Petition to CREA.
I the undersigned, being registered to trade in real estate and a member in good standing of the Canadian Real Estate Association hereby make the following petition and call upon you to immediately take whatever action is necessary to defend the real estate industry against the Competition Bureau’s lawsuit filed against the Toronto Real Estate Board; to protect the intellectual property rights and ownership of the MLS® Systems in which all members of CREA have an express interest and to act on our wishes as outlined below.

The Issues:
1: The Competition Bureau has twice in the last three years brought frivolous lawsuits against our industry and we watched without an individual vote as a handful of CREA delegates voted to allow private sale postings on the MLS® Systems. This suit was evidently a de-facto action made by the Competition Bureau as a result of one member’s complaint who saw an opportunity to exploit a system paid for and maintained by all members and who solicited this change under the premise of offering the consumer a free to a drastically reduced fee listing alternative. It is arguable that the true intent was to attract the private seller then convert them to an increased fee structure(*). In addition the very integrity of the data contained within the MLS® Systems and on which all members and the consumer depend, is being eroded in its efficacy by those who since flaunt the requirement to verify such information by allowing the private seller to provide unverified listing details.

2: The Competition Bureau’s latest lawsuit against TREB demands that all registered members who would wish to create a VOW, may provide to any online consumer anywhere on the globe all information current and archived within TREB’s system. Once again this lawsuit is made with reference to the very same de-facto party as with the CREA suit. This action has no regard for the personal information contained within these listings, none for the protection of private information as required by PIPEDA, REBBA 2002, and Ontario’s own Land Registry system and totally disregards the CB’s own cautions (as Chair of the Fraud Protection Forum) to consumers about their protection of information. Releasing this information places at risk not just a client’s private information but also that of every home owner whether they last purchased their home 30 years ago or yesterday. Our industry must not be coy, vague and definitely not silent when it comes to advising home owners everywhere of these facts.

3: Brokerages and REALTORS® are being asked to open the system we have built and own even further and to anyone who just needs to become registered so that they may create a VOW in order to derive their revenues from third party advertisement including FSBO firms. This too on the backs of all who contribute this information and pay for the upkeep of the systems.

4: At the April 2, 2011 AGM, CREA voted to approve a data distribution facility that would provide a direct real time feed of all listings to brokerages and third parties such as Zillow. The feed requires mandatory participation at board level. Third party organizations are not registered to trade in real estate and derive their income from advertisement, but through their sheer size and capital which most brokerages and REALTORS® cannot match, they can and have effectively caused members whose listings will be fed through their site to pay for advertising that which is already theirs. There is something definitively wrong when an unlicensed third party is given the right to raise revenue on listings they do not own and charge the brokerage/REATOR® to advertising and compete for their own business. If this in itself it is not anti-competitive, then why must the industry owned advertising system be made to share with everyone who demands it?

5: In a day and age where instantaneous communication is made possible via email, CREA fails to effectively communicate to it's individual membership any prominant actions the Board of Directors propose to implement where such implementation may reasonably be considered an erosion of the memberships’ proprietary rights as a whole to the MLS® Systems. Consequently, the membership is often blind-sided by these decisions. CREA’s reliance on Regional Boards, Brokerages, and their managers to communicate CREA’s messages does not work.

The Resolution:
 Canada is currently the only country in the world where it's nationally organized registered real estate sales force collectively contribute to its development both in cost and by populating its database and have solely made REALTOR.ca the #1 property portal in our country. "REALTOR.ca’s" current market prominence is not only because it is chosen by over 90% of all Canadian home buyers, but also because it affords each and every CREA member the opportunity to promote and control to their clients’ benefit as well as their own, the online marketing of brokerage owned listing data. These being the only two purposeful reasons CREA’s membership founded and fund the system. Under one payment, inquiries and leads are directed to the membership without our having to pay any additional advertising fees to CREA in order to enjoy these expected benefits unlikethe situation now found in Halifax where viewpoint.ca’s VOW re-advertise brokerages’ owned listings yet require these same REALTORS® to pay for advertisement thus having to pay twice to compete for leads in what they initially generate.

This collective contribution only happens in Canada and only with REALTOR.ca which must remain the proprietary intellectual property of its entire membership who also recognize that REALTOR.ca needs both cosmetic and functioning improvements to better market properties across Canada ensuring that it enures to the benefit of those who fund the system.

