Goodbye MLS.ca, Hello Realtor.ca
Realtor.ca has finally launched and soon the much loathed MLS.ca will finally be put out of its misery. The recent shut down of the popular Housing123 caused quite a stir and reignited the debate over not just the fact that there is are lack of a quality website for viewing properties in this country, but also the Real Estate Industry's handling of the information itself.
The real estate industry in Canada is in some ways unique in that it has managed to avoid to this point what just about every other knowledge-based industry has faced since the invention of the Internet: the mass dissemination of its most precious resource-information. Specifically, they have consistently shut down any attempt that has been made to open up the central MLS database that contains all the information about properties sold and those currently for sale.
One of the main reasons why these 'rogue' sites keep popping up is that MLS.ca is pretty terrible and has been basically unchanged over the last several years. MLS.ca completely missed the whole web 2.0 party and many entrepreneurs and programmer types couldn't take it any longer. But with each new site that emerged, CREA was right behind them to shut them down.
The new Realtor.ca is a great improvement over MLS.ca simply because it has added mapping functionality that has been around on other sites for about 5 years or so. The ability to click and drag the map, as well as switch between map and aerial view are nice touches. Being able to change search criteria in real time without have to click the 'back' button is great too.
Once you see a listing you like and you click on it for more information, several short comings of the site quickly reveal themselves. Photo size and quality are the same as the previous version of MLS.ca, and you have to click the 'back' button to re-enter the map and select a different property. Also, information on a given property is still limited to the MLS.ca fields of the past. Many data fields that Realtors have access to, consumers still do not.
Consumers still have a long way to go before there is a clean, transparent system for accessing real estate listings in Canada. It might never fully be an open system, but we are embarrassingly far away from what is currently available in the U.S. on sites like Trulia.com, Zillow.com, and the like.
What do you think of the new Realtor.ca? Does it do what you want it to do? And what (realistic) suggestions would you make to improve it further?
Image from Realtor.ca.
Andrew la Fleur is a Realtor and a contributor to blogTO.
Comments (359)
I think it's awful. I'm sure it can be done but the ability to do something as simple as use the map to look up homes for sale in, say, Parkdale is so non-user-friendly and way more complicated than it needs to be.
I've only bought one home, but the mls website made the process an incredible pain. How come you couldn't just type in a street name, or a straight address? Amen to it's demise.
There is actually a website called housing123.com which had this idea before them. Using Google maps and the MLS listing number to locate properties for sale.
If you read their blog you will find out that they received a notice to cease and desist our operations from MLS/CREA Legal Counsel on June 15.
Now, not even a month later Realtor.ca is releasing a website of their own which is doing exactly what housing123 was doing just fine.
When we sold our house in February, MLS really screwed us over. They only made our property visible to agents & brokers, so that ordinary folks poking around the website looking for potential buys (which is exactly how we found our new place) wouldn't know our place even existed.
Fortunately, we did sell for the price we wanted in the time frame we wanted, but if our listing had been available to the general public we could've been on the good end of an all out bidding war.
And when we tried to get them to fix the mistake, they refused to listen to us because we weren't licensed realtors.
That's all I have to say on the matter. Hopefully someone ingenious will find a great way to put them out of business for good.
Using MLS is pure torture. This new realtor.ca sucks slightly less because of the map view, which is, OMG, oh such a natural thing to have.
Looks like most of the stuff was just cut and paste from original. Event bad fonts are still there. This was clearly done in house and it shows. Very poor work.
is there another industry so dependent on the web that sucks as much with their usage of it?
real estate is a joke online. I could probably get rich fixing the crap they throw up.
hmmmmmmmm...
MLS has it's downfalls, but I've just tried the new site and it's just as bad if not worse. I can't believe you can't narrow your search by a certain locations. I don't want to go through 300+ plus findings in TOronto when I only am looking Forrest Hill.
This is a brutal site. If I cannot use it as a realtor how does the general public have a chance?
The unfortunate part of upgrading the mls.ca website to the new realtor.ca site is that it is not usable for anyone using a Macintosh computer. I've been in the market for a new home for about two months and search frequently, and guess what, I use a Mac exclusively. Now I can't even search to see what's available. Who builds a website these days that completely eliminates an operating system?
Nice try, too bad it's useless.
There may have been issues with mls but anyone who says this new crap is better has a vested interest. I cannot find what I want easily and when I went in for more info got backed out to totally different and meaningless info!
Wow. Having just bought a place, and having spent a loooot of time on MLS, I'm shocked that they actually managed to make this resource worse. Lousy UI and ditto to the comments above about not being able to narrow down by neighbourhood. Godwilling they'll change it again before we sell. This version burns my eyes.
The new site is terrible, I can't search by areas, nor I can save my search parameters to a specific area of the city.
Also, before I was able to see 50 properties per page, now I have to search 10 properties at a time.
Finally, my computer at home is slow so everytime I move the map I have to wait a lot of time until new data is populated!
It would've made sense to keep mls.ca features and ADD an OPTIONAL map search, not just replace it.
This new website realty.ca is the most unfriendly site I have ever tried to use. mls.ca was quick, easy and provided all the info needed in seconds. This is a nightmare, and you need to be a computer nerd to use it.
This new website realty.ca is completely frustrating. Before I could go to C1 or C2 in Toronto and narrow the search quite easily. Now with the map format it takes forever and even then you can't get the parameters you want to select. I hope that the old website mls.ca is resurrected ASAP!
The new site sucks. Tried to find houses in one particular area in Coquitlam but couldn't get anything. Very user UN-friendly. The old mls was much easier and faster.
I have looked on mls.ca everyday for months looking for a new home. Mls.ca might not have been perfect but it sure saved time over this new cumbersome site. I can no longer scan through 50 per page nor can I narrow my search to an area such as a township without clicking on and off. Many homes that were listed on mls.ca are not picked up on the new site. Thumbs down. I won't use this site until it's user friendly. It's far too frustrating.
this new site is impossible! I am on the search for a new home, but gave up attempting to look at listings.
The new site is terrible, it's so bad i got frustrate trying to use it that i shut it off and went and picked up a newspaper to try to see what houises are forsale in teh area i want to buy in. I can't believe you shut down mls.ca which was more user freindly than this new site. I can't locate the houses that are for sale in the area I want. please bring back mls.ca or at least make this new site more user friendly. What a wast of money .... someone sure sold you a bill of goods!!!! Terrible!!!!
This sucks....I am not liking it. Like alot of people have said, I cant find what I am looking for..I know there are at least 6 homes for sale where I live and they arent even on this map?? yeah good one...there was nothing wrong with MLS.ca it was easy and fast....blahh
The new site is "EXTREMELY" frustrating, as outdated as MLS.ca was, i wish so very much that it was still available. Here are some of my issues:
1. You can't narrow the search, who would think this up?!?!?!....
2. When you look at property information, you can't just go back to the other listings. You get kicked out to the beginning to enter your search criteria again!!!
3. When you want to go to the next page of listings, it just sits there loading, i once left my house while it was loading the next page and came back 1/2 hour later and it still said loading...HAHAHAHAHAHA
4. When i try to change the setting from ascending to descending prices, the page just keeps trying to do it but never does!
This site makes me so frustrated that i don't want to look on it anymore. It is one of the most user UN-FRIENDLY sites i have ever used!. My real estate agent and i worked great together finding options for me, now i guess i will just have to rely on her and i won't be able to be as involved! UGHHHH
The new site is horrible.I'm not using it.I totally agree with Maria.Looking at houses isnt fun anymore.This website wasted my time.I emailed them and told them what I thought.I hope others are doing the same.I suspect this was a make work project for some young yahoo.I'm 35,If I'm having trouble with it I cant imagine how seniors would manage.The new website is a complete boner.I hate it so much that I will go through Property Guys or someone else to list my house.I dont want to visit the site again.Why fix what isnt broken.
This site is impossible! Im looking for a home for my 87 year old grandmother so she can move closer and cant use this site.Why change something that work to this usless site? Please give us MLS>CA back this is rediculious
Well, the MLS site was easy enough to learn, but this new site, with no way to turn that map off, takes forever to load. Google maps is great, if I want a map. But in making this site so friendly for people that want to make a specific search, they have completely disabled the ability to make a general search. Why cant I have it both ways?
I was looking forward to improvements to the mls website -- akin to what some of the realtors have on their websites where you need to log on as a member -- you can add additional search parameters (double garage/finished basement/days on the market, previous list prices, etc.), and maps, etc. But this is now almost useless. I think for most people, the first key criteria is location -- where it's by city or neighbourhood -- I want to key into that area first -- then when I narrow down by specific search parameters -- then see the actual address. This is now almost useless.
This site is a joke, The old site was way better. All that was needed was a map
I will be talking to my realtor in the morning if this is not fixed ASAP I will be pulling my listing.
whoever gave a green on this site design should be placed in jail for 10 years or more.
Such incredible incompetence and ignorance is hard to find elsewehere... COMPLETE Change of the interface that would not allow for transitioning time is just horseass.
I would agree with all the comments that consider old MLS better then the new Realtor.
What they were thinking? IF they think at all..
I would highly recommend hiring an Human Interface Expert, to help them DESIGN the interface that works for the users, not for their in house nerds..
I used the old MLS.CA over the past several years to scan my neighborhood and any other regions to see what was available. Now the system does not work at all as I have a MAC computer. Whoever is responsible for this disaster should be fired. before launching such an important marketing tool should have taken the time to make sure its funtionality works on all operating systems. At least if the old site was still available it would make sense. Dum-Dums!
Just tried it for the first time - WHAT A PAIN- looked in one area of Nova Scotia, for example & then when I wanted to look at another area , just could not get out of the first search- Had to start all over , then the whole map flashed & flashed - so I just gave up .
I'll be looking for another site
This one really needs a lot of tweaking before it is put up. Should have had a control group for pre- testing
Totally frustrating, is how we view this new site. Could not stop the map from flashing, did not get the listings we wanted to see. We hope that you come to your senses and at least give us back the old mls.ca. At least you don't have to be a computer geek to operate it. What a mess!!!!
Just tried the new site. Dreadful if you are not a very competent computer user. It took me 20 minutes to try to work the zooming feature. You need a steady hand and it is not great for seniors or diabled users. Not impressed.
Terrible new site bring back the mls.ca. I've been searching for years and now that we have a MAC I cannot even look at listings. How are we to look for our next new home I sure would not be listing my home on this site.
what was the problem? i always selected the area{ quad}, then community. was that not simple? get a map. get a brain. stop fishing.
This site is awful!! It's extremely annoying when you search a specific location and end up receiving homes listed in 2 or 3 different surrounding areas. MLS.ca was superb in a user friendly sense, and also in its appearance. This site is not an advantage for prospective buyers! So disappointing!
Of course, this new site is not user friendly. It's deliberately been made more frustrating so that people will be more likely to go to a Realtor to find listings in the specific area/neigborhood they want.
The above article discusses how the industry has shut down past attempts to allow MORE access to information and now, what do you know, there is LESS/more difficult access to information.
