jeannie in a bottle

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

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 .....?

Cheers in advance!

ann m

Remind us where you are going...

jeannie in a bottle

Nowhere at the moment

Tigger1

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.

ann m

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

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

Aviator

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

jeannie in a bottle

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

Trying to avoid any potential pitfalls that may await!

Danny B

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.

haggis88

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

magnumpi

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.

Novocastrian

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

transatlantic

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

HGerchikov

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!

London Mike

Are all *****, fact.

Alan2005

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