(Photo courtesy of Supreme Court of Canada via Facebook.com)
It's a fight that has gone of for years. And you have won.
The Supreme Court of Canada released its judgement this morning that will allow sold prices of homes to be made public.
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The Court declined the Toronto Real Estate Board’s request to appeal a lower court ruling.
As such, TREB has been ordered to drop certain restrictions on the display and use of data on its Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This includes the previous “sold” prices — on password protected sites.
Now, TREB has 60 days to provide its data to realtors.
This decision by the Supreme Court may be a game-changer in the world of real estate for people who aren't even in the industry.
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The ruling means that sold prices will now be available online in a Virtual Office Website (VOW) — a password-protected site. And you will be able to create a VOW account and search historical real estate sales information.
It also means you'll have access to more information without being dependent on a real estate agent.
Find out a home's sales history and pending sales. And find out how comparable homes in your neighbourhood are priced.
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TREB is the largest real estate association in Canada. It has always allowed only its 49,000 members access to a property’s previous sales prices and its number of days on market. But this access was only allowed via fax, email or by handing it over in person.
The association has fought the idea of making that same data available online through broker websites, regardless of whether or not the site is password protected.
So, the Supreme Court’s decision is big and defining news for Toronto real estate.
