+1

Having seen some of the truly lousy representation on MLS, I supplied all the photos, dimensions, property details to my realtor, to make sure they were of the quality and detail I'd expect. If sellers can't be bothered to ensure their realtor's working appropriately on their behalf then they deserve whatever level of service they get.

Well, at least there was a consequence for the Realtor for such poor performance. That's the way it should be.

Eamonn.

Wasn't it the worker, rather than the realtor, who got the boot?

i2c, how many agents work out of that office?

I was going to write that but thought better of it...after all, a seller should be able to rely on the fact that the Realtor is going to deliver a quality service...but certainly a seller contributes to the problems if they don't then express their disatisfaction.

I think, in some smaller, local markets, I have seen that a very small number of Realtors tend to dominate and sometimes, this can be particularly unhealthy in terms of Realtors failing to strive to offer a better service, a problem that can manifest itself in many ways (eg: poor quality listings and photos, lack of adoption of new technologies, lack of price competition, etc). Perhaps, in these sorts of markets in particular, some clients maybe don't see enough listings that are different/better to appreciate they are not getting as good a service as they might. In bigger towns and in the cities, I am surprised when I see that a Realtor has been allowed to get away with poor performance.

Eamonn.

Perhaps I mis-read that. In which case, that is truly dire and the OP is well out of it. I have often thought that I am glad I don't work with one of the massive city brokerages (I am guessing the OP was in a larger office). The theory that a large brokerage drives efficiency is good...but personally, I feel the Realtor would be more inclined to put the effort into gathering data if they actually had to load the listing to MLS themselves. I do all of mine. As much as anything, it cements the listing in my mind, which, for me anyway, helps me to better represent my selling client.

Eamonn.

I don't know that inaccurate or misleading listings on mls can be counted as
"poor performance" I think they're pretty much the norm. Consider this listing for a "two storey brick detached house with forced air natural gas heating".


http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetail...ertyId=9161327

If the description is accurate then that's some inefficient heating.

That one seems to be burned out. Other "features" I've seen in houses lately that weren't mentioned on mls included the 4' lean to one rear corner (the mls picture was taken from the street) and a crumbling rear, structural, wall in imminent danger of dumping the roof into the bedroom. It's fun to look at the houses and compare to the listings but it means that the mls data is not much help in searching. Since mls is the source of information for buyer's agents I'm becoming less and less convinced of the merit in having one.

That looks like something out of Dee-troy-it.

Except that in Detroit it would be $15,000. In Buffalo it'd be five.

Something else that's an art in reading the mls descriptions is the Canadian versions of English estate agent speak, "cozy" meaning "tiny" and so on. Here they seem to go for pre-emptive disclosure so, for example,

"No Knob And Tube To The Best Of Seller's Knowledge"

means there's knob and tube. If there wasn't any it wouldn't get a mention.

An interesting dilemma arises from that listing. Say you drop close to 400 grand on "land value." Do you then run the risk of having the place torched all over again as you rebuild it, by neighbours such as those you mentioned in a previous real estate thread? How should a buyer treat such a property - put up a tent in the living room and make the best of it, for fear of alienating themselves from their fellow-residents?

Ha! That's not yet a place where anyone is going to put a McMansion. It's convenient for Fred's unhygenic Fish and Chips which doubles as a booze can and adjacent to Metro Housing buildings. I should think the most likely use would either be as a grow-op or to rent "as is" to new immigrants.

That place is a little edgy, but it's perfect for you.

I thought it was fine until I ran out of things to say. Older houses were ok, you can waffle about it being ripe for renovation, full of character etc. But a condo? A glass tower, not vastly different from all the others? "Come and buy a glass shoebox, so small only an armchair will fit". Even worse, a suburban bungalow. "Come and buy a bland box in a street of bland boxes".

Nope, it was the worker that got fired. Actually, that guy was studying law iirc. Oh yes, it was dire but as a first job straight off the plane it could have been worse.

In saying all that, not all the agents were bad. Some worked really hard but still were winging it when it came to paying their bills and so on. Not a profession I would touch with a bargepole.

"pretty much the norm" on a sample of 1 listing is a bit of a stretch. There are over 6,000 active listings in Calgary and surrounds at present. I'm heading out in a mo so don't have time to check more deeply but I just pulled a tabulation of 1,498 of those homes and dumped them in a spreadsheet. Quickly scanning the spreadsheet, I can see maybe 25 homes that don't have at least a number of bedrooms listed, and some of these appear to be vacant lots. Almost all of them have the total floor area, year it was built, type of basement, whether that basement is fully finished or not, etc, etc. Now, of course, I cannot say if that data is accurate and I have no clue about standards of data entry in Toronto or wherever your highlighted listing is from, but I get the sense that a little more care goes into most (not all) property listings out this way.

Anyway, doesn't that listing say it is being sold for land value only? Maybe the listing Realtor thought that anyone interested was going to rip it down and re-build and so didn't sweat the property description. Again, for me personally, I would list the home as fully as I was able but I'm just guessing at what the rationale of this particular Realtor might have been.

Eamonn.

All this waffle about what realtors do etc. I'm sure you add value in some ways - but even stewarts (mostly contrived I think) long list isn't worth thousands of dollars. You are not a well liked profession because of this and it's not just amongst ex-pats; in fact I've just come from lunch where cradles were discussing the article in the OP. Nobody had a good word to say about what you do.

But they all agreed that lawyers are saints, right