I’ve never been one for outdoor advertising, but I suppose there’s a first time for everything, right?

This week, I bought a billboard at Yonge & Dundas Square.

It’s massive!

Towering high above Jack Astor’s, or Milestone’s, or Pickle Barrel, or whatever chain with completely average food you consume before an 8:00pm movie, the billboard is nothing but a white background to further draw the eye to the centre of the billboard which states, in all caps, all black letters, plain as day:

3488 Quilted Rabbit Way Is An Over-Priced Townhouse And I Worry About The Sketchy Foundation

And there you have it.

Except, wait, no, I didn’t do this.  I forgot.

What I did do is drop 100,000 paper flyers from a hot air balloon that read:

New Moon Real Estate Ltd. Brokerage Is A Con Shop With Inexperienced Agents

Wait, no, that’s not it either.

That was one of my ideas.

But in the end, I decided to film a Tik Tok with two friends of mine on the Toronto Raptors where we sing a song about this really awesome house that a Re/Max agent listed for sale last week.

(womp womp)

I did none of those things, as you might assume.

You probably knew somewhere around Quilted Rabbit Way that this was a rouse, but it’s shockingly hard to make up a street name, let me tell you!

All of the actions above would break established real estate rules, and while I used examples that are complete hyperbole, I did so to prove a point:

There should be no grey area.  You either break the rules or you abide by them.  How badly you break the rules should not be a factor.

Folks, this should be a classic Friday Rant but it’s owed a mid-week audience.

Never before have I seen so many real estate agents willfully unaware of the rules, ignoring the rules, or simply flaunting the rules.

What rules?

Let me provide some background…

I started Toronto Realty Blog in 2007.

It was the first real estate blog but it was also the first real estate website that offered anything but a virtual business card of a real estate agent.

Another aspect of the site that was never-seen-before: a real estate agent offering an opinion.

It didn’t go over well at first, which has been well documented.

People didn’t like that I could tell stories from the real estate trenches, or offer an opinion on a type of property or neighbourhood, but I would like to think that eventually, common sense (and free speech) prevailed.

But one thing I have always done on Toronto Realty Blog is abide by the rules that the Real Estate Council of Ontario and the Toronto Real Estate Board have set forth.

More importantly, I have always protected the anonymity of the people and properties detailed in my stories.

Those who don’t know this might feel like the child being told, for the first time, that there’s no Santa Claus, but when I tell a story on TRB, I’ll change “he” to “she,” I’ll change “East” to “West,” I’ll change the offer prices of $801,000, $805,000 and $811,000 to $901,000, $905,000, and $911,000, all so that the people or properties in the stories aren’t easily identified.

If somebody wants to do a deep dive and sleuth their way to identifying the property, have at it.

But I’m never going to write, “John Smith from Re/Max offered $901,000 on my listing at 123 Fake Street the other night, and here’s what happened…”

When I put MLS listings up on the blog, put a black bar around the address, the seller’s name, the MLS number, and the condominium corporation.

I do all of this because I’m required to.

And I have been doing this for sixteen years.

While I might have been called a “disruptor” back in the day, people can’t deny that I followed the rules.

That’s the distinction between what I do here on Toronto Realty Blog and with respect to what other agents are doing every single day in the field.

How about an example?

Let’s say that you’re a real estate broker licensed under RECO and with the TRREB board.  A client of yours signs a listing agreement and you put his property up for sale on the MLS system.

You’re marketing the property as you see fit.  You’ve taken professional photos of the interior and have a virtual tour, a video on YouTube, maybe some admail in all the doors in the neighbourhood.  You might do some social media advertising, you might not.  You’re not sure.  But it’s your decision because it’s your listing.

So how do you feel when an agent posts a full walkthrough video on Instagram of herself going in and out of every room in the house, holding a selfie-stick, showing off the house’s best assets, talking about the price, and then finishing the video by telling people that if they’re interested, to DM her?

