We’re deep in web2.0 and data is flying everywhere. However, real estate listings in Canada are pretty much still stuck in web1.0. When I read stories about listing aggregators like Zillow.com with millions of listings in the US, I can’t help but let out a long *sigh* about the state of things in Canada.
Most buyers or sellers in Canada know about mls.ca, or sia.ca for the French. In Canada these are really your only choices for comprehensive real estate listings. If you’re living in Vancouver and considering about buying a condo in Calgary, mls.ca is really your only choice. It’s either that or Google for Calgary Real Estate and hope something useful comes up. More likely than not you’ll wind up at a realtor’s or an office’s web site with only their listings.
The buzz around companies like Zillow, or Google coming into Canada and revolutionizing the industry makes me laugh. It is funny because for all their amazing technical abilities the challenge is getting over the industry’s impenetrable Walled Garden.
So what exactly is preventing a site Zillow in Canada?
The answer is a big one. I’ll point them out now and elaborate later.
- MLXChange. This is the super tool that only realtors can use. It covers approximately 95% of the listings in Canada and is completely closed and proprietary. It only in IE and uses ActiveX heavily for functionality. sob!
- Data ownership. Who owns the data? Not MLS.ca, and thus no single large aggregator. Since they don’t own the data they also don’t have the right to give it to you to do as you see fit.
- Systems and data formats are disparate and proprietary. You have 10 different real estate boards and 10 different data formats.
- Old fashioned mentalities. Listings aren’t public utilities, they’re assets to be protected and hidden.
- Fairness. Having a strangle hold on the data means all real estate companies, big or small are on a level playing field. The big guys can’t buy a huge advantage (building the super site) over the little guy.
Working together, these items have very effectively, by design, created the Walled Garden in Canada. The result is what we have in Canada today, a very tightly controlled, very web1.0 listing system. The current state of listings in Canada? Sad, very sad, but it can (and will) get better. I’ll write some more in the next few days about the five issues above and how things can get better.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
MLXchange is a system used in a number of boards across Canada but not 95% of listings. I would be surprised if more than 15-20% of listings across Canada were powered by that provider.
Oh, my bad. I thought everybody (or a majority) of the boards used MLXchange for their MLS system. I guess there isn’t a super tool out there that aggregates all listings.
The listings on mls.ca come from different MLS systems at the boards. They’re aggregated in some format or another into a common database. I think this is more accurate.
Apparently there isn’t as much cooperation across systems as I thought. :)
Thanks for clearing things up.
Calgary and Edmonton use MLXchange
In Canada the MLS may be big, but there’s always heat from for sale by owners.
Here’s a fairly new site that looks like it may make a signifcant impact on real estate in Canada:
http://www.openrealestate.ca
It has lots of private properties and it’s pretty easy to navigate. I wish there were more advanced options though for searching.
re: http://www.openrealestate.ca
Looks like the site indexes only FSBO (For Sale by Owner — fizzbo) properties. I don’t see how it will have a significant impact on real estate in Canada. I for one would always use a realtor (that I trust) when buying or selling a home.
Here’s my view on FSBO, and much of this opinion is influenced by the book Stumbling on Happiness. For the most part people generally suck at predicting what would make us happy in the future. The result is we have expectations that are often out of sync with reality.
Why do a lot of FSBOs wind up, and are happier switching to a realtor? Because beforehand they underestimate how hard it is to sell a home and overestimate how happy they will be saving the commissions. After they list, expectations change, and a lot of FSBOs wouldn’t mind paying somebody a commission to do all work for them. Check out Stumbling on Happiness, it gives a lot of great examples of how we suck at estimating happiness and how we’ll fall into the same trap over and over again.
Will FSBOs go away? Probably not, actually I expect lots more FSBOs in the future. Not because it’s the next great thing, but because a lot of people will make the same bad predictions on happiness: going FSBO would make them happier. Some will luck out, a lot won’t, and there will always be a realtor around to help those who don’t.
RE: openrealestate.ca
That’s a great site and as you say, it’s somewhat of an index site, but still, it looks good. I always look at the google PR to judge a website’s importance… I wonder if this is something that others do or not. This shows you the huge influence google can have on the web and the world and our current thinking.
Looks like I had better start using this site and other’s like it to prospect for FSBO’s as I am sure that many other agents are using sites like these to prospect.
Thanks for some great links!
Mark
Hey, I was happy to stumble onto this as combining realty and the internet has become a recent interest of mine. I know, I know, I’m a late-comer to the party, but I’m trying to make up the difference with enthusiasm. One thing I’ve noticed, as you’ve noted here, is how web 2.0 properties and social media isn’t being utilized by many realtors to the best of their advantage. This is something I’ve been trying to correct in my own business.