What in the world have you done. THe new site is horrible and doesn't work as you describe. I would like to see it changed back!
I have a mac and I concur with other mac users that this new site is not compatible with macs.
I thought I was doing something wrong until i saw all the other mac owners complaining.
As has been my habit for years, I just logged into the mls site to check out what's available. This new site is horrible! Confusing, limited info, no ability to search for condos only (what I'm interested in) and just a total pain in the butt. Not worth the frustration - give us back the old one!
This is soooo bad! Firstly, it doesn't work on a Mac. Guess what? Mac usage is going up day by day! Secondly, who was the genius that decided to eliminate the search by neighborhood feature?!? This is a pathetic attempt by the realtors to keep control of a market that is clearly moving away from them. People SHOULD be able to access the MLS information in a transparent way. The public needs to demand free and open access to MLS information. My girlfriend and I are looking for a home and we are now forced to employ a realtor to help us since this new site is so terrible. Brutal. Just Brutal.
I think it SUCKS! It took a good twenty minutes to find our listing when it took less than two on MLS.ca. It is not user friendly at all and was extremely frustrating.
The map search is shyte. Slow as molasses, even on a quick computer and Internet connection. This realtor.ca site makes me pine for the old mls.ca, as bad as it was. Not being able to search by district and community is such a pain in the a$$.
Is the new realtor.ca site a joke? I've tried several ways to search the site for properties but apparently there are NO acerage properties for sale in all Alberta. Give me a break. And give me back the old MLS where at least I could pinpoint the areas in which I wanted to look and find actual properties for sale. This is ridiculous. I'm totally thwarted from finding properties.
Let's just hope this launch is reverted. I use a mac and I was able to use the site albeit awkwardly. I used Firefox 3.0. What I cannot do now is access it via my iPhone, which is what I used to use rather efficiently, no longer I suppose.
The advanced search design is pretty bad, after you enter your city, You can't get get to a more specific municipality or area within the city. System should be like the old MLS, click on the city, then click on the area, then select your criteria, ie price, condo, townhouse etc. The old MLS was just fine. They should have kept it's logic, but just added the interactive maps for people who have all the time in the world to work the darned useless thing.
I just tried to use the new site - I can't even get the search to work - I would like to have MLS back as I could search for what I was looking for in a matter of minutes - this new site is useless
I suggest that you call or email your local real estate board and lay out your concerns and disappointment in this new site. I have emailed a couple different people and now I am waiting for some kind of response.
your new site sucks.you no longer can search by areas like E-17,E-19 ETC.NOW YOU PRETTY MUCH HAVE TO SEARCH BY STREET I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE STREETI WANT AN SPECIFIC AREA.I HOPE THE OLD MLS SITE IS BACK VERY SOON.
This site is awful....... I got so frustrated I just switched if off. Like many other posters, I want to search by an specific area, not the entire city. Unless it changes, I wont be back.
This new site is not friendly for searches, its terrible,what brian child thought of this one. Mls.ca worked, why fix something that's not broken.
I really loved MLS I could find what I was looking for right away , If I was looking for a house on the Hamilton Mountain I could just go to that specific location and there was all the house for that location this new website suck big time. Bring back MLS for us people who liked it.
i WILL NEVER USE THIS SITE AGAIN
A VERY DISAPPOINT CUSTOMER
the new mls site suck's big time.first it should go on the news to get the word out how bad it is. second people can list or check out listings on (property guys) site or www.homes.point2.com, very quick easy to search.
The old MLS.CA was a great site. This realtor.ca version is a useless piece of crap just like the realtor.com site in the U.S. They leave expired listings us just to get phone calls. This search utility is useless. PUT IT BACK THE WAY IT WAS you corporate whores !!!!
This site sucks! Will no longer use it! I agree who ever designed it should be fired! very disapointed!
complete joke! I think they did make the site a complete waste of time to discourage people from using it.I also sent a couple complaints and comments to them no reply's back??? keep bombarding with complaints until they change it back .
I beg to differ. The old mls.ca site was much easier to negotiate. Now it's practically impossible to zero in on a district within a large city, i.e. West End Vancouver, Westmount Montreal, etc. Bring back the old Mls. site
I beg to differ. The old mls.ca site was much easier to negotiate. Now it's practically impossible to zero in on a district within a large city, i.e. West End Vancouver, Westmount Montreal, etc. Bring back the old Mls. site
This new site is incredibly bad. I thought that something like 25% of real estate sales were initiated through the client browsing the MLS site in the areas of town that he wished to live? Then advised his realtor. Forget that now....people will just pick up the real estate paper every week as they did in the past.
This site is AWFUL! It takes a long time for the map to load and it is difficult to navigate. When it says there are 6 pages of results for your search criteria you can't look past page 1 because it keeps reloading. Terrible... TERRIBLE!!!
The new MLS site is terrible! Although the old site was not perfect (could have a direct link to google maps, for example) it was easy, quick. You've made it more complicated with seemingly no benefits. All we want to see, as potential buyers, is basic info and pics. THINK SIMPLE, EASY! GIVE THE OLD MLS BACK, PRONTO
This site is the best invention the real estate board ever came up with that accomplishes their hidden motives. That being a total unfriendly, opaque system that forces you to use a realtor to get the most simple information about an area you want to buy in.
The old site, with the aid of google maps worked PERFECTLY and was very quick on low-speed internet users.
I wrote an email to TREB complaining that the new site does not allow us to access information by sector, C1, C2, E4, etc. as the old site did. Instead you can only look by an extremely narrow parameter (street) or by city (Toronto, North York). Well what if the area you want to look at overlaps a small part of Toronto, North York and East York? Simply, just sift through a thousand listings to finally pin-point the ones you might be interested in....
Now why I ask would the Real Estate board do away with the old parameter look up system (C-3, C-4, etc.). Their response to me was that it was an old antiquated system that has no relevance to current search criteria, an asked me to look at the slow useless map, with it's coin size pictures.
It would seem that the real estate board has decided to ditch this classification system? But no, the next day in the Toronto Star, the old C-2, E-4 system was used in the business section to describe year over year prices. My agent still says that nothing has changed on his end for classifying properties.
Why the change---force you to get all your relevant information from an agent, at a time when the real estate market in Canada is about to implode. Why give us more information so we can track housing inventory in Toronto, which is up 70% in C-3, C-4, C-10, C-11, C-12, year over year as of Sep 30, 2008. Why would TREB want us to be able to track such useful information that may impact our bid price. Better for them have us think that all is ok if we only compare statistics to 2006, and soon to be 2005, and then 2004, and, well, you get the idea.
If this site was supposed to be an 'honest' improvement, there certainly should be a change in command at the helm. Anyone that is in charge of an organization that does gauge public reation to a new site before full implementation is asleep at the wheel!
New site TERRIBLE!!!! - Not user friendly at all!!! Could
find info that I wanted quickly on old site - this has
taken forever and still did not find what I was looking for!
EVERYONE IS RIGHT ON THIS ONE. I WAS LISTED ON MLS AND IT DIDN'T SHOW UP ON THE NEW SIGHT. BECAUSE I LIVE IN A NEW DISTRICT. SO AS YOU KNOW IT'S HARD TO SELL IF KNOW ONE KNOWS YOUR LISTED. I'LL PROBABLY PULL MY LISTING OFF AS WELL AND GO TO PROPERTY GUYS.THIS IS A REAL PIECE OF WORK.
The big question --- "WHY". It's over complicated and just does not work. Very, very frustrating. There's an old saying "if it ain't broken don't fix it".
I have complained twice now about this new site and have yet to get a response back. At least some of you can access listings because I use a MAC I cannot even use the site. By what I am reading it does not sound like I am missing much anyways. Still extremely frustrated and annoyed that they changed it in the first place and now it makes it impossible for me to find our next home.
To all those who are complaining...there's a reason for the limited information now available. It's to make your realtor seem more important than they really are. With full transparancy, what value do they add other than to point out where to sign.
Are you kidding me? This is better? We are looking for a house in a specific area of Kelowna and it is impossible to refine to a certain area. The mls system was so easy. How you can think this is better is beyond me!
This new site is cumbersome!! What happened to "ticking" boxes for the neighbourhoods you were interested in? Can you not incorporate that feature with this mapping feature?
Should be easy to do since the programmers were able to come up with something as complicated as this!!
Yet another vain attempt to employ agents when you don't need them. The newly designed site was simply created to ensure that even if you want to search by neighbourhoods you can only do with thehelp of an uncooperative agent. Bloody useless. Remind me again why we would want our house on this site?
This site is not user friendly. Each time you view a property you have to go back and wait for the house views to appear again. You can barely see the house's. This time when I specifly asked for Kelowna, BC it included all of Westbank etc. Sure its nice that they give you an idea where the property is located but that is about it. I think they better think of correcting this site.
WOW WOW WOW this site is so much worse than the other site ever was. I would love to know who the idiot was that thought up this new site. Maybe a real estate agent who felt it did a better job than them.
Here's an idea.
I have just accessed the new site and you can email them your comments. I would suggest that we all send them our complaints directly. Not sure if they would in fact read them all, but at least they will be made aware of our dislike of the new site.
Great idea but I have emailed them my complaints and still have had no reply back. Not sure if there is much we can do. Good to know that I am not alone in thinking this is all a horrible mistake.
The new site is useless...how do search for houses in a neighbour???? www.mls.ca was way better then the new site...these people need to hire a good webpage design company not some computer nerd..
This new site is a BIG JOKE and a MOCKERY of the Canada's real estate....we have a bunch of losers working at CREA who have no idea what they are doing...off with their heads!
This new site is a mess cant find anything maybe You should go back to the old mls and tweek it but to change with Google maps do it by areas e 10 or by areas I will not be using this till something is done
I hope they backed up a copy of MLS.ca because even that is 100 time better than this new site. I'm shopping for a condo and want to narrow my hunt to: downtown vancouver, coal harbour or gastown. How the heck am I supposed to do it on this terrrible new site!!!!????
The web developers need to be fired. How can you select a price range of $275,000 - $300,000--which is the smallest possible price bracket between those numbers available via the dropdown and get an error "Your search returned more than 500 results...". Like what choice do I have now???!!!! This is RETARDED.
This new site is the worst site I have EVER tried to surf I was a weekly user of MLS I will No longer be surfing your site I hope some-one will take over and develop a better site.
What brainiac came up with this web page? This is not simple at all. It's crap! Get rid of it.
I find it very user unfriendly, I sold my old house and bought this one with the help of MLS.ca and am now shopping for another in a new area and find this new site to be time consuming and difficult to navigate, Im dissapointed
THIS SITE GIVES ME ALOT OF HEAD ACHES TO SEARCH TO FIND A SUITABLE HOUSE, I STOPPED LOOKING FOR BUYING A HOUSE. THE PREVIOUSE SITE WAS MUCH BETTER.
