10 comments so far. We'd love to hear your thoughts.

• Appreciative
  April 3rd, 2009 at 4:30 PM

  Thanks for the stats Norm!

  Things do seem to be looking up ever so slightly! As long as availability increases and demand stays about the same, the overbid price seems to have remained mostly steady since last week.

  Thanks also for including the “below list” stat. It really does help.

• Norm Fisher
  April 3rd, 2009 at 4:30 PM

  It is nice to see a week where there were more homes listed than sold. Let’s hope it becomes a trend.

• Todd
  April 3rd, 2009 at 4:30 PM

  Hi Norm,

  I would be interested in a comment about the MLS system that customers have access to via the web. It always seems to be half broken with the website often dying under the weight of all the people trying to access it. Also it seems often that a lot of listings don’t have pictures. Why are there so many listings that don’t get pictures as it really turns me off if I can’t have a quick look to see if it would be a property I’d be interested in. I would think that unless the property is ugly (and no one would see it if they could look at it first), that pictures should be mandatory.

  So my quick two questions are:

  1) Why is the customer MLS website so broke?

  2) Why are there so many listings without pictures?
  Thanks. -Todd

• Norm Fisher
  April 3rd, 2009 at 4:31 PM

  Hi Todd. MLS® Online is owned and operated by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), which is a member organization representing REALTORS® across Canada. While I agree that it’s not the best website going I suspect that CREA is pretty much unaware that the site is “broken.” CREA polls a large number of users on an annual basis and they always seem to get pretty positive feedback with a majority of users reporting that they are satisfied or very satisfied with the website.

  Many agents have gone to alternate products to provide their clients and guests with access to MLS® listings. These websites are known as “virtual office websites” (VOW) and they draw data directly from our local board’s MLS® system and display them on a private website. My VOW displays all information which is available on MLS® Online plus property addresses and days on the market. You can save searches and enable an email notification system. It’s updated four times daily, compared to just once on the national system. The drawback is that these systems do require a user to register. It’s a requirement that CREA put in place when the idea was first introduced. Having said that, we promise not to hassle you and you’re welcome to give it a try if you like. You can find the site at http://www.mysaskatoonhome.ca.

  I am at a loss to explain why agents are so reluctant to post lots of photos with a listing. Buyers are constantly commenting on the importance of photos as a website feature and there’s lots of compelling evidence which proves that a property listing on the internet attracts more interest and more inquiries as the number of photos increases. It costs virtually nothing to post them, except the time it takes to capture the images.

  The typical real estate agent is less than tech savvy. Most of them know that they’re listings are promoted online but many don’t have a clue how they get there. I can only assume that it’s either ignorance or laziness that gets in the way.

  I try to take lots of pictures of every listing. On the rare occasion that I list a property which is occupied by tenants, as opposed to the home owner, I do feel that it’s a bit of an invasion of the tenant’s privacy to post lots of pictures of their home.

  Todd, one of these days I’m going to do a post on your excellent blog, http://www.saskatoonlive.com.

• Susana
  April 3rd, 2009 at 4:31 PM

  Hi Norm

  As am immigrant who decided to make this country a home I will tell you what I think about this state of the market. Saskatchewan especially was a place where one could buy a decent house for a good, fair price. Prices where according to wages, so the opportunity to own a house in the short term was very feasible. Nowadays it has become an almost impossible attainable dream. Furthermore the market has gotten so corrupt that people are not following common sense and honesty anymore. Now in the real estate market Saskatchewan seems like any poor country in the third world, where housing is scarce, demand is high and obviously prices are high. This fact is an economic reality right?? nevertheless the fact that now people are taking the opportunity to only make a profit from the need of some people to have a house is just a dirty and corrupt act, which was thought only ocurred outside of our border.

  There is not moral anymore, I will tell you my personal experience. Myself, my husband and family need a home to live, just recently I have put on an offer for a house, which needed a lot of work inside, but because the neighbourhood is safe and healthy for our kids we were willing to even increase 50,000 more to its asking price. We know we were the highest by a portion, although the agent decided it was not enough and urged the first offers to come up again and offer again….. is this fair??? that should be illegal, I am not aware of the real estate market rules on this issues, but it does not make a moral sense to me. Now the previous fact was about some agents (the one I am dealing with is an honest guy) and owners. On the other side Norm I would like you to clarify to me, why is the City of Saskatoon holding back land???? individuals and even construction companies have to bid for a piece of land???? look around we should be thankful enough since our land is rich and we still have lots of places where we could expand, what is going on. There are many many families out there who could not fullfil their dream and be able to own a home for them, for their children, and what is hapenning is not fair. I came to this country for better opportunitites, but in the housing area I tell you, Saskatoon is now becomming a cruel, corrupt market, even worse than those in some poor countries. Something is going to happen because it can not sustain itself this way. I would like to urge home owners to stop and think about what is happening and not allow this place to become so inequal where a small elite makes their wallet give the shots denying others to also have opportunities, a place where there is equality, moral and common sense, a sale where you consider more a human issue (where a family needs a home) vs a purely monetary and selfish one. We can not control the market, but we can control ourselves. The City of Saskatoon should also step in and do something about it now before it goes over board.

