Power Corp. has announced that it will be joining Rogers Communications Inc and its online real estate search engine, Zoocasa, in taking a bet that the real estate marketplace will start to look very different in coming years, with more people selling their homes without the help of a Realtor.
Through its subsidiary Bytheowner.com, the company now lists 12,000 properties for sale across Canada. The for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) model removes the real estate agent, allowing a consumer to save as much as 5% to 6% in commissions by listing their home online and then selling it independently
Although this diversification in the marketplace is exciting for the consumer, the downside is that they will lose access to the Multiple Listing Service, an online home listing controlled by the Canadian Real Estate Association. Only licensed realtors can post on MLS, which is a problem for alternative services as the service dominates the market.
Although most FSBO websites lack size and brand-name awareness, Bytheowner.com is a nationally branded company with a billion-dollar backer and may have enough presence to become a threat.
Phil Soper, chief executive with Royal LePage does not see Bytheowner and other such sites as a threat to established realtors, however. He said in an interview “They are competing with the free services, such as Kajiji or Craigslist for that small sector of the market, about 10% to 15%, that chooses that path,” he said. “Most Canadians, despite the existence of these models for the last 15 years, have turned to a professional realtor.”
It remains to be seen how vastly the Canadian real estate market will change as a result of these new online tools for consumers.
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