Information Technology Systems Ontario (ITSO) held its second province-wide meeting on November 26 to discuss a few options for increasing access to MLS data. The organization warns that a data divide is hurting Ontario realtors.
ITSO, a not-for-profit corporation, was established in 2020 to provide Ontario realtors with seamless access to complete and accurate MLS listing data and technology.
Allison McLure, executive director of ITSO, says it was a really great meeting. Co-facilitated by Trevor Koot, CEO of the British Columbia Real Estate Associate and Alan Tennant, CEO of the Calgary Real Estate Board, the meeting began with brokers beginning the session by explaining the problem.
The data issue
“The reason we were there is because they’ve been really frustrated having to manage multiple sets of MLS rules and data input forms and different professional standards processes. Also, they don’t have the data they need all in one system,” she mentions. “And it’s hurting them.”
McLure indicated there was concern expressed about it also affecting the reputation of realtors. “Consumers see all information on realtor.ca and VOWs and they can’t understand why realtors don’t have the data they need. That was the problem. And that’s what we’re trying to solve.”
Proposed solutions
Proposed solutions were made through presentations by Corelogic and PropTx. The meeting was held in Toronto with 23 boards from the province represented.
ITSO operates a regional MLS system for 15 of its member real estate associations in the province. McLure says its members have wanted ITSO and the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board to share data for years now.
“We have had task forces in the past that negotiated with TRREB but those resulted in concerns about a lack of transparency. ITSO hosted the meeting (on Sunday) so that the conversations had by the leaders of the associations would be out in the open and heard by everyone in attendance.”
She says the Corelogic solution would be to make a shared pool of data and centralized database, and then push all that data back into the various MLS systems. So, no one would have to change MLS systems — they would just have all the data in their native system.
McLure added that the PropTx option was for all the boards in the province to start using its blockchain-enabled MLS platform and adopt its rules.
A divide across boards
“Those are the two solutions on the table. We went around the room and had some very honest and open conversations. TRREB made it very clear that they will not share their MLS data with any of the other boards in the province, as they feel that puts their data at risk,” she explains.
“We didn’t necessarily all agree because we feel our MLS systems have protection as well, but we at least now know TRREB’s stance. I don’t think they’ve ever clearly said that before. So, with the Corelogic solution off the table for TRREB that only leaves one viable option if we really want to solve this problem … and that’s everyone switching to PropTx.”
McLure said some of the boards expressed interest in learning more about PropTx while others raised concerns about the platform’s governance.
“So, I think there was clearly a divide in the room … Each of those boards now has to go back to their board table and have this discussion and see if they want to move to PropTx or if they want to continue kind of status quo and focus on other problems,” she says.
“I think definitely there will be some more people that will move to PropTx if they feel that’s the way the future is going, and I think there’s going to be others that won’t.”
Impact on consumers
For consumers, McLure indicates the current situation is inefficient as it’s forcing some realtors to put listings in three different systems. This ends up costing the real estate industry time and money, which is passed on to consumers.
“There’s also a sense of people wanting to get past the politics that exist and to solve the problem,” she adds.
There are seven MLS systems in Ontario and different data in all of these systems. McLure says realtors need access to all of this MLS data to fulfill their fiduciary duties to their clients, to do their jobs and to appear professional in the eyes of consumers.
Mario Toneguzzi is a contributing writer for REM. He has more than 40 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist, and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald, covering sports, crime, politics, health, faith, city and breaking news, and business. He now works on his own as a freelance writer for several national publications and consultant in communications and media relations/training. Mario was named in 2021 as one of the Top 10 Business Journalists in the World by PR News – the only Canadian to make the list.
Excellent report from Sunday and super summary of two providers’ positions and the participants’ viewpoints.
Great work!
Re-reading article I see that a lot of the seem-sensible-to-me comments were attributed to Ms McLure of ITSO.
I think Ms Allison McLure should be invited to speak for 30 minutes and answer questions from the floor at the upcoming in-person Spring TRREB Annual Meeting held coincident with REALTOR QUEST.
Maybe ITSO could have a booth (free of charge) in the Trade Show and SBF (salespeople, broker, firm) members of OREA and TRREB could get a full briefing — it goes without saying that PropTx should have a booth too.
Get the details out in the open.
Let each registrant inform and prepare to give or withhold their consent … before things go to far down the wrong pathway (again).
PropTx is a wholly owned subsidiary of TRREB.
Toronto is the typical problem child. Most of their members refuse to interboard in cities outside of Toronto yet expect everything to be on TRREB. Hypocritical as anything. They also are far behind in technology only adapting Fintracker recently, and using input forms as data forms- something ITSO has done for ages. Time to get with the times and have everyone on the same system to access information. ITSO is far superior.
Yes that’s correct and most-every TRREB member knows that factoid.
BUT few of us know the Other Side of the ONE MLS for All Ontario story NOR the complete story about Proptx ideas about solutions.
NB We SBF members of TRREB had a perfectly-good Stratus system and a recently-added & cobbled-together version of Matrix (both with a loyal and familiar base of users).
All of a sudden – we didn’t ask for it nor were we consulted about why and how the Best/brightest new features were being added and why and how the worst and data-dragging incompatible features were being phased out.
Nevermind that the New Realm system is NOT-INTUITIVE to EITHER the Stratus user base NOR the Matrix user base.
WE DIDN’T ask for a non-intuitive system in any way. We figured it was designed so that “other Boards” wouldn’t be reluctant to accept the “Toronto” system …
NOW some of us want to know if WE should accept it (Realm) too … let’s see the other systems, let us satisfy ourselves that we are all on the right path … this is what I’m suggesting for REALTOR QUEST!
We didn’t ask for a New System to be parcelled out piecemeal over 2+?? years for familiarization with it’s incomplete and constantly-changing interface and features. NEVER being able to run practical tests on a fully-featured Realm system discovering “how can I do what I’m doing on Stratus over on Realm” over an extended timeframe (without the panic of the deadline approaching)
We all did know that computer hardware and software “constantly changes and evolves” and that we must be prepared to move with the times.
We have done that many times since the mid-1980s — remember the initial “Heikki Cederquist” online dial-up system with dumb terminals and no photos?
A complete look at a fully-complete REALM for a year-in-parallel is not unreasonable.
Nor is a good hard look at both systems being proposed FOR ALL ONTARIO.
PropTx may indeed be a for-profit subsidiary of TRREB .. but It appeared as a wholly conceived and formed surprise-to-many as we emerged from the Lockdowns of Kovid-Kraziness.
Don’t think every SBF in toronto can be painted with the same brush.
We’re belly-to-belly Realtors just like you.
a la prochaine.
One year later and we now have more boards switching to PropTx, with OMDREB, London, Ottawa and Niagara moving over.
This leaves anyone who has a single memberhip with an ITSO board (Cornerstone, Barrie, Brantford), in the dark.
We have to look up sold comps on multiple boards.
Buyer searches on multiple boards.
Clients see two or more versions of listings.
Stats include duplicate listings.
One province … one database. That’s what we need.