Realtors ...
 

Realtors. Love 'em or hate 'em, they are a necessary evil when it comes to house buying/selling. :(

As this is my first experience of realtors in Canada, i thought I would ask you kind BE folk for your opinions/experience :thumbup:

Has anyone had any good experiences (good enough to recommend)?

Any companies that I should not touch with a barge pole?

Are they thought of in the same light as in the UK .....? :confused:

Cheers in advance!

Re: Realtors ...
 

Remind us where you are going...

Re: Realtors ...
 

Nowhere at the moment :thumbdown:

Re: Realtors ...
 

I'm in Vancouver and we just bought our first place. Our Realtor was amazing, he's also helped a few of our friends as well. He helped us navigate the Canadian system and being first time buyers as well he was never pushy. Or should I say he gently nudged when needed! If you come out this way I can PM you his details.

Re: Realtors ...
 

Bit difficult for us to recommend someone if you are going to another province or city. :p

We used one to buy in Cochrane, Alberta - he was a Calgary guy though (recommended by someone on this board). He was good. Clear guidance (or so I recall, always hard to tell really though, when you are brand new in a country), steered me away from a few issues, but at the end of the day I bought the house I liked, paid top whack cos it was the height of the market, and luckily, haven't regretted it.

I might consider using him again if I had to - but whether he'd really want to try and sell a house out of the city is debatable. There are tons of realtors in my small town.

Realtors get a bad wrap on this board, generally. Not sure how justified it is really. It's a very individual business, I'm also not sure that recommending or warning you away from one company will help, eg, Century 21, Remax, CIR , etc. It's a personal preference - you either take to the person, or not.

Once you narrow down where you are going, holler again and I'm sure locals can point you in a better direction. Good luck :)

Re: Realtors ...
 

How can we recommend a Realtor when you aren't going anywhere? There are thousands across the county.

Re: Realtors ...
 

Just looking for general opinions on companies rather than individual realtors at the mo.

Trying to avoid any potential pitfalls that may await!

Re: Realtors ...
 

Realtors over here 'freelance' to the big companies so I would not rely on anyone's opinion on a specific company as most are self employed.

One thing is for sure though, if & when you come to sell, the 1.5% commission you paid in the UK will seem like peanuts compared to what they charge over here.

Re: Realtors ...
 

my company set me up with a realtor when i came over for my interview/rec trip, she's married to one of the managers, so they set up all the Expats with her

nice lady, and a lot of the people at work use her...if you come out Calgary way, give me a shout and i'll pass on her details :)

Re: Realtors ...
 

If you are buying then they cost nowt. So use one.

Most regular Realtor's are locally specialized too, and know a lot about a specific area. Like my guy knew about the east side of the GTA, Pickering, Ajax Whitby area. The house we are in now had been on the market less than a day.

Maybe if the OP had an idea of the area they want to move, that would help.

Re: Realtors ...
 

This thread gets my nomination for the stupidest thread of 2012 in the "Not Started by You Know Who" category.

Re: Realtors ...
 

Damn, I was hoping this thread was going to be a smorgasbord of realtor hatred.

Re: Realtors ...
 

The system over here is completely different to the UK, realtors are basically self employed but have to be associated with a brokerage - whether that be one of the big names, Remax, Royal LePage, Century21 etc. or a small independent. In every office you will find some really great people who will provide you with service well beyond your expectations and you will find some that errr - don't. You need to go with a personal recommendation - the company name itself is irrelevant. When you buy the service you get is free to you and, you should get service along the lines of 'Location, Location, Location' without Kirsty's barely disguised frustration at people that don't buy after three viewings!

Re: Realtors ...
 

Are all *****, fact.

Re: Realtors ...
 

Oh, don't worry, everyone hates them. When people talk about 'great realtors' the bar is set quite low. Just above criminally incompetent.

Re: Realtors ...
 

No really, I'm not just saying this for fun, I genuinely mean that all Realtors are *****. I say this from personal experience, and from the experience of friends too. In the (sort of) words of Bill Hicks, if you're a realtor kill yourself now. No really, kill yourself.

Re: Realtors ...
 

Ours attempted a "high five" after we removed our conditions of sale....

Re: Realtors ...
 

We've found them all to be truly wonderful. Until they're sure that they've either got their money, or aren't going to be getting any from you. Then you pretty much vanish from the planet as far as they're concerned. There are various do it yourself methods now, I'd look there to buy, or try and sell there first too now. We've had quotes for selling that range from 4% to 8% with realtors. There must be some good ones out there, there's one on this board I hear :) She's just too far away from us.

Re: Realtors ...
 

I have one I distrust comfortably. For selling. "Affable rogue" might be apt. He sold my farm and my daughter's house. I wouldn't trust him, or any other one, as far as I could throw him and the proposed house when buying.

The agent's interest when you're buying a house is in opposition to yours. You want to buy a nice house at a lowish price. The agent wants you to buy:

- an expensive house

- a house with a high commission

- a house his or her broker can't get off the books

- a house where the agent gets double ended

If you're new to the country you're in a bind, the agent knows the houses and the areas of the city, you don't, the agents knows how deals are done, you don't.

To make things more fair, rent for a year, watch mls, drive around, read the local papers. Then, when you've chosen a property, you can engage an agent to make the offer for you.

Re: Realtors ...
 

Some are better than others, just dont mistake a buyers agent as being on the buyers side, they take a cut of the sale commission so have no interest in getting you the best deal, even if they dont cost you anything directly for their services.

Ive never sold here, but the right agent makes a huge difference from other peoples experiences. Sales commissions seem eye wateringly high considering most buyers do their own footwork via MLS listings.

I very very rarely see a For sale be owner, or Property Guys listing that sells without eventually taking on a conventional commision based realtor.

My general advice is if you are new to an area rent first, yo uwill get to know the good and bad places to live locally and its cheaper than your losses if you buy the wrong place and then have to sell it later on.

Re: Realtors ...
 

He will. We have just used him to sell our house in Calgary and purchase an acreage outside of the City. Once we got over the shock that, in the flesh, he is about 20 years older and larger than he appeared in his "photo", he did a very good job, although I still wince at how much he made from the deals!:blink:

Re: Realtors ...
 

They need all the commission they can get to have those Hollywood smiles plastered all over the benches :thumbdown:.

Our friend just sold her house and the realtor walked away with $16 000:frown:

Re: Realtors ...
 

I love a good realtor thread. :)

I have a client, in his late 70s, who has been a realtor all his life. A good one, at least as evidenced by his investment portfolio. He has been trying to retire for over ten years (or more accurately, his wife has been trying to get him to retire for over ten years). He hasn't knocked on a door, placed an advert', had any stationary printed with his business number, or attempted in any way to solicit business for seventeen years.

He still gets referrals. Sometimes from people he worked with 40 years ago, sometimes because someone overheard a conversation at a bus stop. He has clients who have been with him all their lives and have bought and sold several houses. Now their children and all their children's friends come to him. He still earns around $150,000 a year after all his fees.

Given the commission structure common in BC is 7 + 2% or sometimes 7 + 2.5%, for every $1,000 increase in price a realtor gets an additional $10 or $15 before tax.

Being a realtor is not that difficult. You don't need to be Einstein to pass the licencing exams, the contracts are mostly pre-printed, the brokerage can handle the other paperwork, you do need some local knowledge but not much more than a normal, moderately well read and informed person. The thing that sets a good realtor apart from an unsuccessful one is their ability to generate business.

As evidenced by this thread, the single most important and lucrative way to generate business is through recommendations and referrals.

Now, I am not trying to make a case that realtors are paragons of ethics and virtue (though some are). From a purely self-interested perspective what is more valuable to any sane realtor; the few extra tens of dollars they can earn now by tricking you into overpaying for a house, or the tens of thousands of dollars they will earn in the future from people you will recommend them to?

Re: Realtors ...
 

I would like to bet they didn't. They will have to share the commission with the selling realtor, the brokerage will take its slice, and they have to pay their own business expenses out of what is left.

Re: Realtors ...
 

See, they're quite popular around here and I know several people who've had success going down this route, so it all depends on your area too. I definitely agree with renting. It costs a lot more to move here so it's worth taking your time.

Re: Realtors ...
 

Now, this is one of the biggest issues I have with realtors. You can pass the exams, but you are still not allowed to be your own realtor. It also has to be your job; which means that individuals can't pass the exams and represent themselves for a 4% discount. This is blatant protectionism.

Re: Realtors ...
 

