Michael Manley is running for the TREB position of President elect. He needs your support.

We need to have Designated Agency in Ontario

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Currently according to RECO and the Ontario government when a buyer or seller hires a person who is an Ontario REALTOR "agent" to represent them in a real estate transaction, that REALTOR (individual) becomes their "agent." The law in Ontario is that the buyer or seller contract is with the Brokerage and not with the individual agent, so everyone working for that brokerage becomes an "Agent" for the buyer or seller.

This means that all "agents" from a brokerage who have an offer on any property listed by any agent from that same brokerage are in what is called a multiple agency situation (used to be called dual agency).

It gets even more complicated. If 2 or more "agents" from the same brokerage have offers on another brokerages listing, then they too are in a multiple agency situation. Most times in a larger brokerage you don’t know who has an offer on what property and all of a sudden, at the offer table, you find another "agent" from your own brokerage has an offer too. Both of these agents must then go to their clients and inform them they are in a multiple agency situation and need to get some new forms signed, and have to tell them that they now have to follow the multiple agency rules, which basically say that their "agent" can not now negotiate for their best interest. because they have to be fair to the other client form their brokerage.

This is all very confusing to everyone, "agents" and consumers alike.

Agency law has been set up this way because it is believed that all agents working for the same brokerage have a conflict of interest if they are in what is currently defined as a multiple agency situation. In reality most "agents" actually work for their specific clients no matter what the agency law says. This leads to nothing but confusion.

The only time there really is an actual conflict of interest is when a listing "agent" becomes the ‘agent" for a buyer of a property where that "agent" is also representing the seller. How often does a listing "agent" explain to a seller the rules of multiple agency, especially where the listing agent can not now negotiate for the best interests of the seller which may cost them thousands of dollars? No wonder everyone is confused and RECO gets lots of complaints from consumers regarding the problems that arise out of multiple representations.

The leadership solution is to demand that Ontario and RECO adopt designated agency, which has been pioneered already in many progressive jurisdictions.

Designated agency means that individual "agents" are designated to be the agency representatives of each individual buyer and seller. The brokerage itself is not designated as the agency. This means that all "agents" working for the same brokerage would not be in multiple offer situations when they have a buyer who wants to put in an offer on one of the brokerages listings, or when there is more than one "agent" from the same brokerage representing buyers competing for any listing. It would be like the real world works and the confusion would be reduced dramatically.

What Designated Agency also means is that multiple agencies would only take place when a listing "agent" also is the "agent" for a buyer, or when an "agent" is representing more than one buyer for the same property. In both of these situations there are huge conflicts of interest and multiple agencies in these situations would be not allowed.

This does not mean that an "agent" can not represent both parties to a transaction, but the representation would have to be agency for one and customer status for the other. A listing "agent" can still "double end" a property, but the buyer would have to be signed as a customer and not a client. This is fair and would take away the confusion, and a lot of RECO complaints.

Vote for Michael Manley and he will push the industry to adopt Designated Agency. Vote Now.

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We need a fair offer system

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TREB has been trying to figure out how to make the offer process fair for years. So far all the effort has gone into trying to create MLS rules that would make the offering process fair. RECO’s position is that offer presentations fall under the code of ethics, in particular, that everyone must be treated fairly.

Unfortunately MLS rules can not solve this problem and trying to impose RECO’s disciplinary procedures regarding the code of ethics on every instance of abuse just won’t work.

TREB should take a leadership position for the Ontario industry and develop an online offer system that would comply with RECO’s fairness requirements and Ontario’s privacy regulations. There are many systems currently in use on the internet in the product buying arena and in the travel business that could be used as starting templates.

An online offer system would not be mandatory, but if buyers and buyer agents create a demand for sellers to use a fair offer system, then it would become a selling advantage for sellers and would be readily adopted, especially when agents are using pricing as a marketing strategy.

Vote for Michael Manley and he will push for a FAIR OFFER SYSTEM. Vote Now.

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Independent Agents Find Business Tougher. Here's why!!

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.

Independent Agents Find Business Tougher. Here's why!!

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.

