019 Karen Woodworth joined @realty as business development manager after 12 years at the REIQ.

Mr Taylor said @realty’s software also had safeguards in place to ensure compliance in areas such as listing agreements to ensure they were legally valid.

“If an agent uses our listing agreements the software will auto populate the legal names of the people, the legal description of the property, property address, the agent’s details and more.

“We ensure that all the information is correct from a legislative point of view.”