Real estate is and should continue to be the business of professional Realtors, but with ready access by the public to information about listings, home buying and home selling, consumers will perceive that they need the service of a trained professional less and not more.
That’s exactly how some companies have strategically used MLS to build a realty business, cutting the costs to consumers and capping the earnings of Realtors. If this is the best way to serve the public, then why aren’t we doing more of it? I personally don’t think it is. Cut rate cuts value and why as professionals would we want to diminish our service to the consumers? It’s a half-assed approach to an important and complex process.
As a Realtor I am proud of the skills and experience I have earned over the years and satisfied that my clients are being well serviced by those skills. Like other Realtors, I have worked hard for my positioning in this business. I wonder why CREA even needs to be prodded on these issues of online public access, and would not act expeditiously in consideration of preserving its members’ rights to prosper.
After all, Realtors and brokers are the ones with their necks on the line when acting under agency. Why not make the risk worth it by encouraging the consumer’s connection with a Realtor instead of encouraging them to just window shop online? A modest fee for MLS use would qualify the potential buyers as well. So many consumers just tire kick online now that we have a host of virtual home buyers hobbying their way into our lives and wasting our precious earning time. Maybe folks who want to browse should be permitted a certain number of hours free, and then a fee is required after that. This should bump the merely curious and hopefully, maintain the serious online browser.
In addition, we as Realtors know the special features that make a listing more than a picture on a page with some basic info attached. How can we really help our clients (sellers/buyers) when consumers are breezing through most of what they see without the critical background info that can usually only come from a Realtor who has the experience and knowledge to help?

Carol Reynolds, Realtor
Tradewinds Realty Inc.
Chester, N.S.