Dear fellow RAHB members,
Last Thursday, July 4, your RAHB Board of Directors had a productive and informative meeting. There were several agenda items and one of the main topics of discussion was data-sharing – with respect to both ORTIS and neighbouring boards/associations, as well as with the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB)
TREB DATA SURVEY RESULTS
Thank you to those who participated and provided valuable feedback. The winner of the $100 RAHB credit draw is Ann Cosens of Coldwell Banker Community Professionals. Congratulations Ann, and thank you for your input!
In just over a week and a half, 654 RAHB members responded to the survey. The breakdown of participants by area was 401 from Hamilton, 208 from Burlington, 37 from Niagara North and 8 from Haldimand. Through this survey we found:
- Of the 654 respondents, 568 (86.85%) of respondents feel that their business is impacted by the existence of property listings that do not appear on the RAHB MLS®
- Of the 654 respondents, 143 (21.87%) are dual TREB or Brampton Real Estate Board (BREB) members
- The top-ranked choice as to why they are a dual member is to expose listings to TREB or BREB members
- Of the respondents who are not dual members of TREB or BREB, 331 (64.9%) interboard their listings on TREB
- The top-ranked reason for not interboarding on TREB is because respondents do not feel it is necessary to expose listings to to TREB members
- 77.93% of respondents have been asked by clients in the past year if they expose listings to TREB REALTORS®
- 64.72% of respondents use Opehouses.ca, 77.42% use REALTOR.ca, and 17.73% use TREBHome.com
- Many respondents are unaware of TREBHome.com
- Several respondents feel the name OpenHouses.ca is confusing
- The majority of respondents prefer REALTOR.ca
- The data ranked as most important to respondents is TREB; followed by the Oakville, Milton and District Real Estate Board; and a tie for third between Niagara Association of REALTORS® and Brantford Regional Real Estate Board
Some interesting feedback themes were:
- The TREB interboarding process is beneficial, yet cumbersome
- REALTOR.ca is the primary site that RAHB REALTORS® recommend, and we should be supporting this platform
- All Ontario association/board data is very important to RAHB REALTORS® to conduct businesses effectively
Some common questions included:
- “Why are RAHB rules not applied to interboarded listings?”
A – Outside REALTORS® are informed of our rules and are encouraged to follow them; however, we cannot enforce our rules on non-RAHB members. - “Why is it not mandatory for outside REALTORS® to post on the RAHB MLS®?”
A – Unfortunately this is not possible at this time due to competition rules. The only way to enforce this would be if data was accessible province-wide.
Thank you again for your valuable feedback. We continue to work on behalf of RAHB REALTORS® to ensure you have the data you need for your business.
CEO SELECTION
I know many of you are interested in the recruitment process for RAHB’s new CEO. Our CEO Selection Committee has reported that they’re on schedule and that applications are being received.
Next steps include:
- Continuing updates from our search vendor, Optimum Talent
- Optimum Talent to present a list of potential candidates for interview to the Selection Committee, and prepare interview questions for the interview process
- Round 1 interviews with short-listed candidates are expected to take place by the end of July
- Second round of interviews with finalist candidates are expected to take place by mid-August
- Final candidate evaluation and assessment expected to be completed by the end of August
I would like to again thank the interim CEOs – Kim and Carolyn – for providing great leadership during this time of transition. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would also like to thank our very dedicated RAHB staff, who have been working diligently to ensure there is no gap in service to RAHB members.
Over the coming weeks I will keep you informed regarding the progress of both the CEO recruitment process and the ongoing data-sharing options/negotiations.
This is an important and busy time for our organization. Thank you for your ongoing interest in RAHB’s activities and please don’t hesitate to contact me personally if you have questions or comments.
Bob Van de Vrande, B.Comm., M.B.A., B.Ed.
2019 RAHB President
REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington