Turf war heats up between real estate disruptor and industry establishment
CBC
An Ottawa entrepreneur who pleaded guilty to fraud charges over fudged car loans in 2009 is back in court — this time as a plaintiff accusing three trade associations of trying to damage the reputation of his latest venture and exile the self-styled disruptor from the real estate industry's established turf.
Michael Ryan O'Connor, who'd previously run into legal trouble as the owner of a chain of used car dealerships in Ontario and Quebec, is currently the founder and CEO of Unreserved, an online real estate auction platform that allows people to buy and sell homes like an outsized eBay.
In a civil suit filed mid-July, O'Connor's company alleges the Ottawa Real Estate Board (OREB), Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) and Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) made defamatory statements about Unreserved in an attempt to scare consumers away from the outfit's novel approach to selling homes.
It also alleges the three organizations — which together represent and oversee every registered real estate agent and broker in the nation's capital and run the exclusive central listing network for properties known as the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) — unfairly lobbied regulators to close a decades-old legal exemption essential to Unreserved's operations.
OREB, OREA, and CREA have all stated they believe Unreserved's claim is without merit.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Meanwhile, CBC has uncovered court documents dating back more than a decade, detailing how the province once revoked O'Connor's licence as a motor vehicle salesperson, after he pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud related to inflating buyers' incomes to help them qualify for used car loans they couldn't afford. The RCMP raided one of O'Connor's Find-A-Car dealerships and built a case against him after hundreds of customers complained about unmanageable debt in 2007.
"I paid the price. I lost everything," said O'Connor, who performed community service and served six months' house arrest as part of his conditional sentence.
O'Connor said he believes he has since rebuilt his credibility — first by pivoting to an online dealer-to-dealer vehicle auction platform, and now a similar model for real estate.
As the new legal battle brews, real estate law experts say the current case reveals several competing interests — consumers' desire for greater price transparency in an era of sky-high home prices and blind bidding; the billions of dollars of commissions and fees at stake for real estate agents; and the limits of regulation when it comes to protecting consumers and enforcing a code of ethics within the industry.
As a result, observers say the legal fight could be pricey and protracted.
Founded in 2021, Unreserved bills itself as a disruptor in the real estate industry.
The tech startup raked in nearly $34 million in venture capital in early 2022, and has purportedly auctioned more than 250 properties in Ottawa and a handful of other cities in Ontario using an unconventional method that has sparked a backlash from the traditional real estate establishment.
On the company's website, listings ranging from $250,000 condos to million-dollar detached homes are bid on and bought in real-time auctions "with the click of a mouse," O'Connor explained.