You CAN make a real estate listing search site, just dont violate MLS' standard agreement between brokers and real estate boards
(Metro Vancouver's hot real estate market as seen from the view of V6A; V6A is at 221 Union)
Real estate industry forced to loosen rules....
The Competition Bureau's move to force the real estate industry to loosen its rules governing the multiple listing service will not bring to Canada the huge range of house-hunting tools available in the United States.
That's because the bureau's actions - if successful - are designed specifically to let sellers cheaply list their properties on MLS and avoid full-service commissions, not to broaden the availability of MLS data.
The bureau's challenge, to be heard by the quasi-judicial competition tribunal, addresses the Canadian Real Estate Association's (CREA) rules that force sellers to buy a full range of agents' services, and thus pay full commissions, if they list on MLS.
No feature-rich real estate websites like those in the U.S.
The bureau decided it would not push for further changes that would allow brokers or others to repackage MLS data with ancillary data, creating the kind of feature-rich websites that Americans have grown to love.
Currently, Canadian brokers cannot take MLS listings, enhance them with more information, and provide that to the public on a searchable website.
Full article at The Globe & Mail
