I certainly have concerns about listings on the Internet. I believed it was a dumb idea at the beginning and it is even worse today. There was nothing to be gained for Realtors by giving up our control of listings to the Internet. It was an error.

We gather the information and report it to our local boards and then it is sent to mls.ca and distributed free of charge to everyone who wants to use that information. Not smart.  In a recent issue of Business Week, one of America’s premier business publications, a major article has chosen real estate as one of the industries to be crippled by internet technology.  What a shame, and we as

Realtors were in the forefront of the destruction of our industry by giving up control of the MLS system.

I believe it is probably too late to reverse that damage but the least we can do as Realtors is to have mls.ca charge a small user fee to everyone accessing the information, and use that money to institute a retirement fund for Realtors.  If we as Realtors collect the information, then we should be paid for that information.  I know this is not something that the employees of CREA or our provincial or local boards would agree with or probably understand.  But then again, these employees are the same people who made damn sure there were employee benefits and retirement programs available for themselves and frankly, to hell with the Realtors who pay their wages.

Do I sound cheesed off? You’re damn right I am. Realtors are the most unorganized group of people in an organized world.  Put 10 Realtors in a room and it would be impossible to agree on the correct time.  No matter what was being discussed at the meeting, at least half of the attendees would be on the phone or checking their pagers and the other half would be looking for ways to get out of the room and put out a brushfire somewhere. Almost nobody is looking ahead to the time when they can retire.  Maybe the reason is they will never be able to retire until they become too sick to work.

Shame on us as Realtors and shame on CREA and the provincial and local real estate boards.

Michael Saunders

Coast Capital Real Estate

Victoria, B.C.