Re: Property Viewing Trips to Canada
 

"We are an independent company and do not have an affiliation to any specific Realtor or brokerage company. There would be no point as in order to show a prospective purchaser a range of properties matching their strict criteria we would be setting appointments with many different Realtors."

No you wouldn't! You just use one realtor to view all the properties.

Re: Property Viewing Trips to Canada
 

And in the time the buyer is "signing on" with the realtor, one of the other 9 offers goes unconditional....

Lots of conflicts of interest, no real gain in time and another layer of cost for the seller.

Re: Property Viewing Trips to Canada
 

We couldn't do what you suggest as in order to show a potential purchaser a variety of areas with properties that match their criteria it is impossible that just one listing Realtor would have that much diversity in their portfolio.

Re: Property Viewing Trips to Canada
 

Am I being completely thick here - why would a realtor only show a potential client listings he has on his on books? :confused: In fact I don't think I've ever viewed a listing on my agent's books, and I'm halfway through my third purchase in Canada.

Re: Property Viewing Trips to Canada
 

If there has been an open house, all offers are presented to the vendor (usually 48 hrs later) at the same time by the buyers' agents - inc. subjects, chain, etc. They sit in the same room, all together, and each buyer's agent tries to convince the vendor that their buyer is the best bet. The vendor decides, with the help of his/her selling agent, which offer to accept.

It is very common over here for Realtors to work for both the buyer and seller, in fact they pursue this, as they do not have to split their commission upon completion. There is no conflict of interest and no additional cost for the seller, in fact, as I said before, the commission can be negotiated down if the seller's agent represents both parties.

Re: Property Viewing Trips to Canada
 

I'd also add that, at least in BC, if someone is giving advice on real estate then they must be licensed. At least if they are doing it as part of the service they are offering - showing friends around an open house is OK.

Most realtors are much more interested in listing properties than in acting as a buyer's agent. There's more money in the listing side and in a hot market it is easy money. Your relocation agent is doing a lot more as who knows how long or how many homes you might need to see before you settle on an area and then a home.

Warmly,

Frank

Re: Property Viewing Trips to Canada
 

Evidently you have all the answers yourself so not sure why you asked the question in the first place!

Re: Property Viewing Trips to Canada
 

Surely it's no longer the norm for people to have a buyer's agent. I would think most buyers just find a house they want and then approach the listing agent. I can't see that dealing through two estate agents makes sense and adding an extra layer, you, makes even less sense. If someone wants to buy a house in Canada and has access to the internet that person can save a great deal of money and bother by finding the house him or herself and approaching the agent for the seller.

Re: Property Viewing Trips to Canada
 

That's not how it worked in the case of the house I just sold. We dealt with the offers, and offering agents, independently; at one point having three offering agents on different phone lines and tagging between them.

Re: Property Viewing Trips to Canada
 

"The difference now is that when the seller themselves is presented with 10 offers (one of which is yours) from 9 buyer's agents and one from their own Realtor who is also representing you, the buyer, ... guess which one they will go with as often commission can be negotiated down if the selling Realtor is also the buyer's agent."

This is completly illegal in Canada. If there are competing offers, a licencensed real estate agent can not reduce their commission to make their offer more attractive than the others. If an agent "double ends" a property sale, (sells their own listing) they can reduce their commission, BUT ONLY if there are NO competing offers.

One very important differance with Realtors in Canada compared to the UK is that they have undergone training, and exams, a criminal background check, and must be personally financially responsible, all this before they are licenced by their provincial government. To maintain their licence they must continue their education, not commit a felony crime or go bankrupt.

Realtors must also abide by a very strict code of ethics here:-

http://www.realtor.ca/ethics.htm

Re: Property Viewing Trips to Canada
 

If you want to purchase one of the properties that we have sourced for you, you will probably sign on with that particular selling Realtor (who will have shown you around the property). I would always advise using a Realtor to purchase property in Canada - it can get complicated doing it privately unless you are very experienced.


A realtor on the MLS can show you any property for sale publically for sale. You are limiting your choice of properties to show clients to the ones that have joined your private listing service. You state then that if the English people like the house, you will put them in touch with the realtor who is selling it. MAJOR PROBLEM..... the realtor will not be objective to the buyers, she wants them to buy the house her sellers are selling so she gets double money. It is called double ending and a lot of states in America it is banned and it coming into the Canadian market.

Finding a realtor you can trust can be hard, but several advertise in the UK stating that they specialise in helping buyers or UK expats or relocations only.

You may be able to negotiate world peace, but can you get a title search, do you know the local area and do you know what developements are going on in the area, and do you get the listing two days before it goes on the mls. Realtors provide all these services for free and can narrow the search to your specs.

Re: Property Viewing Trips to Canada
 

Ahem. The idea of ethics in real estate transactions is a novel one. When I purchased the house I just moved from my lawyer suggested that, since I had no agent, the listing agent could collect on both ends and pressured the agent to make a last minute cut in commission. The agent had told us that there were other offers though we didn't know if this was true or part of his pitch. He did take a cut to get the deal done. In the course of the sale and purchase I've just completed we lost one purchase because the seller increased the price after our offer had been accepted and one sale because the purchaser couldn't obtain financing despite having waived the financing condition.

It may be that in Manitoba things move more slowly and people conduct business in a more polite fashion than they do in the GTA but that's manners not ethics. I mean, come on, the business consists of salesmen and lawyers; who brings the ethics into it?

Re: Property Viewing Trips to Canada
 

But, surely, it doesn't cost a buyer any money to use an agent? We have bought both our houses in Canada using an agent and the last one, certainly, was worth his weight in gold.

We had a very limited time available to us to buy a house. Because of our circumstances we had to find a place and do the deal in a couple of days. Souvette came up on the Wednesday to look at places with a realtor we had picked. I came up on the Friday to view the short-list. We offered on the Friday afternoon and accepted the counter offer on the Saturday morning. The realtor fixed an inspection and a meeting with a notary for the Sunday morning. We were back home in Oakville mid-afternoon on Sunday, having bought the house. We could not have done that by ourselves in the timeframe.

I do not doubt that there are useless agents out there but a good one can make life a whole lot easier.

Re: Property Viewing Trips to Canada
 

In theory it doesnt, but if you can cut a deal with the selling agent to reduce commision if they handle both sides of the deal, and that some percentage of that saving is passed on to you, then you can save some money that way, which I guess in relative terms means using a different agent is costing you something.

I do wonder about the impartiality of using the sellers agent though...as a Brit its just too hard to wrap my head around the idea of trusting an Estate Agent.

Re: Property Viewing Trips to Canada
 

I do appreciate what you're saying. If you have the time, patience, knowledge and street-smarts to do it yourself, then do so. If you're an average Joe with other stuff to think about.......

I'm fully aware of the fact that most realtors are sharks. That's OK if they are working in your favour. The one who sold my rather ugly and generic townhouse in Oakville got a price that shocked the neighbours and has not, to my knowledge, been topped in the last three years.