MONTREAL - Nearly a year after going national under the ComFree banner, DuProprio.com says it has helped homeowners sell 100,000 houses across Canada – an important benchmark for the Quebec City-based website.
But because of DuProprio’s less-than-precise system for recording sales and an increasingly diverse array of options in the real estate market, almost three per cent of these transactions were concluded with the help of a traditional broker.
Although it’s only a minority of cases, the Power Corp.-backed site counts homes sold by clients who were also using a broker as a DuProprio sale.
Nicolas Bouchard denied the company he founded in 1997 – which has now captured about one-third of the Quebec market – is trying to inflate its sales numbers by including transactions involving brokers.
“It’s really minimal, the amount (of homes) that were sold with a broker,” said Bouchard, who is also co-president of DuProprio. “What you need to understand … is that even if a broker is involved, can we really say that DuProprio did nothing to help the client? We put up the sign, we gave them publicity on our site.”
Real estate observers say DuProprio’s statistics are symptoms of a changing market that offers homeowners a growing number of choices in selling their houses.
The lines once drawn between for-sale-by-owner sites and traditional real estate brokers are blurring, with property owners now trying one or more different methods to sell their homes.
Indeed, with Canadian for-sale-by-owner sites actually joining forces with brokers so their clients can list on the popular Realtor.ca – the listing website used in the vast majority of real estate transactions – it’s becoming increasingly difficult to determine who made the sale.
“It’s really not black and white,” said Don Campbell, president of the Vancouver-based Real Estate Investment Network.
“There will be a lot of people running flags up the flagpole saying we were involved in 3,000 sales last year – but what does that really mean?
“What we’re finding is that we’re going to see all kinds of different models.”
Campbell, the author of a new book on the Canadian real estate cycle, actually recommends property owners use both a broker and for-sale-by-owner sites when selling a home.
“My suggestion is that for anyone trying to sell in a hot market, put up a for sale by owner sign and see if someone’s been watching your house,” he said. “Give the market 10 days just in case. And then go and get a professional.”
A spokesperson for the Greater Montreal Real Estate Board couldn’t be reached for comment.
In DuProprio’s case, Bouchard said the company’s method for counting sales is actually far more accurate today than when he first started out. Until 2007, unless a client specifically asked to cancel a listing, all transactions – regardless of whether a broker was involved with the buyer, or seller – were simply considered a DuProprio sale.
Now, DuProprio makes the distinction between its sales with and without a broker’s participation.
“Before we simply marked it sold; we didn’t go any further,” Bouchard said.
“We ask way more questions now then we used to. Before we were much smaller. The growth of our business has been in the last four or five years.
“We’ve really refined our statistics.”
When brokers are involved it’s usually because they are representing clients who have spotted a home on the DuProprio or ComFree websites. But there could also be cases of clients who sold a home with a broker – but had a simultaneous mandate with DuProprio – being counted as a DuProprio sale.
Bouchard acknowledged DuProprio’s methods of tracking sales could be better.
“I think I would make the suggestion to have even better statistics.”
Sales involving brokers, however, in no way diminish the significance of the 100,000-home benchmark.
“We technically have more than 100,000 sold.”