The Melanie Aitken led Competition Bureau has filed a formal complaint against the Toronto Real Estate Board charging that it engages in anti-competitive behaviour by not allowing all of its MLS® listings to be downloaded by individual brokerages and/or its members into their virtual office web sites.
Aitken's complaint is that the general public can't go to XYZ company's virtual web site which requires membership, a login account and password to search for any and all properties one may so choose to search for in such and such an area and price range. This, Ms. Aitken believes would deliver results that allows one to make informed decisions before leaving the comfort of their couch and venturing out to see the property.
I would bet a dollar to a donut her she has never typed: www.realtor.ca on her keyboard.
If I were Ladsbrook, I 'd give 5 to 1 that she has no idea what number of files she could convert into .pdf via her IPad either, and 10-1 that she does not care to know.
On the face of it this seems like a reasonable complaint, but it is, in my opinion, an infringement of every capitalistic right afforded real estate brokerages to carry on a legitimate business in the manner they so choose and a downright assault on the privacy afforded private citizens.
I might very well be wrong because I haven't yet read her complaint against TREB, but I surmise that she takes up the case where the Realtysellers and Fraser Beach backer, Lawrence Dale, left off in his court loss to TREB in 2010. In addition, this is a move that would circumvent stricter privacy laws soon to come into force.
www.realtor.ca is a web site that just about every house hunter knows, and if they don't, they will quickly come to know it far sooner than the tens of thousands of obscure web sites offering property searches from soup to nuts. It does not require one become a member, or provide personal information or register a password to search properties. This is first and foremost important for the public to understand because you can be completely anonymous.
Issue 1: You see, the privacy laws are changing and very soon REALTORS® will not be allowed to contact anyone electronically unless there is express consent given by the contactee first. This means, less spam with enormous fines to those who do not comply with the new law. BUT! What you the public may not take the time to read are the caveats found in fine print that specifically states that should you willingly provide information, you have consented to the collection of your private information and to be contacted (spammed) at will by the person or company you willingly contacted. Maybe you will even give the company the right to sell your contact information to third parties. Further, this allowed contact can be extended for additional periods depending on your action or non-action to their solicitations.
It amounts to advertisement revenues generated for the web site. Your free web search or membership will not keep the owners of these web sites sheltered. Your clicking on the advertisements and the selling of your contact information will though. Web sites owners with outside advertisers are paid on a per click basis.
With Aitken as their advocate, your anonymity disappears with membership unless of course you fraudulently represent yourself to be whom you are not. Then you're engaging in a criminal act.
TREB's rebuttal to the charge is that they are protecting the privacy of sellers.
Issue 2: This is true. At present the seller's name(s) is displayed on the REALTOR's® version of realtor.ca only. It is required that all REALTORS® when taking a listing verify that the seller is who they say they are and has the authority to sell the property . This lends credibility to the buyer's agent that this in fact took place under the FINTRAC law which came about as a direct result of the mortgage scams and identity theft issues so prevalent 2-3 years ago. Unfortunately this was compromised when Aitken went after The CREA in 2009/10.
This new charge in my opinion opens the flood gates.
Private sellers may now opt to have their name and or contact information displayed on the MLS system, that is their choice. However, most sellers do not want to be identified. Aitken's change will mean that this information will be searchable by anyone with a computer and browser. From the fake Nigerian priest types who steal listing photos and advertise them as rental properties to the hackers of Sony who collect identities and sell them to anyone whose vested interest in your self worth lies exactly with how much to the last penny they can collect in your name.
Imagine now you are an elderly couple cashing in on your asset for your retirement years; a single person, perhaps suddenly widowed in need of the proceeds of sale; a young person or couple starting to build your assets; a recently divorced or separated person; an investor who resides out of town; an executor and even an owner whose property is being sold under power of sale. Aitken's proposal threatens to expose all of this to people with a screen name, a bogus ID and the express intent to impersonate and or defraud you.
TREB has stated in their response that they have been actively working on VOWs since last July (2010).
Issue 3: This is also true. I can, as a member of two TREB committees since 2009, attest to this statement. It appears to me though that Aitken wants the public at large to have more access to personal information than TREB may be willing to cede.
I for one, cannot in good conscience, look my seller clients in the eyes and tell them that their personal information regarding the largest asset they might own will not be that much easier to steal by any crook and identity thief, should they choose to list on MLS System® if Aitken has her way.
Issue 4: If Aitken has her way it will not stop with this. I could foresee the ethical brokerages opting out of the MLS System® in order to protect their clients and Aitken suing them for being anti-competitive.
I do not speak of identity thieves lightly. The media has not tried to hide this type of crime. But, I have the ability to tell when this web site is visited, from where and what the visitor is looking for. The same goes for my realty web site www.itssoldyouremoving.com. Both are in English yet, I get frequent traffic from some countries that cause me to raise an eyebrow.
And I am small potatoes compared to TREB's hundreds of thousand of listings.
What are some of these visitors looking for?
You decide.
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