Being a REALTOR® has always been a challenging and dynamic career. However, the pace of change in this industry, as in so many others, has accelerated significantly.
Dear fellow REALTORS®,
Being a REALTOR® is an inherently entrepreneurial undertaking.
Most REALTORS® in Canada are self-employed business people who are drawn to the fast-paced, customer-oriented environment of the real estate industry. We thrive on the freedom we enjoy to build our businesses the best way we see fit. We have to be highly service oriented, responding to the needs of our clients who are buying or selling not just the most valuable asset they will probably ever own in their lives but, indeed, one of the most emotionally laden purchases they will ever make – their home. We need to be incredibly well informed so that we can counsel those clients on how to maximize the benefit to them of this important transaction.
Being a REALTOR® has always been a challenging and dynamic career. However, the pace of change in this industry, as in so many others, has accelerated significantly. Technology has made it much easier for consumers to directly access data and information that used to be the exclusive domain of real estate professionals. It's pointless arguing whether this is a good thing or bad thing; that Genie is not going back in the bottle. The only question left to answer is how we as REALTORS® are going to respond to this.
Some REALTORS® have responded by innovating new business models. Others have embraced the ability technology gives them to create new, data-driven products such as highly customized Internet sites for each individual listing that pull in highly accurate data from their local MLS® System but also incorporate map data, socio-economic details about the neighbourhood, and important points of reference such as schools, parks and other services. REALTORS® are in the forefront of the social media revolution, being among the first to tap into the immense potential these new communications channels offer to market their services and engage with their customers.
Other REALTORS® have chosen to continue practicing their profession using tried and true approaches that have always worked for them. And that's okay, too.
My point is that REALTORS® are able to innovate and use many different business models and approaches that are as varied and individualistic as REALTORS® themselves. REALTORS® must of course respect the rules and regulations, including those laid down by governments and their local boards, but it is not CREA's role to dictate how REALTORS® conduct their business, nor to favour one business model over another.
It is CREA's job to help REALTORS® maximize their success, however they choose to go about it. Our association lobbies vigorously in favour of initiatives it believes will make home ownership more affordable, the real estate marketplace more sustainable and less volatile, and the business of real estate more successful. CREA cautions governments against implementing proposals that it believes will harm the marketplace or make it unnecessarily difficult for our members to carry out their business. CREA makes available an array of technology products and services that help REALTORS® provide the best possible information and the highest levels of customer service to their buyers and sellers. Our association maintains Canada's most frequently visited and popular websites that consumers rely upon for property information and for advice and information about buying or selling a home. CREA's is a loud voice in the marketplace, constantly keeping consumers informed and educated about the importance of working with a REALTOR® when buying or selling a property.
A huge part of CREA's preoccupation over the last year or so has been around the Futures Initiative, an ambitious and comprehensive consultation exercise intended to help REALTORS® and all levels or organized real estate deliberate on the ways consumers and the marketplace are changing and to help determine which approaches will best suit both REALTORS® and consumers in the years ahead.
This annual report represents something of a departure for CREA in more ways than one. Up until very recently, your national association did not communicate directly with you. Instead, we relied on provincial real estate associations and on local real estate boards to do the job for us.
Dear CREA members,
This annual report is the very first electronic one ever produced by your association. Reports like this will be mandatory for trade associations like CREA beginning next year. We thought it was important, however, to start the practice a year sooner, especially since the past 12 months have seen such a high level of consultation and communication between CREA and you, our members.
Indeed, this annual report represents something of a departure for CREA in more ways than one. Up until very recently, your national association did not communicate directly with you. Instead, we relied on provincial real estate associations and on local real estate boards to do the job for us. Just like the children's game of telephone, though, this past practice of passing communications up and down through several layers often meant that some meaning and nuance was lost in the process. We know from research we have done with CREA members that many of you are not aware that some of the products and services you use every day come to you from CREA, and are paid for from a portion of your CREA membership dues. Others of you are uncertain about some of our core activities, things that have a considerable direct impact on how you conduct your business and on the health of the real estate marketplace in which you do so.
One question that might be legitimately asked, for example, is why there even needs to be a national trade association for an economic activity that is regulated at the provincial and territorial level and organised, in the main, at the local level. While it might be true that other levels of government regulate the real estate industry, it was recognised many years ago that the federal government is in charge of Canada's major economic levers – things like mortgage rates, fiscal policy, banking regulations and consumer protection – that have a considerable direct impact on the housing market. Indeed, CREA itself was created expressly to advocate for the interests of REALTORS® at the federal level, and this annual report outlines some of the notable successes we have had in standing up both for REALTORS® and for the consumers they serve.
On the technology front, CREA delivers a broad array of products and services where it simply makes more sense for them to be developed at the national, rather than regional or local, level. A description of some of these tools, as well as our plans for future developments, is also part of this annual report.
CREA has a large and critical role to play in research and analysis. This report's section on our economic analysis activities outlines the degree to which other major players – governments, financial institutions and the media – rely on our data for a clear picture of what's going on in Canada's housing market. We also conduct extensive consumer research so that REALTORS® can have a better understanding of consumer behaviour and of their needs and wants as the real estate marketplace evolves. And, of course, we survey our members. The Futures Initiative, which is discussed in greater length in this annual report, is an ongoing exercise in member consultation, and this report is itself an example of how CREA is expanding its outreach to its 106,000 members.
Finally, CREA maintains a very large public presence on behalf of REALTORS®. Every year we conduct a multi-million national advertising campaign informing consumers about what REALTORS® do and the value to them of using a REALTOR® when buying or selling their home.
This annual report is a major step forward in CREA's new, more intensive communications efforts with its members. But we do not want this to be a one-way activity – we need you, our members, to engage in this conversation. There are so many ways you can participate in the dialogue, contribute to the wellbeing of your association and influence its policies and directions. I urge you to let us know how we can make CREA even better.