CREA has been successful in its efforts to have Realtor vs. Realtor, a Canadian real estate reality TV series, pulled from the air. CREA took issue with the unauthorized use of its Realtor trademark in the series’ title and threatened legal action if the program continued to broadcast.
In October, HGTV quietly removed Realtor vs. Realtor from its Wednesday night timeslot, as well as from its website, after only a handful of the 13 planned episodes had aired. The broadcaster and its parent company, CanWest, are now negotiating a settlement with CREA.
“The series is not currently on our schedule,” says Jaclyn Atwood, senior publicist for HGTV. Stating that “until a settlement has been reached, it’s inappropriate for us to comment on any other information regarding the series,” Atwood declined to share any further details, or to confirm if the series would return to HGTV’s schedule at a later date under a new name.
HGTV had promoted the program as “the ultimate real estate challenge show, where two top-notch real estate agents face-off to find desperate home buyers the house of their dreams…They have diametrically different styles but both real estate agents share one thing in common – they’re both intensively competitive. Realtor vs. Realtor follows them as they go head to head to sell houses and earn the commission that comes with it…”
CREA was unhappy with the way ads for the series were visually portraying Realtors – as battered combatants, complete with blackened eyes and boxing gloves.
CREA lawyer Bill Harrington, in a memo to members detailing the association’s concerns, said, “This show is intended to appeal to the basest of viewer instincts by glorifying disreputable behaviour on the part of real estate agents…conduct that violates the spirit and likely the letter of the Realtor Code.”
Harrington added, “Not only is the value of the trademark diminished by this type of broadcast, it harms the reputation and public standing, if not the livelihood, of hard-working Realtors, who pride themselves in offering professional real estate services that comply with the highest ethical and professional standards.”
CREA sent HGTV a “cease and desist” letter in September, advising the broadcaster that, if they didn’t stop airing the series, CREA intended to immediately commence legal action and seek an interim injunction. HGTV agreed to pull the program and to seek a resolution with CREA.
Two of the Realtors who were featured on Realtor vs. Realtor don’t share CREA’s concerns about the series.
Chris and Les Sohar of Re/Max Realty Enterprises in Mississauga, Ont. competed for a sale on the October 14th program. The episode began with Chris and Les making individual listing presentations to a couple who were looking to buy a home. Each of the Sohars then took the couple to a number of showings; Les ended up making the sale. Their competitive natures were the focal point of the program – in a good-natured way, they made it clear how much winning the sale meant to each of them.
When asked if the show should come back on the air if it keeps its same focus on competitiveness, they both responded positively, as long as that competitiveness is portrayed in a realistic way.
“If you’re looking for two Realtors to battle it out, to fight it out in a negative way, then I would say no; if you’re looking for good, competitive behaviour, which is really what we all do every single day, I’d say sure, absolutely,” says Les.
“I think you can certainly show the competitiveness with agents in the real world, without making it look negative,” Chris says.
The Sohars enjoyed their experience and praised the production team. “They did a really good job representing us,” says Chris. “I really have nothing bad to say about the whole process,” adding that she would go on another episode “in a heartbeat” if the series does come back on the air. – Kathy Bevan
CREA! Stop fighting battles and start fighting the war we are losing – the information war.
The Internet is squashing human real estate services providers just like it crushed the newspapers and countless other information-based industries – and you can’t sue ‘the Internet’.
We need to have realistic expectations and laser focus on the priorities and REALTOR vs REALTOR isn’t one of them IMHO. Lets keep our eye on the ball and figure out how to counter the bigger forces, like Google who is quietly encroaching our turf inch-by-inch, putting real estate information and tools directly in the hands of buyers and sellers, for FREE! No, they won’t eat our breakfast, lunch and dinner tomorrow, but they and others will cause the consumer to become more educated, more confident, and ultimately less fearful of the transacting process.
Remember, the only ‘code’ that is important to them is their source code. Everything else, including our precious MLS ® and all the information in it is just table stakes.
Bill McMullin
REALTOR ®
Bill – I understand your concern about information getting into the hands of consumers and having them become “more educated, more confident, and ultimately less fearful of the transacting process”, but those horses are out of the barn. It is not Google that is your enemy here, it is evolution.
The changes will not reverse or slow down and CREA and anyone else you would enlist to fight this battle cannot win. In my opinion the best an agent can do is realize how things are going to be and adapt, or decide it is just too hard and move on to something else. Anything in the middle is just frustrating and unproductive.
Just one opinion,
Don Stewart
Agent Invitation
Right on Don. I agree completely. To be clear, I am a huge proponent of giving consumers complete access and transparency. The value a REALTOR® provides must be in the form of professional services that require the human power of creativity and the ability to reason not repetitive ‘administrivia’ where the REALTOR® is the human robot that acts as the gopher for MLS® and other information.
