It is an exciting time for the Canadian Real Estate industry. The Competition Bureau is looking at making some big changes to the industry. So, why does CREA have such BAD messaging to the press? It seems CREA wants to lose the fight with the Competition Bureau. How do real estate agents feel about CREA representation?

For companies like HomeZilla, Zoocasa, ViewPoint, and others changes in the industry can only be good. For consumers, more choice is always better. But if you are one of 98,000 agents, then change makes you nervous.

Every industry hates to see government intervention and they usually put up a great fight (ex: Microsoft & ATT). Usually, the industry in questions puts together a fantastically crafted message and repeats that message again and again. (This worked especially well for Obama and George W. Bush)

That is why I was shocked to see a ‘rough’ interview by CREA president Dale Ripplinger on CBC. In fact, I double checked the page to see if it was a REAL CBC page. Here are some of the questions and awkward answers are:

Q. And the average commission is how much?

A. There’s no such thing as an average commission.

Q. The one most of us have paid is around six per cent.

A. Yeah, well, we don’t comment on commissions because the Canadian Real Estate Association doesn’t get involved in negotiations between our members and their clients. If a realtor won’t work for what a client is willing to pay, then that client has to find another realtor who will, and believe me, they will, because there’s lots of competition and lots of choice.

Isn’t the average commision of a real estate agent common knowledge? Even more importantly, doesn’t CREA know exactly how much agents make on each transaction? Being evasive about provable numbers isn’t going to help CREA’s case in the public’s eye.

Q. Well, it’s not me that’s putting this forward. It’s the Competition Bureau, which doesn’t often get up on its hind legs and roar like this.

A. I’m not sure what their motivation is.

Q. What would the motivation be beyond taking care of consumers? What do you think is.…

A. We’re taking care of consumers by providing service that brings confidence to Canadian consumers when they handle the most important transaction of their life.

For such a big and common question, you would think that CREA would have a better crafted response. Real estate agents pay a lot of money in dues to support their board structure and I have to assume they would be concerned with these type of interviews.

Could it be possible that CREA wants the Competition Bureau to shake things up?

You can read the entire CBC interview here.

This entry was posted Saturday, February 13th, 2010 at 10:01 am and is filed under CREA, Market Trends, Open Data. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.