SANTO DOMINGO – In 2017, Wanda del Orbe and Rodelixsa Manzueta came up with the idea of creating a cooperative for their employees, a plan that coincided with a similar idea from Maika Maldonado. Combining their ideas, they decided to extend the proposal to the entire real estate community.
Alenny Garabito, Isely Almánzar, Rachel Ortiz, and Cinthia Medina were invited to join the initiative. These seven women make up the Board of Directors of the newly created Real Estate Cooperative (Coopinmobilia), an entity that has been officially operating for three months, with the clear objective of helping the real estate sector achieve financial well-being and creating alternatives to support its needs.
“I have been in the sector for 22 years and one of the things that deeply saddens me is seeing people who worked hard, who broke the mold, but then end up with nothing, without a home, leaving the country, or in financial trouble,” explains Alenny Garabito, treasurer of the entity, in conversation with El Inmobiliario.
One of Coopinmobilia's goals is to support real estate agents in making their savings, for which they have created various products, for the different stages of their life project, and according to their needs.
“We want people to understand that they need to save. You have to learn to save because old age, retirement, fatigue, businesses come and go, and the cooperative is the only way to do it,” says the leader of Time Homes.
Garabito clarifies that, except for Cinthia Medina, who receives a salary, although she worked for several months free of charge, none of the other members of the Council are salaried and that what they propose is to create the foundations in this first stage of the entity, to leave a legacy for those who will be responsible in the future for assuming the position they hold today.
The founders of the Dominican Republic's first real estate cooperative are optimistic that the organization will grow because it was a pressing need in the sector. Garabito maintains that she had long desired such an initiative, but it was difficult to create one through the Association of Real Estate Agents and Companies (AEI), and that is why, when they called her, she didn't hesitate for a moment to join.
“I want to see the sector empowered, to understand more about finance, about saving, to become educated. There is so much to do…,” he explained.
"And it's not just the economic benefits," adds Maika Maldonado, the secretary, "but the social ones too. You become passionate about cooperativism because I never dreamed it was such a broad field; there are so many things, and everything is done jointly. Here, everything is thought about collectively.".
They cited health insurance as one of their future plans, given that a large number of real estate agents lack it.
Vice President Rodelixsa Manzueta explained that the initiative was conceived before the pandemic. “It was initially an internal project, and then we brought others on board. We want construction workers and everyone else to be involved.”.
Manzueta states that the real estate sector has many uncertainties and that even for credit references the agent goes through difficulties because he is not an employee, he does not have his own inventory, hence they evaluated and considered providing a financial figure such as the cooperative.
He adds that the idea is also to create an educational entity that can license agents and give the sector the boost it needs to become a solid career, so that real estate brokers can obtain credit and have guaranteed financing.
The decree
The decree authorizing Coopinmobilia's operation is No. 464-22, dated August 16 of this year. Its president, Wanda del Orbe, explains that this is an initiative for the sector as a whole, and therefore they are not referring to any specific real estate company. Instead, it is a cooperative for the entire sector, and they plan to involve various stakeholders such as builders (ACOPROVI) and hardware store owners (ASODEFE). They have already met with Alberto Bogaert, president of the AEI, to coordinate joint actions.
“For me, this is the most important project we have created because we are going to educate the advisors so that they can organize themselves, make a living from this, and leave a legacy for future generations. It's an exercise where today you have money and tomorrow you don't, but if we start sowing seeds now, we are leaving a legacy for all these young people, and they are also becoming organized entrepreneurs,” Del Orbe explained.
He cited the case of Christmas, in which many people do not save enough for the double salary payment, the party, and even bonuses that some companies include, but that if they organize and plan from the beginning of the year, there will be no worries.
Products operating
Cinthia Medina, general manager, explained the various products created so far: Savings on demand, Coop-health, Coop-vacations, Coop-san, Coop-car, Coop-roof, Coop-navi, Coop-retirement, children's savings, Unicoop and Financial Certificates.
Currently, Coopinmobilia has an account at Banco de Reservas for its operations, although it is already planning to add other financial institutions.
Medina explained that in the case of fixed-term deposit accounts, they start with 3,000 pesos, while the others are opened with 500 pesos.
For registration in the cooperative, he declares, a contribution of 2,500 pesos is given, divided into one thousand pesos of minimum contributions, 500 pesos for the account and one thousand pesos of non-refundable fee.
Regarding the amounts, he emphasizes that each person, depending on their income, plans, and product, will define the monthly savings figure.
Wanda del Orbe maintains that so far the number of members is 64, including real estate advisors and employees of companies in the sector.
“Another product we offer within our real estate companies is providing loans to our employees and taking responsibility for their benefits. Another incentive we're implementing is that when our agents join, we're making it a condition for them to commit to saving their commissions, so that they save what they choose,” says Del Orbe.
By 2023, this group of women entrepreneurs plans to reach 400 members; they have a loan portfolio of 400,000 pesos. If you would like to join, please call 849-206-7572 and Cinthia will be happy to assist you.
Surveillance and Credit
The supervisory board is composed of Engels Villanueva, president; José Matos, secretary; Milagros Beras, member and Marisol Duran, first alternate.
For its part, the Credit Committee is composed of Edwin Heredia, president; Alberto Álvarez, secretary; Omar Contreras, member and Kenia de la Rosa, alternate.
