Real estate agents - why do you do this?

[spider]

Once upon a time I was a graphic designer and was asked to design a business card for a Real Estate guy. He insisted on adding P. Eng to his name because he had a degree, I suggested to him that people may question why he was selling R.E. rather than employed in what may be considered a higher calling.

In other words he may be deemed to be a loser by more clients than were impressed by the P. Eng. He didn't agree, never heard of him again.

 

[doug]

Once upon a time I was a graphic designer and was asked to design a business card for a Real Estate guy. He insisted on adding P. Eng to his name because he had a degree, I suggested to him that people may question why he was selling R.E. rather than employed in what may be considered a higher calling.

In other words he may be deemed to be a loser by more clients than were impressed by the P. Eng. He didn't agree, never heard of him again.

Was he actually a P Eng.? Why would someone who had to do another 5 years of study after receiving an engineering degree...sell real estate?

 

[Wooba]

Was he actually a P Eng.? Why would someone who had to do another 5 years of study after receiving an engineering degree...sell real estate?

I know an engineer that switched careers to real estate. She initially went through the process of becoming an agent just for broadening her mind/learning about the process. After she was done she thought she should give it a go so gave up her engineering job. I didn't last though and she went back to engineering.

 

[interested]

I know an engineer that switched careers to real estate. She initially went through the process of becoming an agent just for broadening her mind/learning about the process. After she was done she thought she should give it a go so gave up her engineering job. I didn't last though and she went back to engineering.

I believe Brad J Lamb was an engineer. did not turn out so badly for him....

Engineers tend to be underrecognized in my view for the difficulty and work to get an engineering degree. Combine that with jobs that come and go and the oversized returns in R/E and perhaps one has the answer.

 

[TOphotog]

Please don't tar all of us agents out there with the same brush. We do realize that there are far-from-perfect agents in our field, and we have to work around their negative impact on a daily basis. As with any profession, there are good ones and there are bad ones. Hopefully, the bad ones get weeded out, and the good ones get referred. I've been in the biz for over 26 years, and work only on referrals. My clients are very happy with the service I provide - from beginning to end - and want their friends and relatives to use me. Did I come from another profession? Yes. I have always been in sales, but was tired of making my employers a lot of money with my great ideas. I decided to become self employed and in full control of my work schedule, and directly compensated for my hard work, time and skills.
I also concur with the opinion of degrees on business cards. I once spoke with a realtor at a function who had LLB on his business card (law degree). I said "do you really want to advertise to the world that you failed at being a lawyer?". He said he never really looked at it like that before. I guess he was so caught up in advertising to the world that he had obtained a law degree, he failed to see the adverse effect that designation could have. LOL

As pointed out earlier in this thread, it's the computer system that capitalizes the MLS descriptions, and that gets fed into Realtor.ca via computer robot so we have no control over it. Trust me, that causes us many problems, including incorrect URL links. Some of us actually do have command of the English language and we do use proper grammar.

 

[nhui06]

Here is my question. Why do selling agents list a home under the price that the owner wants? When the multiple offers don't meet your owner's real desire, then you pull it off the market?!? Trying to trick and trap buyers into visiting your property is beyond scum; you waste everyone's time, effort and energy to see your house and to make an offer. List your true price and let the market dictate who will buy the house and what price.

 

[James]

Here is my question. Why do selling agents list a home under the price that the owner wants? When the multiple offers don't meet your owner's real desire, then you pull it off the market?!? Trying to trick and trap buyers into visiting your property is beyond scum; you waste everyone's time, effort and energy to see your house and to make an offer. List your true price and let the market dictate who will buy the house and what price.

While I agree that it's a deceptive strategy to attract potential buyers who would otherwise not look at that property, it's difficult to prevent this from happening. I think the only way to regulate this, however unlikely to happen, is to mandate that any offer that meets or exceeds the listed asking price can not be rejected without valid reason. This would result in sellers & selling agents listing at the actual desired price and essentially narrowing down the pool of potential buyers who are actually ready to buy in that price range.

 

[interested]

While I agree that it's a deceptive strategy to attract potential buyers who would otherwise not look at that property, it's difficult to prevent this from happening. I think the only way to regulate this, however unlikely to happen, is to mandate that any offer that meets or exceeds the listed asking price can not be rejected without valid reason. This would result in sellers & selling agents listing at the actual desired price and essentially narrowing down the pool of potential buyers who are actually ready to buy in that price range.

I am not so sure.
In fact, I suspect that sellers wanting to get better dollars would price even higher than market since they would run the risk of no offers but possibly end up with a higher price. Traditionally, houses were priced about 3-5% higher than one hoped to get and there would be some negotiating room. Of course the crazy market until recently in Toronto has changed all that.

I do agree however that a really ridiculous price to entice a bidding war is also unfair to buyers, agents and ultimately may or may not do the listing agent and seller a favour but clearly the recent market has generally worked to sellers advantage, otherwise, this deceptive strategy would not have succeeded.

