A House United

by Sheldon Johnston on October 3, 201203. Oct, 2012 in Canadian Real Estate

This is a follow up to “A House Divided” ~ (Don’t Pin this one on the REALTORS®) that we posted a few weeks ago…

The issue: the board of Directors of The REALTORS® Association of Edmonton passed a new rule in February that will prevent REALTORS® and the public from accessing sales data on a property once conditions are removed until the Title transfers. The rule is set to come into effect Dec. 1/12.The stated reason is to prevent the REALTORS® Association of Edmonton from being held liable for collapsed transactions.

The situation: The directors who originally voted unanimously for the rule voted again on Sept. 26 5-4 in favour and decided to press on in spite of the overwhelming opposition. The current by-laws do not require members approval for rule changes, only by-law changes.

The members unite in opposition to the rule: Over 400 REALTORS® attended our Annual General Meeting this past Thursday, September 27th (these meetings usually only draw about 70-85 people…tops). Since this meeting I had knee surgery which is why I am addressing this a little late; however, better late than never. I believe this is of paramount importance for our ability, as REALTORS®, to do our job effectively and for you the public to make informed decisions.

Many industry leaders spoke out against the rule and voiced their concerns against this rule at the meeting. When the non-binding vote came down from the Board of Directors to rescind the rule it was an overwhelming ~400 to 3. It was literaly a sea of green cards for the removal of the rule as the membership spoke in one clear voice to the Board.

In all my conversations with Industry Members I have yet to find anyone in favor of this rule change; save those few Directors.

What comes next? Since we could not change the rule, we voted to change the by-laws so the membership can change rules, but the by-law change can’t be approved until the next AGM on Dec. 5. 

The Board of Directors now has the option to listen to the membership and rescind the rule, or push ahead with the new rule Dec. 1, and wait for the membership to overturn it on Dec. 5.

The Directors were treated cordially and respectfully by those in attendance even though many of us are mad as hell at not only the rule change but the entire process around it. Speaking for myself I won’t be so kind if we have to go back en masse to vote again to kill this rule on Dec. 5. In that case it would be a clear signal to me that the board does not respect the true owners of the association; its members. Stay tuned.

About

Sheldon is very familiar with the ins and outs of real estate; he has been licensed to sell Real Estate in Alberta for over 20 years. Sheldon has served on the Real Estate Council of Alberta, the Real Estate Insurance Exchange and the REALTORS® Association of Edmonton. Find Sheldon on Twitter @edmontonsheldon.

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4 Responses to “A House United”

  1. NathanNo Gravatar 03. Oct, 2012 at 11:56 am #

    I’m a little curious about the motives of the directors in pushing this rule. As you stated in the previous post, the stated reason is completely bogus.

    So why are the directors trying to do something that is clearly not in the interests of the members or the public. This seems awfully fishy to me, as it indicates there is some other interest that the directors have that they would rather not share with the public or even the members.

    • Sheldon JohnstonNo Gravatar 03. Oct, 2012 at 12:17 pm #

      Well if you can figure it out let me know.

  2. VinceNo Gravatar 04. Oct, 2012 at 5:55 pm #

    If liability is an issue can’t the association cover their ass by having a disclaimer stating the potential limitations of the sales data (i.e.collapsed transactions) and that the data should not be relied on, etc.?

  3. GeoffNo Gravatar 21. Oct, 2012 at 3:18 am #

    I’ll take a crack at proposing an explanation for this move…

    Whose interest is the board acting on behalf of?
    A. Buyers
    B. Sellers
    C. Members

    There’s no #D, and no other parties to the transaction.

    The EREB is attempting to help its members (ie, you, Realtors) by cultivating a environment of perpetual fear-uncertainty-and-doubt. Once this policy is in place the stats will always be in question, and in parallel we’ll hear nothing but the constant drum beat of “positive news”.

    “You had better BUY NOW, because ___________” <– fill in the blank

    1. "interest rates will never be lower!"
    2. "prices will only go up."
    3. "it's different here." <– my personal favourite.
    4. "we're manipulating access to the data to hide the fact that you're paying too much, but you don't know this right now and you will not come to fully realise how underwater you are until we're long out of your mind and there's something/someone else to blame this situation on."

    etc, etc.

    The reality is the market is moving down, maybe somewhat aggressively over the next 48 months. With even the most basic critical analysis of the numbers and long term trends, it takes some mighty thick rose coloured glasses to come to any other conclusion.

    If you can delay the release of "bad news" (ie, lower numbers) for as long as you can, doesn't that help the prices stay just a little bit more inflated for just a little while longer? Of course the losers in this grand experiment will be the buyers, but that's just "collateral damage".

    In a few years, I'm sure there'll be no end to the "who could have possibly seen this coming" comments being parroted about by the industry and media. It's a very unfortunate disaster happening in ultra-slow motion. The damage has been done, and there's probably no stopping this train now. They can attempt slow it down a little, but it's still going to crash.

    Maybe it's the wine talking, but that's my take on the situation. I reserve the right to change my mind. :)

    I enjoy reading your blog and appreciate the stats. Keep up the good work.