TheTruro Daily News real estate section includes a majority of the real estate for sale, by REALTORS, in Colchester County.
The partnership between the newpaper, the REALTORS, and technology company produces a great product for the consumers that benefits all parties involved.

Thanks to all the real estate offices that are participating in this new product:
Royal LePage Truro
Prudential Woods Realty
Century 21 Market Realty
Exit Realty 1st Call
Tradewinds Realty
HLM Realties
Sunrise Brokerage and Sales

HomeZilla now has five newspaper partners in Nova Scotia with more coming on board in the next few months.

The Amherst Daily News real estate section includes 100% of the real estate for sale, by REALTORS, in Cumberland County.
The partnership between the newpaper, the REALTORS, and technology company produces a great product for the consumers that benefits all parties involved.

Thanks to all the real estate offices that are participating in this new product:
RE/MAX County Line
Coldwell Banker Performance
Royal LePage Cumberland Realty
Royal Lepage Preview Realty
Sunrise Brokerage and Sales
Mystic Coast Realty Limited

HomeZilla now has four newspaper partners in Nova Scotia with more coming on board in the next few months.

My talked was titled, ‘Neighbourhood Experts: not just Realtors ® any more’ and focused on how Realtors could help home buyers find more information about neighbourhoods; specifically in the days of iPhones and mobile search. The main part of the discussion focused on the Realtor being the ’source of the source’ (that line was suggeseted by one of the participants). Instead of just telling people where the best coffee shops, parks, etc are in the neighbourhood they can tell people where to go and find the information. Site like, of course, HomeZilla, Yelp, The Fraser INstitute for Ontario, etc.

It was great to meetup with some long time Twitters like: @oakvillerealtor (who is WAY taller than expected), @HeyAddy and @RichardWontorra . It was also good to catch up with some of the usual suspects like: @GeorgeONeill, and @chrisnewell, and BuzzBuzzHome .

Overall, the biggest surprise at #rebcto was the level of openness by Realtors. People were completely honest with the problems they had with social media. The result was fantastic as many people share their stories of success and failure which allowed everyone to learn a lot.

I can’t wait for the next Toronto RE BarCamp…

CREA’s membership has spoken,” says Georges Pahud, incoming president of the group. “CREA accepts the results and will continue to ensure the accuracy and quality of the information on boards’ MLS systems that Canadians have come to trust. This result will not change how CREA operates today, tomorrow or in the future.”

Canada.com

How is HomeZilla (and other Canadian Real Estate startups) going to benefit?

More people will use our services because they help the home buyer, home seller and the Realtor ® save time. As more people use a ‘pay for service’ model they are going to need more tools to help educate potential buyers. HomeZilla is Canada’s Neighbourhood Expert and I am sure home seller will be printing our neighbourhood reports.

The only concern we have is the Competition Bureau is probably still going to go after CREA to change more. The reason, the Bureau didn’t like that CREA allowed local boards to install their own set of regulations on realtors. The is almost no way for the Competition Bureau to police local boards. In our opinion, this is the main reason the Bureau send the complaint to the tribunal and will pursue it faster.

Until more changes comes, HomeZilla expects to see a increase in usage as more people try and save time during a house transaction.

If there is a “Yes, to change” vote there will be a lot of changes… if there is a “No, to chaneg” vote there will probably be even more change in the long run. A “No” vote might get the Competition Bureau worked up and they might go for opening up Canadian real estate data.

Here are just a few article on the CREA vote with some interesting snippets take out:

Financial Post on the CREA vote

The measures, which ultimately give consumers some ability to decide how much they use a realtor on a deal and allow consumers to conduct parts of a transaction without using a realtor, are not expected to be enough to satisfy the Competition Bureau which has filed a complaint with the Competition Tribunal over what it says is anti-competitive behaviour.

CBC News on the CREA vote

The real estate association requires all sellers wanting to use the MLS to pay for a full suite of services, she told CBC News Network’s Lang & O’Leary Exchange in February, while some of its members are willing to sell only some of those services and charge a lower commission.

In the bureau’s view, this requirement interferes with competition, she said.

Globe & Mail on CREA vote shaking up the industry

The bureau also has something to prove. When Commissioner Melanie Aitken was appointed last summer, she promised to improve the bureau’s record of challenging organizations accused of anti-competitive conduct. By taking the case against CREA to a tribunal, the bureau will have to convince a specialized body that the association’s practices are limiting competition in the home-selling business.

CTV on the CREA vote give buyers some wiggle room

About 300 real estate agents from across Canada will vote on proposed changes that would give private citizens the ability to negotiate the sale of a home without the help of a registered agent while still taking advantage of the extensive database of MLS property listings

Which everway… there is going to be lots of fallout…hopefully all good!

At CREA’s AGM on March 22nd, members are going to vote on proposed rule changes to appease the Competition Bureau. These changes let home sellers choose the services they want to buy from an agent (i.e.: it puts more options in the market.) More openess in a market is a good thing so let’s also open up the data to help home buyers.

