CEO Prepares To Pass The Torch After Over Two Decades At The Helm
Bill Benoit passes the torch at VIREB
NANAIMO – Bill Benoit has seen plenty of change and progress since arriving to become Chief Executive Officer of the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board in 2001.
Technological advances have helped VIREB streamline and grow from 650 members when Benoit arrived from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to today, where over 1,100 realtors in the region from the Malahat to Port Hardy are members of the organization.
“We converted many of the office operations digitally, including all the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) files as well,” he recalls. “We had over 300,000 pages of information on properties and listings that we converted to digital files. It was a long process.”
“Computers back then basically didn’t have anything near the capacity of cell phones have today,” he adds. “We kept hearing that technology would replace everything, but that hasn’t happened. Jobs have evolved and we still need people to do the work.”
There are 12 staff at the VIREB offices on Metral Drive, with new CEO Jason Yochim arriving from Saskatoon to take the torch from Benoit at the end of January.
“It’s been jam-packed for over 20 years, but it’s been a good run,” Benoit notes. “We’ve been blessed with great staff that are loyal and dedicated to the Board and our membership. And we’ve been fortunate to have great Directors with long-term vision.
“When I look at leadership, I consider someone to be a good leader if they can sit back when the work is done and be grateful that other people are getting the credit. It’s not a matter of doing everything by yourself. . .it’s a matter of having good people around you, in the right place, to get things done.”
VIREB has won several awards during Benoit’s tenure for governance, and in 2011, Benoit received an Award of Excellence from the Canadian Real Estate Association for his work, which included helping set up the Commercial Division for VIREB, which has staged the very popular Commercial Building Awards for the past 14 consecutive years.
Benoit also served as Chair of CREA’s National Association of Executives, and in the community, he was involved in Nanaimo Now and the start-up of Vancouver Island Economic Alliance. He was instrumental in putting together Reflections, a book about the 60th Anniversary of VIREB, and gives Feron Walker credit for the great job she did in researching and writing of the history
Benoit has seen the Island grow exponentially, and changed significantly. When he first arrived, Nanaimo had a population of 65,000. Today, it’s over 100,000. The West Coast communities of Tofino and Ucluelet have become real estate hot spots.
“When I first came here, everything revolved around timber and fishing, but that’s not the case anymore,” he notes. “While we’re starting to see some mills re-open and different types of economic drivers emerge, the last couple of years have been different, especially since COVID. With the technology available, people now know they can live on Vancouver Island and enjoy the benefit of the lifestyle here, while they work remotely for companies elsewhere.”
Technology has also made it simpler to keep in touch with VIREB members, as meetings and educational seminars are conducted through Zoom and other platforms.
“For meetings, we used to bring speakers in and get meeting rooms somewhere, and our members had to travel to get to the meetings,” he observes. “Professional development has been also been made easier to access, so it’s more cost-effective and allowed us to expand into other areas to provide services for members.”
Benoit sees VIREB’s membership within the BC Real Estate Association and CREA giving the industry a strong voice to provincial and federal governments in regards to policy and legislation.
Something that is expected to continue to impact the Island real estate market is the limited supply of housing and properties for sale.
“It’s all about supply and demand,” he explains. “When supply goes down, prices go up. It doesn’t matter if it’s your home, groceries or gas. So as we deal with the issues of supply and get more product available, prices should stabilize. At this time the strong demand still outweighs the supply.”