Realtor.ca to lose Montreal listings

[IluvMTL]

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Realtor+lose+Montreal+listings/9285009/story.html

 

Realtor.ca to lose Montreal listings

 

 

BY ALLISON LAMPERT, GAZETTE REAL ESTATE REPORTER DECEMBER 13, 2013 7:10 PM

 

Starting Jan. 1, Montreal brokers will only be able to list homes for sale on Centris.ca, a real estate website unique to Quebec.

 

Photograph by: DAVE SIDAWAY , The Gazette

 

 

MONTREAL — The Canadian Real Estate Association’s popular Realtor.ca website — widely known as the MLS — will no longer list Montreal homes for sale.

 

 

The Greater Montreal Real Estate Board said Friday its brokers have voted in favour of separating from CREA.

 

 

Starting Jan. 1, Montreal brokers will only be able to list homes for sale on Centris.ca, a real estate website unique to Quebec.

Real estate brokers who favoured separating from CREA won by 66 votes out of 3,826 votes cast.

 

 

Montreal’s 9,700 brokers will no longer be able to list homes for sale on Realtor.ca — also known as the Multiple Listing Service — or on CREA’s ICX.ca, which features commercial properties.

 

 

“We were disappointed when we saw the decision,” said CREA spokesperson Pierre Leduc.

Leduc could not say how many listings were generated by CREA’s Montreal membership. Quebec’s 17,000 brokers currently generate 80,000 listings on Realtor.ca.

 

Brokers from four real estate boards located in Montreal, Quebec City, Granby and Drummondville have voted to leave CREA, while brokers from the Saguenay and the Laurentians will make a choice on whether to separate next week.

 

The votes follow a lengthy dispute over rising fees for members, duplication of services like the Realtor and Centris websites, along with a brewing turf war over the listing of Quebec homes for a flat fee by out-of-province brokers.

 

 

The Montreal board has objected to instances of brokers from Ontario — who are not subject to Quebec’s strict professional rules — listing a home in the Belle Province for a flat fee. CREA said it cannot stop its members from Ontario, or other provinces, from listing homes for sale in Quebec.

 

 

Citing October data, the Montreal board said Centris was the fourth most popular real estate website geared at buying or renting a residential property in Quebec, with Realtor.ca ranked ninth. The most popular site was Kijiji.

 

 

However, several Montreal brokers told The Gazette they were concerned about the decline in visibility that comes with losing access to Realtor.ca at a time of a softening Montreal real estate market.

Leduc said Montreal-area brokers who are unhappy with the “yes vote” can join one of Quebec’s eight boards that are still members of CREA.

 

He said he’s also heard of a “partitionist” movement among brokers who want to set up a separate Montreal real estate board that would remain part of CREA.

 

 

“CREA will support these endeavours.”

 

 

alampert@montrealgazette.com

Twitter: RealDealMtl

 

 

 

 

[IluvMTL]

http://www.lesaffaires.com/secteurs-d-activite/immobilier/12-000-courtiers-immobiliers-quebecois-claquent-la-porte/565084

 

12 000 courtiers immobiliers québécois claquent la porte

PAR PIERRE THÉROUX

 

 

L'industrie québécoise du courtage immobilier a mis sa menace de se séparer du reste du Canada à exécution : depuis le 1er janvier, et après plusieurs mois de discussions, près de 12 000 des quelque 14 000 courtiers immobiliers de la province ont claqué la porte de l'Association canadienne de l'immeuble (ACI), qui n'aurait pas répondu aux exigences répétées de ses membres québécois.

 

«C'est une mésentente qui dure depuis trois ans. L'ACI a pris des décisions, ces dernières années, qui sont au détriment des courtiers et des consommateurs québécois», affirme Patrick Juanéda, président de la Chambre immobilière du Grand Montréal (CIGM), qui regroupe la grande majorité (10 000) des courtiers du Québec.

 

Les quelque 1 500 membres de la Chambre immobilière de Québec (CIQ) sont parmi ceux qui se retirent de l'ACI. «Le marché québécois a des particularités que l'ACI refuse de prendre en considération», explique Luce Fecteau, présidente de la CIQ et courtière immobilière pour Royal LePage dans la région de Québec.

 

La Chambre immobilière du Saguenay- Lac-Saint-Jean vient aussi de mettre fin à son adhésion à l'ACI, tandis que celles du Centre-du-Québec, de la Mauricie et de la Haute- Yamaska avaient initié le mouvement il y a un an. «On ne s'en porte pas plus mal», souligne Réjean Labarre, président de la Chambre immobilière de la Haute-Yamaska et courtier immobilier et propriétaire de l'enseigne Via Capitale Performance à Granby.

 

Ce retrait signifie du même coup la fin des inscriptions de maisons à vendre dans ces régions sur le site de recherche realtor.ca (autrefois mls.ca). Mais cela «n'aura pas d'impact négatif sur la visibilité des propriétés», assure M. Juanéda, de la CIGM. Il affirme que le site Web centris.ca, qui répertorie toutes les propriétés à vendre par les courtiers immobiliers au Québec, gagne en popularité et accueille aujourd'hui trois fois plus d'internautes que realtor.ca.