We Need an IDX solution

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IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange. Basically these are fancy words for what we would call Advertising. An IDX is an internet advertising format that makes all TREB’s listings available to all TREB members to advertise on their own web sites.

The key is that all TREB MLS listings are shown on your web site with your information as the contact person. The listing brokerage is shown in the information, but the listing sales representative is not.

Since TREB owns the data in our MLS system, TREB can decide that all listings placed in our MLS marketplace will automatically will be available to all our members in their IDX websites. If a brokerage does not want to have their listing appear on other agents IDX web sites they have the option of not placing the listing in our MLS Marketplace.

As TREB would be providing the data and format for the ads we would not be limited to what CREA’s MLS.ca provides. TREB could add Google Maps and other add-ons that the consumers want and that MLS.ca does not provide. MLS.ca is very limited in what it can offer as it has to satisfy the needs of all Canada, whereas TREB can be more flexible as we only have to satisfy our members.

Benefits for agents in TREB adopting an IDX solution.

1. All TREB members who own TREB and TREB’s data equally; will have equal access to TREB listing data for advertising.

2. Agents will be able to customise their web sites to promote their specialties.

3. Agents will be able to customise their web sites to attract the type of clients that they would like.

4. TREB could provide the listing information in different languages for Toronto’s many different communities and foreign buyers.

5. When agents advertise their own web sites they will be able to gain the benefit of consumers viewing all TREB listings on their web site without the fear of losing these customers to the listing agent.

6. Agents and brokerages will be able to add additional information to enhance the consumers visit to their web sites and in viewing listings on their site, benefits such: as area demographics, school reports, Crime statistics, local business information. The sky is limited only by your imagination.

7. Agents will be able to show as much listing information or as little information as they like, within the parameters of TREB’s IDX policy. (Privacy is always a paramount consideration)

Benefits to the consumer in TREB adopting an IDX solution

1. Since TREB will be providing, from TREB servers, the information on the agent IDX’s there will be no lag time as there is with MLS.ca. It can take days for TREB’s listing data to get on the MLS.ca website.

2. Consumer frustrations in finding many properties already sold on MLS.ca will be reduced as TREB member’s IDX’s will be able to show properties that are sold conditionally as such.

3. Consumers will love the enhancements such as Google Maps that TREB can provide.

4. Treb will be able to respond to consumer wants and implement changes much more quickly than MLS.ca. It takes years to change things at MLS.ca, if ever. I know.

Questions:

Does this mean that TREB listings will not be available on MLS.ca?

Treb listings will be available on MLS.ca but not in the current MLS.ca format. When a consumer goes to MLS.ca and ends up wanting to look at TREB area listings their search will produce the requested information, but the information will be on a TREB members IDX.

How does it get decided on whose IDX the listing information will show up?

The simple and fairest way is for the distribution to be selected at random from all our membership, but this may not be the most effective for our members and may not be the best way of providing the best outcome for the consumer. If a buyer is looking for properties in the country and gets an agent that really only wants to deal with downtown condo’s this may be a problem. It would be better if the consumer was directed to an agent that dealt with that type of property in that area more specifically. This kind of system can be set up giving our members the choice of what kind of prospects they would like to receive. These choices would be at the option of the member. The beauty of this kind of system would be that each agent would then have funnelled to them the type of buyer they want to deal with.

If you have questions please email me and I will answer them and post the answers here. mikemanley@torontothegood.com

The following are PDF examples of IDX listing ads for the same listing from different London Real Estate Board agents. These are simple IDX's  mls398786LynneMallette.pdf  mls398786pieterson.pdf

The following are examples of IDX ads that are interactive with the data allowing buyers to book an appointment etc. these are more how I would envision our TREB IDX ads to look.   heckler_homes Link    CBburnet link

Vote for Michael Manley for an IDX solution and a fair playing field for all agents. Vote Now

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IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange. Basically these are fancy words for what we would call Advertising. An IDX is an internet advertising format that makes all TREB’s listings available to all TREB members to advertise on their own web sites.

The key is that all TREB MLS listings are shown on your web site with your information as the contact person. The listing brokerage is shown in the information, but the listing sales representative is not.

