Tech company Listed back in action after TRREB restores data access

(A still from a Listed commercial)

Founder Catharine MacIntosh is breathing a sigh of relief as her Toronto-based real estate platform Listed is given access again to the critical data that makes her app popular with agents and consumers.

Virtual Office Website (VOW) data access has been restored on Listed on an interim basis, ending an eight-month-long blackout that started when the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) cut off access in June.  

In an interview, MacIntosh said TRREB’s new president, Daniel Steinfeld, listened when members advocated for Listed.

“I can’t tell you how many members of TRREB and of other boards who are part of PropTx sent emails, videos and messages, and this new board has heard us,” she said.

Richard Silver, a sales rep and Silver Burtnick & Associates team leader with Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, previously told REM that Listed has helped him sell several properties. He said Listed has a better user experience and offers more features compared to similar platforms available.

What caused the issue?

Listed powers single-agent websites and apps. Critical to its popularity is the display of VOW data, which includes sought-after information like the sold price, delisting history and possession date of properties. 

TRREB legal counsel cited the need for “strict compliance” around the use and access of the VOW data feed when a Listed user demanded to know why Listed was cut off, according to an email obtained by Real Estate Magazine in November. 

Listed remains under review by TRREB, said MacIntosh. 

“We believe we’ve always been in compliance and acted in accordance with the applicable agreements,” she said. “This interim restoration reflects that the matter is under review, not resolved, but that we’re all cooperating fully with the process, which is good for everybody.”

TRREB’s response

In an email, Steinfeld told REM that TRREB’s focus is on “moving toward a practical and orderly resolution.”

“Restoring access to the VOW data reflects our good‑faith commitment to work cooperatively with Listed on compliance matters while we continue our internal review,” he said. 

In a previous interview, MacIntosh described Listed as a design platform, which doesn’t have rights to the data. Its members – real estate agents – hold the rights, she said. She said her clientele of agents and brokerages are all subject to approved data agreements before becoming active members of Listed.

Impact on the business

MacIntosh said Listed has about 1,200 paying agents on the platform, and an overall total of 3,000 agents who have signed up.

She said the blackout caused harm to her agent userbase, who rely on Listed to connect with their clients.

“Regular people working with agents went to other applications that had sold data, which basically disconnected them from their agents,” she said. “So you can imagine how that made the agent feel.”

She said many agents on the platform have integrated Listed throughout their business, including paid-for marketing and advertising. MacIntosh is now concerned that trust in Listed as been broken as a result of the VOW blackout.

“Now that there’s this interim restoration, a lot of (users) are tentative. Like, is this gonna last? Is this gonna continue?”

MacIntosh said loyalty from her base is the reason the company is still standing, but the company still suffered and had to reduce its staff.

“This has had a massive impact on us. The number of people that worked at our company at the beginning of this is not the same number that works at our company now,” said MacIntosh, without sharing specifics about the number of employees affected. 

A framework for VOW data users

MacIntosh said Listed invented what she calls a VOW data compliance framework, which takes the rules of the MLS system and allows them to be applied equally to any vendor wanting to use VOW data.

“I can’t wait until we get into conversation with TRREB about how that could be applied, and we will just give it to them,” she said.

The framework would help Listed’s competitors, but MacIntosh is focused on a bigger picture. 

“We just wanted this confidence that there is a fair, equally applied standard that we can all trust.”