An agreement between the Toronto and Oakville real estate boards to share listings for properties in Halton Hills, Milton and Oakville will end June 30.
In a letter to members, Toronto Regional Real Estate Board president Lisa Patel says, “TRREB supports members having full access to listing data and continues to work toward increased access to facilitate a single MLS system marketplace. We have been presenting these concepts to boards, associations, brokerages and members for many years and continue to do so. We believe such efforts will benefit the industry and create efficiencies and transparency for all members and consumers.”
Patel says TRREB made a proposal to the Oakville, Milton and District Real Estate Board to establish a formal partnership but had not heard back.
The letter says TRREB is working with Information Technology Systems Ontario (ITSO), which includes about 15,000 members from 21 Ontario boards, “to explore ways we can provide our members with access to the data they need to conduct their business.”
In April, ITSO president Michelle Wobst and Donna Bacher, president of the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington (which is not a member of ITSO but has a data-sharing agreement with it), issued an open letter stating, “We want to be able to provide Realtors with access to all the MLS listing content they need regardless of whether they join an ITSO member association, RAHB or TRREB. Our hope is that TRREB feels the same way because we know TRREB also has responded to the demand for regionalization and consolidation of information sources.”
In an interview with REM in April, Wobst said, “Most Realtors in Ontario would prefer just one MLS system with all the data and not have to worry about paying to subscribe to another board – they would prefer one fee on one system with all the data.
“At this point we would love to at least do a data share with (TRREB),” she says. “If we had a data share with them it would alleviate a lot of Realtor expenses. Right now the real estate associations are making money off of the extra subscriber fees and the inter-board listings but the Realtors are still paying to do all of that.”
TRREB has plans to launch a new “multi-list” technology platform for its more than 60,000 TRREB and partner-board members.
“We want to be a purveyor of choice – something that will create that opportunity for innovation and for people to choose how they want to use the system and customize it for a brokerage or a member or an association. It’s not necessarily one size fits all,” DiMichele told REM.
In a letter to TRREB’s Board of Directors shared with REM, Robert Ede, a sales representative with Re/Max Hallmark Realty in Toronto, says, “Every president/COO/finance committee of these small pond boards/associations is (interested in protecting) their budgets far more than their members or geographic jurisdictions…We got rid of the tariff and dismantled the Three Pillars. Isn’t it time we had proper mobile search and one MLS!”
