John Geha (left) and Budge Huskey
By Jim Adair
With CREA’s Data Distribution Facility (DDF) set to launch in July, Budge Huskey, president and COO of Coldwell Banker Real Estate, has some words of caution based on his experience in the United States.
“The U.S. went down a path where it was the more the better – let’s put our data everywhere,” says Huskey. “Then you wake up one day and find your listing without your permission on overstock.com, and you realize that perhaps we’ve gone too far.”
Huskey, who was in Toronto recently to address a Coldwell Banker broker retreat and economic summit, says: “Now the U.S. is in a conversation – has syndication gone too far? It’s not so much that listing data is ubiquitous. It’s that not everyone is playing by a set of rules. When it comes to listing attribution, displays, the timeliness of the data – those are issues of transparency and integrity that consumers should expect. Regrettably, many of the aggregator sites in the U.S. do not play by those rules. One of the lessons that can be learned for Canada is that it’s not always everywhere is better – you need to have standards in place and the brokers and consumers need to know there is integrity to the data and the display.”
Coldwell Banker Canada’s president John Geha says, “If you can’t control the data, you are not servicing the consumer properly.” He says the company has not yet decided how its listings will fit into the new “permission-based” CREA DDF.
In the U.S., Huskey says some local real estate associations and MLS companies have “overstepped their charter.”
He says it was always intended that the association and MLS websites would display the information but that the broker would be the first point of contact for consumers. But “some associations have created their own brand,” he says. “I don’t think that was intended by the founding members of the organizations. I think there’s a limit to how far the associations should go.”
But he says that organized real estate has a critical role to play in lobbying government on housing policy issues, and in maintaining real estate’s code of ethics to “keep it from becoming the wild wild west.”
Coldwell Banker Canada currently has 263 offices with about 3,800 sales reps. The 105-year-old company is a “fairly mature brand” in the U.S., and “for us to meet our expectations of growth, we have to make a much greater commitment in Canada and other international markets,” says Huskey.
Geha says the company is going to be careful about how quickly it expands. “As much as we want to grow and are aggressive with our growth model, we have to be careful we are not growing for the wrong reasons,” he says. He cites Alberta as “vital” to the company’s growth plans.
At the summit, Geha and Huskey encouraged brokers to look at developing ancillary revenue sources, such as adding mortgage brokerages, commercial services and property management. Huskey says that diversifying the business with complementary businesses that use the same infrastructure is a way for brokers to maximize their investment.
“In the States, the actual brokerage transaction itself is almost becoming a loss leader,” he says. “Their true profitability is coming from the ancillary services. I’m not saying it’s the right or wrong model, it just affords you some flexibility.”
Another lesson from the U.S. experience: don’t worry so much about FSBO companies. “We’ve had a variety of FSBO and alternative business models over the years” in a variety of different markets, says Huskey. “None of them have sustained a significant percentage of the market. I think that fact more than anything else is evidence of the value of a professional in this business.
“We strongly believe the consumer should have options, but we remain confident that after 105 years, the reason our brand has been successful is because consumers understand real estate is a highly dysfunctional and complex process, unlike other industries.”
Huskey told the audience of Coldwell Banker brokers that the “most important thing you have to do is make sure quality is our most important competitive advantage.”
