If I asked you right now, “Name three songs that feature whistling,” which are the first three that would come to mind?

I’m not gonna lie; I was thinking about today’s blog topic when I woke up this morning.  I believe I came up with the title while I was brushing my teeth.  And I think I was mulling over this “whistling” theme somewhere in between the bar of Dove and the bottle of Pert Plus…

The first song that came to mind, for me?

Patience, by Guns N Roses.

It’s one of my favourite songs of all time, and it was the song that my wife and I danced to at our wedding.

The song starts with whistling and it’s a classic component of the song, so if you’ve ever heard it, and you simply heard the whistling, you’d say, “That’s Patience.  I know that song.”  A quarter-billion plays on Spotify tell me that I’m not the only fan here.

Don’t Worry, Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin also came to mind.  I think I first heard this song on a family trip to Jamaica, circa 1988, but I spent a good amount of time thinking this was a Bob Marley song before I was corrected.  What the hell did I know?  I was eight!  Would you believe that this song has more plays on Spotify than “Patience?”  True story.

But if I had to pick my favourite song with whistling, even though “Patience” is one of my favourite songs of all time, I would be very tempted to go with “Wind of Change” by Scorpions.  Not “the” Scorpions, by the way.  And did you know these guys are from Germany?  Er, West Germany, to be exact, since they formed back in 1965.

“Wind of Change,” and not Winds as would be more grammatically correct, was on their 1990 studio album, “Crazy World.”

Although I consider myself a child of the 80’s, much of my youth blurs together, and this is a song that reminds me of my childhood.  I swear, I remember watching somebody’s figure skating solo at Leaside Memorial Arena with “Wind of Change” playing.  That whistling at the onset of the song is so distinct and it’s etched in my brain.

If you don’t know the song, go to Spotify or YouTube and play it.

Within four seconds, you’ll say, “Oooooh, okay, that song!”

And for the record, although Patience has 253 Million plays, and Don’t Worry Be Happy has 271 Million plays, both pale in comparison to Wind of Change, which has a whopping 471 Million plays!

What a song.

And whether you know what “the Moskova” is or where “Gorky Park” is located, it need not matter.

With you and me
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change
The wind of change

I’ve listened to this song so many times in the past half-hour that my staff are now complaining.

“Again?” Adriana just asked.

“Are you stuck on that one song?” Matthew followed.

What can I say?  When I get an idea in my head, it takes a while to change course…

I wanted to talk a little bit today about how we expect the winds of change to blow in the real estate market this fall.  Not in terms of price or sales volume, per se, because we’ve covered that so many times in the past few weeks, but rather the process of buying and selling real estate and the inner workings of the real estate industry.

Change is always difficult in the real estate market.

Change takes time to settle in.

Change is often met with resistance.

Change can also be met with denial.

And in our market, with 72,000 real estate agents licensed through TRREB alone, change is often ignored by agents that don’t see the signs, let alone anticipate the changes in advance.

I’m listing a property this week and I put up a “COMING SOON” sign.

I’ve had three calls so far which is obviously great, since that’s the point of the sign, but one call was from an agent who asked, “Do you have an offer night?”

First of all, when I described the property and provided her with a list price, he should have known that this was not under-priced.  That’s simply “knowing your market” or “knowing your product.”

But more importantly, he didn’t seem to know that properties in this area are not being listed with “offer dates” any more.

The market has changed.

Once upon a time, we might list a property at $1,199,000, looking for $1,500,000.  But the winds of change have blown right through the GTA, and far more often than not, this property would now be listed at $1,499,900.  Or, assuming this is a February price, we’re listing at $1,399,900.

This phone call got me wondering, “What other changes are we going to see in the real estate market?”  Hence my topic of discussion today, and we’ll start with the one we just noted.

1) No more “offer nights.”

It’s not automatic that every property listed for sale will note, “Offers Any Time” on the MLS listing, but an overwhelming majority of properties will.

I just checked MLS and there are 13 properties listed for sale today in E01, E02, and E03.  Only one has an offer date, and I think it’s a mistake.  That house is not going to get multiple offers on their “offer night” and it will be re-listed higher the next day.  I can’t imagine that this is strategic.  I have to think that this is based on a lack of knowledge by the listing agent, a lack of acceptance and the presence of denial by the seller, or both.

The lack of “offer nights” will be celebrated by many market onlookers, but it’s not like this feature is gone for good.

When a market changes, the participants need to change with it.  Understanding supply and demand enables market participants to strategize accordingly, and if the demand isn’t strong in a real estate market, then any listing agent would be a fool to pretend that an “auction-style” format would make sense.

In sellers’ markets, you’d have no problem listing a property for less than it’s worth, setting a date to review bids, and expecting organic demand to push bid prices up to, or beyond, fair market value.

In a buyer’s market, you have to change strategies.  We’re now actually seeing sellers overprice in anticipation of buyers wanting a “deal,” so some sellers are building in that negotiating cushion in advance.

When I see a downtown condo listed for sale with an offer date in today’s market, I skip it.  If it’s great, I’ll still email it to my buyer client but I’ll tell them that we’re waiting to see what happens.  No need to jump into the seller’s fantasy here, just keep moving on to the next listing!

If sellers and listing agents all smartened up and all accepted the change that’s happened, the “offer night” would be as non-existent as the Toronto Maple Leafs playing hockey in late-May…

2) No more “offer instructions”

When the market is ripping and there are 10, 15, or 20 offers on a given property, if you plan to submit an offer on that property and dive into that level of competition, you want to make your offer as attractive as possible.

Aside from the price, what else can you do?

Offer the desired closing date, provide the desired deposit amount, ensure your offer is clean and has the correct inclusions/exclusions and rental items, and ask the listing agent if there’s anything else you can do in order to make your offer as competitive as possible!

