Once again the real estate profession is under attack and this time its for building a successful business model that has been created, paid for and supported by members (both past and present) of the Toronto Real Estate Board.

I know real estate agents get little sympathy as many of you think that too many (if not all of us) are closet Donald Trumps with massive penthouse buildings made of gold. Yes we drive around in nice cars and lounge around all day doing nothing but collecting these big fat juicy paychecks and playing golf. There are days where I could be the poster boy portraying this stereotype. But the truth of the matter is as in all free enterprise  career paths, some people do extremely well and others bitch about not doing so.

Yes I’m one of the ones that does well. 16 years of hard work which includes waking up every single day unemployed will do wonders for my willingness to start my day at 9am and go many days until 8pm (and yes even later as anyone who has ever bought or sold a house would know). The good news about this is that I only have to do this 6 days of the week. I get Sundays to myself for family time. Unless of course an offer comes in (which means my phone is glued to my side on this day as well) and then I’m off to plead to my wife that I must make/take this one call…

The other great part of this is that I also get to put all of my time and money up in advance (once again anyone who has ever bought or sold a house would know this) hoping that I can successfully help a client buy or sell their home. And if I am successful I will get reimbursed for my interest free loan that I gave you Mr. and Mrs. Seller in 90 days time after much of its been stripped away in expenses. Woo hoo!!  Although I did once have an older couple client of mine, offer to advance me some money to assist in the expenses that I would be surely incurring on their behalf. After about five minutes of staring at them with a Forest Gump-on-the-bench like stare I almost broke down and cried!!

Anyways back to the Bureau.

At issue now seems to be the topic of VOW’s (Virtual Office Websites) and their ability to thrive and succeed as a viable real estate alternative for consumers.  The Bureau states “agents do not have the flexibility to share this important data with customers in innovative new ways, such as through password protected Web sites, also called Virtual Office Web sites (VOWs). VOWs permit a customer to search a full inventory of listings containing up to date data online, before making the decision to tour a home or attend an open house. This enables customers to be more selective and focused, and agents to spend less time trying to find an appropriate property for a specific customer”

First of all I have NEVER been asked my thoughts on the matter or has any other Realtor I know…and yes I know lots!! 🙂 so the above statement is a complete fabrication in my opinion. But wait…big brother would never lie to promote their own agenda would they?  Nah not in beautiful Canada…look our national anthem says “God keep our land glorious and free” (wikipedia). Which it totally is…right??

Can anyone please explain with logic to me how a private corporation who have built a business model over a period of 100 years through hard work, great expense and free enterprise on the highs and lows of hard-working-tax-paying-Canadian-citizens and that can be disrupted on the whim because a “few individuals who are obviously well connected” start crying that “the other kids in the playground don’t want to play with me by my rules”. Boo Freakin hoo! My advice to the ungrateful few would be that of what my parents would tell me me when I was being a suck and things weren’t going exactly my way. Go get other friends and start your own game where you can make up the rules!  We live in a world that is unfair. Deal with it and move on.

Plain and simple I earn a good living because I work twice as hard as many people do and at least 50% more hours per week than many. And yes although it is true I didn’t need to spend an additional three or four years of post secondary education to obtain my real estate license, for the past 16 years I have been constantly enhancing, advancing my knowledge and skills to put myself in the position to earn a good livelihood.

So Competition Bureau please go pick on someone who really is restricting competition like all of the oil and gas companies for example who all across my city charge exactly the same rate down to the (tenth of a cent). It’s funny how that all of the so-called competition out there they each know exactly what the other is going to charge at the exact same nanosecond!! And if you actually want to do some work I’m certain you can find some other industries that are doing the same thing. Like banks for instance. And many private organizations as well.  Just my thoughts.