THIS SITE WILL MAKE MARKE VERY DOWN
THIS IS A TERRIBLE SITE TODAY OCT 6 2008 DOES NOT DO A PROPER SEARCH OF ANY AREA GO BACK TO THE OLD WAY
MARGARET
This site is a waste of time. We do not have the power to change this useless site but we do have the power to not work with realtors until you change this site
Thank God for property Guys,Home Finders,and all the other private seller companys,with your user friendly sites you should do great since mls converted to this garbage.I will never use a realtor again
The old MLS.ca was not beautiful, but it worked. The realtor.ca is a throwback to Windows 95, which, for those of us old enough to remember, sucked.The new site lacks the flexibility of the old one if one has only a general idea of where one wants to go.
Out with the new, bring back the old!
i am a mac user and with mls i could look for my own property to see if i liked it or not.But with this site i am forced to use property guys and other sources to make my purchase more convience for us buys. I also have a house for sale with remax but with this site after my listing is over i will not list with realestate again cause i know people do not have the time to waste to try to get on this site. I hope alot of other people feel the same way as me and if you think about it we will all save a ton of money if we do it ourself cause this site just stinks and i do not have time or paitience for this shit.
OK, The REAL reason for the change in site!?!?!?
---To restrict the use of MLS information by users without agents, and to force you to use a realtor---
By not releasing district information and to make it more cumbersome to find a property in the area you are looking at, it forces you to use the services of a realtor.
Where did I get this information?? Directly from my AGENT, friend!!! He said that this information was circulated, and comments taken for revamping the site with the sole purpose of making the use of an agent a MUST, rather than an option.
I say, contact an agent or more, have him take the time to send you the specific houses in your preferred area and buy without him!!! How to meet them, simply go to a few open houses and they will clamoring all over you to send you listings. They never take you off their email listings, as they are desperate for a sale these days. Fight 'fire' with 'fire'!!!
OK so today I tried to use this site again and this time there was a note telling you to type in the township etc. to narrow down your area. I'm all excited thinking that they have actually fixed this stupid site and I'll be able to start looking for my house again...but sure enough I type in my township and province and it comes up asking me which province or area. I click on my province again and it pulls up an area no where near it. I try another township and it does the exact same thing and actually sends me to the exact same wrong location as the first try. Obviously they think we're idiots and a little note added will help us get to where we want to go. This site is a nightmare and it just keeps getting worse. Get rid of the idiot who designed this atrocity and the idiots that approved it and bring back mls.ca!!!
Realtor.ca is a terrible site. Bring back mls.ca, it was sooooooooo much better than the new site.
this site is stupendisly ignorant of the fact that a lot of ppl want to make a general search not such a specific one. i hate this new version.
What idiot designed this site?? Who approved this mess.
Bring back the old mls.ca site!!! With the recent pressures in the real estate market - just wait realators the US financial crisis will hit you!!! The old site was so user friendly and allowed people to search for real estate they wouldn't even have thougth of before. Now you can't even be creative and look for new place.
THE IDIOT WHO DID THIS SHOULD BE FIRED OR AT LEAST SHOW A PICTURE OF HIS STUPID FACE.IT HAD TO BE A MAN,NO WOMAN WOULD DO SOMETHING THIS STUPID. I'M NOT SELLING THROUGH A REALTOR.I'M SURE PROPERTY GUYS WILL BE PLEASED WITH ALL THE NEW BUSINESS THEY WILL BE GETTING.
What a bunch of doornobs.UGH!Terrible site.
What an awful site. All I want to see is a list of homes in a district of Victoria. No way. A bunch of streets with dots where the map is constantly loading and clicking, totally annoying. I shut it off, don't have time for that. Hope they make the old site active soon.
This site is awfull, I tried to look up land in Dufferin County and I got all the listings from North Bay To Goose Bay everything but what I asked for. The map is very confusing and I already know the area I want because I had to type it in. For realtors the get training this may be great for them but for people looking up property it is really frustrating
It is very slow, has tiny pictures and takes way too long to 'get back into the search again'. Maps are fine - if i can find a house to begin with - but they are not as important as actually being able to locate the house in the first place!
The new site is just dreadful. We are interested in buying a house in a particular neighbourhood - easy with the old site, impossible now, unless you want to spend frustrating hours on end in front of your computer. We have also listed our own property - no one can find it, is the feedback we've been getting. At a time when it is difficult to sell a house we can thank realtor.ca for adding to the problem.
I think your new website is very confusing. I have many years of experience navigating on the internet and I am discouraged of using your new site so I can imagine someone with little or no experience in using computers to be lost.
Please bring back the OLD MLS.ca
Bring back the old MLS or at least have option to search by sector. E1, N1, etc. I can't believe they took away sector search.
What is MLS's loss by removing this option for puplic users? I still need to speak to a RE agent before buying. That is how I found my house. Saved the RE agent more time too!
Terrible. The site is now basically useless to me. Now, buyers won't be able to see a wider range of homes to choose because using this new site is so cumbersome. :-(
Horrible.
The old site was poor but acceptable, the new site is just plain garbage. I can't believe webmasters are trying to mix ipod style layouts with what should be a blazing fast page with competent controls. With a 12 year background
in computers I can tell you they had bad consultation from
the start. At the moment it is too buggy to even asses the technology and scripting they used.
I don't have the time or patience to navigate this site. Bring back the old one where I could easily get to an area of interest.
This is terrible website ou cannot find anylistings cannot navigate the site .horrible waste of time PLEASE BRING BACL MLS.CA
Crap, my daughter is looking for a place in Kelowna, I live in Calgary, she sends me the MLS #, no way could I enter it into the NewCrapSite to she what house she was looking at. I could last month with mls.ca
What were they thinking!!!!!
At least keep the other site MLS.CA so people could have a choice/They would see that the old site needed to be upgraded but most people liked it and they could have let the number of hits on the two respective sites speak for themselves(god help anyone selling/ searching for homes now.
FUBAR FUBAR FUBAR / BRING BACK MLS.CA - AT LEAST THIS WAS SOMETHING TO WORK WITH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Iam so angry with this new way to find houses for sale.I loved mls.ca the way it was before.We cant locate anything,and I cant believe youve changed to this!!!
I buy and sell about 30-40 properties a year that i find on mls.ca.with realtors.I no longer can do this on the useless new site...So good-bye realtors...Hello private sellers
HA HA. You don't know what you've got till it's gone! I tried to access mls.ca for the first time in a few months and came up with this. It is almost hilarious how bad it is. OK, it basically doesn't work at all on my MAC but it sucks pretty seriously on my PC at work too. Bring back mls.ca. Boring but usable.
"Unrealtors" it should be called - it's so bad it's unreal.
obviously had unrealistic expectations of being successful in my searches. Gave up.
unbelievable! that a nationally based organization like CREA would create this stupid, unuseable, steaming mound of shit of a web site is truly unbelievable. As a Mac user, I will happily say "get bent!"
My husband and I were regular users of mls.ca, but we are completely at a loss as to how to navigate realtor.ca. We wholeheartedly agree with the writer who said, "I can't believe you can't narrow your search by a certain locations". We don't wish to pour over hundreds of listings to find the few in a specific area. We will not even attempt to visit this site until it is more user friendly.
The point was to make this new site less user friendly. They want to 'force' you into contacting an agent for help.
They are barking up the wrong tree with this site and its' hidden agenda to force agent involvement. People did perfectly fine with the old MLS.ca and involved an agent once ready. They will lose many prospects because people that were on the fence will become disinterested. Get ready to starve RAs.
While everyone is striving at using technology as an enabler this site has accomplished the opposite. Has your greed no limit. The gravy train is done. The market is heading for a nosedive and this site will help with that. Shame on you for assuming the public is a bunch of morons. Your shooting yourselves in the foot with realtor.ca
This is a huge step in a backwards direction. I have a house on the market and I want to look at it with others in the same price range in the same location and am shown the whole province. This system is bad for busines for all concerned, the vendor, Realtors and potential buyers. I would like to look at properties somewhare else, what am I supposed to do? Go to this new area find a Realtor wh probably can not use the system also and hope for the best.!! This is a terrible error and will help slow down sales in an already slow market.
I would suggest calling or emailing your local real estate board to complain not to the realtors themselves. Hopefully if enough people do this they will see that a huge mistake was made in changing a perfectly fine site.
I just love their little signs on the front page telling us where to click and to type in the city,like were morons.IT STILL DOESNT MAKE THE DAMN PROGRAM RUN ANY BETTER OR FASTER.
Property guys will be getting really stinking filthy RICH!
ya it suck's . If any ones emailed (CREA)to complain.. they sent me the same generic email for 3 different questions??? what idiot's.
This site is soooooo fustrating, I think I need a Valium!!! Bring back the old mls.ca site, or I will just give up looking for a new house for now until my nerves calm down!!!
Well..we're first time buyers and have been looking at MLS for some time now. I'll admit...the old version was a bit dated...but worked just fine with area search. Now that it's gone and a google map version launched...minus the searchable area ability...we'll be ditching the new site. Reading the comments above...and seeing one posted by someone who's friend is an agent...and finding out that it's all about us using an agent more? lol...sorry guys/gals...you just bit the hand that feeds you. Do the agents think we're complete morons? I guess the looming real estate crash hasn't made them hungry enough yet. I'll admit...we're in the vancouver "untouchable bubble" where prices keep going up...and buyers/sellers/agents can't go wrong. Sorry to break the news fat cats...us first timers will be holding onto our money a little harder now. Suck it in boys and girls...you just screwed yourself. We WILL NOT be using an agent. Private sellers...here we come.Needless to say...we're not the only people that feel this way. We were on the fence...I guess this POS site put us over.
Don't bit the hand that feeds you fat cats.
i agree with Mr. Mazhar, we are currently going through a severe recession, and potentially heading towards a Great Depression. No one will buy a home now, especially given the super inflated prices in the market, realtor is useless for now so they can change their site as much as they want, have fun realtor, see u next decade!!!!
The MLS was okay, certainly not bad. But I bet the moron who made this site was actually looking forward to being praised. What a horrible difficult site to navigate. TO the folks that came up with this site...we are suppose to advance in life not go backwards. You're hurting thousands home home sellers and buyers, not to mention realtors with this pathetic website.
Unbelievable. The new site is worse than the old one. I can't find anything in a specific area. The pictures on the side are so tiny that they all are meaningless and all say the the same thing...my price range...2 bedroom. That's it. No address, no caption, no helpful info. Too small to see. No area. Just crappy. The map takes up almost the whole page and when I put my mouse over it, it disappears in seconds AND the areas are wrong! Many listings are not in the area of the pinprick. This site now practicly makes it so I cannot narrow down a search and I have used the old one successfuly for years. By the way, as a private investor I do my own research and then call my realtor for more info. This site is so useless that now I have to waste hours and hours of my realtors time to ask: "what is for sale in such and such area?" I usually find what I buy by viewing a variety of properties in a specific area...now I am going to have to resort back to the real estate weekly again. It is frustrating. Back to driving to look!!!!
