Lawrence Dale
To celebrate 25 years of serving Canada’s real estate community, REM asked a small group of real estate leaders this question:
“Who had the biggest impact – good or bad – on Canadian real estate in the last 25 years?
This is not a popularity contest or a marketing exercise. We want to know who you think had the biggest impact on the industry in the last 25 years – even if it was, in your opinion, a negative impact. Your choices could include Realtors, company executives, association executive officers, regulators, service company executives….even politicians! Who has had the most impact during the last 25 years in making the industry what it is today?”
REM took those consensus picks and added our own and the results will be revealed on REM online every day until the end of June. Take a look and see if you agree with these choices, and then let us know who we missed. Add your comments below or drop an email to [email protected].
Lawrence Dale
Along with Melanie Aitken, Lawrence Dale was instrumental in launching the Competition Tribunal challenges against CREA and TREB, opening the door to alternative real estate brokerage models.
Dale and his cousin Stephen Moranis, a former TREB president, have filed several legal claims against TREB and CREA over the years relating to Realtysellers, the real estate company they formed in November 2000. The company offered discounted flat fee services. In 2002, TREB enacted new rules that required listing brokers to be involved in the offer negotiation process. Realtysellers sued TREB and filed a complaint with the Competition Bureau.
In January 2004, TREB and Realtysellers reached a settlement in which Realtysellers received $700,000 in compensation. TREB changed its rules to allow the flat fee program access to the MLS, and Realtysellers withdrew its complaints to the Competition Bureau, which closed its investigation into the matter.
But Dale and Moranis allege that in 2006, TREB and CREA conspired to force them to close down Realtysellers. He filed a $540 million statement of claim, naming CREA, TREB and 49 directors and officers of the organizations.
CREA implemented new offer negotiation rules in 2007. The Competition Bureau subsequently filed its complaint that ultimately was settled with the 2010 consent agreement.
Dale was also granted leave to intervene in the Competition Tribunal proceedings between the Competition Bureau and TREB, but he did not appear at the hearings.
“No single person will have more impact (on the industry) since Dave Liniger started Re/Max,” says Barry Lebow, a veteran broker, professional land economist, mediator and REM columnist. “He will change the way real estate is done in future and not for the good of the industry or the public.”
While operating Realtysellers, Dale also partnered with for-sale-by-owner company PropertyGuys.com, but in May 2013 he moved to Rogers Communications as group head, real estate business, operating Zoocasa.ca.
In early May of this year, Dale was named president of Zolo Realty, which the company says is Canada’s largest real estate brokerage-operated search website.
