The Barrie & District Association of Realtors (BDAR) and the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) have announced that BDAR members have voted to integrate with TRREB.
The move will unite more than 1,500 BDAR members with TRREB’s membership, providing consolidated access to complete listing and sold data through a single MLS database.
The vote was put to BDAR members on Feb. 16 following a weeks-long consultation period.
According to a news release, this integration will keep BDAR’s current regional office and local staff in place while giving members access to TRREB’s services.
“Members will now be empowered with data, innovation and technology, strengthened advocacy, and leading educational opportunities,” said Luc Woolsey, BDAR president, in the news release. “I’m proud of the proposal we brought to our membership and the guaranteed regional representation it includes.”
“This is good news for TRREB and for BDAR,” said TRREB President Paul Baron. “We are excited to integrate the two boards and look forward to the results this collaboration will bring our combined membership.”
The amalgamated board will continue to be known as TRREB.
This is wonderful news. Perhaps it will be the impetus for other boards to do the same, or at the very least do a comprehensive data share with TRREB. It is inconceivable that many Realtors have to be members of two or more boards in order to access comprehensive listing data for their area. We cannot serve the public to the best of our ability if we allow the data to be segregated by irrelevant board “boundaries”. Let’s move into the new millennium and arrange for Realtors to have province-wide data.