One more thing....!!!!! I resorted to using "for sale by owner" sites for the first time since I was so frustrated and really want to see right away what is available in my area... and voila...I found a private seller who had something fabulous. I'll sniff that one out since I have a good lead in my pocket instead of waiting for my realtor to get back to me to "start" my search.
WHAT A JOKE ! WHO BUILT THIS SITE? A REALTOR? IT DOESN'T WORK AT ALL. GOOD BYE MLS, HELLO SELLING PRIVATELY!! ONLY A M A T E U R S WOULD LAUNCH A JOKE LIKE THIS
After using the mls ste for over 22 years for the last 9 moves we have made across Canada to several provinces I am soooooo disappointed by the mess the new site is. It's obvious that folks who have never depended on this site to move families around have created this one. Another situation of people being put in charge of designing somthing with very little personal experience in using the site. No wonder you can't find a phone number to call tham and complain. The phone lines would crash if anyone there had the nerve to listen to comments from real users of the site.
Get it. It is not suppose to work for you.It is to make them feel like they are still doing something.Do you remember back;when they would suggest you drive by the property+ give you the address? nobody is buying + they need a job???? HOWEVER IF YOU ARE RELOCATING,hard to search prices/homes in a new city
This Realtor.ca sucks!! you can't get it to work for anything . At least with the old system the thing worked.!
This is suppose to be an improvement?? You have to be kidding. I have just wasted 30 minutes to simply look at Fort Langley listings and I get municipalities like Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, etc and not one Fort Langley which I know is most incorrect!! Please give me back the old MLS which worked most competently for me. How can anyone believe this is an improvement!
This is the worst site I have ever experienced. What are they thinking. It goes berzerk and doesn't work at all.
Get with it. The old site worked clumsily, but this is disaster.
I key in Toronto, ( most people know where that is) and i get a map of the north pole to mid Kentucky. Then it goes all haywire when i try to get to toronto.
Who developed this. Get rid of it. It is hell to navigate. I found nothing.
Four tries and I have given up.
I signed in to mls.ca tonight for the first time in a few weeks and ended up on realtor.ca and like every other single person making a comment here, found it impossible. I'm happy I found this page since I was beginning to think that I was having some kind of mental block that kept me from using the new and improved site. Clearly it is anything but and is a total human interface disaster. I sent a comment to the link on the site and c.c.'d the President of CREA along with a few other officers. Hopefully they will see all the comments here and take action on this disaster.
Worst site ever, doesn't work worth a .... . Cannot for the life of me find anything I am looking for. Give us back the old site, please!!
We all need to start selling our own homes without realrors, save on the exhorbitant fees and someone come up with a better website created for :FOR SALE BY OWNER" I have sold a home and a business by owner and it was a snap.
This site is completely unusable and I can't believe that someone thought a change from MLS.ca was in any way necessary. People in the real estate industry must realize that most potential clients wish to do their homework on the internet first in order to narrow down a search. This site completely blocks the ability to do this and certainly won't do anything to boost business. Bring the old site back as soon as possible or sooner!
MLS.ca worked just fine. Not always rocket fast, and there was room for improvement for sure. This new site stinks.
You should ask for your money back from who ever designed this Web Site... Someone forgot about people looking for Condo's
G A R B A G E !!! Computer locks up..very slow...doesn't locate the city that was requested....the old site was a million times better...who came up with this crap??
Tell me you people did NOT pay somebody for this new site!
It is completely un-user friendly and absolute garbage!
I cannot believe that MLS.CA actually decided to use it!
I used the old site a lot and it was ok, even if it was a bit lacking in some areas.
What you are offering now is a disgrace to your custmers!
What ever possessed you people to do this to the old site?
Who ever approved this mess should be fired!
Until you fix it,I wlll suggest to all the realtors I know NOT to use it!
What a disgrace!
Andy.
I hate this new system. I used mls.ca often and easy to do this I can't even get the map off the screen. I am so dissappointed now I can't even look up listings.
BRING BACK THE OLD MLS.CA! What used to take me 4 clicks and a couple of scrolls, now has me ready to throw the damned computer out the friggin' window!
I can't believe that the Sunshine Coast in BC went from having hundreds of listings to none....but according to your "new and improved" site, that's exactly what you are telling me. Crap....absolute crap. I don't know who you paid to spearhead that project, but you got ripped off.
You're kidding right? Great upgrade? This thing is a total P.O.S. Luckily, I still had some old bookmarks which still work to search neighbourhoods, which is apparently something you're no longer able to do. Through some monkeying around I figured out which value to alter in the link to bring up different neighbourhoods - what a joke though. Way more work, what a pain. I'd give anything for the old MLS.
The new site is worse!!!! Impossible to naviagte and browse. There was nothing wrong with how the old MLS workded. Way to screw it up people! Why can't I get listings for a specific area in a city??????!!!! I hate the map, it takes too long to load.
Coincidently I just sent them an email given them my unsolicted advice as a senior manager in the IT field. I hate the new site more than the old- I"m on my 4th house since 2001 and a frequent user of the mls.ca.
I'm all for change- but IMHO this move was not a step forward. I used to be able to put in my local neighbourhood and quickly zone in on a property- seems to be a multiple step hit-miss with this new site. I say bring back the old until the figure it all out.
My co-workers used to look at houses in the James Bay area when we have free time on hand at work, but now we can't even bring up anything to look at. We think the new web site is worst then the mls.ca. Hope you guys can fix this very soon. "PLEASE".
This new mls site stinks, I will never use it again, it is totally useless, hope they did not pay the inventor too much. As it really does not work. What was wrong with the way it was?or did the real estate not get enough business with the old system?
Actually, i kind of like it.
hehe sorry.
seriously.. what a disaster.
It's almost 2009.. but i swear after checking out the NEW IMPROVED site it feels like 1989 again.
Whoever coded this site and came up with the interface design etc should have really stopped by one of the local junior high schools and got some of the kids there to spend an hour or two and create something far better than this waste of space.
incredible.
is it april 1st?
seriously...
WTF?
Ok Phew so I'm not the only one.
I'm adding the link to this site to the email i sent them so they can read for themselves what people are thinking. They wasted an awful lot of money on this boo-boo, or should I say, doo-doo.
Ok Phew so I'm not the only one.
I'm adding the link to this site to the email i sent them so they can read for themselves what people are thinking. They wasted an awful lot of money on this boo-boo, or should I say, doo-doo.
The site is a disaster. I hope someone with half a brain decides it needs to be fixed, or simply revert back to the old site, which was a lot faster. I won't use this new site anymore. They had to have worked pretty darn hard on it to make it so slow. A notable failure on the www.
ARE YOU CRAZY? THE PERSON WHO CAME UP WITH THIS NEW MLS SHOULD GO BACK TO SCHOOL. THIS NEW SITE IS A DISASTER. I WON'T USE THIS SITE AT ALL, I'M NOT IN RUSH TO BUY A HOME, I'LL WAIT TILL YOU BRING THE OLD ONE BACK. THIS NEW SITE IS NOT HELPING THE ECONOMY AT ALL.
CAN'T YOU SEE, 99% OF THE MLS USERS HATE THIS NEW SITE, PLEASE, BRING THE OLD SITE BACK. THANK YOU
I was amazed at how un-user friendly this new format is. I found the following to be frustrating at best:
1. The map is useless, if we know what area we want to buy in then why do we need this giant map which you can't close covering 75 % of the screen!
2. The pictures are so small and the addresses aren't shown anymore so I had to open each ad to find out what it looked like and where it was... I couldn't even see what units in my own complex were for sale because the pictures are so tiny.. not showing the addresses readily is more than ridiculous. THIS IS ABSURD!
3. The "old" format was twice as fast as it didn't have to reload this stupid map after looking at a property and returning to a tiny useless picture collection.
4. The designers of this should be flogged for making a somewhat useful format, MLS.ca, into this debauchery they now call REALTOR.ca.. out with the NEW and back with the OLD .....PLEASE!..at least until a proper easy to use format is available... What WERE THEY THINKING!!!!!!!
Im looking for a property in Halifax NS. I live in Ontario. I dont know Halifax at all. However I did get pointed at certain areas to look at and which to avoid, which I was managing to do quite nicely on the old MLS. Now I cant do that. Im given a map. A map that is completely useless to someone who doesnt know the area never mind the street. I tried advanced search and yes of course I can look at everything Halifax has to offer but not the areas I want. What a load of garbage. Ill be listing my house soon but Ill do it privately as paying thousands of dollars to a real estate agent who will post it on a site that no one can use will make me as stupid as the a**hole who designed this crap.
Hi all,
I've just been reading with great interest the incredible frustration so many people are feeling with MLS.CA and other sites for searching for homes. As a real estate agent, I don't actually use MLS.CA other than to see how my listings look to the public. Anyway, I just can't help but ask a question in general. When any and all of you can use the services of a qualified real estate agent for absolutely no cost, why then do you try to do something than can be offered by a realtor? I have lots of clients who love to surf the net looking at homes, for some, it's almost become a hobby. But for those who are really serious, I can create a personalized and automatic search that has you receiving listings that are completely up to date and within very specific criteria such as area, price, swimming pool, finished basement etc - every single day of the week. Then you can have just as much fun sifting through the many listings that actually meet your requirements, but without the frustration. I know I don't speak for all realtors and perhaps some of the writers have had a bad experience with real estate agents, but honestly, there are tons of really dedicated caring realtors out there that would be very happy to provide you with all of the information you need to find a home.
Sometimes I think that people believe they must pay a realtor which is why they try and find homes themselves. But that isn't the case. The next time any of you find yourself really frustrated with any of the online searches, do yourself a favour and just TRY calling a professional real estate agent, I'll be you'll be very glad you did.
Kind Regards and best wishes on your home search,
Debra
www.debracurran.ca
In response to Debra...I know that many people liked to look on the old mls.ca for a home themselves instead of at the mercy of an agent. My "hobby" turned into an offer on a home that I found myself by doing my own search. This new and "improved" site is just plain horrible, hard to find a specific area and some areas just do not come up at all. In reading all these comments I know that I am not alone with this opinion of this realtor.ca. It was a huge mistake to change an already good site and I think in the long run the housing market is going to suffer because of the many problems this realtor.ca is causing many prospective home buyers.
OMG does THIS suck!!! Whomever designed this, should spend eternity trying to use it.. if the objective was to stop people from using it... Job well done.
This site is really bad! The old MLS was easy to use to scout for properties anywhere in the country without having to be familiar with the area. This one is hopeless!!!!!!!! Please bring the old site back!!!!!
This new website is HORRIBLE. This has nothing to do with real estate agents or whether or not to use one its about the POTENTIAL clients like myself that search the website looking at properties including interior and exterior pictures. When I find something I like I will CALL the real estate agent for a viewing. I dont have to waste time looking at properties that I would not even remotely be interested in purchasing. I have found my current home this way. Plus when you are selling your home you can look at the comparibles yourself, what is out there in your target area and what its listed for. New website is not user friendly, too much screen stuff, map is unusable - cannot drill into types and areas - We need the old MLS back!! If real estate agents think that this will prompt us to call one of them for help instead of searching on our own they are mistaken. This tool is to be used in conjunction with a real estate person but of course the arrogant and overpaid real estate agents (most of them dont do much) will see this as an misguided opportunity to go to their own individual websites which is wrong because unless we can SEE the properties and SEE who is the listing agent nothing will happen. This is very disppointing.
