Former Lancastrian

Think of any agent be it the selling or buying agent similar to a car salesperson.
They act as your friend but are they. As demonstrated in post #15 they want to get paid. The seller wants as much as possible and the buyer wants to pay the least possible unless involved in a bidding war which is usually initiated by the selling agent listing for a lowball price knowing it will sell for more.

Is it your intention to have the property examined by paying for a home inspection which even those are not as reliable as claimed.
Depending on the area it could be a buyers or sellers market. How long as the property been on the market?

not2old

Is this about a 'Motivated seller' or 'Motivated purchaser' or that commissioned RE agent?

As a seller, I want the highest price possible with the least amount of hassle of folks going through my property.

As a seller, I want to pay as low a commission that I have to.

As a seller, I do not care who actually sells my property - whether its the listing agent or the buyers agent.

As a seller or as a buyer, I should be aware of what properties similar to ones for sale in the area have sold for in the last 3-6 months & expect this one to at least be in the close range at a price based on the average selling price.

As a buyer, I can make stink bid offer, anything goes, but know what my final purchase or walk away price is

As a seller, I can hold out till I get my listing price

As a listing agent, I want this baby sold fast & don't care if I sell it.

As a buyer's agent, I need a fast sale & don't want to have to shuttle potential purchasers or curb kickers taking up my time forever looking at several properties. 'Look you need to decide, lets make an offer' says the agent to the potential purchaser

In the middle of all of this are the ones who make the decision - the property 'seller' & the 'potential purchaser'.

Know that the average run of the mill property will only sell for what the market dictates, that as a buyer you generally cannot steal it away from the seller and as a seller you need to negotiate with the potential listing agent all of your terms & conditions on selling your property, that if it doesn't feel right or they are not willing to work for you, then find another agent who will.

As a buyer, it really doesn't matter if you use the listing agent or your own agent to put an offer on a property IMO

JonboyE

I deal with a lot of real-estate agents. I estimate 20% are truly excellent at their job. They have stellar ethics and work tirelessly in their customer's interests*. 30% are good. 30% are less than good and 20% are tossers.

When I buy and sell I choose to work with one of the excellent real-estate agents. Why would I choose otherwise? They have saved me many tens of thousands of dollars over the years.

I simply do not understand the mentality, that seems so common with Brits, that they would rather be disadvantaged than allow someone to make a living helping them out. I appreciate that it takes some research to find the excellent realtors because they do not need to tout for business.


* By coincidence, they make more money than all the other realtors.

dbd33

So, an uninformed immigrant has a 1 in 5 chance of finding an excellent agent and the same chance of engaging a tosser. Fortunately the excellent agent can be detected by the fact that he or she makes a lot of money.

Sam McDadi seems to make a lot of money in Mississauga, should one go with him?

Novocastrian

^ +1.

There's a common misconception on BE that realtors in Canada are always trying to maximise their payment for each transaction.

I don't believe they are.

The good ones are trying to minimise the time taken to complete a transaction (and therefore their expenses) by aiming to satisfy both the seller and the buyer,

Much better in the long term for them and for their clients.

dbd33

I don't think anyone is trying to wring the last $5 out of each transaction but I think the reference to the long term is misleading. I think you'd have to be a pretty small town to have two transactions with the same agent in the same lifetime.

JonboyE

If sticking a pin in a phone book counts as research then yes.

not2old

Its not just RE agents, there are 'stars & dogs' in every profession & in every walk of life. For 20% that are considered 'excellent', the remainder 80% fits the mould of average or below - then its 'buyer beware'

The skill or knowledge needed [other than by trial & error] for the average person is finding the 'excellent' right person that meets ones needs, ranging from those in the professions of the Medical, F&A, legal, service industry fields -

Novocastrian

When we bought the house in Richmond Hill in 1993 we didn't use a buyer's agent but the listing agent negotiated the seller down to our maximum offer which was 10% below asking at the time and 27% below the original asking price.

We would have used her to sell it this year but we'd liked it so much that 22 years had elapsed and she'd retired in the meantime.

So we chose another good realtor and she valued it correctly and sold it for us in less than 3 weeks at 98% of valuation.

I've no complaints about any of this.

dbd33

What other choice does the immigrant have? Should one enroll in a curling club for a couple of years so as to know local people before buying a house?

JonboyE

You are wrong. The difference between a good and an excellent real-estate agent is that the excellent agent thinks of the life-time value of a customer. Over a career a happy customer is worth many, many tens of thousands of dollars in referrals. Even driving someone around for days without a sale can be great marketing if they refer you to others.

not2old

Other than by word of mouth, is that how you would advise folks to look for an excellent, good or mediocre accountant, ?

Its possible to do internet searches for 'reviews' of certain professionals such as Doctors, Lawyers & accountants, right down to restaurants.

I suppose picking the right person & place is still trial & error with all the consequences

dbd33

Well, yes, success in sales is often about the long term but that works better for recurring purchases than once in a lifetime deals. That said, I certainly know which agent to send anyone to if they need to avoid their prospective purchaser having a home inspection. I admire her selling savvy but would be horrified to get her as "my" agent.

not2old

Not that this matters much to you the buyer, be aware, that if agent #1 has shown you a property, then you decide to put in an offer with a different agent #2 - I believe agent #1 may have a right to scoop the commission or the two agencies will fight it out.

Repeated earlier, putting an offer in with the listing agent or your own agent won't necessarily result in you getting the place for a lower price IMO

cxx

So the fact we looked at the place with the listing agent means we can't go with a buyers agent anyway?
It's not a case of getting a steal, however having had experience of the realtor who thinks you should just offer the asking price, and having seen some of her asking prices get reduced by over $100,000 when the places don't sell for 2+ years it's hard to know if other realtors are also pricing too high. We're in a buyers market as a lot of places have been listed for at least a year at well over assessed values.