By Brent Bosker

More options for home sellers

Oct 27, 2010 | 6:35 AM

Home sellers now have more choice when putting their home up for sale.

The Canadian Real Estate Association has approved a consent agreement with the Competition Bureau that more clearly spells out rules that boards and associations already use to operate their MLS systems.

President of Saskatchewan Realtors Gary Busch said under the new regulations sellers can now opt out of certain services provided by realtors.

“For example, if a seller would like to be on the MLS system, but have buyers go directly to them and have them do their own open houses and have the buyers to their own negotiations. We have to be able to offer that service if that’s the business model our company has chosen to take,” he said.

Bush said it’s the way they’ve been doing business for a long time. He said the additional regulation just prevents real estate boards from discriminating against listings that require minimal real estate services.

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“In the east, there (have) been situations where because they didn’t meet their fiduciary duties of the job they were supposed to do for their clients (and) boards would say no we can’t take that listing because we were not offering full services,” said Busch.

Busch clarifies that the rule changes do not allow sellers to put their listings on the MLS system themselves.

“They will still have to go through a realtor,” he said.

“I think that’s probably the biggest misconception out there right now.”

bbosker@rawlco.com