It is not good true, however I am on a macbook pro from 2006 mac os x latest updates and I can use the site fine. Also I am a web developer doing a site for a realtor and would like an easy way to get listings on a site, if mls is the only mass listing database it should offer a free web service to consume.
for gods sake get the hello realter.ca site off the internet and bring the old mls site back .
Horrid Horrid Horrid
Goes straight into spazz mode and have to click out and start over for more of the same- PLEASE get rid of it.
Bring back OLD set up
I am not in the market at the momment to buy a home but we are always looking for investment rental property. I search daily to see if there is any listings that might fit what we are looking for.
I think the idea of not trying to undercut the real estate agents is valid but however Why did you have to change the format of the website. If you don't want people to have the address information then remove that info from the old MLS site and just show the area and the realtor contat information. Get rid of the slow map and and put the pictures back to a visual size. I think this would be a happy medium for all of us MLS users and the Realtors out there!
WHO!!! WHO!!! WHO!!! cancelled MLS.ca and came up with this horrible idea for a site. Was MLS.ca controlled by the realtors or was it a private site. I use to spend hours searching homes and cottages on MLS.ca and could narrow my search down to any area in Canada witin minutes. I cannot imagine anybody thinking this new site is an improvement. I have not spent a lot of time here because it is so time consumming and difficult to move around in. Whoever did this...YOU SUCK!!!!!!
I have tried to navigate this thing a few times... and it is not user friendly... it could possibly drive people away and perhaps send them to easier sites..
This new website is a poorly thought out! It's slower than mls.ca and you cannot isolate areas of a city/district. The photos of the properties are way too small. The mapping is not really useful to me; if I find a home I'm interested in, I can use other means to determine its exact location. Bring back the 'old' MLS.ca. While not perfect, it wasn't bad at all.
I had no trouble at all with the old mls.ca. Now I can't easily select the area that I want and the screen is hanging. What a pile of c#$p!. Yes, please bring back the old mls.ca!!!!
This site is actually unuseable. Whenever I type in a city, it gives me a map of Canada and tells me to refine my search further. I cannot access even one listing on this site. Was this done on purpose?
The old site may have had its issues, but this new one doesn't even function! I have a Mac computer and it simply doesn't work, which means I can't search listings at all anymore. The site is more complex than it should be and doesn't allow you to search in a specific area--someone really screwed this one up.
The most important feature for peeps from other areas seemed to be the general area search page please re-instate!!! The Map while a good idea should not be such a focus as it takes away from the listing to the side making them to small to really view unless clicked upon.
In general this new site is micro-managed to the max.........to much clicking required............if your eye site is less than 100 percent good luck viewing at a glance........very confusing!!!
Perhaps the public as well as Realators should have had more of an input to the changes as whom ever decided to approve this site obviously did not use it on a regular basis?????
Please do Start over and take the many comments on this blog to heart and perhaps a site that is easy to view and user friendly with some of the good ideas you have employed can be achieved?????
Realtor.ca - are you KIDDING! It sucks! Saw a property on a street I'm very interested in - it wasn't even mapped. The only way I could find it was to go to the realtors site (Royal LePage) and lo and behold - it looked much like the VERY easy to use mls.ca. This site sucks- No easy way to navigate - where's my friendly EO2 when I need it!! Who says mls.ca was hated - it was great! (other than some of the photos needed to be bigger! Grrrrrrrrrrr
I just can't get anything done on the new site...It takes too long and is too specific in its searches. The old site was fine, why change it?
Uh the "oldmls" web site doesnt work either apparently there is nothing for sale north of Kamloops.I hope they fix it soon.I have a house to sell.I know for a fact that my house isnt going to sell through realtor.ca.
To Debbra Curran,people dont always want to deal with a realtor,we dont want to be pressed for time,we dont want to have to hire babysitters.There are a lot of things that come into play.I cant house hunt in my jamies.I am certainly not going to bother people unless I am serious about buying their house.I dont like lookyloos.I dont appreciate having to scramble to tidy my house and leave at a moments notice for lookyloos.I wont do that to people.Its rude and it shows a lack of consideration for others.I have had my fair share of agents who take rude to a whole other level.When I find a house and I am serious about wanting to look at it,then I will call a realtor.
Must have been an IT person designing this site. Very poor understanding of how people actually search for property.
H Edna, what areas are you searching for ?
Are the properties that are not showing on http://www.TheOldMLS.com showing up on Realtor.ca ?
I can't get "theoldmls.com" to work for me I fill it out and comes back as no matches? Why is this not working for me but does for others? Any suggestions would be appreciated!
This new site is EXCELLENT!!!
It was designed to guide purchasers to use a realtor, period. MLS has purposely taken away the functionality to make the services of a realtor more important. Personally, I have 4 realtors sending me my personalized treb.net listings every day by email (just in case). I met all these realtors at open houses and they were only too happy to "force" their free service on me, without a simple request by me. After the first 4, I have been turning down offers.
Not only will I not use their services to buy a house, but I love the fact that this new site has frustrated and stalled the purchasing machine only further.
15% decline in prices for the 1/2 month in October (year over year), in Toronto. I can only believe this awful tactic by the MLS has backfired and helped push this market back further in many areas.
I was planning on using a realtor to buy before they changed the site, but now I will just use their services and ditch them. Sure I will have to buy from the selling broker, but they are VERY willing to discount the price for an independent buyer. You think you don't pay for using a buying realtor, think AGAIN!
Does anyone know how I can locate Canadian investors looking to invest in US properties? This new MLS site is no help.
Hey an earlier post mentioned this
www.theOLDmls.ca
IT IS THE OLD SITE.
NOT SURE WHY THEY KEPT IT UP OR IF THEY JUST FELT THE NEED TO SUCCUMB TO THE HATEMAIL.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
This new Realtor.ca is so incredibaly bad that it is actually hard to beleive that somebody got paid to design it!
Bring back MLS.ca until you can find something better,because this crap is NOT!!
Until then,I would encourage everyone to boycott the new sight and the company that owns realtor.ca !
My wife is a realtor and even she can't make it work!
Garbage!
I can not believe how bad this site sucks. Mls.ca was paradise compared to this, user friendly and helpful it is not. I only hope the agent does not charge me for this the same as they do for MLS.
My brother describes some of the overpaid boneheads he sees in IT, but it still doesn't make me any more prepared for a site like this. I think I actually want its creators to go to jail.
My brother describes some of the overpaid boneheads he sees in IT, but it still doesn't make me any more prepared for a site like this. I think I actually want its creators to go to jail.
Over the past several years I have accessed MLS.ca, searching out properties across town and Canada with great ease and enjoyment. Now I feel almost paralyzed by the new system. Unless I am doing it all wrong, I can no longer pin down geographic areas, and when I do-they are still not the former parameters - ie Edmonton SE or SW, I get a mini-window to the right of the map that has tiny photos, partial data, only a few at a time, necessitating multiple "page turns" and even just basic data only when clicking on the photos themselves. Where did the full screen ads, 50 per page go? This new system is a nightmare, and anyone I've talked to about this agrees. Help!
Please return the MLS site. This site is too horrible and not at all user friendly. Who in the world designed it?
It is an incredible mess and you should read how people are feeling about it and get it CHANGED!!!
Thanks to whoever posted http://www.theoldmls.com - Now I don't have to use that new piece of junk that mls.ca turned into!
I cannot get the oldmls.com site to work for the London Ontario area, not sure if I'm doing something wrong seems pretty straight forward but does not work for me. How are others getting this to work for them?
I really miss the old MLS site. This new site sucks! The new map tool is so un-user-friendly, and has a tonne of glitches that make it impossible! Please re-write this new site so that a person can: pick only certain neighbourhoods within a city, pick rural or outlying areas around a city, and to be able to move the map around without it freezing up. that would help.
I was trying to find a positive comment regarding the new look; it is impossible! Some idiots probably made some money creating this terrible site, don't pay and ask them to redo it.
New site a million times worse: its as if the intent was to force people to have to talk to a real estate agent and artificially make them seem more valuable. Totally bogus new site: I am sure that it was done just for that reason...so you HAVE to call up some agent and become a "qualified buyer" as opposed to being able to surf and pinpoint (easily) what you are interested in. Not that realtor.ca is going to take notice of the CACOPHONY OF FEEDBACK SAYING THE NEW SITE IS WORSE.
The new site realtor.ca is absolutely, hands down, the WORST site I have ever tried to use. I will NOT go back!
Why on earth did you change the format from the old user friendly MLS.ca to the ( can't find a damn thing and give up ) REALTOR.CA you have now. With the markets in turmoil like they are these days you should not waste another minute with REALTOR.CA and JET back to MLS.CA if you want to sell anything. Come on what are you thinking????????
This is aweful!! Do any agents actually try this and say it works?! Go back to the old MLS and add a map...that simple. This thing you can't even search an area. Like trying to look for cottages in the muskoka region...I gave up.
The "oldmls" doesnt work either,apparently there is NOTHING for sale in Northern BC.Somebody needs to be fired.
This new site sucks big time. I want mls back, at least I could find what I was looking for. I can't find anything on this shity site!!!!
Add me to the list that acknowledges this new site is a complete disaster! In the past 10 years, we have bought and sold 4 properties in BC through MLS.ca - all from the comfort of our armchair in California. I can no longer find any in the area we are currently interested in - yet I know of over 40 current listings. This is the least user friendly website I have ever encountered, and boy have I encountered some bad ones!
In a downturning market you make it harder for buyers to access listings? Yeah, that's the ticket! Designed and Implemented by absolute Morons!
Unbelievable. I have never been more frustrated with a site. This supposedly new and improved is an abomination. Morons! Can't quite leave well enough alone. Bring back the old site. It worked. Was there something you didn't understand.
I love how the author blowing sunshine about the new site is a realtor. Funny how the main user's of the site i.e. the customers think it blows. You might want to reverse engineer who your there for. Yourself or us
Waste of electricity!!!!!!
This is one of those cases of "if it aint broke don't fix it"!!! There was absolutely nothing wrong with the old very good and useful and user friendly MLS.ca. The less then motivated individual who dreamed up of this new web site should be forced to look at that useless website 24 and 7 for a month as a punishment. When he (or she) is finished this month of severe pain and aggravation, then another month "in the hole" for this disaster, unbelievable!!!! I would rather you just said thank you and be on your way to designing something useful and something that I can actually use and be worth spending the electricity used to run it.
I hoping the genius who sought out to ruin everybody's day has bin fired and has to look for a new home on Realtors.ca cause he can't afford the one he lives in now!!
this new site is just downright impossible, frustrating and inefficient. I could easily navigate the old site and find any property, anywhere. Now I cannot zero in on specific areas or properties. I wish they hadn't fixed what wasn't broken....
