The MLS under seige
It’s not just buyers who want a better system than the MLS. – a group of large brokerages including Century 21, Royal LePage and ReMax are meeting with the intent of building an alternative to realtor.ca that is more technically advanced.
The meeting comes a day after Yahoo Canada announced it will offer listings on its main search page using database and real-time search technology from Toronto-based Zoocasa.com.
Zoocasa has been criticized by the industry for scraping listings off the MLS, but Zoocasa president Butch Langlois said it is operating within the industry’s rules, with each agent voluntarily offering to post their listings in exchange for the advanced features offered on the site.
It’s a slick offering that is comparable to services in the United States such as Zillow, which has become a major hub for listings and a major headache for the brokerages that used to control the flow of information. “People have embraced the site but we need to increase awareness that Realtor.ca isn’t the only place to go when looking for a home,” Mr. Langlois said.
While Zoocasa, backed by Rogers Communications Inc., (RCI.B-T37.52-0.19-0.50%) is the highest profile competitor to take on the MLS to date, there are several private networks under development across the country that want to compete with MLS.
The brokerages intend to build their own site that would run parallel to Realtor.ca and be governed by the same rules, using listings from their offices across the country. They would be able to control what features are offered, and upgrade the technology as they see fit without having to go through CREA, the trade association that represents the country’s 100,000 agents.
“We support organized real estate and this has nothing to do with pulling out of what they are doing,” Mr. Lawby said. “But the consumer wants to see as much data as they can and we want to make sure they are able to do that effectively.”
Will the MLS be overturned as the dominate listings engine in Canada? Read the full article over at the Globe and Mail.
Thanks ready to pop for the link.
RSS 2.0 comments feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
September 1st, 2010 at 1:00 am
Unit sales August
2009 = 2010 = %change = area
5 = 4 = -20% Bowen Island
38 = 40 = +5% Burnaby East
195 = 118 = -39%% Burnaby North
189 = 137 = -27% Burnaby South
290 = 130 = -55% Coquitlam
7 = 7 = 0% Islands-Van. & Gulf
36 = 22 = -38% Ladner
196 = 109 = -44% Maple Ridge
133 = 84 = -36% New Westminster
234 = 143 = -38% North Vancouver
41 = 23 = -43% Pitt Meadows
117 = 59 = -49%% Port Coquitlam
84 = 54 = -35% Port Moody
480 = 336 = -30% Richmond
37 = 31 = -16% Squamish
77 = 57 = -25% Sunshine Coast
39 = 36 = -7% Tsawwassen
388 = 229 = -40% Vancouver East
801 = 512 = -36% Vancouver West
80 = 61 = -23% West Vancouver
20 = 42 = +110% Whistler
September 1st, 2010 at 12:43 am
August sales down -36%
Aug
1994 = 2159
1995 = 2326
1996 = 2141
1997 = 2096
1998 = 1589
1999 = 2002
2000 = 1805
2001 = 2659
2002 = 2558
2003 = 3413
2004 = 2570
2005 = 3800
2006 = 3092
2007 = 3493
2008 = 1611
2009 = 3496
2010 = 2236 down 36% ***Aug 31
September 1st, 2010 at 12:08 am
@Anonymous: “This was from 2006:
Bernanke: Housing market is headed for a soft landing”
In fact, Bernanke co-authored a paper in which he said FED should not care about house prices.
read more -
This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
by Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff
reviewed by Dr Winfried Fruehauf:
“The book “This time is different” is well-researched, so well that it could be viewed as a scholarly entertaining, educational textbook. It is not easily read cover-to-cover in one or even a few sittings. Indeed, it is very demanding on the reader.
The book identifies excessive use of debt as the root cause of some of the most severe economic and financial ills of governments, societies and the business-world over many centuries. Lack of spending discipline, caused by ignorance, greed, lack of foresight, massive governmental intervention and/or acts of Dutch courage, is the driver of excesssive indebtedness. On the flip side of borrowers’ inability to repay debt in full and on time is the damage visited upon lenders from the fall-out of insolvency. It could be argued that some or most of the causes of the excessive use of debt are, mutatis mutandis, identical with or similar to the causes of excessive lending. In other words, lack of due diligence is leading both borrowers and lenders into financial quagmires.
There is nothing inherently wrong with the use of debt; however, wrong is excessive use of debt.
The book’s title is probably chosen to be facetious. It could, perhaps equally well, have read “same old – same old” and it would have hit the nail on the head, and, as such, would have reaffirmed Ecclesiastes 1:2-11: there is nothing new under the sun.”
August 31st, 2010 at 11:47 pm
@rp1:
“Among the people spending $1.8M for 1300 sqft 2 bedroom apartments, who cares about a reduced price?”
I am sure the seller will care when he finally sells the place for $600K after completion. I doubt he could get anymore than 50 cents on the dollar today even before prices really decline. I hope the developer got a hefty deposit.