The Realtor (tm) lobby in Canada is doing everything it can to maintain it's monopoly.
It seemed like progress when CREA was recently forced to allow competitors to access its listing service monopoly (mls.ca), but this change hasn't been effective because the majority of Canadians are completely unenterprising, unimaginative, and behave like sheep.
So, if you try to be enterprising and use a flat fee brokerage to sell your place using MLS exposure, and your neighbour wants to buy a place just like yours, what will they most likely do? No, they won't. They will go to their realtor who will pretend your privately listed property doesn't even exist. Even if there is a cooperating commission offered. Because they know that if they do show your place it will eventually spell the end to their reign and force major changes in the industry.
Discount brokerage listings get next to zero showings because there is a coordinated effort on the part of industry to boycot this new competition. Nip it in the bud so to speak, by keeping their clients in the dark. Which has proven shamefully easy for them accomplish.
CREA is maintaining its firm grip on its monopoly by convincing consumers that they can't think for themselves.
And they are mostly right.
