Andrew la fleur is saying over at BlogTO what home-buyers have been thinking for awhile. MLS.ca sucks. His quick review of Realtor.ca reiterates the pain that Canadian online house-hunters have been feeling for years.
Realtor.ca has finally launched and soon the much loathed MLS.ca will finally be put out of its misery. The recent shut down of the popular Housing123 caused quite a stir and reignited the debate over not just the fact that there is are lack of a quality website for viewing properties in this country, but also the Real Estate Industry's handling of the information itself.
The real estate industry in Canada is in some ways unique in that it has managed to avoid to this point what just about every other knowledge-based industry has faced since the invention of the Internet: the mass dissemination of its most precious resource-information. Specifically, they have consistently shut down any attempt that has been made to open up the central MLS database that contains all the information about properties sold and those currently for sale.
One of the main reasons why these 'rogue' sites keep popping up is that MLS.ca is pretty terrible and has been basically unchanged over the last several years. MLS.ca completely missed the whole web 2.0 party and many entrepreneurs and programmer types couldn't take it any longer. But with each new site that emerged, CREA was right behind them to shut them down.
Unfortunately, Canadian consumers still have a long way to go before there is a clean, transparent system for accessing real estate listings in our homeland. We are miles away from what is currently available south of the border with sites like Trulia.com and Zillow.com. If you know of any innovative websites that are tackling this problem, be sure to point them out in a comment on this post.
Zillow.com is coming to Canada. Zillow.ca is live but goes to the main site but DavidG over at Zillow has stated that they will be coming to Canada at some point.
Check out Ian's video interview with DavidG where he comments on Zillow.ca - http://www.vimeo.com/1247790
Steve
How is it that they have made realtor.ca HARDER to navigate than the mls.ca trainwreck. One of my most common searches is for homes in Kitsilano within a certain price range. As far as I can tell, the Realtor.ca site shows me the Microsoft Live Earth Map but offers no obvious way to navigate to individual neighbourhoods. The Live Earth interface doesn't even have a zoom option -- double-clicking on the map seems to be the only way to zoom in.
And please, why on earth are they using Microsoft Live Earth? Because it's slower and worse than Google Maps?
Realtors only exist to navigate through bureaucracy and red tape that they have (a) created or (b) worked hard to encourage. I'm not sure I can think of a profession that has lower barriers to entry and adds so little value.
Wow. While the new site is slightly prettier than mls.ca, it provides no real improvement in functionality. Searching for something simple like detached house in Vancouver results in the "more than 500 results, please refine your search" error. Fine, I add the criteria that the house have 3 or more bedrooms and 2 or more bathrooms - and get no results.
Seriously. Something's broken here.
Plus, it's kind of ridiculous that you can only refine your location search parameters by city or street. One is too broad, the other too narrow.
To the developers at Realtor.ca, here's what I want: I want to be able to stick a pin in the map, a draw a search radius in order to filter results.
[...] Realtors only exist to navigate through bureaucracy and red tape that they have (a) created or (b) worked hard to encourage. I’m not sure I can think of a profession that has lower barriers to entry and adds so little value.” - found here [...]
I know that www.easylistings.ca has been looking to solve the problem for about a year now.. Looks like they're launching this fall. Only time well tell!
My company has just launched a Beta version of a site that I hope will assist buyers and the developers that want to connect with them. Would love your feedback: http://www.condovue.com
The technology could be repurposed in multiple ways, but right now we are focusing on preconstruction condos.
I agree Canada has missed the Web 2.0 boat but it is only a matter of time before we start catching up. I doubt Zillow or Trulia will be coming into Canada anytime soon since access to the Canadian MLS data is still very protected by the individual boards.
A new site to look out for is call KeyCanada.ca. It is going to be a slow process but it could be the next big real estate site in Canada.
MLS and other similar sites have missed the boat on web 2.0 but the canadian rental market hasn't. MrRental.ca has many web 2.0 features that make finding a rental property a whole lot easier. For example, social bookmarking and rss feeds allow potential renters to see the latest rental listings in their area of choice, instantly, and the link takes them directly to the property details page. That is just one example of how easy Mr Rental is to use. Not to mention, landlords and property managers can post their rental properties online for free. No trials accounts, no tricks, absolutely free. We would love your feedback if any of you have a chance to check it out.
I agree with "Canadian Real Estate" - it's only a matter of time... Internet is an ever changing and growing element of progressive technology. Great times are ahead of us and we are fortunate to be a part of it! :) Check out www.RentPlanet.ca .... this is where the future of the Internet is heading ... :))
Many free classified sites are cluttered with way to many postings. Many of the postings are not even very detailed or well laid out. On the other hand, one new free rental website that I found to list my property for rent is rentersonline.com Although they are a new site, they’ve generated a lot of new leads for me in Edmonton. If I wasn’t using that website, I would probably just bit the bullet and pay to advertise my property!
Keith, I don't think your site is free though.... isn't it just a 60 day trial free?
Cheer
Web 2.0 in real estate is alive and well - it just depends which Realtor you deal with. There are plently of web saavy real estate agents that have lots of self-directed and collaborative tools to offer buyers and sellers on their websites. Remember that MLS.ca is just a search engine for houses - it is the "link to realtor website" link on most listings that is important when making an assessment of Web 2.0 proliferation in real estate online.
@RentPlanet - I like your website and its ease of use. RentersOnline.com is free for renters to search, and also currently free for owners and property managers to list their property. Each time a property is activated, it remains on the website for 60 days before it expires. If they require additional advertising, it can be reactivated again free for an additional 60 days.
General comment for all property website owners:
There seems to be mixed feelings about people's map search preference.
Some still prefer the traditional method of map searching where the website provides a custom map and users can search by subarea or neighbourhood, while others prefer to search and view their results via Google Map. Both have its advantages. I'm curious to hear what others have to say about it now that realtor.ca has gone live for over a year now.
You make a interesting point, not only about the delayed reaction for the Canadian real estate market to adopt web 2.0 services, but also about the increasing role they will play. For example, since the delayed arrival of Google street view into Canada, this free service offers realtors a new tool. Instead of consumers making viewing appointments, they can view a home and surrounding neighborhood before deciding to look at a place. This could help realtors weed out the more interested buyers.
As a person invovled with property management, I must say that I have found it strange that Realtor.ca / Mls.ca / etc. seem to minimize the value of RENTAL listings. At least in western Canada (where I am). This strikes me as completely abnormal based on my travels to other parts of North America.