Sidenote: I haven’t read any articles regarding real estate agents being 100% commission based. This is an important thing to remember, if they don’t sell a house they don’t get paid…try and find a lawyer who works like that.

Is it too late for the Competition Bureau to think about Open Data?

The Competition Bureau could have, and may still, greatly increase innovation in the Canadian real estate market. Opening access to real estate-related data, which is inevitable, would benefit everyone in the home search process. Major cities in Canada (Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, and more) and around the world (such as San Francisco), have opened up their data and the citizens of these cities have benefitted.

Open access to this real estate data would be a great thing:

1. Open up access to historical home sale prices
2. Reduce barriers to showing listings on 3rd party websites
3. Recommend that CREA open up Realtor.ca to 3rd party widgets

Opening access to these three pieces of data are smaller changes than affecting a Realtor’s © commision. And adding innovation to an industry is always a good thing for the consumer.

With access to more information, websites like HomeZilla, Zoocasa, and View Point Realty could provide better research tools to home buyers. Home buyers being able to find a home they love is at the heart of any real estate industry. Helping home buyers would help the entire real estate market.

This is Canada, let’s keep everything fair; if the sellers of a house are getting a benefit then so should the home buyer. Let the innovation accelerate!

How do you feel about Open Data in real estate?

Today we want to present you with a video of Roncesvalles. A beautiful ‘hood on the west side of Toronto.

Check out the video version of this video, we would love your feedback!
All real estate agents who retweets OR comment will be entered into a draw for a branded version of this video!

Today we want to present you with a video of Rosedale. Rosedale is one of Toronto’s oldest and most prestiges neighbourhoods.

Check out the video version of this video, we would love your feedback!
All real estate agents who retweets OR comment will be entered into a draw for a branded version of this video!

1. Google’s will move into Canadian Real Estate – Google already has 10K+ Canadian real etate listings (ex:Halifax listings) and they don’t promote their service in Canada. Are you ready for ‘the Google affect’?
2. CREA or TREB will face another lawsuit – the Internet (like the fax machine was) is a disruptive force in the real estate industy. With the Canadian Real Estate industry dragging it feet, we expect to see another lawsuit.
3. Online real estate research will get easier – home buyers do more research, before talking to a real estate agent, every year. In 2010, with ZooCasa, HomeZilla, Google Maps, the iPhone and the opening of GeoData new home buyers are going to know EVERYTHING about a neighbourhood.
4. Vitural Real Estate will start emerging – the progression of visual aids in home buying: photos, photo tours, videos, video tours, now HD video tours and the next logical step Virtual Real Estate displayed on Google Earth and the iPhone. VR homes will make a big change to how people research houses.
5. Local Knowledge will become vital for listings – OpenData Toronto, OpenData Vancouver, HomeZilla, and Yelp all home buyers to know more about their neighbourhood. To keep home buyers on your listings they need to have local knowledge. (see HomeZilla Hoody)
6. Mortgage rate will go up – Canada can only ‘print money’ for so long before inflation hits. Once rates start going up in 2010, they will go up quickly!
7. Yet another Boom/Bust cycle – there will be a mini boom/bust in real estate when mortgage rates hit around 7.5%. Home buyers will rush to buy homes before a the big rate hikes and if they don’t get in they won’t buy for a while.
8. Online Advertising – 2010 will be the year where a large number of real estate agentswill move beyond the “just having a website” to “having & promoting their website”. If you are paying $50 a month to have a website, shouldn’t you spend at least $50 a month to promote that website?
9. Blackberry Usage – less then 5% of real estate agents will give up their Blackberrys for iPhones. Why change what is working?
10. iPhones become a big real estate aid – When home buyers have questions… well… “there is an an app for that”! Consumers are flocking to the iPhone so when a consumer goes to an open house, drives around a neighbourhood, or has questions about sales history they will ask a Realtor but there will also ask their iPhone.

At HomeZilla, we love when things come together. In 2010, the convergance of technology, open data, empowered home buyers, rising house prices, rising mortgage rates, decreasing costs of data will have a HUGE impact on the Canadian Real Estate market. And in our opinion, all the changes should be for the better!

During the year we will follow up on these topics will longer blog post but we would love questions or comment over the holidays. And of course, what are your predictions for 2010?

Happy Holidays Everyone!

(Look for the ‘Street View’ button above the map)

Google Street View Canada is available for 12 cities:

• Banff
• Calgary
• Halifax
• Kitchener
• Waterloo
• Montreal
• Ottawa
• Quebec City
• Squamish
• Toronto
• Vancouver
• Whistler

We wanted to launch this before the Turkey Day long weekend because, based on previous trends, lots of people will be researching homes this weekend. We thought having Google Street View would make it a bit more fun.

As always, we would love to hear your comments!

Have a great Turkey Day weekend everyone.