CREA (Canadian Real Estate Association) has passed it's new rules to work alongside of the Competion Bureau. The Bureau is not satisfied with what CREA has passed to make both sides happy. It is now going to go to a tribunal which could take years.
The Competition Bureau wants CREA to allow For Sale By Owners to use our system. CREA owns the MLS on all Canadian local boards and we as realtors pay dues, take courses and are responsible for all the information we post on a listing. They claim that we are non-competitive with our commissions and make it out to sound like every realtor charges 5% and there is no room for negotiation. NOT TRUE. Realtors have always been allowed to negotitate their commisssion or run a listing as a flat fee. The sellers name and number did not go on the listing as all appointments were directed through the agent. The realtor could work on a very base flat fee or in increments of services negotiated between the parties.
CREA has agreed to allow the sellers name and number to go directly on the MLS listing and all appointments will go through the seller. There is a written agreement that the Seller is only paying a flat fee for the right to list on MLS and no further services are required of the agent. However, The agent is responsible for all information posted on the listing-room sizes, chattels included or excluded. The agent is also responsible to know if there are any property defects. Putting a disclaimer on the listing is not sufficent.
The great thing with this new ammendment is that althought the seller's name and number will appear on the local board MLS, it will not appear on Realtor.ca. Realtor.ca is the second stage of a listing- once it gets posted to the specific local board it is then uploaded onto Realtor.ca. The buying public finds properties on Realtor.ca but can not access the local board MLS. CREA will not allow the seller's name and number to appear once it gets uploaded onto Realtor.ca-THAT IS GREAT FOR THE REALTORS.
If a buyer finds the listing on Realtor.ca and phones the only number that does appear, the realtor's, the agent is not obligated to give any information about that listing-the seller's name, phone number or address. The realtor can, however sign up the buyer under agency and then explain the process of buying that house if they so choose. So the options then become,
a) the Seller agrees to pay a commission to the realtor
b) the buyer pays a commission to the realtor
c)there is no deal between the realtor and the seller.
This is fairly simplified, but will come into effect within the next months and in the mean time the forms exisitng will have to be rewritten.
There are more issues but this is the key one causing all the controversy.
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I proudly server buyers and sellers in the Greater Toronto neighbourhoods of: Forest Hill, Cedarvale, North York, North Toronto, Summit Heights, Wilson Height, Bathurst Manor, Leaside, Bayview, Thornhill, Richmond Hill and all surrounding areas.
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