Independent agents find business tougher

For information about Michael Manley click ... "ABOUT" to the right.

In 1995 Ontario Government regulations came into effect creating Buyer and Seller agency. Prior to this all real estate agents represented the seller, no matter what the buyers thought, or the agent working for the buyer felt. The government realized that buyers needed to have independent representation..... Independent from the listing agent and so buyer agency became a legal reality.

Unfortunately the industry (management) has not embraced the importance of buyer agency to the fullest. As a result Independent buyer agents are finding it harder and harder to sustain their business. New agents coming into the business are finding it more and more difficult to find buyers from advertising.

A prime example of the Industry prejudice against buyer agents is MLS.ca. MLS.ca is the most successful real estate advertising site ever, it had 93 million viewers last year who looked at over 3 billion pages of information. These MLS.ca viewers sent 3.2 million emails to agents. A phenomenal result ... all of these emails went to listing agents, none went to buyer agents.

MLS.ca and the TREB listing information on MLS.ca is owned equally by all agents who are members of TREB and CREA. Currently there is no possibility of an agent without a listing to advertise on MLS.ca. This is not fair. Some Real Estate Boards have solved this inequity by adopting, what we call in the industry, an IDX solution. If we are not going to be the leader in our industry, at least we can be a quick follower and adopt an IDX solution as soon as possible to correct this inequality.

Another problem that has emerged over the last 10 years, where the industry has been searching for solutions, is the problem of multiple offers and the fact that there is no industry standard or system for handling multiple offers. This has lead to both buyers and buyer agents feeling that they have been taken advantage of. The current situation is that the listing agent controls the offer presentation and can organize the process any way they feel like. This wide open situation leads to abuse or at least leads to many buyers and buyer agents feeling they have not been treated fairly. We need to have what I call a "fair offer system". Many fair offer systems already exist on the internet and we can make one available to our buyers, sellers and agents. It's no wonder that real estate agents rate at the low end of the trustworthy scale; we are our own worst enemies.

Another problem is the very real confusion over "agency" in Ontario. As I understand it most consumer complaints to RECO have to do with actions involving dual agency. Both agents and consumers are confused about the silly agency laws we have in Ontario. Other jurisdictions have solved these problems and the confusion by adopting what is called "designated agency". We need to do likewise?

I, Michael Manley, want to be president of TREB to focus the boards efforts on solving these problems. I believe the independent agent is the backbone of organized real estate and needs TREB's support. Vote for me to give me a mandate to push for these changes.

If you agree or disagree, please let me know by clicking on the options to the right. Let me know if you a are a TREB member or a member of the public. Tell me your experiences. I'm interested.