This new site is terrible. Totally frustrating.. What happened to the map that was clickable..I could at least narrow my search, now I get the whole Province..with no options.
I want MLS.ca back..
Hey, thanks to the person who posted the link to the OLD
MLS.ca.. Much appreciated.. It works great and I don't have to deal with that stupid google map that does not allow me to zone in on certain geographical area's..
Anyone wanting the old one.. .com is USA .ca is Canada
What have you done??? Get rid of this thing! Bring back the old Mls site.. I'm going back to reading the paper looking for my new home. Or, I'll search for sale by owner..
You're going to lose business with this mess up.
The new real estate site is a disaster. NOT, user friendly whatsoever. It is not even worth going onto this site now, its worthless. I like to keep my eye on real estate, and when the right thing comes up, and I could contact the real estate who had it listed. Now, I am not interested in even trying to look. I will not go through a realtor to loook for something for me. I will contact a realtor when I see something I'm interested in.
This site is terrible. Is this supposed to be an improvement? I'd take mls.ca over realtor.ca any day. There's no option anymore to breakdown municipalities into areas. This is so frustrating. I am very disappointed.
please bring back the former mls.ca so everyone can once again find what they are looking for in strightforward non complicated manner !
PEOPLE: months of complaints!; 99% negative response (with the other 1% being agents) in a BUSINESS!!!! and NO response....THINK!!!
FACT 1. (as has been mentioned) - the intent is to SELL AGENTS, not YOUR PROPERTY....furthermore, this has ALWAYS been true: do THIS for practice- go to real estate agents' OWN sites; even THERE you will find a WHOLE LOT of stuff selling THE AGENT, and very little directing you to LISTINGS!!!!
FACT 2: the situation will only change when the monopoly is broken by an agent starting his own comprehensive, user-friendly internet-based mls alternative....one which has its MAIN GOAL, the selling of PROPERTY and not AGENTS!!!!!.....
- WATCH HOW FAST the sellers will switch allegiance..(think GOOGLE vs all the other 'cluttered-up' search engines)...there is a FORTUNE to be made here...by matching sellers with buyers and thereby bypassing AGENTS who DELIBERATELY obstruct the process... to benefit ONLY themselves!!!
The new site is so user unfriendly. MLS worked on Mac while this doesn't. MLS worked in Mozilla/Seamonkey but Realtor.ca doesn't.
Great, an upgrade that works in less ways than what it has replaced. I hope it doesn't evolve into what the agents use: mlxchange.com which is a worse nightmare.
the realtor.ca site simply sucks, if you are spending a few hours looking at property, it's too busy and spends too much time throwing crap at you that after a few minutes you move on. they missed the ball, they should remmember "KISS", keep it simple st....
OMG...i give up...cannot find what I want as too hard to navigate...horrible site...what happened to simplicity?
absolutely disgusting site. I was extremely happy with mls.ca and never had any problems. I am quite competent to view properties without a realtor overseeing me. Give us back the simple MLS.ca. This site is monstrous.
The new MLS site sucks big time... Microsoft maps? what the #&$#$& is that? They spent how much money remaking this site and it ends up being worse than the old one... which I may add at least worked somewhat....
I have sent 2 emails to MLS telling them that their site is TERRIBLE, and asking for an alternate interface i.e the old one, and I don't even get a response. They have consistently taken one step backwards with every site upgrade. Anyone that is successful in taking this archaic structure down has my support.
This site is so hard to use. When you try to find a property in a generalized area such as " South Shore " or "Annapolis Valley" you cannot. The Map seems to be the focal point and yet any location I have tried to search comes back as not found on Map.
Bring back the page with areas so anyone looking for a specific location can simply check the box and search in the wanted area. This focus on finding by street etc is totally useless to people searching other areas in Canada or Internationally, by area is what is most important to many home shoppers.
When looking for a home on-line the old MLS was easy to navigate to the point and not so confusing. This site offers to much un-needed information. A big map that is useless and hard to use . Really what a Mess!!!
Try focusing on what is needed instead of showcasing unimportant and useless info!!!!
Who designed this Monster??????
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34078321629
a facebook group has been started protesting realtor.ca site
if they want a map feature, just have a link from the individual pages so you can see where in the community the home is! Most people using mls.ca probably dont want to scroll the map for an hour looking at each house, they just want to see all the houses fast, like the old system where they showed about 20 per page, not ten.
The new realtor.ca has made my job very time consuming and frustrating as i use the information for comparison as a home evalutor.
please give us the old system back or a hybrid site between the old and new!
Today I was looking on Realtor.ca, and found a wonderful little home, in our price range, and in a great neighbourhood.
But one little glitch, if you look at the address of the home, it is actually situated in a completely DIFFERENT CITY.
So I am sure the sellers are wondering why thier home isnt selling...well, it is listed in a city 1 hour away! People are interested, but the wrong people! There are two homes that i found, that are posted in the wrong city. And that is ONE area, i was looking on.
Good grief, get it together people!!! What a WASTE OF TIME...this site is.
Well thanks for such a complete change.
The map (which was simple, smooth and QUICK in mls.ca)is now an abortion.
The site is now wholly non-intuitive; mls.ca was a delight to use in its predictibility and QUICKNESS; it encouraged interest in real estate by me and other potential buyers.
The present site (what is it again....Real Estate Agents Incorporated for the mis-management of Information Science!)is going to add to the current market doldrums by inhibiting potential purchasers interest as was the sitution before mls.ca was formed
Wow,
Realtors must LOVE this new site. The worst search engine I have ever seen. Real estate agents must be laughing right now.
i thought mls.ca was the one thing other than hockey canadians could do better than us yanks but you messed that up too now,
and you are losing your hockey dominance too, all thats left that you are best at is complaining about everything your far left national politicians do that you keep voting in.
Who's the brainiacs behind the new site? Its awful! Ya think someone would have thought about leaving in the search by area feature. I emailed them and they admitted to glitches...glitches? Yeah...just a few!That was 2 months ago. If Im searching for Maple Ridge I sure as heck dont want Langley or Surrey listings included. Get it together guys...all I can say is I feel horrible for anyone trying to sell a house right now....as if it werent bad enough already with the housing market as it is. It was so straightforward and quick before...shoulda left it alone!
Comments from several clients have indicated that MLS.ca was more user friendly. One client who's home I have listed for sale mentioned that when he printed out his listing, the print was so small that he could not read the particulars. It's unfortunate that these glitches were not fixed prior to switching to the new Realtor.ca.
Worst site ever. No matter which neighborhood I put in, it's unrecognized. Keeps freezing up, won't refresh, etc. etc. I guess it's good for realtors - the average person can no longer scout properties. Aaaack! is all I can say.
http://www.TheOldMLS.com gets you into the old version.
Join the anti-realtor.ca group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34078321629
Loath the new realtors.ca site, will not be using this. The old MLS site was much more efficient and easy to use. What a stupid change!
Oh my god realtor.ca is awful. I used to used mls.ca and that was okay, but this is ridiculous. Sure the map thing is better, but
at what cost? IT IS SLOOOOOOW!
THE NEW MLS SITE IS NOT SOMETHING I WILL USE ITS SLOW AND HARD TO NAVAGATE, THE OLD SITE WAS GOOD WHY FIX IT IF ITS NOT BROKEN
I USED THE OLD SITE TO FIND OUR NEW HOME..I LIKED THE DISTRICT STLE MAP..THIS NEW SITE BROUGHT ME TO TEARS!!WHAT HAVE YOU DONE????BRING BACK THE OLD WITH AN OPTION FOR STREET MAP..PLEASE
Whoever did the work on this new search engine should be fired! Period.
It is down all the time now and the database is screwed. Adresses from thousands of miles away are showing up in searches.
Whoever paid the geek that attempted to "FIX" the MLS should demand thier money back, plus try and recover some damages.
The only ones to benifit from this mess is real estate agents because we are now forced to actually talk to one to find listings.
Let's face it they want difficult sites that are hard to navigate so that we have to use the services of the oh so knowledgeable Real Estate Agent. The whole process of buying a house is archaic and ridiculous. Selling your own home companies are growing. It's the way things will be done in the future. it's not rocket science.
This new site is the worst attempt of solving an old problem. There are to many steps to actually get to the info as well it does a poor job of narrowing down the search area as well as what your looking for. The realtors also need to get with it with it. The concept of having to provide your personal info
to get info is an insult.
An absolute waste of time - obviously implemented by the real estate industry to force folks to contact a realtor instead of being able to do their own homework ahead of calling a realtor.
This new site is a complete joke. I emailed them and actually got a response. I told them I like to search by neighbourhoods, and I'm no longer able to do that. They told me to suck it up, and try to get used to it. I give up, I'm not going to use MLS any longer.
I was going to give you my opinion on the "new" website, but you don't need another "it stinks" comment.
i could design a better site for selling pet chickens.shame on this organisation for trying to keep us customers in the dark
This site is a disaster! Not only is it not user friendly (really, who knows the MLS number of houses they haven't seen yet or mapping locations are just way too I/O intensive for a website) ... but it is a total waste of money! I am a computer professional, and I have never encountered anything so ridiculous! Not to mention all the Listing Agents who have buyers like me out there and are loosing sales! I hope MLS gets their money back and improves SOON!
I'm amazed at the attention this post is still getting all these months after I wrote it. Clearly it speaks to the underlying issue that consumers are (rightfully) outraged at the lack of a user-friendly website for searching for real estate in this country. I encourage everyone to voice their concerns and complaints about the site to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) as they control the national MLS database and they are responsible for Realtor.ca Email your concerns to - INFO@CREA.ca
AMEN brother this new site sucks. I used to use MLS with no probs at all this thing takes forever to load and then when you finally do look at a property it won,t take you back to your list you have to start over. Just my two cents worth but i say bring back MLS.CA
I agree - this new site sucks. It's slow as molasses in January and times out before the stupid map can load. It's useless.
Awful site - completely useless and designed to be so, presumably, to help keep info exclusively for realtors. Take action - everyone e-mail the crea website as I have done and complain. might get some attention!
I want my old site back. Those who said it was hard to use must be a bunch of idiots.. I bought my current home from that site. and have bought two more since. Although I will admit there were some problems when I listed one of them for sale. This, however, had nothing to do with the site, just with the realtor. She must not have known how to list a property the right way. Mike I checked out your link to the old site but they must have shut it down in my area because there are no properties listed.
Realtor.ca is EXCRUCIATINGLY slow and awkward, and provides random , perfectly useless,and inaccurate search results. I actually e-mailed the website contact at CREA to give them some feedback. They responded (admittedly very promptly) with some basic advice on how to use the site. Being a relatively savvy end user, I found their response quite patronizing. They also asked me to provide specific examples of problems (which I had already done in my e-mail) - it sounds to me like they are relying on the public to do their testing for them. Realtor.ca may be the worst website I've ever had to visit - even lame old MLS.ca was better than this.
