A Toronto realtor says people are reposting MLS listings under their own names in hopes of generating a lead or finding a potential client.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Homes for rent that have been “hijacked” and the loose enforcement of rules over who has access to them are raising concerns about security gaps in the residential property market.
Some real estate agents in Toronto say the practice of hijacking a listing – someone copying the properties of the agent contracted to sell a property onto their own website – has become almost commonplace.
Andre Kutyan, a broker with Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd., said that in mid-June, just days after he listed a client’s Gowan Avenue home for rent on the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board’s (TRREB) multiple listing service, a man named Taylor Tollefson copied the pictures, the description and the price and created a rental listing under his own name on Facebook Marketplace. It was just one of dozens Mr. Tollefson had created.
Mr. Kutyan said there are scores of people – realtors and non-realtors – who repost MLS listings under their own names in hopes of generating a lead or finding a potential client who wants to rent a home. There is a financial incentive, too: realtors who find a renter can get half a month’s rent as commission, which in the Toronto market can be several thousand dollars.
TRREB requires listing agents to indicate whether they will allow other agents to post the property details on their own sites, which some agree to as a means of boosting a property’s exposure. In the case of his Gowan Avenue listing, Mr. Kutyan said he gave no such permission, but his listing ended up on Facebook anyway.
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Mr. Tollefson didn’t respond to a request for comment. After The Globe contacted the real-estate firm associated with his listing, Mr. Tollefson took down dozens of Facebook posts about rental listings on his account.
The current decline in the resale housing market may be feeding the urge to get listings, no matter how underhanded.
“Some agents out there that are pretty hungry, they are not doing a lot of transactions,” said Brandon Sage with Landlord Realty Inc. Mr. Sage adds that those who repost listings without permission can sometimes tweak the owner’s information in unhelpful ways, for instance, by insisting that only the very best applicants will be accepted. “If these clowns are stealing my listing and then do things like use the awful ‘AAA Tenant Preferred,’ I don’t want that associated with our brand,” he said.
The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO), which regulates the industry in the province, has sought to prevent listing hijacking by creating rules around advertising and property access that mean only the listing broker or a co-operating realtor can book a showing of a property and negotiate a deal. In the case of Gowan Avenue property, it was Mr. Tollefson’s ad that found a tenant, but it was Isabela Lazarova, a licensed realtor with Sage Real Estate Ltd., who booked the showing in late June and represented the prospective tenants when they agreed to rent the home.
However, when the tenants moved in on Aug. 1, Mr. Kutyan and his landlord clients received a complaint about backyard access. According to the tenants, Mr. Tollefson, in contravention of RECO rules, gave them a tour of the house and told them they would have exclusive access to the rear yard. In order to give the showing, Mr. Tollefson would have had to have the code for the lockbox where the key to the door was secured, another RECO violation.
“That’s pretty much a cardinal sin in this business,” said Mr. Sage of Landlord Realty.
Condo lock boxes at a Toronto property.
The lockbox is a tool of convenience busy realtors use to keep a house key near a property so other realtors can access it (usually via code) in order to show those properties to buying or leasing clients. Sellers have to give written permission for their use, and sign a waiver that outlines the potential security risks, which include everything from thieves cutting open these metal boxes in order to break into the house, to agents losing or giving away the key to someone who is not authorized to be there.
In Mr. Kutyan’s example, Ms. Lazarova was fired from her brokerage after she admitted to allowing an unlicensed assistant to enter a rental home without her being present. Ms. Lazarova didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“This could have turned really bad,” said Mr. Kutyan, who represented the homeowner. “I got really concerned as to how this happens.”
RECO warned in a bulletin it published in 2023 that “agents must not provide a lockbox code to anyone, including a buyer, appraiser, home inspector, or other service provider, without the express written consent of the seller. Unauthorized access, including access outside of appointment times, is prohibited.”
In addition, RECO has frequently made examples of agents who were careless or deceptive about gaining access to properties via lockbox codes. In March, it levied a $12,000 fine against realtor Jinghui Du for a 2023 incident where, after she was unable to book the time she wanted for a showing, booked a different time on a later date in order to get the lockbox code and then proceeded to enter the home at a time when she wasn’t authorized.
The disciplinary ruling was clear: a stiff penalty was intended to deter other realtors from taking risks with lockboxes. “Without a substantial penalty, there is a risk that other professionals may be encouraged to take similar shortcuts, endangering and impacting clients, tenants and property owners alike,” it ruled. “It is essential to emphasize to all real estate professionals that unauthorized access constitutes a serious breach with significant and potentially dangerous consequences.”
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Larry Sage (no relation to Brandon Sage), broker of record for Sage Real Estate and Ms. Lazarova’s boss, responded to The Globe and Mail’s request for comment, saying that Ms. Lazarova told him that Mr. Tollefson was acting as her assistant and was working toward getting his realtor’s licence. He said she admitted that Mr. Tollefson was at times alone in these properties with clients for showings.
“She said that she booked some showings and would attend at the showings but stay in the car while Taylor would take the client into the property. [This is] wildly inappropriate and unacceptable. Her actions do not reflect the standards we expect to be upheld at our brokerage,” Mr. Sage said in an e-mail to The Globe.
“While we have not received any other complaints about her, this is an embarrassment to our firm as we strive to be a brokerage that upholds the highest ethical standards. We have terminated her immediately and she is no longer licensed with Sage Real Estate.”
For Mr. Kutyan, the entire situation suggests that RECO’s punishments still aren’t severe enough to deter even licensed realtors from engaging in potentially unethical behaviour if there’s enough money to be made.
“From a security perspective, this could have turned out very bad. And what prevents a person like this from signing a fictitious lease? If they share $1,000 or $2,000, and do this 10 times a month, that’s a lot of money,” he said.