• Norm Fisher
  April 3rd, 2009 at 4:31 PM

  Susana,

  I think I understand where you’re coming from and I do realize that this must be a terribly frustrating time for you. I can also appreciate how you could feel that current market conditions are “unfair” to buyers. I have watched many prospective buyers being pushed right out of the market, their dreams of home ownership broken. I worry about how my children might afford to own a home. I don’t like it any more than you do. However, I don’t know how it’s justified to suggest that a homeowner has some moral responsibility to take less for his or her property then the market is willing to pay. Are you telling me that if you were reviewing two offers on your property, one for $250,000 and one for $300,000, that you could consider taking the lower of the two because you are a decent person? Do you really believe that you would be “corrupt” if you wanted to accept the higher of the two? Susana, if that’s so, then you are truly a unique individual. In all of my days, I can’t say I’ve met a seller who didn’t want to get as much for their home as they could. This isn’t unique to Saskatoon home owners. It’s human nature.

  The scenario that you have detailed sounds unfortunate indeed. If I made an offer on a property which was $50,000 over list and was told that my offer wasn’t good enough and that I should try again, I’d tell that flake to beat it and I’d continue looking for a home. Corrupt? I’m not sure. Sickeningly greedy? Absolutely! In a free and open market you have the right to decide that you won’t be a party to this fool’s game. I also seriously doubt that it was “the agent” who made the decision to proceed in this way. As far as “real estate law” is concerned, one of the basic duties that an agent has to his or her client is “obedience” and believe it or not, the client usually runs the show. Another duty is “protect and promote the interests of the client.” Just like lawyers sometimes have the unpleasant task of representing scum bags, agents sometimes find themselves representing greedy people. Unfortunately, it’s not yet illegal to be greedy. The law of the land does not allow agents to decide that they should work less in the interest of those who they disagree with. People don’t hire us to be their moral compass, they hire us to help them maximize their opportunity and it would be immoral on an agent’s part to accept that assignment, and then approach the duty from a charitable perspective.

  I can only agree that the City of Saskatoon is squarely behind the 8 ball with it’s land use policy. Clearly, they have failed to accurately predict how much land they should invest in developing. In their defense, if you’ve read any of the market predictions made last fall by CMHC, Remax, Centruy 21, and RBC you’ll see a common theme. None of them saw this coming and I’m sure that the city didn’t either. The city invests serious money to develop land. If they were left with 1,500 lots at the end of the year taxpayers would be screaming bloody murder.

  I had the opportunity to address City Council back in January, along with representatives of the Home Builder’s Association. We all stressed the importance of making changes to the land development policy and we begged council to make it a priority to develop more land for residential use. Of course, we were a day late and a dollar short and there was no action that they could tale at the time which would have prevented this turn our market has taken. As a result of those meetings, the city has committed to develop 2,192 lots this year which is almost double what was allotted last year. The biggest challenge will be finding people who can service that land a build homes on it. That’s not going to be easy and there’s only so much that the city can do to move that forward. I believe they’re doing what they can with the resources that we have available.

  If you are under the impression that people and builders must “bid” for land, you’ve been given some bad information. They don’t bid, they participate in land draws at predetermined prices. You either get drawn or you don’t and you can’t outbid the next guy. It seems to me that when demand exceeds supply it’s probably the fairest approach. How else do you decide who should get the available land?

  There are few things which are available in an endless supply. Land is certainly not one of them. As they say, “they’re not making any more of it.”

  I’m sorry that I had to disagree with most of your points. I know that we’ll find some common ground here. I, like you, hope that the future brings the results that you’re looking for. It sounds like you’re doing your best. Surely you’ll find yourself in a home soon. Best wishes.

• Daryl
  April 3rd, 2009 at 4:32 PM

  Hi Norm. I have contacted CREA and they do know about the problems with the public side of the MLS system. It’s been that way for over a year and despite spoken regrets, they don’t seem that motivated to get it working properly. New listings (address only) show up on the SRAR site but often the corresponding link to MLS will not work until the following day. For us buyers facing tight deadlines for offers, that’s a day we cannot afford to lose!

• Norm Fisher
  April 3rd, 2009 at 4:32 PM

  Hi Daryl. Hmmm. I really wasn’t aware of that. Of course, when I need access to MLS data I access the actual MLS where new listings appear in real time and most of my clients use my site which updates a number of times daily. I’m not sure what CREA’s reason is for only accepting data uploads once daily. I do know that data is “packaged” and sent from each local MLS. One system that works together would be the ideal solution but I doubt we’ll every see that. There are too many autonomous entities to ever get them to agree on one thing. I’m actually surprised that MLS Online has managed to survive.

  Hey, I’m curious about something that you might be able to help me with if you don’t mind. I notice that you’re a web programmer. 90,000 REALTORS each contribute about $20 per year to run MLS Online. That’s a budget of $1,800,000 for the entire operation. Is CREA running this site on the cheap or does that seem like a reasonable budget for this kind of website? To me, it seems like a lot of cash considering that my “MLS website” only runs at about $400 per year, but perhaps a larger budget is needed for a site of this magnitude. Love to hear your feedback on that.

• Daryl
  April 3rd, 2009 at 4:32 PM

  From the way you’ve described it, each self-contained MLS system in Canada submits a data package to the online site, which then parses and inserts it into its own database. Data storage would be tremendous, as would bandwidth (traffic) to the site. Still, $1.8 million annually sounds like more than enough money to pay for hosting costs and at least a couple of peoples’ salaries to keep the thing running. But who knows, maybe that is reasonable for a site that’s the scale of MLS Online. I’ve never worked on a project that large before!

• Norm Fisher
  April 3rd, 2009 at 4:33 PM

  Thanks Daryl. Seems to me that that aren’t very many tech problems that more money won’t fix. I suspect CREA either doesn’t have the budget or is reluctant to spend it for some reason. I’m going to try to find out more about these issues. Appreciate your feedback.