Since TREB owns the data in our MLS system, TREB can decide that all listings placed in our MLS marketplace will automatically will be available to all our members in their IDX websites. If a brokerage does not want to have their listing appear on other agents IDX web sites they have the option of not placing the listing in our MLS Marketplace.

As TREB would be providing the data and format for the ads we would not be limited to what CREA’s MLS.ca provides. TREB could add Google Maps and other add-ons that the consumers want and that MLS.ca does not provide. MLS.ca is very limited in what it can offer as it has to satisfy the needs of all Canada, whereas TREB can be more flexible as we only have to satisfy our members.

Benefits for agents in TREB adopting an IDX solution.

1. All TREB members who own TREB and TREB’s data equally; will have equal access to TREB listing data for advertising.

2. Agents will be able to customise their web sites to promote their specialties.

3. Agents will be able to customise their web sites to attract the type of clients that they would like.

4. TREB could provide the listing information in different languages for Toronto’s many different communities and foreign buyers.

5. When agents advertise their own web sites they will be able to gain the benefit of consumers viewing all TREB listings on their web site without the fear of losing these customers to the listing agent.

6. Agents and brokerages will be able to add additional information to enhance the consumers visit to their web sites and in viewing listings on their site, benefits such: as area demographics, school reports, Crime statistics, local business information. The sky is limited only by your imagination.

7. Agents will be able to show as much listing information or as little information as they like, within the parameters of TREB’s IDX policy. (Privacy is always a paramount consideration)

Benefits to the consumer in TREB adopting an IDX solution

1. Since TREB will be providing, from TREB servers, the information on the agent IDX’s there will be no lag time as there is with MLS.ca. It can take days for TREB’s listing data to get on the MLS.ca website.

2. Consumer frustrations in finding many properties already sold on MLS.ca will be reduced as TREB member’s IDX’s will be able to show properties that are sold conditionally as such.

3. Consumers will love the enhancements such as Google Maps that TREB can provide.

4. Treb will be able to respond to consumer wants and implement changes much more quickly than MLS.ca. It takes years to change things at MLS.ca, if ever. I know.

Questions:

Does this mean that TREB listings will not be available on MLS.ca?

Treb listings will be available on MLS.ca but not in the current MLS.ca format. When a consumer goes to MLS.ca and ends up wanting to look at TREB area listings their search will produce the requested information, but the information will be on a TREB members IDX.

How does it get decided on whose IDX the listing information will show up?

The simple and fairest way is for the distribution to be selected at random from all our membership, but this may not be the most effective for our members and may not be the best way of providing the best outcome for the consumer. If a buyer is looking for properties in the country and gets an agent that really only wants to deal with downtown condo’s this may be a problem. It would be better if the consumer was directed to an agent that dealt with that type of property in that area more specifically. This kind of system can be set up giving our members the choice of what kind of prospects they would like to receive. These choices would be at the option of the member. The beauty of this kind of system would be that each agent would then have funnelled to them the type of buyer they want to deal with.

If you have questions please email me and I will answer them and post the answers here. mikemanley@torontothegood.com

The following are PDF examples of IDX listing ads for the same listing from different London Real Estate Board agents. These are simple IDX's  mls398786LynneMallette.pdf  mls398786pieterson.pdf

The following are examples of IDX ads that are interactive with the data allowing buyers to book an appointment etc. these are more how I would envision our TREB IDX ads to look.   heckler_homes Link    CBburnet link

Vote for Michael Manley for an IDX solution and a fair playing field for all agents. Vote Now

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Please tell me why you disagree!!

Click on the comments button to see a list of comments and to make your own. Please let me know if you are a REALTOR or a member of the public. Thanks

Your email address will not appear in your response and if you do not want to use your "real name" use an alias, and don't worry about the URL, but tell me what you think.

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Mike Manley REALTOR.

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.

Please tell me why you agree.

Click on the comments button below to see the comments and to make your own. Please let me know if you are a REALTOR or a member of the public. Thanks

Your email address will not appear in your response and if you do not want to use your "real name" use an alias, and don't worry about the URL, but tell me what you think.

Back to main page

Mike Manley REALTOR.