I paid c$70k to a realtor for the sale of my last property, and given the size of that transaction we agreed I'd have an itemized invoice of all his overheads for the sale - visits to the property, time spent with clients, advertising costs, brokerage fees etc. He pocketed less than half that in the end.

Re: Realtors ...
 

You are quite entitled to buy or sell without representation - you don't need to take the exams.

Re: Realtors ...
 

When buying, I don't use realtors as I think they are useless. Don't be lazy, do it yourself, do a little research on house values, go see the house yourself, haggle the price yourself (the paperwork isn't that hard). Deal with the selling realtor to get a cut even further and negotiate based on the commission that usually gets paid to the buyers realtor (as you don't have one). It's not that hard.

Selling, well that depends. Selling a house isn't that hard either but realtors will steer their clients very far away as they don't usually get a commission as the buyers realtor, but there are ways around that too.

All you get with a realtor is a pretty smile and a ride in their BMW

Re: Realtors ...
 

Well, if you're spending that kind of coin on a realtor, you have coin to spare.

I'm too cheap.

Re: Realtors ...
 

I don't necessarily disagree with you but this is the way governments have decided to regulate the business in North America. Realtors are primarily sales people but they have an important legal and fiduciary relationship with their clients. Real estate brokers maintain client’s trust funds and manage the transactions. The brokerage’s trust accounts are regularly audited, either by the Real Estate Council of British Columbia (or wherever) or by independent accountants. To me, the system of having realtors attached to a brokerage is valuable in protecting the public’s interest.

Of course, it is possible to elevate realtors from the quasi professionals they are now to full professionals. They could then manage their own offices and trust funds the same way as, for example, lawyers do. Although I have a higher opinion of realtors than most on here I am not convinced this is a step in the right direction.

I also understand why you cannot be a part-time realtor. Everybody thinks it is money for old rope. Evidence = this thread, and a gazillion others. It isn’t. The concern is that people will give up too easily when a transaction gets difficult if they have other sources of income. A full-time realtor will be more motivated to see the transaction through to their client’s satisfaction.

It is a slightly tenuous argument and I don’t doubt there is an element of protectionism.

Re: Realtors ...
 

In BC maybe. Here I believe it to be common to be a reator and a salesperson for something else; when I bought the last car the salesman pestered me to also buy a house. I know people who computer consult in the day and sell houses at night. My neighbour at the farm was a part time estate agent and, now that I think of it, one of the better known agents for equine properties advertises that she knows her stuff because her primary business is horse breeding. Real estate sales is, I suspect, a more popular second job than bar tending.

Re: Realtors ...
 

I keep forgetting to be province specific. I seem to remember the realtor from Manitoba who used to post here said it as full-time only there as well. Obviously not everywhere.

Re: Realtors ...
 

It could be that the Real Estate Board here "requires" agents to be full time but looks the other way.

Re: Realtors ...
 

Of course, I love spending unnecessarily. It's not a matter of being cheap - it was a half day exercise showing the property and business to anyone that was seriously interested. Perhaps your time isn't so valuable that you could afford that sort of commitment whenever called upon.

Re: Realtors ...
 

I cant praise our realtor enough, and I recommend him to everyone in our area who is looking for one.
Having said that, when I see what he earned on our house purchase, it almost brings to me to tears. I would never suggest that he didn't work hard for us, but I cannot equate what he did to how much he earned.

Realtor's will argue that they have to share the fee with the other realtor, but that's not a valid argument. In fact, it only annoys me further...

Next time, we'll probably buy without the aid of a realtor, but I would agree with all the other recommendations about renting for a year or so first.

Re: Realtors ...
 

You think your realtor deserved the $30k (or whatever it was)?
A half day of his time- lets be generous and say he charges $300 an hour. We're looking at $1000 max.

Re: Realtors ...
 

What if 20 people wanted to see the business? What if they all wanted an inspection arranged and an audit?

Re: Realtors ...
 

Yes, what if? :confused:
Is the realtor so incompetent so as to arrange 20 different appointments on 20 different days?

Re: Realtors ...
 

Yes, I do. He showed the property over 40 times during an 18mth period. Handled half a dozen inspections, and business audits, canvassed potential buyers at various industry related events in 3 provinces and ultimately got a sale.

Could I have found the time to do all that myself? Absolutely not. Would I have had the business contacts or experience to handle what he did? Nope.