Competition Bureau vs Toronto Real Estate Board

ASHBURN, VA

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JOSIE STERN

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Competition Bureau vs Toronto Real Estate Board

The debate rages on in court about whether the sale prices of homes should be disclosed. In my opinion the sale price of a home should be information that is available to consumers. This protectionist mentality is driven by insecurity on the part of the real estate industry. The thinking is "if the consumer doesn't have this data then they will need realtors." Give the consumer the information they need and the CHOICE to use a realtor or not. Great realtors have nothing to worry about because there are many people who recognize the value of using a great realtor. There is a great deal more to selling a house for the best price than just knowing the sale prices of homes anyway - a sophisticated consumer knows that. So I think giving the consumer the information they need to choose to sell their own house will raise the bar for the industry because we will have to work harder to get the business and prove why we are worth it. Good riddance to the incompetent and unscrupulous agents. What's wrong with that? @Matthew Slutsky @mark mclean @mark savel @theBRELteam @Cary Chapnick @TORealtyBlog @benjaminbach

Ontario / Resale Discussions

ARA MAMOURIAN

Buzzer

2 BEST REPLY

Couldn't agree with you more, @Josie. Many agents are concerned with the change in the role of the Realtor and the threat to the traditional way of doing business is real, but it's certainly not bad. Many will argue that sellers don't want their information made public but when informing consumers, many neglect to provide the full story. The sale prices won't be displayed on every Realtor website, or on the cover of Realtor magazine. They're kept on select Realtor sites who have chosen to develop a VOW behind a password protected wall. If sold on the MLS the sale price will be reported and anyone that has access to Realtor will find out the information anyway. The only way to keep your sale price off of the official land registry is to pay the land transfer tax in advance. We're still going to be very relevant and a big part of the real estate transaction, we're just dealing with a consumer who's more informed. It's not the data that keeps us alive. Our professionalism, knowledge of our markets, and experience will keep us alive.

GORD SMART

BuzzStaff

171

It is inevitable that full disclosure will rule the day. There was a day when brokers used to drive potential buyers around neighbourhoods to view properties, then brokers would list open house in newspapers, then the Internet came around and people could educate themselves BEFORE going to a open house or sales centre, thereby helping both the buyer and broker in dealing with a qualified buyer situation.

Come to think about it ... We also used to drive in cars without seat-belts, have a couple of beers and get behind the wheel, think a sun burn was a good thing on the way to getting a nice suntan.

It is called evolution. Education and disclosure will rule the day in the not too distant future and we will all be asking ourselves what all the fuss was about. Education equals intelligence - certainly we want an educated public when dealing with what will likely be the most important and largest ($-wise) investment most of us will ever make.