This new site is awfull, I complained to mls.ca in July and since then have not use this site much. I have bought house using the mls.ca before ( contact seller realtor directly). I pity those list their property with mls now. Many potential buyers don't even want to search this site anymore. More people are using"COMFREE.com" Much user freindly,comprehensive and sellers don't pay realtor commission. you have better chance as a buyer to get a GOOD DEAL!
As a licensed Realtor I am just as disgusted with the rest of you regarding our "new" site. I get far less inquiries on my active listings than I used to and I'm sure that's because no one can accurately find them. I also used to use the site to search properties outside my real estate board area. I gave up too!!! There are a bunch of us that really appreciate your comments and would LOVE to see them continue to CREA until something is done.
I used to use the old mls.ca all the time. I've read many of the comments from people who didn't like it - but it was gold compared to this new site - which is just a leaking paper bag filled with vomit. I have a screaming fast Mac and the site wouldn't even load with Safari. Once I tried Firefox at least I could get the site to load - but OMG is it slow, cumbersome, irritating, frustrating and honestly I would rather be kicked in the bag with a frozen hockey skate than use the "new" site. True garbage. I just tried to use it, after an absence of 2 months, to find it's still just as bad as when it was released. It really seems that the only purpose it has is to ensure that the majority of information will only be provided to the minority of people - those people with enough time, patience, and near moronic development who can/will sit through the interminable process of trying to locate a house for sale on this idiot site.
I used to love going through MLS. I have bought 4 houses with the old sight. This one leaves my frustrated and confused. Lucky I am not looking for anything at the moment. I hope enough people complain and they change it soon.
This new site sucks. I cannot believe how bad it is. It is so slow and makes you very frustrated. I might be in the market soon to be looking for a new home and it this is the only way I can look in private, I just might not buy or sell. The old MLS was better than this crappy site. Who ever is responsible for it should do something about it.
You keep trying to convince us that this new site is so much better than the old one!
IT IS NOT!
In fact,it is worse!
It is hard to believe that in this day and age,this is the best you could come up with?
Bring back the old site because even with it's drawbacks,it was so much better than this garbage!
The designers of this site need to go back to school and find out where they went wrong!
A truly terrible piece of work!
I agree it is just terrible....not clear very confusing. I do not go visit this site anymore.It gives me a migraine. Bring back MLS
Absolutely TERRIBLE, SLOW, LAGGING, PAINFUL TO SEARCH FOR PROPERTY, makes it stressful and time consuming. Have decided to stop using it completely and i go into convulsions when I am forced to open it. I don't think there is a website that I HATE MORE than this one! The old version was much, much, MUCH better. WHo are the chretins who thought this would work out, and who the hell is maintaining it????????????????? Do your work properly people, or are you making the site purposely slow so people are forced to turn to the money sucking middle men buying realtor shysters since they can't property search on their own????? boooo, 100 thumbs down, very disappointing.
I find it hard to believe you're a realtor when you're claiming the realtor.ca site is an improvement. It's much slower and it's almost impossible to narrow a search down without the overkill of searching by a specific street. Thereby, you get almost nothing or an error saying you have over 500 results. MLS wasn't great, but it was at least functional, the new site is less than useless for any sizeable city.
There is a way to go back to the old method:
When on the Realtor.ca site, select "Advanced Search" from the toolbar at the top and you'll be redirected to the old style MLS.ca search page.
Try it: http://www.realtor.ca/propertySearch.aspx
Hope it helps, for what it's worth. The overall update to the mls.ca site is an abysmal failure and I'm completely beside myself that someone gave this new design the thumbs up to go live.
I find Realtor.ca cumbersome and very difficult to navigate. I used MLS.ca on a regular basis and I agree that there definitely could have been more information provided but part of that could have been easily rectified by the realtors inputting information correctly. MLS was way easier to use. They took a good system and made it way worse for the end user.
The main problem with the new site is it's speed. It is so painfully slow. This should be easy to fix - I wonder why it's taking them so long. Everything else about the new site seems fine - but it's so slow it's almost unuseable.
We know the old site is still there, in fact a few of the realtors in my area (perhaps the ones without their own elaborate websites)are still listing properties on the old site.
Why not just pull the plug on the new site??? & switch on the old!!!!!
I heard from someone they're still filling in the same boxes they used to when entering a new listing.
This site is brutal and IMO deliberately [one has to call realtor from step 1 instead of narrowing his/hers search first, than call the realtor...] changed so "average Joe" is not able to browse through properties as easily as one could do with the old version...shame on you!!!
300 NEGATIVE comments since July 2008 and so far absolutely NOTHING has been done in terms of improvement???? Unbelievable...
New site is beyond horrid...please, lets return to the previous site, at least it worked sometimes.
Whew...for awhile I thought someone traded in my Intel Duo Core with Rogers High Speed for a 486 with Dial Up!
What an Unbelievably crappy, unuseable, frustrating piece of crap...and they (CREA) are not even contemplating fixing it. In their press release they stated that it's a move ahead??? and that people will just have to get used to it??
The conspiracy theories in this case appear to be correct. An attempt (a poor one at that) to boost contacts with agents.
In this fast paced life I don't have the time nor the patience to screw around with an agent. The old MLS site allowed me to narrow my search to what "I" felt was appropriate, not some scum bag agent.
I will be exploring every option but MLS/Agents next time.
If I had a house listed on MLS I'd be telling my agent to knock off a percentage at least since the website is totally useless for advertising purposes. Wasn't that the "big" sell in the past...you get your house listed on our website!
Piece of CRAP!
What was wrong with the old MLS site.....this new one SUCKS.
Can't find anything that I am looking for.
PLEASE GO BACK TO THE OLD FORMAT.
I agree, this site is way worse. I feel like smashing my head through the monitor - if it even works it takes forever to load.
My problems with the new site: contrary to what those in CREA might believe, there are properties listed outside metropolitan Canada that are in areas that this AMERICAN mapping firm don't even recognize. Some complain about specific neighbourhoods or streets not being searchable, we don't even have our town or lakes in our area showing up. These are not new neighbourhoods but in existance for at least 5 years. We're told that Microsoft only updates its mapping info every 3 months.
For those that are down on the realtors, they have nothing to do with the change to realtor.ca. It was shoved down their throats. CREA listened to their concerns about as much as listening to yours. They pay big money to CREA for membership and the 'right' to put their listings on realtor.ca. Deaf ears all around.
The new site is utter crap. It's so slow, and sometimes it plain refuses to load. Whoever was responsible for the changeover should be fired... and shot. ;-)
We just sold our house and have been looking at MLS.ca and Realtor.ca for the last 3 months and it is safe to say that the "upgrade" is a joke. Performance is terrible, first I thought it was just my connections. We are finding it real hard to search for the new house because all we get is red x's. As an IT pro I actually contacted Realtor.ca hopefully they will be doing something about it in the near future, no guarantees though.
I can't ever even get ON the stupid thing. Either slow as molasses or completely unavailable. booooo.
I am so tired of hearing from realtors who are saying it's not their fault. CREA executive must consist of realtors....you guys must have voted them in .......
What is CREA - a DICTATORSHIP?????
Take responsibility for their actions!!!!!!!! Or else VOTE THEIR ASSES OFF !!!!!
If there are SO many realtors out there that don't like the site - THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!
I have a theory. People who design or engineer, freeway interchanges, haven't never driven a car, people who design hotel rooms, have never stayed in one and the decision-makers in one of the most popular tourist destination on earth, namely Niagara Falls have never themselves been tourists. It's the same with the people who designed realtor.ca. I am willing to bet, they have never tried to search for a home online. I have some advice for the creators. Don't be a web designer elitist. GET ADVICE FROM AVERAGE-JOE USER. WE are the customers. Buyers rule. Users rule.
This is a horrible site , the old mls was so much easier .All that keeps coming up is TO.There is other Provinces and Cities in Canada . Try and get something user Friendly .
With ALL (SO MANY!) pleas from us consumers to return to the old format of MLS.ca why have you not returned to it? I don't believe there was one thing wrong with the old format. It had everything we needed and you could go to a district or a region and find a house. What percentage of buyers KNOW what STREET they want? We have bought four houses the old way and always went through an agent to view the ones we found on MLS.ca so what is the purpose of this? PLEASE RETURN TO THE OLD MLS.CA We are planning to sell our house contingent on what we see out there.
reply to James on January 8
Regarding their press release bragging about their new format, do you or does anyone out there know how to get all these complaints out at once to someone who might care or have some pull? They might be keeping the lid on it.
The new site is not helpful at all. A BIG THUMBS DOWN!
Bring back the old MLS.CA and let me find a property in the area I am looking for in less time that the new site can display the google map. Which is a terrible tool to use.
What bunch of clowns or monkeys engineered this site?...and what other group of clowns actually approved it going live???..It is almost impossible to believe they could have taken a cumbersome and antiquated site like the former mls.ca and made it immensely worse - more cumbersome, more confusing and so non consumer friendly. At least you could navigate through the old site and focus in on specific areas simply and quickly... With this thing, it becomes a navigation nightmare. It's a disgrace - particularly for an organization which is supposed to be customer focused!
The fact that these issues still haven't been fixed despite months of negative and horrific reviews by users speaks volumes about uncaring the industry is.
The site gives me stress so I try to avoid it!! It seems there is not enough competition. The real estate people I have compained to don't know anything about the problems on the old or new site. Obviously they don't look at it. What the heck to these people do to command the outrageous commissions they make??
Property Guys is the best site I have used and I will have faith in my own knowledge that I can sell or buy my own house thankyou very much!!
Why are so many people commenting on this post? Some people seem to think this Realtor.ca's user relations blog. Why?
I cannot believe how useless the new site is, and I have taken the time to send my complaints to info@crea.ca. They do not even have the courtesy to send back even a canned response, let alone a real one. The Canadian Real Estate Association is totally out of touch with home buyers and sellers.
For everyone: go to http://theoldmls.com and you can use the old interface.
BUT, please take a second to email info@crea.ca and send a cc to to Marc Lafrance, their marketing gura at mlafrance@crea.ca and let them know who you feel. If you don't get a response, someone must be reading the email.
Sorry - just realized that http://www.theoldmls.com does not seem to have valid up-to-date listings, so it looks like we're back to having to waste time with realtor.ca
But again, PLEASE write to them and let them know you feelings.
This new site sucks big time.It's made just for the realtors. I don't even use the net for Real Estate anymore it's to frustrating.
BACK TO THE OLD FORMAT PLEASE!!
This site is terrible. I am a IT project manager and would have been fired if I put this site into production. Obvisouly no user feeback was done otherwise they would have made some obvious enhancements like being able to search for certain properties in a given community without making it the most painful process ever. Go back to the old format, it is way better then this (which is not a compliment in the first place)
i personally think realtors are scum and should have their sales commision taken away and be given a flat rate per home sale, they are the root of the economic state of the world by artificially inflating home prices by listing on mls thus eliminating the need to advertise and reducing competition by all using the one site, they reduced their work load and increased their profit by ripping off their costomers. i only wish the worst for any and all real estate agents. way to ruin a once affordable nation.