 

Centris.ca vient d'ailleurs en tête de liste des sites affichés par Google pour les Québécois qui soumettent la requête «maison à vendre».

 

Dédoublement de services et de coûts

 

Ces 6 chambres immobilières québécoises, parmi les 12 que compte le Québec, reprochent entre autres à l'ACI de faire, par l'intermédiaire de son site realtor.ca, la promotion de propriétés offertes par des courtiers du reste du Canada qui ne sont pas régis par la Loi sur le courtage immobilier du Québec. «Ces transactions ne sont pas sécurisées et mettent à risque les acheteurs de maison», affirme M. Juanéda.

 

Qui plus est, le site MLS affiche des maisons qui sont vendues directement par les propriétaires. «Nos données sont vérifiées, pas celles des maisons à vendre par les propriétaires. De plus, ils viennent nous compétitionner sans avoir à payer de cotisations [à l'ACI]», s'offusque M. Labarre.

 

L'industrie québécoise s'oppose aussi au dédoublement de services et de coûts. Les courtiers québécois n'auront donc plus à remettre à l'ACI leur cotisation annuelle de plus de 300 $, totalisant ainsi près de 4 millions de dollars.

 

Enfin, l'imposition d'un double code de déontologie pour les courtiers québécois est un autre facteur ayant mené à cette scission. «Le code de déontologie national imposé par l'ACI, lequel se juxtapose au code de déontologie déjà en vigueur au Québec, est ingérable et crée de la confusion», allègue M. Labarre.

 

Au Québec, l'Organisme d'autoréglementation du courtage immobilier du Québec (OACIQ) est chargé d'appliquer la Loi sur le courtage immobilier avec pour mission de protéger le public. Cet organisme, qui procède entre autres à l'inspection professionnelle des courtiers, gère aussi un fonds d'indemnisation qui permet de dédommager les consommateurs en cas de fraude ou de détournements de fonds.

 

 

[IluvMTL]

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Realtors+reach+deal+related+Realtor/9426713/story.html

 

Realtors reach deal related to Realtor.ca

 

BY ALLISON LAMPERT, GAZETTE REAL ESTATE REPORTER JANUARY 27, 2014

 

 

The Canadian Real Estate Association and boards representing the majority of Quebec brokers — at odds after severing membership ties last month — said they’ve reached a deal to restore “national unity” in the industry.

 

Photograph by: John Mahoney , Tha Gazette

 

MONTREAL — The Canadian Real Estate Association and boards representing the majority of Quebec brokers — at odds after severing membership ties last month — said Friday they've reached a deal to restore "national unity" in the industry.The Greater Montreal Real Estate Board, (GMREB) along with the Chambre immobilière de Québec (CIQ), recently joined brokers from other Quebec cities in voting to leave CREA. That decision would have led to the removal of most Montreal and Quebec City home listings from the popular Realtor.ca website at the start of January. Quebec operates its own listings website, called Centris.ca

 

"The three organizations have been open-minded and an agreement has been reached to allow the GMREB and CIQ to return as CREA members," a note to brokers from national association president Laura Leyser said. "We believe that this agreement will be positive for all Quebec real estate brokers and hope that other Quebec boards that have left CREA will follow Quebec City's and Montreal's lead."

 

Among other issues, the Quebec boards objected to instances of properties from the province being posted for a flat fee on the popular Realtor.ca website, mostly by Ontario brokers. Although the postings were for homes being sold by their owners — and not the out-of-province brokers — the Quebec boards claimed they violated their industry's regulations.

Quebec properties can only be sold by a broker with a license to operate in the province. Quebec regulations also prevent brokers from accepting fees for a service — such as posting a home on the industry's internal Multiple Listing Service — before the property is sold.

 

The deal, the note says, would lead to a proposed reduction in membership dues for Quebec members and to the removal of all Quebec properties on Realtor.ca listed by brokers from other provinces.

The deal was reached by the presidents of the two Quebec boards.

 

All listings of properties by brokers from Montreal and Quebec City will remain on Realtor.ca until Jan. 31 to allow board members to be consulted on the agreement.

 

alampert@montrealgazette.com

Twitter: @RealDealMtl

[jesseps]

One thing I wish realtor.ca would allow me to look for a home with 2 or more car garage. If the whole thing fell through, what would happen? We would have to check every realtor website for a place or Montreal or Quebec would have started their own version?

[franktko]

One thing I wish realtor.ca would allow me to look for a home with 2 or more car garage. If the whole thing fell through, what would happen? We would have to check every realtor website for a place or Montreal or Quebec would have started their own version?

 

centris.ca

[jesseps]

centris.ca

 

Just noticed that Still doesn't help with looking for 2 or more garages. I guess no one is ever looking for more garage space.