By Tony Palermo
The CREA Futures Implementation Team (FIT) Rate Your Realtor proposal was voted down at CREA’s March 24 Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Ottawa.
“The membership has spoken and the proposal was turned down,” says FIT chair Cliff Iverson.
Noting his disappointment, Iverson says all of FIT’s research pointed to several benefits of the Rate Your Realtor service for both consumers and Realtors. In large part, this included allowing consumers the ability to check on Realtors they are considering using in a transaction – something Iverson says could also increase and promote professionalism for Realtors.
CREA’s 2013 AGM agenda documentation echoes his thought. It says the goal of the Rate Your Realtor service was to demonstrate the value of Realtors to consumers while promoting Realtor professionalism by capturing consumer feedback on their interaction with a specific Realtor. This was to be done via a five-star rating system, where both parties could comment on the interaction. The recommendation said this tool had the potential to create leads and enhance the overall perception of the value of a Realtor to consumers.
“There were a number of supporters who saw the benefits of using the Rate Your Realtor service,” says Iverson. “Some of the people that came up to me after the meeting were quite disappointed that it didn’t move forward.”
Reflecting on why he believes the proposal was voted down, Iverson says the main concern coming back to FIT was the hesitation of Realtors to display negative comments.
“I think the one main theme we kept getting was negative comments being offered up by the consumer,” says Iverson.
Doug Pedlar is president of the London & St. Thomas Association of Realtors, one of the groups that voted against the proposal. Pedlar said that CREA’s past president, Gary Morse, attended one of his board’s meetings to explain the Rate Your Realtor feature.
“There was a lively discussion, to say the least,” says Pedlar. “Our members were telling us that they did not want this to happen.”
Pedlar says his members had several concerns, including the possibility that new agents wouldn’t get very high ratings; that people or agents could alter or sabotage the ratings; that CREA’s original survey did not conclusively show that Realtors were in favour of the feature; and if an agent didn’t want to participate, it wouldn’t look good on the agent and therefore, forced agents to participate.
His members also disputed the notion that the Rate Your Realtor service promoted professionalism, noting that other professionals are not rated in such a fashion.
New CREA president Laura Leyser believes that what it really came down to was that some Realtors didn’t feel the Rate Your Realtor service should be offered by CREA.
“It wasn’t as much about the fear of being rated as it was about the diversity across the country in the difference brokerages, big and small,” says Leyser. “(Realtors) just felt this was something the brokerage should be offering and not organized real estate.”
Another FIT recommendation that was passed was the alternative option to the creation of an independent technology company. At CREA’s Special General Meeting in Winnipeg last fall, FIT presented their original proposal to create an independent technology company. However, after much resistance, FIT was asked to go back to the drawing board, deferring the vote until this March’s AGM.
“After the fall Special General Meeting in Winnipeg, there was consultation with boards and associations across the country,” says Iverson. “We wanted to be able to offer up another alternative that people were asking for, and that was basically to streamline how we deal with changes to technology. That’s where the third option came from.”
Instead of creating an independent technology company, CREA will now address the technology decision-making process in two ways. First, it will alter the role of the MLS and Technology Council (MTC) to an advisory one where internal and external experts, as appropriate to the issues at hand, can be called upon by CREA. Second, CREA will eliminate the current required votes on national technology, including the double majority.
Iverson says this alternative option will still have a significant impact in terms of the responsibility and the timing of technology-based decisions.
“The onus will be placed more on CREA’s staff to make decisions and, of course, under the current structure, it sometimes takes up to a year and a half to get changes passed,” says Iverson. “And when you’re dealing with technology, that’s certainly too long a period of time.”
Leyser says it’s all about being nimble, noting, like Iverson, that it’s no longer going to take years to make decisions. And that, she says, will have a positive trickling effect right across the country with the various real estate boards.
Leyser also says that CREA is undergoing a full governance review, noting that this will be an opportunity to do further housekeeping.