This website just may be the tipping point for the For Sale By Owner sites to reign supreme. I'm crossing my fingers...
i have enjoyed using mls.ca for years,fast and easy to use.i,ve made a good living buying and selling realestae using the mls.but must agree with everyones complaint that the new format is no good. in a depressed realestate market,such as now,wouldn,t be nice to have a responsive,functional web site for buyers and sellers to use again.to who ever is in charge please listen to all these people before me -go back to your orginal style.
7 months later and this "new" site is still not improved. Can anyone bring back the old MLS that was at least functional. I can open mapquest all by myself if I want to look at a map. Garbage from the first click of the mouse and it doesn't get any better.
This new format is incredibly awkward. I agree the old site was much better. Anyone have any idea if this is being reconsidered?
I tried to drop them a line at their contact address, to let them know that the maps don't work in Seamonkey 1.1.14, but Gmail gave up on trying to deliver the message to them after a few days.
This new site is junk!!! Bring back the old one where I can at least search by an area/community.
I concur with every negative comment above. I've wasted so much time today and still can't find the map I found only once before.
Realtor.ca is a big disappointment. 1/2 the time my searches come up with 0 listings when there certainly are and asks me to narrow down my search. Well, if there are apparently 0 listings, what good is going to do to narrow my search???? Also, sometimes a number of listings comes up, then I click on more info, and it goes back to the "0 listings - refine search" page. Huh??? Realtor.ca is absolutely no help and even MLS.ca was better.
The map keeps moving by itself causing the loading function to start and hang up as if it is downloading terrabytes of information through a 1990's era modem. And just trying to move the map or zoom in and out results in waiting an inordinate amount of time before we just give up and close the webpage whic, ofcourse, will not close without CTL-ALT-DELETE.
This is the horrible site and so is MLS.ca. I always found my houses by looking through the listings but now I can't even access the listings. I give them a town, an area code and nothing doing. They just want us to refine......and refine.......
The MLS site wasn't that bad a few years ago, they had large pictures and it was fairly easy to navigate through. Why change it for the worse. Maybe it's because they do not want people like us to access the information. Maybe they are afraid of loosing their commission? I think the real estate people with their high fees could certainly give their customer a chance to view what is out there. All of the houses we purchased we had seen them on MLS and requested our agent to show them to us. I feel that when I make such a large investment I want to know that I get the best I can get for my money. So please Realtor.ca and MLS.ca get on your toes!!!!!!
MLS.ca was fine, I've made good use of it including searching for and buying a home in another city (closed through a realtor). I'm now considering selling the same home, my initial research was to be via MLS.ca. Forget Realtor.ca. Clearly somebody at the helm is trying to control access to real estate info. This is likely to backfire. Go back to MLS.ca.
My response to Bob Linney, Communications Director,Canadian Real Estate Association.
Sorry Bob I'm just not interested! I know how to use the site .....I just don't have the time or the interest to navigate it. It's a complete waste of my time and I won't go into all the reasons why I' dissatisfied. Take my word for it.....It is a terrible website! Whoever designed this should go back to school. Have you or anyone in your organization read any of the comments from dozens of unsatisfied potential customers? There are hundreds of reasons why people are dissatisfied. Here is a link to their blog: Do yourself a favour, read their comments and take action to change it or go back to the original MLS.ca This new site is just too unfriendly and time consuming to bother with. http://www.blogto.com/city/2008/07/goodbye_mlsca_hello_realtorca/#comments
As a realtor, I am disappointed that this new web site has not improved, after so many complants. What are you waiting for CREA? Fix it.
Realtors and the Real Estate Board has such poor public profile and unfortunately realtor.ca just adds to it.
the site is almost a waste of time. the map function indicates listings from other areas and you cant believe half of them. the site blames realtors and realtors blame the site. why wont someone take resposibility and fix it//?? IF BANKS WEB SITES WORKED LOKE THIS THEY WOULD BE OUT OF BUSINESS!!!! NO WONDER PEOPLE USE WWW.PROPERTYGUYS.COM OR WWW.WELIST.COM
Possibly the worst and most frustrating site I have ever tried to navigate! This site gives me a headache. I once browsed mls weekly and bought 3 previous homes via mls. Now I can't be bothered. WHAT A JOKE!
I tried for 1/2 hr to get some listings in a certain location and came up with two, however, the realtor sent me about eight. In other words, most of the listings are not even showing up on the map.
As a former realtor i found mls.ca to be a fantastic tool when I bought my home in Victoria last year. This new site is terrible. I can't find hardly any listings and find it very user UNFRIENDLY.
Bring back the old mls.ca
This is the worst stinking site I have ever tried to navigate. MLS.ca was so simple and brought up any area I was interested looking into. We are thinking of relocating to a different city and I am trying to get general information of what is available, prices, etc. Of course when we get down to more serious inquiries, we will contact a Realtor. We found our present house through MLS.ca and it was so fast and simple. I am going to look for houses for sale by owner "Property Guys" etc and forget going through Realtors simply because of this lousy site.
what don't you understand about the words being used to describe your site? just a few .... "worst" "sucks""frustrating""horrible" do you want me to go on? do you read the comments about your site? what are you waiting for? Hello .....
This is the worst site i have ever had the misfortune to use.It is the most disappointing and hard to navigate site in realtor history.
( and trust me i have been a real estate agent in a few countries).
It's time consuming, it's slow, it freezes and the reloading constantly of the maps beggers belief.
The worse thing about it is if you are moving to a different area, that you don't know, you cannot narrow the search, for instance my husband was offered a job in Ottawa (we live about 20 mins from Niagara falls)and we couldn't get the system to work.....Why????? because we don't know what the areas are called, so mls brought up everything in the area or it said that the search was over 500
The new site is terrible.
Typical of the Real Estate industry to make it even more difficult to find and view potential properties for sale and navigate info easily. The previous mls.ca was far better. The new one realator.ca speaks for itself. It's typically all about the realator (agent) making as much money as possible and keeping information away from buyers and sellers. It's a crooked industry. Their commissions should be reduced and capped. The industy is discusting.
I have given up with mls. Our home has been for sale for 2 1/2 months. when you type in our street address, it shows ZERO properties available.When you type in our city, it shows ZERO properties available. This is the most horrible service I have ever had to deal with. I'm giving up on it. I would never recommend listing with mls again-ever. Thank heavens for kijijii and fsbo companies. We will lose our dream home because MLS is so horrible.
this has to be a joke, just lost 20 minutes to find the area I wanted, 5-10 of them in a different province I am looking in trying to move the map over.
gave up, not using this site. privateexchange.ca still works great:)
You people that created this site probably think were just dumb and will figure it out eventually, let me tell you im educated enough to know you people dont have a freakin clue what your doing. your new setup is HORRIBLE, at least if you left up a list of all the areas( you know like w2 w26 ect) that would of helped a little.I dont see a hell of alot of people liking it either....
"pat" - are you at least educated enough to use proper punctuation? Maniacal rants lose their power if you let an 8 year old type them.
Oh my God I hate MLS.Ca now, The way it was before the maps was much, much better, I use to love searching for properties, now I can't use the site at all, I even emailed them 3 times and told them to at least go back to the old site, but to no avail. I use to be able to put in area's I wanted to live. They were broken down on the main map. Example Northern Ontario. Then you could look in that whole area for a place by filtering what you wanted, worked wonderful. Then if I did want to know where exactly it was I just went to either Google Earth or Mapquest and voila, I found the exact location so that I could decide if it is a place I would like to move to. Now, I have to use their interactive maps because they no longer have it seperated into area's. The interactive map is slow,slow,slow,slow and I just give up. I have high speed internet but still very slow, the other problem was if you zoom in or out, the properties would disappear, very frustrating| I actually stopped looking, that is how upset I am about it. However, I decided to try this morning to see if they changed it yet, and found Realtor.ca so I am going to try this site to see if its any more user friendly. I do not want to search by maps. I want to search by an area I am interested in. In my case it could be several area's because I am retiring. So I like French River, Prince Edward County, Kawartha's, etc.etc. Impossible to find properties without first putting in a location, because i have no addresses of the local area's. The original simple map at the beginning allowed me to search say 5 area's from Southern to Northern Ontario. I would then get a hit in my price range, of a place on the water, and then I would decide where i may like to move based on those choices by the water. If I did not know the area, I would google it, or mapquest it. Worked lovely, now it takes 4 hrs to look for the properties that used to only take me an hour. Sick of it...Anyway, let you know whether I like Realtor.ca since I am going to try it right now.
Can't wait till midnight tonight--then I am FREE from MLS site!!!
What a horrible experience! I can't wait to list with bytheownercom
today!!! Great website!!! I truly believe we lost our chance on a dream home becaue the mls site was so brutal. So often, when typing in our address 540 Silvermeadow Place, Waterloo, or even the city "Waterloo' it came up saying ZERO properties for sale OR
'does not recognize city'.
Good bye MLS, help bytheowner.com!!!!!
Midnight can't come fast enough!!!!
I will NEVER list with an agent again if the MLS site stays the same.
After all this time and many complaints it is obvious this site is what will help to put many of the current Real Estate Agents to " ReSt ". With the poor economy, many are turning to "Property Guys" or other user friendly sites to sell/ list their property(s) as well as saving on comission fees etc............... This sad , confusing mess of a site just goes to show that a new way of selling and buying property is possibly not just a fad but indeed the way many are choosing @ this point and time....if this site does not improve , I am sure within a short X MLS, and Realtors in General will disappear to be replaced by various on-line websites or self hosted venues.................. The wave of the future is upon us all & it will be interesting to see how much longer this site will hold on!!!!!
Honestly, I love the the new search format. I hated the old manner of searching where if a property was JUST outside the limits of your chosen zones you didn't get a hit; BUT choose an additional zone to encompass that small space and you come back with LOADS of unwanted results.
Admittedly it is slow.
I hate the new site. There is no specific way to narrow down your search by area. Surrey is a large city and I am not interested in less desirable areas like North Surrey and Newton. MLS.ca allowed specific areas to be searched. The other thing that I do not like is search based on size or age. I am not interested in small and old places. Its like they purposely removed the ability to narrow down your search. Advanced search is the way to go, but allot of time is waisted showing my old houses that don't have a chance at even sparking my interest.
this site is way worse. The mapping is so slow I end up turning it off and trying to view the old mls.ca way... because at least it was quick (quicker).
realtor.ca is far more of a pain.
I am totaly convinced that creation of this "new" and "improved" web-site is a desperate attempt to boost potential buyer's contact with overpaid real-estate agent/crook/former used car salesman/computer consultant at FS...
It's illegal. everyone has a right to this information.
someone is going to jail.
the old site worked perfectly
there is already a revolt ...
many are usingfree internet advertising and forgoing real estate agents, and svaing thousands-
so yes it;ll backfire
Kevin are you a realllestate agent?
yes , if you ASK FOR AN AREA THAT'S WHAT IT USED TO GIVE YOU.
you only needed to ask!
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