This is a problem in real estate right now.  A big one!

While many of the TRB readers don’t care (and I won’t take offense), I try to consistently change up the content on TRB on a regular basis and leave no subject unexplored.

This is a subject that needs exploring!

And before I get into the real problem here, I should also note that when a buyer agent books a viewing on a property, it’s under the assumption that the agent is showing the property to a client.  So when that agent shows up, alone, and starts filming in the property like Steven Spielberg, that agent is accessing the property under false pretenses.

Part of me wants to generalize and say, “It’s the young, 20-something, Gen-z’ers that are doing this,” but it’s not only them.  In fact, I don’t know that you could identify a prevalent demographic.

But let me ask you the following: is there a difference between these two scenarios:

1) Taking a video walkthrough of another agent’s listing and putting it on Instagram
2) Taking out a 60 x 40 foot billboard at Yonge & Dundas Square advertising another agent’s listing

There is no difference.  There is no grey area here, it’s black and white.

That brings me to the first rule that is being broken incessantly in today’s market:

RECO Rule: A registrant is not permitted to advertise another registrant’s listing under contract without permission.

“Advertising” isn’t a grey area.

A billboard in Time Square, a banner ad flying from an airplane, an advertisement in Facebook Marketplace, or a video walkthrough on Tik Tok: they’re all the same.

They’re all unauthorized advertising.

You might say, “David, what’s wrong with an agent doing a video walkthrough of your listing?  Isn’t it great exposure for your client?”

That’s not the point.

The point is that it’s unauthorized advertising.

Because again, how do you distinguish between the “great exposure” from one agent doing a Tik Tok video and another agent sending out admail with his face on it, and your listing, to 20,000 houses in your farm area?

The truth is: any mention of a property listed for sale on an agent’s website, Instagram, Tik Tok, LinkedIn, et al, is unauthorized advertising unless that agent has obtained permission.

And things have gotten so bad that listing agents are starting to do this on MLS:

For those that still wonder, “Why all the fuss?” it’s not just about an agent breaking, ignoring, or flaunting the rules.  It’s about the listing agent controlling the narrative and information.

Think about how many agents – and probably not very good ones, are advertising listings in Facebook Marketplace.

Now, obviously, Facebook Marketplace isn’t where knowledgeable, experienced buyers are looking at real estate, but that’s not the point.

The point is that I don’t want my clients’ property on Facebook Marketplace because it undermines the integrity of the property, but more importantly, the agent putting up the advertising is almost always acting as though it’s their listing.  I don’t want my clients’ property associated with Bob from XYZ Real Estate, case closed.  I also don’t want Bob to answer questions, make statements, or represent the property in any way, shape, or form.  And I fear, above all, that either the information in the advertisement or the statements made by Bob, will be inaccurate.

If a member of the public relied on Bob’s advertisement, and it contained inaccurate information, what’s to say that a RECO complaint, negative review, or legal action wouldn’t be aimed at me?

Another video I saw recently was of a decent midtown Toronto home where an agent walked through and just absolutely lambasted it.

This video had the address of the property, it showed the listing, it showed photos taken from MLS (even though the agent was filming a video in the house – which shows how much editing went into this process), and the agent explained how over-priced the house was.

But here’s another important rule that agents are ignoring:

RECO Rule: A registrant is not permitted to disparage a competitor’s listing.

I’m all for free speech.  I’m all for sharing an opinion.

But this must be done within the framework of what the regulatory bodies of your industry permit.

First of all, this is “unauthorized advertising,” but after all is said and done in the video, it’s also “disparaging a competitor’s listing.”

Here’s another example…

An agent recently did an Instagram post about a property listed for sale (so that’s “unauthorized advertising,” for starters…) and then showed a listing for the same property when it sold one year prior.  The agent then wrote, “How much will the house sell for this time around?”

When the property was sold, the agent followed up with a post, featuring the MLS listing for the sold property, showing that the property had been sold for $200,000 less than in 2022.

