Alan2005

Property does seems to attract spiv's doesn't it.

Almost Canadian

Negligence, fiduciary duty and misrepresentation exist in English law as well.

They get sued here because, some of them, act appallingly. Just as some lawyers, some doctors, some teachers etc. do. Invariably, they are sued due to a failure to disclose.

snoopster

There seems to be a recurring theme of 'realtor bashing' on this site recently. I'm not sure why....

Okay, they can earn good money. For that, many of them seem to work damn hard and put in long hours. There are many many jobs that pay more, where people do less.

Whether or not to use a realtor is a personal choice. There are options to sell your house yourself if you so choose. Many try this, but many come unstuck at some point in the process and opt to use a realtor in the end. Therefore, they obviously provide a service that is useful to many people.

There are bound to be incompetent realtors, just as there are lawyers, builders etc etc. Like other posters have said, it is a regulated profession, where people have to undergo an examination process and it costs a considerable amount of money to establish yourself in real estate. Many realtors do an excellent job and have integrity. All too frequently it's very easy to take cheap shots at people's careers without thinking about it.

We've personally had excellent experiences with our realtor, but equally, there are those who perhaps don't provide the level of service that people expect. Same is true in many jobs. If you aren't happy then shop around, do your homework before you ask someone to act as your realtor. Don't just dismiss a profession because of a bad experience that you've had.

triumphguy

NB: the 5% fee is usually on the first $100,000, and then 1% on the rest, not 5% of the total.

So a $300,000 house would pay $5,000 on the first $100,000 and $2,000 on the rest, not $15,000 as people seem to be presuming. And the more expensive the house the lower the percentage becomes typically.

Realtors don't sell every house, but they still have to put in the work and the hours.
Not everyone who calls a realtor buys a house, but they still.....

Probably 80% of realtor fail.

The realtors who succeed have a system that works, and that system costs money.

Finally: If selling houses was so easy most people would sell their own house. Why don't they?

Alan2005

Advertising. If realtor.ca allowed private individuals to list a lot more would do it.

Cookie

Scottish law is different to English law - no gazumping, upping the money, etc. Once the offer is accepted (usually subject to survey), it's legally binding.

Closing dates and sealed bids are typical which is great for the seller, not so good for the buyer.

I loved watching Location, Location, Location but I was losing the will to live when watching Kirsty present the TV programme The Property Chain - what a nightmare, sooooo stressful for buyers and sellers :-( English property law needs a good shake-up!

Helen Parnell

Realtor.ca is paid for and owned by realtors.

I am not quite sure if the Toyota car dealership would accept an invitation from the man down the road to put his Ford car on the forecourt to be sold privately. Why do people think realtors should do the same.

Private individuals can list their houses on private websites like 'we list'.

Alan2005

So basically you are getting your 4% commission for listing the property on mls. I still think that if there was an auto-trader equivalent for real estate a lot more people would use it - I'd certainly look on it.

triumphguy

There's welist.com - as helen said.

However, I've seen lots of houses start out with welist.com and end up with a realtor.

I'm not a realtor, nor am I married to one, so I have no financial advantage in my position:

If it was so easy why doesn't everyone sell thier own house?

Alan2005

Because most people (and especially Canadians) are very conservative - it takes a while for systematic changes like that to happen. They will do tho - eventually.

Edit to add: Just to be clear - I don't object to realtors; I just see most of what they do as unnecessary especially if you are purchasing.

ExKiwilass

Okay, am I the only one who doesn't want to sell her own house?

I've seen the British real estate shows, and my overwhelming feeling is pity for the poor sods who have to show and talk up their own houses. Not to mention the 'chain', people pulling out of deals at the last minute, etc, etc. No, thanks. I like our system better.

ExKiwilass

That's how it is here, more or less. Once an offer is accepted by the seller, they can't turn around and say "Oh wait, we got a better offer, screw you". We don't do the closed bids thing, but the ideal (from a seller POV) is to have multiple offers and bid up from there.

jimf

In the Scottish system offers are not usually subject to survey. Each buyer has their own survey done first so all but one survey is wasted. Buyers can choose to rely on the sellers survey but who would do that.

After accepting an offer there is still the conclusion of missives, similar to exchange of contracts. The difference is the time for conclusion of missives should be faster than exchange of contracts as the survey has already been done, so the risk of a higher bid is less.

The other aspect in Scotland is that estate agents have never really taken off there. Most sales are though solicitors who would be more likely to charge a fixed fee rather than %age of the sale price.

MB-Realtor

Brits don't like their Estate Agents and they think Realtors are the same.

I have found that the vast majority of Canadian Realtors try really hard to get a good deal for their clients, and work hard to achieve that.

There are poor ones, but they are (slowly) being weeded out by changing legislation and attitudes.

The Canadian system works well for the majority, if you want to sell you house yourself you can always advertise it for free on Craigslist or similar, as you have been able to do since 1995.

Travel Agents have really been hit by the Internet, Realtors have not, and thats because we do a lot more than just advertise a house.

Almost Canadian

It's exactly the same in England as well. Once the deal is legally binding it's legally binding. It;s just that it takes time to reach that stage in England, if one wishes to purchase without a mortgage, and one is happy to forego all of the searches, one can exchange contracts almost as quickly as one can in Canada. Don't blame the system.