It’s been another great year for marketing property through the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) and the Commercial Property Information Exchange (cpix), which are both operated by the WinnipegREALTORS® Association.
While private sale activity is dramatically down, buyers and sellers using professional REALTORS® have experienced an upswing in activity throughout the year.
While December statistics aren’t yet available, the first 11 months of the year show MLS® listings holding their own when compared to the previous record-setting clip in 2006. After 11 months this year, sales were up seven per cent and dollar volume rose a whopping 21 per cent over last year’s record.
The Multiple Listing Service® is the best marketing system for properties ever designed regardless of market conditions. If there is a “market correction” in the next couple of years — after five years of incredible advances — MLS® will still be the place to go for serious home buyers and sellers.
The only way to get to the MLS® and cpix systems is through a REALTOR®, which in Winnipeg means a full-time fully-insured professional, who subscribes to a code of ethics, a national pledge of competition, standards of business practice and privacy compliance, all of which are second to none among organizations.
MLS® is not just local — it is a national system providing REALTORS® with the most current and complete property listing database anywhere in the country. Over 90,000 REALTORS® are ready, willing and able to co-operate using an unsurpassed technological link. Sellers can rest assured that their property will receive the widest possible exposure to qualified buyers. Buyers and sellers can also be confident that REALTORS® will have the best information immediately available on any property anywhere in Canada.
More than records
REALTORS® and their organizations are not just in the business to establish sales and dollar volume records. REALTORS® give to and volunteer for charities and community-based groups to build better neighbourhoods. The number of hours committed by REALTORS® and brokerages to charities and organizations is truly staggering.
REALTORS® are coaches, fund raisers and serve on non-profit boards. REALTORS® are “go-givers” not “go-getters.”
The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) has stepped up to the plate and registered a REALTORS Care™ Foundation. Its purpose is to collect, administer and disburse charitable donations and receipts for real estate boards, associations as well as real estate companies that are not able to provide comparable functions. CREA’s foundation does not compete with local boards, associations and real estate companies that already have excellent fund-raising methods in place.
Rather, the creation of a national foundation is designed to do two things. The first is to save members the cost and administrative burden of setting up their own foundations. The national foundation is also be a vehicle for collecting, sharing and promoting the extensive community and charitable contributions that REALTORS® make.
Sighting a REALTORS Care™ logo in the media or viewing announcements on the Winnipeg REALTORS® Association electronic message board, at 1240 Portage Ave., reflects a cross-Canada network of REALTORS® doing great community work.
At the provincial level, the Manitoba Real Estate Association has created a non-profit foundation with charitable status — The Manitoba Real Estate Association Shelter Foundation. The mission of the provincial foundation is to raise funds for charitable organizations that support shelter-related causes improving Manitobans’ quality of life.
The foundation is directed by a board of governors consisting of nine REALTORS® and an individual from the public. The board is passionate about making Manitoba a place that everyone can call home.
Pablo Casals is purported to have said, “The capacity to care is what gives life its deepest significance.”
And REALTORS® do care!