Real Estate Talks

yes full service in the US and ontario is usually 5%

Final submissions in the case are set to take place in Ottawa on November 2! God, I hope they finally start to bust up this freaking monopoly.

Nah, the monopoly lives on. In the US, people have access to this data, but Realtors are still prevalent and rates are still high.

The biggest reason: Buyers using Realtors for "free" keeps the party going.

I do think that over time when people become more familiar with the steps and data is more accessible, commissions will come down.

The Monopoly argument is so dead it isn't even funny. With the amount of choices the public now has, your arguments are about as fresh as the Thanksgiving turkey still stuck in the back of our fridge.

So where is Property Guys? 1% Realty? Mere postings? ERealty, ..... the list is endless? Why haven't these companies crushed the 'freakin' monopoly' you are crying about? Why did Zoocasa apparently fail so miserably??

It would appear the public is quite happy with the services realtors provide. It's ok, Oli, you'll be fine. Try yoga.

There are TONS of stratas who do not allow public access to their documents.

Is it written in their bylaws? How do they regulate this? Strata agent only gives access to people with their face on bus benches?

You should come to one of our mandatory legal update or strata documentation professional development courses at the Board.

Your ego would be disappointed in how little it actually knows.

Tom's day....
10 AM...Wake up
12 noon....Go to the office in time to go to lunch.
2 PM....get listing
3 PM....sell listing
4 PM ...turn in deal file
5 PM... pick up Commission cheque.

It's all so easy Tom....admit it Tom, it's just like a walk in the park.

Yeah, right. No monopoly. That's why TREB isn't working so hard to keep sold data out of the hands of the public. Gee!

If nothing is going to change and life is all good and realtors jobs aren't dependent on controlling the data, than just cough it up. Don't worry about it!

Yeah, right. No monopoly. That's why TREB isn't working so hard to keep sold data out of the hands of the public. Gee!

If nothing is going to change and life is all good and realtors jobs aren't dependent on controlling the data, than just cough it up. Don't worry about it!

Very true - what are realtors afraid of? They seem to want to have their cake and eat it too.... They claim they are value add yet wont release data to the public.

Yeah, right. No monopoly. That's why TREB isn't working so hard to keep sold data out of the hands of the public. Gee!

If nothing is going to change and life is all good and realtors jobs aren't dependent on controlling the data, than just cough it up. Don't worry about it!

Bad news for you. Toronto started this mess by not allowing Virtual offices for clients so I think you need to switch to the Ontario forum Boards. Guess what, champ? BC has had them for YEARS.
I have lots of clients on auto-sold using our virtual offices and have for a looooong time. Not only can they access solds any time, they get solds emailed to them the second they hit the REBGV.
At our Main Street office, we even have a public computer where the public can access ALL data. When solds are eventually available to put on our websites from our service providers (I use MyRealPage) I'll do that too.

It's my motto. 'Coughing' up data since 2007.

Anything else you want to complain about? Weather? Canucks? Or just looking for a reason to hate on Realtors. I've been on RET since 2007. 1700 posts. I like to think I've done a decent job of providing as much info as I can.

Tom's day....
10 AM...Wake up
12 noon....Go to the office in time to go to lunch.
2 PM....get listing
3 PM....sell listing
4 PM ...turn in deal file
5 PM... pick up Commission cheque.

It's all so easy Tom....admit it Tom, it's just like a walk in the park.

Idiot. You forgot my pedicure and face peel. Jesus, you're slipping Johnny.

Yeah, right. No monopoly. That's why TREB isn't working so hard to keep sold data out of the hands of the public. Gee!

If nothing is going to change and life is all good and realtors jobs aren't dependent on controlling the data, than just cough it up. Don't worry about it!

Bad news for you. Toronto started this mess by not allowing Virtual offices for clients so I think you need to switch to the Ontario forum Boards. Guess what, champ? BC has had them for YEARS.
I have lots of clients on auto-sold using our virtual offices and have for a looooong time. Not only can they access solds any time, they get solds emailed to them the second they hit the REBGV.
At our Main Street office, we even have a public computer where the public can access ALL data. When solds are eventually available to put on our websites from our service providers (I use MyRealPage) I'll do that too.

It's my motto. 'Coughing' up data since 2007.

Anything else you want to complain about? Weather? Canucks? Or just looking for a reason to hate on Realtors. I've been on RET since 2007. 1700 posts. I like to think I've done a decent job of providing as much info as I can.

