Following Canadian mortgage brokers online, five Canadian real estate companies have launched a commission-free sales network that will “mount a challenge to the dominant MLS system,” reports business news service, canoe.ca.
Online mortgage brokers give home purchaser the ability to quickly find the best mortgage rates and terms online. They are paid by the mortgage lender and are incentivized to find home purchasers the best mortgage terms available on the market – without the home purchaser incurring out-of-pocket costs.
Now, with a group of realtors breaking ranks with the Canadian Real Estate Association’s (CREA’s) Multiple Listing System, home purchasers and vendors have the opportunity to bypass Canada restrictive, commission-based realtor listing service, potentially saving thousands of dollars in commission fees that come out of the seller’s pocket.
The majority of Canadian properties are still listed and sold through MLS, although the five companies in the new syndicate (ComFree in Alberta, Skhomes4sale.com in Saskatchewan, ComFree in Manitoba, PrivateRealEstate in Ontario and ByTheOwner.com/Duproprio.com in Quebec) “have now sold more than 85,000 properties, saving customers more than $1 billion in commissions,” according to the canoe.com report.
The existing system has come under pressure from the Competition Bureau which has raised concerns that the rules imposed on agents by the CREA are anti-competitive, as the MLS “keeps key sales information – including newly listed properties, past selling prices and neighbourhood comparisons – hidden from non-members.” Canoe.ca also cites critics who have said the former MLS monopoly “forces sellers to pay for services from [real] estate agents that they don’t want or need.”
“We offer a genuine alternative to the services of real estate agents at a lower cost,” said Martin Rygiel, general manager of ByTheOwner.com, describing the new service as “a growing trend which we see as the wave of the future for real estate.”
The new commission-free listings syndicate, together with the services of a well-resourced online mortgage broker, has the potential for saving both sellers and buyers big savings on a real estate transaction – welcome news in a housing markets that has softened after the housing bull market in 2009 and the first half of 2010.
