The Canadian Competition Bureau must not have had much to do over the last three years. Today the announced that they would take the Canadian Real Estate Association to the Competition Tribunal for uncompetitive practices citing the inability for a consumer to post their property for sale on the private MLS system.
I think the Bureau has a tough fight on their hands. The fact is there is plenty of competition to the MLS, Commfree, Welist, Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace, and the several hundred newspapers and magazines that exist across the country. There are a lot of ways to market a property without the use of a realtor. A realtor however, being a professional service, should have a certain minimum standard which they must abide by. The most effective way to do this is to create a minimum standard in order to access a proprietary system. I think CREA is well within their rights to limit access to realtors only in order to promote professionalism in the industry. Tearing apart this system would only encourage lack of professionalism in the industry, and would further induce realtor bashing by those who sell FSBO.
What most who criticize realtors forget is that there is a lot more involved with using a realtor than just having your property information inputted and a sign put up. A good realtor is a good negotiator, will have knowledge that no amateur could possibly ascertain without years in the business (think that you know it all if you want, if you don’t do real estate full time and think you know how to properly sell a house then you are ignorant, there is simply too much to know to figure it all out in one transaction. Take for example FSBO, if you had to look up that acronym that isn’t even relevant to the sale of a house, just think of all the other complicated important terms you are probably unaware of but that could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars), and has the assurance of the brokerages, local boards, and regulators to back them up. Yes, this means if a realtor screws up and costs you say, $100,000 there is a simple remedy. If you screw up however, selling your own home, good luck with the legal battles. The cost of lawyers alone will likely make any possible positive outcome not worth the time and effort, and may even bankrupt you.
Using a realtor is about more than just marketing, it is about using a professional service to do something the lay man is not qualified to do. They are your heart surgeon, your dentist, your optometrist, your certified financial planner, your car mechanic, and your airline pilot.
Oh, and by the way, a realtor can charge whatever they want. They can charge $1 or $10,000, which is what makes the industry competitive. What the competition bureau is challenging is the minimum level of service. And to think, I thought the competition bureau was in the business of creating higher standards for consumers.
A member of the public may also hire a licensed real estate agent who is not a member of CREA to sell their home. Degredating higher standards will not benefit the public.
Real Estate professionals from across the world had invested billions into improving their profession by way of education, and ongoing financial contribution to their industry and professional associations. Sure there are some agents who make a fortune, but frankly most REALTORS may consider themselves lucky if they can maintain themselves in a low to middle income bracket.
Now the bureau thinks the public should just be able to jump on board and get a free ride? I suspect there is a more synister motive to all of this, possibly akin to union busting.
The lines are so very blurry and frankly suspect. Perhaps it is time for CREA to excercise it’s right to mobilize it’s memebership so that it’s members do not get trampled on by politically motivated attacks such as this.
We haven’t even looked at how the government would propose to replace the windfall generated each sale generated as a result of a very effective network of professonals working together to achieve remarkable results with minimal risk to the consumer.
And no I don’t feel sorry for the consumers who would deny an opportunity of a trained professional to earn a respecable living after they themselves made only a quarter million profit in the last 5 years instead of 260,000. Give me a break!