LOL - biased info, yes.

Ok I am confused so the sold data isn't a privacy issue now because you are giving it out willy nilly? Maybe get your story straight.

The Monopoly argument is so dead it isn't even funny. With the amount of choices the public now has, your arguments are about as fresh as the Thanksgiving turkey still stuck in the back of our fridge.

So where is Property Guys? 1% Realty? Mere postings? ERealty, ..... the list is endless? Why haven't these companies crushed the 'freakin' monopoly' you are crying about? Why did Zoocasa apparently fail so miserably??

It would appear the public is quite happy with the services realtors provide. It's ok, Oli, you'll be fine. Try yoga.

Property Guys/ComFree/FSBO companies don't work because they can't post on the MLS.

eRealty/Mere postings are a joke because Sellers are reliant on the realtards to pass through the Buyer contacts OR people need to go through multiple pages to find the Seller's contact information.

1% is misleading. It's not actually 1% until you hit $600K (which arguably applies to many properties nowadays). PLUS, they force you to only give $3000 flat to the Buyer's Agent. AGAIN, because most Buyers will use an agent since they're "free," what ends up happening is that many agents will not show 1%'s listings or they just negotiate for more. Both scenarios will cause the listing to take longer to sell and people pay way more than 1% on commission.

I stand by my earlier comment that a big reason why the realturds party keeps going is because of Buyers thinking they don't have to pay anything.

Yoga won't do me any good if I'm forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars because the industry holds a monopoly.

The fundamental problem is we're stuck with a hyper sucky website called 'realtor.ca'.

Why? Because there is no *****ing competition. If there was, realtors would get their ass off the couch and actually create a much better website - or a private company would do it for them and shift control of the market away from realtors.

we're stuck with a hyper sucky website called 'realtor.ca'

You should be happy you at least have the realtor.ca There is no obligation from realtors to provide anything to the public for free.

As far as being a monopoly, yes it is a monopoly of sorts, only because there is only one MLS, there are no competing MLS's as there are in the US. But there is tremendous competition among realtors for your business... definitely not what I call a monopoly.

In the LM, between the Vancouver and the Fraser Valley boards there are about 9,000 realtors ready to compete for your business. Interview some and get the best price for their listing services. Listing end commission. The buying end (what goes to the buyers agent) it's not really negotiable because the sellers compete among themselves for the services of the buyers agents. So don't blame the realtors for that, blame other sellers.

And a final thought, if you really really want all the info as it is available to the realtors, with commissions shown, expiry dates, sold prices once subjects are removed etc..etc.... just be nice or ask nicely a realtor and he/she will provide to you any info you want to see. I am sure thinktom will not refuse a request to subscribe anyone to this service with auto email notifications etc

Sorry, but there is an obligation. It's why the Competition Bureau exists. It's called "Anti-Trust laws". Realtors benefit from Anti trust laws as much as all of us do. But the rules apply to them as much as they do to the next guy.

Realtors, i'm sure, would be squawking like hell if someone came along and created a monopoly such that the only way to get a property sold you had to pay insane fees to lawyers or banks. If the banks could GET together and make this happen, they most certainly would collude. But guess what. We have laws that protect consumers from that happening.

No, Austin I totally disagree with you, there is absolutely no obligation to have a site like realtor.ca available to the public. The CREA can take it down tomorrow if they feel like it. No anti-trust laws would have been broken.

.. if someone came along and created a monopoly such that the only way to get a property sold you had to pay insane fees to lawyers or banks..

This is like saying... a monopoly has been created here, if you want legal advice, the only way will be to pay insane fees to lawyers. Well, hello , yes this is the only way. It is a monopoly of sorts but they do not break any anti-trust laws. Now if lawyers got together to fix their fees, then, yes they would break anti-trust laws.

If realtors got together and they all agree to protect their commissions and all charge the same fee, yes... anti-trust laws would have been broken and the penalties would be severe, lengthy jail terms and huge fines.

The competition Bureau got involved because they expected commissions to come down with the advent of the Internet. They expected that sellers could simply list on MLS and since the MLS is now online and does almost all the marketing, why would a seller need to pay 7/2.5. The Competition Bureau was pushing for the so-called mere posting listing, but the RE boards resisted, as it would be detrimental to the integrity of the MLS etc. and the RE boards got their way. Mere postings are NOT allowed, although cleverly the RE boards named reduced service & commission listings as mere postings. And the CB being naive beyond belief, they do believe mere postings exist.