Winnipeg Realtors Association has bowed to complaints from Winnipeggers frustrated that upgrades to the Multiple Listing Service website that earned rave reviews elsewhere were not available in Winnipeg.
Last year, sweeping changes were made to the national online real estate site operated by the Canadian Real Estate Association. The former site at www.mls.ca was significantly upgraded and enhanced to improve the process of searching for a new home. It also has a new domain name at www.realtor.ca.
Winnipegger Rod Couture is very impressed with the new site's ability to pinpoint homes for sale on neighbourhood maps and provide driving directions. What he's not impressed with is the fact that ability exists for now only in cities other than Winnipeg.
He's a regular visitor to the real estate site. He used the former www.mls.com search engine on a weekly basis to stay current on the market. Not only did it give him a good idea of the value of his current home in preparation for a spring sale, he says it also helped him price out the approximate cost of his family's next home.
Couture says he's very impressed with the new www.realtor.ca website and that it's a big improvement from the previous one. He says he finds the system a bit slower, but the mapping feature is fantastic and the new service is a big plus -- just not in Winnipeg.
When the site was launched, Winnipeg Realtors made the decision not to allow properties for sale in Winnipeg to be mapped on the new site. The rationale, apparently, was to continue to drive people to call the listing agent to get more information on the home. So while other locales have made searching for a new home online as simple as can be, Winnipeg realtors resisted allowing buyers here to access the advances in technology.
Complaints from Couture and others have prompted Winnipeg Realtors to reverse its decision, starting this month.
"With no mapping, it is a total waste of time," Couture says of the Manitoba section of the site. "The new MLS has been a step backwards for Winnipeg."
Another Winnipegger says she, too, was excited about visiting the new real estate site when it first came out. Cindy, who did not want her last name used, says she was under the impression this new and improved site would make home-buying easier. But after several weeks trying to search for a house in Winnipeg using the site, she says her patience has run out.
"Realtors across the country have mapped out properties for sale and have made searching a dream," Cindy says. "This leads me to wonder what are Winnipeg realtors wanting to protect by not mapping the houses they are selling?"
Cindy is not alone. Numerous complaints over the last several months prompted Winnipeg Realtors to take the issue to the board of directors. The result is that changes will now be made to bring Winnipeg real estate in line with the rest of the country.
"Change isn't always easy for people," acknowledges Peter Squire, spokesman for Winnipeg Realtors. "But certainly there was some pressure."
As of Feb. 15, Winnipeg Realtors will have the option to have their listings mapped on the site. Although it will be optional, and some realtors may still choose not to post the specific addresses of their listings, Squire expects most local real estate agents will allow their listings to be mapped.
"You'll see a lot of flags," he says, referring to the flags that mark the properties on the website that have been mapped and and whose address is listed.
For people searching for a new home, that should make it just as easy to look for a home in Winnipeg now as it is in other Canadian centres. As it should be.
