CREA has spent a great deal of effort to determine what the role of the Realtor will be in the next five to 10 years. I am not convinced that whatever decisions CREA makes will actually have a significant impact on the role of Realtors going forward. However, I do think the decisions that CREA makes surrounding the marketing, promotion and development of Realtor.ca will have an impact on where consumers look for their real estate information.

Realtor.ca is CREA’s most valuable asset. Because of the evolution of real estate technology, Realtor.ca has become the “go to” site for consumers. CREA needs to realize that Realtor.ca is primarily an advertising vehicle designed to generate leads for Realtors. Like MLS, the strength of Realtor.ca is its exclusivity, as we have most of the MLS listed property on that site. If it’s that exclusivity of information that makes it powerful, why would we give that information to our competitors as is contemplated in the Data Distribution Facility?

Consumers use our services because we are professional and perhaps most importantly, regulated. Woefully absent from the discussions regarding the future role of the Realtor, and a significant player (in Ontario) is the Ministry of Government Services and RECO. Does the government want this industry to continue to be regulated or will they continue to allow other non-license organizations to trade in real estate? Is it our responsibility to do the policing or is it RECOs? Does the government want a minimum standard of care or service? If the industry wants to increase its standards, isn’t this the government body that should be lobbied and at least involved in the discussion?

Technology and data – Realtor.ca was created as an advertising vehicle for organized real estate to market listings and as more people used technology in their everyday life, this site became more important to both Realtors and consumers. Since consumers could not access MLS directly, Realtor.ca became the most popular site in Canada because no other site contained all the properties listed by Realtors in the country.

Recently Realtors have been realizing the benefits of having all the listings in their local market on their own website (IDX).  Ask most Realtors, “Would you like the consumer to select the Realtor first, then a property they have listed on their website? Or would you prefer the consumer to select the property first on Realtor.ca and then the Realtor?” I suspect the Realtor would prefer the first option rather than the second. The problem is most Realtors still do not have an IDX solution available to them.

Data Distribution Facility – Let there be no misunderstanding, third-party organizations such as Zoocasa and Trulia are competitors to our Realtor.ca website. They are trying to attract the consumer to go to their website instead of Realtor.ca. In my opinion the Data Distribution Facility is flawed and misguided. Why would Realtors want to aggregate all our listing data and give that data to our competitors? It doesn’t matter that the data will be presented in a format of our choosing. All we are doing is enhancing our competitors’ websites.

Proponents of this idea say, “Well, Realtors are sending them the information now anyway, except it is not always current or up-to-date and it makes us all look bad.” The solution: if it’s not kept up-to-date, it’s a Code of Ethics violation and the Realtor should be penalized. If third-party organizations end up with all the MLS data as well as the FSBO data, will they not then have more content on their site than Realtor.ca? Will the third-party site then be the “go to”  site for the consumer?

FSBOs and the vehicles they use to advertise their properties (third-party organizations) are our competitors. The map of the future lists as one of the potential benefits for putting FSBOs on Realtor.ca as “one-stop shopping”.  I say any shopping without me, means no business for me. How does the Realtor get involved in a potential transaction when the consumer can contact the seller directly?

I have been a Realtor for 30 years and for 28 of those years the broker of record for my own company, which currently staffs just over 140 Realtors. During those years the level of professionalism and the role of the Realtor has dramatically changed, partly due to consumer expectations and education and mostly driven by government regulations and intervention. Consequently I believe the control that organized real estate  has over the role of the Realtor is minimal. Organized real estate should drive government bodies responsible for real estate to get involved in the discussion if they continue to want this industry to be regulated.

Vito Campanale C.A.

Broker of Record

Century 21 First Canadian Corp.

London, Ont.