The hot market has kept CREB^® Member Practice busy as we identify trends, promote best practices, and continue to answer member questions about unexpected situations in the field.

Top trends

CREB^® Member Practice worked with members to support best practices on the top trends that emerged in Q1:

• Using comments to disclose conditional sales.

• Managing overlapping showings and member expectations around overlapping showings.

• Navigating multiple offers.

• Members communicating with each other respectfully and responsively.

Raising awareness of the rules

We recognize that it’s tricky to know all the Rules and REALTOR^® Code articles our members must practice within. That’s one of the reasons why CREB^® Member Practice uses educational advisory emails if a member accidentally violates a rule.

The Educational Advisory will point out the mistake and how to correct it and bring awareness to the rule so the member can adjust their practice to avoid repeating similar mistakes. If a member makes the same error again after they receive an educational advisory, the member may get a fine, which we like to avoid. 

Q1 by the numbers

  780 members 

  

11,244 CREB^® listings activated  

 

  651 rule violations

Thank you to our members for their awareness of the MLS^® System listing rules and for inputting their listings with care and accuracy.

• Educational Advisories: 517

• Second violations: 21

• Third violations: 3

• Fourth violations: 1

Top three rule violations in Q1 and tips to avoid them

1. Failure to disclose the legality of a suite

Tip: Every time you use the word “suite” in the public remarks, use the word legal or illegal before or after “suite” so consumers know if it’s a legal secondary suite or not. Learn more here.

2. Promoting a future suite

Tip: If advertising that the property could be changed to incorporate a suite in the future, ensure you include the disclosure, “A secondary suite would be subject to approval and permitting by the city.” Learn more here.

3. Updating Pending Listings to reflect up-to-date information

Tip: Use the built-in Matrix™ tools (My Overdue Pending Listings report) to know when a listing has passed the condition due date. Update the status of the listing, or if conditions were extended, update the Date Conditional Until (Pending Date) on the listing. 

If you have compliance questions, please get in touch with CREB^® Member Practice at crebmp@creb.ca for more information.