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Oh I agree. Personally I like to do the leg work myself, but I'd never try to buy without expert involvement. I think real estate being a hobby has probably driven a lot of sales activity - you cruise MLS and you discover a neighborhood or house and before you know it you are in the market or actually buying and all you were really doing was killing some time and feeding your bad habit of being nosy about other people's houses. Eventually the realtors will catch on, but for now many of them - and most particularly the assn. that speaks for them - regard online self-serve realty searches as a threat to their livlihood! Time to get into the 21st century, me-thinks!
I wonder if they aren't shooting themselves in the foot. When I was shopping for houses I found some my Realtor would have missed (given the limited criteria I could use for them to keep track) and seeing the listings helped me get realistic about prices without the Realtor having to educate me.
the other problem is if I can't look easily and am buying in another location, I have no idea what Realtor to call but can see some names and numbers using that site to see listings. I can also see the pictures and descriptions of listings and get a feel for which Realtor I would like to work with when I list and that may be someone I would not normally have called without that site.
So I am not sure how this is benefiting the Realtors.
I can't stand the new site either, so slow. I tried oldmls.com which works so much better. I don't understand why CREA would make a site more difficult to navigate, looking on the internet for homes is huge. The FSBO sites are in the hundreds now. I am not moving either, but I like to keep up to date on what is happening in the real estate market...especially during these times.
the new site has been made intentionally unfriendly, I think. The Canadian realtors assn. has been pretty vocal about their opposition to the concept of people finding houses on their own, or even being able to do research online. They own the site. Nuff said.
I was using the new site last week. It seems to be working better. It's taking some getting used to. You can search by maps for an area.
Oh thank you for posting that. It works!
If you type in theoldmls.com you get all of the listings in the old format. So far it works great!
I agree that the "new" site is frustrating. I used to enjoy looking even though I have no plans for moving; now I don't bother. BUT, the one tip I have is that if you put in the specific code for the area you want (if you know it)in the search line ie Toronto E2 it is much quicker to find what you're looking for.
I also agree that it is a pain to navigate....always has been.
i know what you mean, dh was cursing it the other day :mad:
smiles
janetc
I agree. That site is a major pain to navigate through and you just can't seem to get to the listings as fast as you used to.
I have sent them a complaint about it. I work with a girl parttime that is also a real estate agent and she says to send the and email as they get so many complaints in their office. It is not user friendly at all.