 

[TOphotog]

People must remember that in the end, we must take the directive from our Sellers. Case in point: I listed a property last Saturday night. I gave the sellers two prices: $375,000 as market value using comparables, and a top listing price of $385,000. They chose $375,000. Three offers by the next afternoon, due to the extreme shortage of properties out there. Sold over the higher suggested list price in one afternoon - I didn't hold back on offers. If they'd chosen $385,000 as the list price, I think the multiple offer scenario would have been exactly the same and the eventual sale price exactly the same.. Just because properties are selling over asking doesn't mean they've been priced low. It's a reflection of the market conditions out there right now. Too many buyers, too few listings.

Mandating that any owner accept an offer that meets or exceeds the listing price is prevented by contract law. We, as agents, are not in charge of writing contract law. You cannot force anyone to sell something if they don't want to.

Try to imagine how we feel: we analyse the property to determine a proper price, we list the property at a fair market price, we spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars up front on floorplans, photography, marketing, websites, etc., we get the homeowner an offer AT asking (no other offers come in), and they refuse to sign it, stating they want MORE. It has happened quite often lately. They feel their house is the best on the block and they want over-asking like the house down the street. They refuse to sign the offer AT asking. Their property now has a stigma of 'greedy seller' and other agents avoid it (word travels quickly about sellers who refuse to sign a full priced offer). The listing agent never sees a commission cheque, after all that work in doing their job properly. Just remember the main point: the home seller gets 95% of the sale price, the agents get 5%. Who do you think is ultimately in charge of the pricing strategy?

 

[interested]

People must remember that in the end, we must take the directive from our Sellers. Case in point: I listed a property last Saturday night. I gave the sellers two prices: $375,000 as market value using comparables, and a top listing price of $385,000. They chose $375,000. Three offers by the next afternoon, due to the extreme shortage of properties out there. Sold over the higher suggested list price in one afternoon - I didn't hold back on offers. If they'd chosen $385,000 as the list price, I think the multiple offer scenario would have been exactly the same and the eventual sale price exactly the same.. Just because properties are selling over asking doesn't mean they've been priced low. It's a reflection of the market conditions out there right now. Too many buyers, too few listings.

Mandating that any owner accept an offer that meets or exceeds the listing price is prevented by contract law. We, as agents, are not in charge of writing contract law. You cannot force anyone to sell something if they don't want to.

Try to imagine how we feel: we analyse the property to determine a proper price, we list the property at a fair market price, we spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars up front on floorplans, photography, marketing, websites, etc., we get the homeowner an offer AT asking (no other offers come in), and they refuse to sign it, stating they want MORE. It has happened quite often lately. They feel their house is the best on the block and they want over-asking like the house down the street. They refuse to sign the offer AT asking. Their property now has a stigma of 'greedy seller' and other agents avoid it (word travels quickly about sellers who refuse to sign a full priced offer). The listing agent never sees a commission cheque, after all that work in doing their job properly. Just remember the main point: the home seller gets 95% of the sale price, the agents get 5%. Who do you think is ultimately in charge of the pricing strategy?

And so it should be. After all, "agent" implies acting on behalf of the seller, not being the seller. Hence it should be the seller who is ultimately in charge.
Another aside to this: Say on your $375 property the commission is 5% as you said or $18750. An additional $5000 in price on the commission translates to $250. If the agent was to be the seller, I am sure they would look and say, take the offer as the additional work for another offer is not worth the $250 (split between 2 agents) yet the$4750 the seller would get ($5000-$250) is significant to most sellers and in fact pays a full 25% of the whole agents commission.
So in a situation like this the agents and sellers needs diverge and the agent rightly cannot be in charge.

That said, personally my agent and I come to an agreement on price but I do value the input, though I do not always agree, and in the case of disagreement, I must prevail. After all, it is my asset that is being sold.

 

[TOphotog]

EXACTLY!!!! We are there to service the sellers, provide data, knowledge, expertise but in the end, the seller is the decision-maker on the listing price, and on which offer is accepted. It's just easier for the general public to refer to us realtors as "scum" if properties are selling over asking and they're shut out of the market. I haven't read any article or posting yet where they refer to the homeowner as "scum" for taking the highest bid.

At a cocktail party at Christmas time, I was in a conversation about real estate (topic de jour lately) and the person said "You agents are driving up the prices". My reply: "What is the first question you ask us when we come to talk about listing your house? (How much can I get?) And since the homeowner gets 95% of that, who do YOU think is driving up the prices?" He laughed... and agreed. Whatever the market will bear.

 

[Toronto Real Estate Agent]

For my listings on my website I do not capitalize the first letter of each word, however on MLS listings, in the description settings, all first letters are automatically capitalized and I havent figured out how to deactivate that. I think its just coded that way. I too don't like over capitalization!

 

[TORealtyBlog]

or using AWESOME, FANTASTIC And GREAT in every single phrase ! ! !

Agreed some agents say ridiculous things in their MLS listings. Here is another example:

First and foremost, what the hell is a luxury wellness house? What is that? Is that a thing? Does that exist? Is it a term I’m not familiar with? Are they selling a hospital? A long-term care facility? Nope. It’s just a standard infill home, being sold by somebody who got an “F†in marketing.

 

[James]

For every 1 good realtor, there's probably 9 bad ones! 5 of which are doing it part-time.

 

[TheBoironGroup]

If we could do anything about it, I am sure most would. It's just the way the listings are automatically loaded into the MLS system.