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Competition Bureau to challenge MLS

CREA limits consumer choice and prevents innovation in the real estate market

Not a moment too soon, the Competition Bureau is at last going after the real estate cartel. The agency is challenging the rules governing the online Multiple Listing Service, carefully designed by the Canadian Real Estate Association to ensure it does not become too useful. For example, you can’t just pay a fee to list your home on it. Rather, you have to hire an agent to provide you with a lot of services you don’t need—services, indeed, that the MLS itself would seem to make superfluous. This is one of many pointless rituals maintained by the real estate guild, for no other reason than because a) it has always been done that way, b) it makes money for the agent, or ideally c) both. Where is Walmart when you need them?

Vancouver Sun

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