In support of the vast majority of your membership as equals you are called upon to:

Implement an electronic voting procedure for a one member/one vote determination process before the Fall Conference, with the caveat that any and all votes after Sept 1st, 2011, requested by CREA from it's membership, uses the one member/one vote electronic voting procedure.

Eliminate the current voting methodology used by CREA which is overwhelming keeping the vast majority of your membership disenfranchised from the voting process.

Without delay, implement a direct to member email system (or board requirement) about any and all actions with CREA and create a member only online FORUM for member communications.

Revise the marketing strategy of REALTOR.ca to promote and educate Canadians within same as to the differences between Fiduciary Duty under full Representation and Customer Service under Limited Representation. 
Without delay, begin enforcing the requirement of data accuracy for any posting on our marketing website REALTOR.ca, by requiring that the collection of all personal data posted on same including room sizes, taxes, legal description are verified or,
Make prominent a  label with full disclaimer attached to any "Limited Representation" listing in order to ensure that the general public is advised that not all properties marketed on REALTOR.ca, involve a REALTOR® overseeing the integrity of the process.  

Contact TREB without delay and inform them that as the national body representing the organized real estate industry within Canada that CREA stands firmly behind them and will assist in financing the TREB defense in the latest Competition Bureau Complaint against TREB.

Advise all boards of the increased possibility of fraudulent outcomes of a VOW policy that does not include "Client ONLY" login requirements versus the current "Customer Access" proposals and fully communicate this to each and every member.

Without delay, place in abeyance the DDF implementation until it has been further assessed, vetted and voted upon by all of CREA’s membership as it benefits far fewer Brokerages and REALTORS® as it does the non-REALTOR® business base while also creating a competitive advantage for some REALTOR® over others.
In its place, due consideration should be given to fully monetizing REALTOR.ca in order to generate non-REALTOR® advertising revenues to fund it's existence from companies such as "FORD", "RIM, "RBC", etc. without negatively impacting the performance of REALTOR.ca as a listing marketing tool. 


Educate and Inform all your members on the dangers of "Indexing" listing content and REALTORs® personal names by privately owned websites creating VOWS.

Without delay, implement a proactive strategy to defend against attacks from the Competition Bureau and non-REALTOR® businesses who would wish to join, partner or affiliate with CREA simply to generate revenues from the listing data currently posted to REALTOR.ca.

Without delay, recognize that Canadians are dissatisfied with www.realtor.ca as they find it cumbersome and unfriendly and so welcome other alternatives. Revamp and continually modify same without out of pocket cost to members to make it the most user friendly effective property promotion tool on the internet.

CREA ought to demonstrate its willingness to address openly it's members concerns on major implementations issues impacting the whole that may lead to further erosion of REALTOR.ca possibly causing some to consider alternative strategies to save their business models. We are professional business people and effectively the owners of CREA, the MLS® Systems and all trademarks associated with both.  We cannot and should not any longer be silent and conciliatory toward the taking over of our industry by outsiders or those who use membership to benefit themselves at the expense of the whole.


Regards
Petition Signatory
attached forms include all Signatories and their contact information.



 *sources: 1) Toronto Star Oct. 27,2010 by Tony Wong: “This will be a game changer,” claims Lawrence Dale, founder of Toronto based Realtysellers Real Estate Inc. “There are no gimmicks. There are no extra fees. Free is free…” “With more traffic on his website, Dale eventually hopes to bring clients to his other services, which include a 0.5 per cent listing fee for full-service representation.”
2) Remonline Nov. 10,2010: “As for offering to post listings on MLS for free, Dale says he isn’t doing this for charity. “If they do require the services of an agent, or a brokerage to help them – if they decide ‘this isn’t for me, I want to get some help’ – our hope is that they will retain us on our half a point program, where we’ll do everything for you,” he says. “Most sellers are looking to buy as well – again, I’m in front of you and want the opportunity that, if you want to buy, you’ll use us.”
3) http://www.realtysellers.com: “Initially Realtysellers will manage and provide the brokerage services for the PropertyGuys.com Mere Posting Program and streamline how PropertyGuys.com customers place their property posting on REALTOR.ca. Going forward, the partnership will have a unique platform for offering a comprehensive suite of low cost and integrated brokerage and non-brokerage services and options to consumers.
While financial terms of the arrangement remained confidential, Leblanc and Dale did confirm that Dale’s group, which includes Toronto businessman Mark Litwin, has become part of the ownership group of PropertyGuys.com and that Dale has become a Director of PropertyGuys.com.”