In light of a recent challenge by the Competition Bureau, the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) is considering opening up its listings to a greater extent within weeks.
On May 27th, the Competition Bureau took legal action, alleging that TREB, which represents 31,000 Realtors and operates the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for the Greater Toronto Area, is “restricting how its member agents can provide information from the Toronto MLS system to their customers, thereby denying member agents the ability to provide innovative brokerage services over the Internet.”
According to the Globe and Mail this week, the Toronto board is aiming to avoid that legal fight by improving data access for tens of thousands of real estate agents and their customers.
TREB spokeswoman Mary Gallagher told the paper that the board would likely turn to the 2008 deal struck between the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Association of Realtors in a similar case involving internet listings – a deal which ultimately led to the creation of property search websites like Zillow.com.
The public currently can view listings on MLS.ca but cannot access additional information, such as average prices and overall sales statistics, which are available to members of the Canadian Real Estate Association on Realtor.ca.
The Competition Bureau said it wants real estate agents to be able to use Virtual Office Web sites (VOWs) to customers in part as a time-saving measure. “VOWs permit a customer to search a full inventory of listings containing up-to-date data online before making a decision to tour a home or attend an open house,” the bureau said in a press release announcing the legal challenge. “This enables customers to be more selective and focused, and agents to spend less time trying to find an appropriate property for a specific customer.”
The bureau said it had hoped to settle with the TREB prior to filing the lawsuit, but an agreement was never reached. Other real estate boards nationally are no doubt watching the result of this legal battle to determine their won courses of action.
The bureau already sued the Canadian Real Estate Association last year, ultimately reaching a settlement which makes it illegal for local boards to ban members from posting private listings on MLS.ca.
Should be interesting to see what happens – for us, it would certainly make things easier…
Sign-up For FREE Updates