Bill
From this layman’s perspective it’s all about providing the consumer with easy online access to the best information available and providing this information in as complete a form as possible ala googles Place Pages.
IMO there are 10’s of thousands of Realtors who are “clogging” up the system and slowing the business efficiency improvements which the Canadian residential resale industry desperately needs.
I agree with Bill to a point. Yes, CREA needs to ” focus on the priorities and REALTOR vs REALTOR isn’t one of them”. (if anyone has watched the show they would know it does not show us in a bad light AT ALL)… But instead of fighting against Google and the like, how about accepting that the WHOLE world is changing and the information is not going to be gated behind the steel bars we call the MLS (also known as the old boys club). We as agents need to accept that our industry will be changing in the next 3/4/5 years. Example? look at the Competition Bureau’s latest findings and request. What is going to happen from here? Damned if i know, but the one thing I am aware of is that we need to be able to adapt to whatever is coming next. If you are going to sit back and try and fight it, you are just going to get eaten up in the dust.
*small other point… instead of fighting with CanWest… how about working with them to not only have us portrayed as CREA wants, but provide them with the tools to entice those watching to pick up the phone and call their local realtor. Create a tv ad to follow the show pushing people looking to buy or sell, to visit the MLS website… that would help everyone.
Is the situation such as this media hyped event can be dealt with because a defined success of a battle can be achieved?
Because a statement portion put forth “,but those horses are out of the barn.” leave one with the thought that the war on REALTOR services has lost to technology as the horse and buggy lost to the automobile. To be gracious, congratulations on winning a battle…….
Our firm offers real estate auction services in addition to “traditional” listing services as REALTORs. There are very few auctions of real estate in Canada not because the method is less effective, but rather is exclusively due to almost no real estate companies offering the service in Canada. 40% of our customers choose the auction method of selling their homes over the traditional listing method when presented with the choice. All we do is explain the pros and cons of each method and then let the customer decide. Often customers that choose a conventional listing first, ask to switch to an auction later if their property isn’t selling, which is ok too. We just want to get the job done for our customers in the most effective manner that best suits our customers goals. Our firm has sold about 2000 properties by auction, in addition to our “traditional” sales and we are now selling retail real estate by auction “online only” with consistent success. CREA needs to not only look outside of its protectionist box as it pertains to REALTOR and MLS, but look at other avenues that can equally or in some cases better serve the public to achieve their real estate buying and selling goals. http://www.gordonsestateservices.com
We need to promote who we are and what we are – what we are not is just a glorified website. Lets focus on the other pillars of organized real estate – not just the internet info. Finally, let us not use this forum to promote our own interests ie auctions.
David – unfortunately you miss the point. Rather than promoting “who we are and what we are”, we need to demonstrate to consumers what we can do for them differently than we have been doing in organized real estate for a 1/2 century. We need to listen to the audience we are serving, offering them what they want, and we need to stay ahead of our customer’s needs, or our customers will no longer need us. In “organized real estate” the participants have for decades applied the same standard set of solutions to every consumer’s challenge of selling their home – the “pillars” you speak of. I have been a REALTOR® for 22 years, my Dad has been a REALTOR® for 38 years, my Mom, sister and wife are also REALTORS®. I get the “pillars of organized real estate” probably better than most, I just think there are a few pillars missing, or forbidden to be spoken of because they are not understood. Often the mere mention of the auction pillar evokes REALTOR® fear because it is a consumer choice, although proven effective in many circumstances to achieve a consumers goal, not understood by REALTORS®, not taught to REALTORS® and therefore not practiced by REALTORS®. The mention of the word auction here is seen as “self promotion”, rather than what it really is, just another relevant choice for consumers that any REATLOR® can educate him or herself to offer to his or her customers. Never challenging the rules of the way we do business brings with it 2 dangers: 1- We get locked into one approach, method or strategy without seeing that other approaches might be as, or more appropriate. As a result, we tailor our problems to the preconceptions that enable us to solve them that way. Rules get made by us OR by the industry that we work within and we follow these rules. Time passes, things change, and the fundamental reasons for the generation of these rules may no longer exist, but because the rules are still in place, we continue to follow them. Often when someone (or an industry) falls in love with a certain approach, they become unable to see the merits of alternative approaches that may sometimes better serve their customers – if they were provided the choice.
Internet is here to stay and is going to take over the other media like radio (two way?) & TV (interactive?) in the near future. Print media is already defeated. Internet is and will remain a medium to advertise but with a deeper reach. A person is not going to buy a house just by looking at the pics or even by virtually walking in the place (trust me its coming soon to a real estate website near you). People need not only information but expertise. Agents who learn to use the internet will thrive and the ones who don’t like the fast paced change will have to step out of the way..
And yea, CREA has to protect our trademarks and other interests so they do what is expected of them..