Are We an Apple or an Orange?

If you read some of the news articles about the recent Competition Bureau agreement with the Canadian Real Estate Association, you could truly be confused. But here are some clear facts:

1. You MUST be a licenced Realtor to post a listing on the MLS system. As a Realtor, this seems pretty simple. We all pay a lot of money to join and maintain the system. Nobody is going to say a one-time user can have my services without some strings attached.

2. Listings can be posted by a licenced Realtor without any contract for service. If you read my blog regularly, you know that I think that this is alright. It is somewhere between making your own coffee at home and Starbucks. Some people will desire this level of service. From a selfish point of view, I know that the listing salesperson cannot contract outside of the law, and may be liable, should there be a legal issue in the transaction. This will add stress to our Errors and Omissions policy costs which, in my opinion, is already too high.

3. 85% to 90% of Sellers and Buyers use a Realtor to buy or sell their most valuable asset. There is true value in the services we provide. When this MLS issue hit the press a few years ago in the US, things changed a bit for those buying and selling privately, but those 85/90 numbers did not change.

4. Prudential Grand Valley Realty is a full service brokerage.We're not interested in doing someone a favour by putting their listing on MLS as a favour to "test" the market. You're either an apple or an orange. There's no in between.