Home buyers, sellers, real estate agents, and listing websites throughout the US have been stymied for five days by a cyberattack on a California company that provides a crucial online service used to track home listings.
The attack, which commenced last Wednesday, hit Rapottoni, a software and services provider that supplies Multiple Listing Services to regional real estate groups nationwide. Better known as MLS, it provides instant access to data on which homes are coming to the market, purchase offers, and sales of listed homes. MLS has become essential for connecting buyers to sellers and to the agents and listing websites serving them.
“If you’re an avid online refresher on any real estate website, you may have noticed a real nosedive in activity the last couple of days,” Peg King, a realty agent in California’s Sonoma County, wrote in an email newsletter she sent clients on Friday. “Real estate MLS systems across the country have been unusable since Wednesday after a massive cyberattack against major MLS provider, Rapattoni Corporation. This means that real estate markets (like ours!) can’t list new homes, change prices, mark homes as pending/contingent/sold, or list open houses.”
Rapattoni does not provide a way for reporters to contact representatives. In a memo sent to regional MLS providers and reported by Cincinnati TV station WCPO, Rapattoni representatives wrote:
As we have previously communicated, Rapattoni’s production network was hit by a cyberattack and we are working diligently around the clock to get systems restored as soon as possible.
We are actively investigating the nature and scope of the event. The confidentiality, privacy, and security of information in our care is one of our highest priorities.
All technical resources are devoted to this effort. We do not have an ETA at this time, but we will continue to update you and keep you informed of our efforts.
On Sunday, Rapattoni wrote: “We are continuing to investigate the nature and scope of the cyberattack that has caused a system outage and we are working diligently to get systems restored as soon as possible. All technical resources at our disposal are continuing to work around the clock through the weekend until this matter is resolved. We still do not have an ETA at this time, but we will continue to update you and keep you informed of our efforts.”
While Rapattoni has referred to the incident as a cyberattack, it has been widely reported that the event is a ransomware attack, in which criminals gain unauthorized access to a victim’s network, encrypt or download crucial data and demand payment in exchange for decrypting the data or promising not to publish it. Rapattoni has so far not said publicly what sort of attack shut it down or other details. Rapattoni has yet to say whether personal information has been compromised.
The outage is a potent reminder of the real-world disruptions that cyberattacks can impose on large numbers of people or businesses that depend on a service that gets hacked. On Monday, people continued to make do as best they could. In an email, King wrote:
We are having more in person meetings where we share new listings, price reductions, buyer needs, etc. And obviously we do this by phone as well but on a more individual basis. For instance, I am showing clients two properties tomorrow. I had to call/text/email each agent to track them down to see if the status was still accurate—luckily they are both available to be shown. When MLS is working correctly, I wouldn’t have had to make those calls as the MLS tells me which properties are available/in contract/sold. So that ate up an extra 10 minutes that I normally don’t have to do.
We find ourselves scouring the public websites (Zillow/Trulia, etc) and MLS (as of 8/8/23 @ 10pm) for new information, open houses, price reductions, etc. It all just takes a couple extra minutes to get the correct information.
As far as updating listings, we still have no way of doing this. We can search via a reciprocal MLS (MetroList) but are unable to enter new listings ourselves or change current listings. So, the public really isn’t getting the latest/greatest information. It trickles out but it’s delayed and slow.
The president and CEO of BAREIS, a broker-owned multiple listing service serving realty professionals in Northern California, said that the MLS data it provides hasn’t been updated since August 8. She has received no estimate from Rapattoni on when updated data will become available.
“BAREIS has created many workarounds to allow BAREIS members to stay informed, including access to alternative databases with MLS data for their counties,” KB Holmgren wrote. “We have established temporary systems for posting new listings, open houses, and broker tours.”
Not all regional listing services are affected because some use data vendors other than Rapattoni. The damage the outage is causing to agents, buyers, renters, and sellers could get worse unless services are restored in the next few days.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
