False advertising also discussed at Woodstock-Ingersoll District real estate board gathering
By
Mark Schadenberg
With
four speakers at the Woodstock-Ingersoll & District Real Estate Board
(WIDREB) annual meeting on May 11 there is so much to mention, I need two
blogs.
This
part two will include Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) updates and a brief
look at how the Competition Bureau (and therefore Tribunal) is waging an
ongoing debate with the Toronto-area real estate board (TREB)
RECO
The
deputy registrar of RECO is Kelvin Kucey is a lawyer quite interesting to
listen to as he is quickly able to bounce back and forth from both sides of a
legal conundrum.
His
power point point-of-view last Wednesday was a reminder to Realtors about the
passing of Bill 55 and why it became law. Realtors must save a copy of all
offers on their listings or at least have a ‘summary document’ on all offers.
Bill
55 came into effect on July 1 of 2015.
If
consumers think that Realtors have less paperwork to deal with the exponential
advances in technology, you’d be wrong as paper work and contracts and filing
cabinets continue to grow.
One
of the reasons our office has meetings twice monthly, is that Realtors must
also keep track of sanctions posted against other brokers and sales
representatives as a method of education and future compliance by all Realtors
across Ontario.
Advertising
guidelines were also stressed as ads can not be false or misleading, and this
includes those simple flyers a Realtor might be circulating in one small
neighbourhood to promote a new listing.
When
buying a house, purchasers know the adage” “location. . . location . . .
location.”
Kucey
reminded the WIDREB membership about this adage: “disclosure . . . disclosure .
. . disclosure”
Consumers
can know that RECO also has videos available on its website, including the
always-popular debate about buying a new house first or selling your current
house first.
The
link is below, but my advice is that in the current Woodstock market you would
be safe to buy first and then sell, but the caveat is you must list your house
at the correct price and work with a full-time experienced Realtor. As the
video says you must have a “tolerance for risk.”
RECO picture from their website
CREA
The
CREA Competition lawyer also took to the podium at the annual meeting.
Paul
Fuerer provided an update on the on-going tennis match between TREB and the federal
Competition Bureau (Tribunal news).
Fuerer
could be quoted as saying that organized real estate will never be off the
radar screen of the Competition Bureau.
You
could say that technology provides information to Realtors, but should all that
same info be automatically provided to the home buying public? Where does the
Privacy Act come into play? I also consider that a house may have sold below
market value for many reasons, especially an employment relocation.
It
goes without saying that consumer protection is paramount in any industry as is
thoughts of price fixing or collusion. For example, consumers always think the
gas companies are talking to each other when the price of car fuel leaps two
days before a long weekend. Is this a fact, a misnomer, or simply a complete
understanding of the economic factors in supply and demand principles?
Fuerer
didn’t talk about unleaded gas as his points were about the real estate
industry and the fact that no organized industry can collude (conspiracy),
mislead or discriminate against any consumer group.
I
realize many new and different business models exist now in real estate,
including ‘mere postings’, which is where someone can sell their house through www.realtor.ca
and essentially represent themselves in the transaction. Most mere postings
sellers do cooperate with Realtors because the smart home buyer has a signed
buyer agency agreement with a full-time experienced Realtor.
As
far as supplying 100% access of all available data for consumers, including listing
notations about conditional offers on homes, days on market and price
reductions, and comparable recent neighbourhood sales, I would say supplying
that information directly to the possible home buyers would be detrimental to
the home seller.
ANNUAL
MEETING
The
meeting at the Quality Hotel & Suites also included the approval of the new
WIDREB executive, and annual reports varying from our board’s executive officer
Nicole Bowman, to community volunteering to possible amendments to association
bylaws to real estate education programs to the political action committee
(PAC).
The
one committee I have sat on it the past is PAC and it’s truly a lobbying group
where concerns of real estate boards are delivered to all three levels of
government, and it’s a big ‘and’ with consumer protection as the most integral
component of these advocacy viewpoints. The best example to depict successes is
the lobbying against the possibilities of a municipal land transfer tax. The
Ontario government has now said (in 2015) it will not permit more communities
from introducing this home buying tax.
LINKS:
Dec. 1, 2015 story:
Mark Schadenberg, Sales Representative
Senior Real Estate Specialist (SRES designation)
Royal LePage Triland Realty Brokerage
757 Dundas St, Woodstock
(519) 537-1553, cell or text
Email: mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter: markroyallepage
Facebook: Mark Schadenberg, Royal LePage Triland
Discussion . . . Direction . . . Determination . . .
Destination
