Tangram

Having gone through 2 purchases in Canada and 1 sale, I'm not totally convinced that they do a helluva lot more than agents in the UK, certainly not 3-5% commission more at any rate.

J-A-UK

Got to ditto this comment -

OP - Buying cash you will be holding a lot of power
Don't be bullied by an agent to offer more than you want to offer
Upon offer you enter a contract - deal can be done on your initial offer - if your offer is accepted, which will include not only the price, but will include (or not) the washer, dryer, fridge, stove, shed, hot tub, pool equipment, lawn mower, and whatever else you include or not.

Upon acceptance you'll have your moving date - All you need to do now is complete your obligations of being able to get insurance (issues with Oil especially if the tank is in the basement) - Financing - Any home inspection etc.

Our first house in Canada we were scared of losing it and were told "Need to put in a best and final offer as there are other offers" - We were hassled to pay above asking price and I refused to do that. We were buying Cash, no conditions with 30 closing (move in) - turns out the other buyers had property to sell and we could have offered less and still got the property.

In 12yrs I have bought and sold 4 houses and getting the real estate agents worked out - Money for old rope, but I would not risk "the property guys" and private sellers just yet.

It's a very easy process and the agents will guide you - Choose your agent by calling the listing agent of a house and see how you get on - You may not buy the house they are selling but you might like them as an agent - Or do the same with another agent and see how you go

You can have the same agent selling as you are using as a buyer - They just get a buddy to "help you out" with the paperwork to avoid a conflict .

Good luck - It'll all fall into place - and sooooo easy !!!

HGerchikov

In the very hot Seller's market that the GTA has enjoyed over the past couple of years (slowing now) then the Sellers agents have had a reasonably easy time of it. However navigating your way through a multiple offer situation without upsetting someone and getting yourself reported is not that easy. Any sales representative from your brokerage (and there can be 100s of reps in a brokerage) with an offer has to be disclosed to other agents with offers. You need to know and disclose the exact number of offers to all interested parties - that sounds easy but people decide at the last minute not to send in an offer which is already registered and so now you have one less than you said, or one comes in at the very last minute and now you have one more. Trying to ensure that the process is as fair as possible can be an absolute nightmare.

On the other side of that in the hot market we have had working as a buyer's agent is a LOT of work. In 2016 and 2017 throughout the entire GTA it was not unusual to have to put in 5+ offers per client before you actually got them a house. Offer presentations often would run until midnight and the buyer's agents tend to wait around until the end of the process in case they are needed to modify the paperwork. Usually you wait in your car - in the winter its freezing and downright unpleasant. At the end of that you then have to call your client and tell them that yet again they didn't get the house because someone just paid $50k more than any appraisal could possibly value it at. They often cry and you have to deal with that even though you want to cry too. Eventually they decide they will rent because they can't take the stress anymore, and you can't blame them. So after months of searching with them, several freezing nights on the street in your car during offer nights you earn not a single penny.

Occasionally there is an easy transaction, a couple of trips out and they find the house they want to buy and get it on the first offer - those people probably think its 'money for old rope' but most transactions do not go that smoothly - in 9 years - I have had one that would fall in that category and even then when I called to put the offer in I found out that there had been a murder in the house some years before so had to spend several hours trying to research exactly what happened so the buyers could decide whether it bothered them or not.

UK estate agents don't do any of that. Nor do they write the actual contract for the Purchase, which significantly reduces their liability should anything go wrong with the sale

The above assumes you actually have clients, and doesn't touch on the incredible competition between agents to get listings and buyer clients. Meanwhile brokerage fees (up to $1000 per month), marketing fees (piece of string), MLS fees (~ $3000 per year), insurance and continuing education fees have to be paid regardless of any business you do.

On the positive side, I have met a lot of lovely people and many of my clients have ended up being friends.
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Former Lancastrian

Sometimes you have no choice when purchasing especially if a brand new build as the vast majority are sold by the developer via a real estate agent. You do have a choice when selling not to use an agent or using one of the newer non traditional companies that will charge a flat fee.

dbd33

I didn't know you when we bought the house in Guelph. We found it and arranged everything. There was a listing agent so the choice was to let her have all the commission or to gift half of it to someone uninvolved. We did the latter so, by the time he heard that there was a transaction, he was being paid for it. An easy day for him.





otoh he held a great number of open houses at another property I had and many times no one came. The gifted commission was really for that.