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Escarpment Magazine Harvest & Holiday 2013
The only constant in life is change.
There are few businesses where this is more true than
organized real estate. 25 years ago, the REALTOR
®
was the gatekeeper for information. If you wanted
anything related to real estate, you had to call one of us, and we could furnish you with the info you needed.
What has sold in this market? What are the market trends in that category? If I am looking for a 3 bedroom
house on an 80 foot lot, what can you show me? Seem archaic? That is because it is.
The advent of the public MLS
®
, REALTOR.CA
®
, the growth of the in-
ternet, the ever-increasing access to information has changed the very
face of organized real estate. And this is just the thin edge of the wedge.
The genie is out of the bottle. More and more free-source information
is available every day (almost literally) for both consumers and profes-
sionals. The new services that package the available information into
easy to understand, digestible bits are awesome. Those REALTORS
®
that still act like gatekeepers are becoming far less relevant than they
once were. The way that the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA)
labels them in their CREA Futures Initiative is, to me, quite apt: The Real-
torsauraus. Does everyone remember what happened to the dinosaur?
The tangible result of the ever-increasing access to information is obvi-
ous. Never, in the history of real estate in this country have we had a
better informed consumer. However, with this unprecedented access
to information come problems, and this is where a professional you can
trust comes in handy.
Is the information on my house being presented in such a way that it is
relevant to the Buying public? How is this information being accessed
and marketed? What is relevant, what is not? Is the information from
a trustworthy source? How does this apply on the ground? The gravity
of these questions is particularly poignant when we think about the
sheer amount of money we have invested in our home for sale, or we
are planning to invest in the home we purchase. Obviously, the needs
of The Buyer and Seller are linked, but different.
escarpment
REAL ESTATE
MARKET
watch
The
NEW
Real Estate Economy
by
Desmond von Teichman
Broker of Record,
Owner Royal Le Page
Locations North Realty, Brokerage
Information is Everything
