Novocastrian

I really can't understand the depth of passion on this subject.

You can use a realtor to sell your house or not. It's up to you. What you need to decide is what will fit your circumstances best.

An example. We bought our first house (in Toronto) in early 1985, for $87K, IIRC, (it seems cheap, but it wasn't to us at the time.... we took out a 95% mortgage and the rest was everything we had then). Soon after, I was offered a job in Germany, so we were faced with selling again after about 8 months. Stupid, yes perhaps, but read on.

In these circumstances, the realtor fees did seem to be a problem, so we did a sold by owner number. I got an evaluation (for a few hundred bucks from a couple of realtors) and put it on the market for $114K (pre-internet, just a small ad in the Toronto Star, with an open house date). It sold in 36 hours for $122K. OK, we were lucky.

Now we had about $30k.

Off to Deutschland then. Rented at first for two years, then bought a house for 320K DM (roughly $170K at the time, using the $30K as down payment, so 80% mortgage this time). As I've explained elsewhere, the buyer pays the realtor in Germany, so it was really an 85% mortgage.

1993 comes around, and I get offered an even better job back in TO.

This time, we get 420K DM for the house (and the buyer pays the 6% commission to the realtor on top). Heigh ho.

As the exchange rate was then, we now had $110K down payment to play with. Soo.... we buy at $360K (see...now only a 60% mortgage), which after 15 years we have now paid off.

Our place is now worth something between $750K and a million.

What am I trying to say here? Dunno really. Don't sweat the details, I guess.

Ontheboatout

This is what I suggested "old bag" should look up that sparked the whole thing. It might give some insight as to the degree of professional conduct under which real estate agents in Canada work.

http://www.crea.ca/public/realtor_codes/principle.htm

http://www.nsrec.ns.ca/pdf_files/commissionbylaw.pdf

http://www.crea.ca/public/realtor_co..._of_ethics.htm

Record sales again in NS in Feb, meaning record numbers paying 6% or 5% without a problem:

http://www.nsar-mls.ca/files/FEB_2008_MLS_MR.pdf

val50

Record sales again in NS in Feb, meaning record numbers paying 6% or 5% without a problem:

How can you say that - there is no record of what commission was paid, so it could well have been negotiated down and less than 5 or 6%. The realtor we have just spoken to here in Halifax offered to sell our property for 4%, without any prompting from us!

Ontheboatout

Your just being picky, on average, 90% HRM are 5%, whatever - maybe if a list and sale - I hope no-one is still using the agent who lists, to buy from.

And yes, it is recorded - real estate agents have access to the "behind the scenes" mls that lists commission and actual sale price, historic sales, price changes, amendments, even which agents have viewed it.

Mrs Muesli

Not picky....just truthful. Statistics can be made to do whatever the statistician wants them to do.
The fact that this subject has engendered so much interest is because it affects so many people, and very often in a negative way. You, as a real estate agent, must know that the sale/purchase of a house is probably the biggest transaction most of us will make, and it doesn't always bring out the best in all parties. It really is no wonder that real estate agents have a bad press.

Ontheboatout

This is what I suggested "old bag" should look up that sparked the whole thing. It might give some insight as to the degree of professional conduct under which real estate agents in Canada work.

http://www.crea.ca/public/realtor_codes/principle.htm

http://www.nsrec.ns.ca/pdf_files/commissionbylaw.pdf

http://www.crea.ca/public/realtor_co..._of_ethics.htm

Jay Bird

You just said that a couple of posts back.........

Ontheboatout

http://www.crea.ca/public/realtor_codes/principle.htm

http://www.nsrec.ns.ca/pdf_files/commissionbylaw.pdf

http://www.crea.ca/public/realtor_co..._of_ethics.htm

It's important - and I don't want the thread distracted from the point again.

Almost Canadian

People can tout such things all the time.

I was a lawyer in the UK for 10 years before coming over here, in all that time, none of my clients every sued an estate agent.

I have been working in law firms here for just over a year now, in that time clients have sued realtors, on average, once a month.

I know not all realtors act the same way but I am truly amazed at how they operate over here - selling people their own homes without informing them of this fact, double ending deals without appropriate disclosure, purchasing houses from their own clients and then flipping them for ridiculous profits within 2 weeks.

Not wanting to tar all of them with the same brush, but I simply do not believe all the shite that is put out about them acting in the best interests of their clients. Like all of us, they work to make money and, if they see an opportunity, they take it. I am not saying there is anything wrong with that but to simply quote codes of practice that are stretched to the absolute limit as justification for high commissions is somewhat bizarre.

I don't know any realtors that only have a single property themselves, and I am not talking about ones that have been in the business for decades (they would usually have loads of properties) but ones that have been realtors for a year or two.

edinburgh

thanks for the legal perspective ,this always helps , in the uk you can check who owns the property via the land registry , is there something similar in Canada.
i would hate to be buying a house my estate agent was turning at my expense ,the thought of sitting in it whilst he gained would make it hard to bear

good insider info tho

thanks

Almost Canadian

You can do a check to see who owns the title to land in Alberta (I assume the rest of Canada has a similar system).

You can only check in the UK if a title to a property is registered (many of them aren't).

Realtors should make disclosure to you if they own the property and I am sure that most do. The ones I have dealt with had title to the properties registered in the name of their spouse etc, so a search of the registery wouldn't necessarily have thrown light on this and, presumably, this is how their clients were duped when signing the purchase contract.

As with most things, if the realtor had complied with their own codes of conduct such issues would not have arisen. I have no problem with a realtor selling their own property to a client, I just have a problem when the client doesn't know this.

Ontheboatout

Yes, everything is transparent - you can also see how much property tax people pay.

Avoid using the agent or brokerage to buy a property that is also listing the property for a seller. A listing agent with two masters, buyer and seller - not ideal when only one is paying.

Your agent can check all the past history of sales, sale time, price changes etc.

By law agents in NS must declare if they have a personal interest or familial interest in a sale.

Jay Bird

Virtually impossible to do in this town where there are only two agents. In fact the agent we approached a few years ago only took us to properties she was listing, and, we discovered later, lied about a great many things.

Poppy2

I guess most people understand that there are conflicting interests if you are dealing with the listing agent, trying to purchase. Isnt that obvious? Infact isnt there some form that needs to be signed that illustrates that being the case to the buyer?

And anecdotally, I know of realtors who did not disclose they were selling on behalf of their friends, and by all accounts the sale was a nightmare after completion because of this. Very unprofessional indeed, and that was NS.

I guess there are good and bad in every profession, and we are focusing on the small darker corners of the profession. As a midwife, I have always found that people have some very strong opinions about my profession, also based on the extremes. Its knowing as much as possible before getting involved with the process I guess.

Jay Bird

The first one makes for interesting reading....I shall pass it on to the realtor here who does not seem to adhere to it.

The second applies to Nova Scotia, and as I said earlier, I don't live there.

The link for the third doesn't work, but thank you all the same.

I did look at these when you posted them on the thread I started about commissions. Constant repetition is really not necessary.