Let me introduce another rule here:

TRREB Rule: Sale prices of properties cannot be released until after the properties are closed and the sale price is a matter of public record.

I don’t like this TRREB rule any more than you do, or any more than most agents do, but it’s the rule.

Not only did this agent divulge the sale price in a public forum, but he also noted the sale price was $100,000 less than when it sold in 2022, and the 1960’s Batman-like “WOW” and “POW” expressions were meant to rub salt in the wound.

The names of the agents and brokerages were on there too.

Real classy.

So let me introduce another rule here:

RECO Rule: A registrant is not permitted to disparage a competitor.

It’s one thing to express an opinion on a property, it’s another thing to shine a light on an agent or brokerage.

Another recent example had a young agent, probably in her first year in the business, take to Instagram with a screen-shot of a property that sold – complete with the address, sellers’ names, sale price, and other items that are private, and throw shade on everybody involved.

“The people who just bought this house and paid this price are insane,” the post read.

“These peeps just buried themselves in this house for a decade or more,” it continued.

The agent then explained how she valued the property and explained that any agent who advised his or her clients to offer more than that amount was wrong.

Look, this agent is clearly new, clearly trying to create content and attract followers, and obviously doesn’t have clients of her own for this property (if at all).

But that doesn’t excuse the actions.

This agent divulged sales data, disparaged competitors, and then disparaged the home buyers and any other buyers/agents who had the audacity to offer more than she felt the home was worth.

So maybe put that in another catch-all rule that RECO loves to use when administering discipline:

RECO Rule: A registrant shall adhere to professional conduct at all times.

I’m paraphrasing these rules, FYI.  So if a dissenting opinion is going to be with respect to the verbiage, try something else.

Earlier this year, we had a midtown condominium listing which we soon sold.  A few weeks later, our clients emailed and said, “Today, we got a ‘Just Sold’ flyer for the condo in our mailbox!”

The problem?

We never sent out a ‘Just Sold’ flyer.

Amazingly, another agent sent out a flyer advertising our sold listing!  Almost two decades in the business and I have never seen anything like this.

But there’s no mistake here, right?  There’s no “oops” to be uttered by the offending agent.  This was deliberate.  This was an agent that said, “I’ll take the chance that I get fined because it’s a low-percentage chance, and there’s more upside from potential business from advertising somebody else’s listing.

In some ways, it’s ironic that I’m writing this.

I’ve been a real estate trailblazer, I’ve been the one petitioning for change, and I’ve been an agent that’s always tried to stay ahead of the curve.  But I’ve always acted reasonably, respectfully, and within the lines.

If TRREB allows us to divulge sales data, then great.  I’m for it.  But until then, there must be order.  Until then, agents can’t go onto Twitter, Instagram, or drop flyers from a hot air balloon with sales data.

I’m all for free speech.  I’m all for offering opinions in real estate.  But agents can’t break three or four existing rules in the process of marketing themselves online or on social media.

An agent can say whatever the hell he or she chooses to clients.

But in a public form for ALL to see?  That just opens the door to agents acting with impunity, which opens the door to absolute chaos.

If it’s illegal to put squirrels down your pants for the purpose of gambling, you don’t just go ahead and do it.  We all know this.

December 2nd, 2022, I wrote: “Value For Money Audit: Real Estate Council Of Ontario”

That was a blog post about a scathing review of RECO by the Auditor General, which suggested that maybe RECO isn’t doing such a great job!

I have no idea how RECO would even begin to address the litany of issues that the real estate industry is currently facing with respect to advertising, but “begin” is the key word there.

Having said all this, I’ll ask the question that I posed at the onset: do consumers actually care?

Those directly affected by the issues and stories noted above probably will.

But do the rest of them?

Maybe not.  And maybe it’s all moot to them as we face affordability issues and an uncertain market.

But I for one will be watching this as it develops, and it will be interesting to see where all this lands in a year or two…