On the flip side, if there are twenty offers on a property, and that means thirty people are going to ask how to make their offer the most competitive, then if you’re the listing agent, you can get out ahead this by sending an email with “offer instructions.”

It’s very common in a hot market, and I’ve been known to do this myself.

However, when the market isn’t hot, or even lukewarm, sending out an email like this to buyer agents is incredibly presumptuous.  In fact, it can rub buyers and buyer agents the wrong way.

Last month, I showed an east side home that happened to have an “offer date,” but for which I thought they’d actually over-priced the house.  My client was mildly interested so we figured we’d take a wait-and-see approach.

The listing agent called me and tried to sell the hell out of me on the house, and that alone was a little misplaced in a changing market; she should have been more collegial and conversational.

But it wasn’t until I received her “Offer Instructions” email that I was completely turned off.

The email explained how many “rounds of bidding” there would be, and encouraged buyer agents to “bring their highest and best offer” at the onset.

They received zero offers on their scheduled offer night.

That agent looked like a complete moron for acting so presumptuous.  Not only that, I believe her email could have scared away any potential buyers who didn’t want to compete with others.  Maybe she thought, “I need to show strength in a weak market!”  If that’s the case, it was a poor call.  If that’s not the case, and she simply misread the level of demand, then it’s an even poorer call.  But if she simply refused to implement and/or accept change, then perhaps that’s the biggest mistake of all.

This fall, the communication between listing agents, er, good listing agents, will move from mass emails with presumptuous offer instructions to individual phone calls to solicit feedback. It’s already happening with many agents out there who anticipated these changes.

3) Fewer pre-inspections

This is a case of “sad but true.”

I’ve always been a proponent of spending money to make money.  I also believe in maximizing the marketability and sale potential of every property I ever list.

I would also add that I lead with my best foot forward and I expect the best.

Many agents don’t, however.

And when the market slows down, many agents expect the worst, and cut costs.

In the fall, we’re going to see a lot of houses listed for sale without the “pre-inspection,” and this is a huge mistake on the part of listing agents.  Then again, it’s a mistake on the part of sellers to allow this to happen.

For the longest time, we simply expected there to be a pre home inspection for every freehold listing worth its salt.  I know this isn’t standard in the suburbs, but in the central core, I can’t recall a halfway-decent listing from the spring market that didn’t come with a pre-inspection.

So far this summer, I’ve already shown a few listings to my buyer clients where there was no inspection.

The listing agents always scramble to come up with excuses.

One recently told me in an email:

The seller has graciously elected to allow buyers to conduct their own home inspections so there’s no conflict of interest present.

Just because you add the word “graciously” to something doesn’t make it true.

You can’t say, “That home-invader graciously punched me in the face when he stole my jewelry.”

Not only that, I loved the “conflict of interest” line.

When we did to pre-inspections, you know – for a decade, we always said, “There’s no conflict of interest here.  The seller pays for the inspection, but the home inspector isn’t going to fudge a report and risk his reputation and make himself liable, for what, an extra two hundred bucks?”

Now that agents don’t want to pay for inspections, we’re going to claim the opposite?

That agent knew exactly what she was doing with that email, but it was transparent to me.

She’s making her listing less appealing and she’s doing a worse job for the client.

It’s clear to me that she doesn’t want to outlay $700 for an inspection if she’s not virtually guaranteed that this house sells.

Get used to this, folks.

4) Fewer status certificates accompanying condo listings

This is the same case of the above, but far, far worse.

For the record, we order the condominium’s “status certificate,” which is their financial documents and declaration, two weeks before we list condos.  We see the value in providing potential buyers with all the information they’ll need to make an informed decision, ahead of time.

And what does it cost us?

$150

A paltry sum, anybody would agree!

But if there are no “offer nights” for condos anymore, that means agents aren’t paying for the status certificate in advance, to ensure buyers can view the status and make unconditional offers on offer night.

How ridiculous, right?

When agents start to get cheap, they get creative in terms of how to cut costs!

Once again, this is not going to help the marketability of the condo and it’s completely counter-productive.

If you’re a buyer or a buyer agent, take notice of this in September.

5) Way more open houses

I have always been a fan of public open houses.

While chatting with clients last week about their upcoming listing, I was asked about my plans for an open house.

I looked at the two of them.  One seemed nervous, one seemed excited.

I said, “Yes, absolutely, I plan to have an open house on both Saturday and Sunday from 2-4pm, but I’d also like to have a weeknight open house, maybe a Thursday evening from 5pm-7pm, if that’s okay with you guys?”

He quickly chimed in, “I would be in favour of doing anything that gets exposure for the house.  If we get three or four people through the house that wouldn’t have seen it otherwise, then that’s a win, in my books.”

Man after my own heart!

I feel the exact same way.  Always have.

For what it’s worth, I’ve done a public open house for just about every listing I’ve ever had, up until the pandemic.  Some condos don’t allow them (actually, many condos now…), but for any and every freehold listing I’ve ever had, save for during the pandemic, I’ve held an open house.

And why not?

Some people think only “tire-kickers” and “nosey-neighbours” go through open houses, but I’ve had people walk into my open house who had no intentions of transacting in the market, who ended up buying that very house.  It can happen.

The open house is also a great opportunity for the buyers of lazy agents to come through for a look.  You’d be shocked how many people come through open houses and say, “We do have an agent, but she wasn’t free to show us today.”

I’m happy to roll out the red carpet for other agents’ clients.

Bottom line: when the market changes and sales are not automatic, many listing agents who were too uninterested to host open houses in the past are going to dust off those sandwich-board signs and start lining city streets with them again.

6) Allowing double-bookings

Remember before the pandemic when you’d book a showing on a home for 6:00pm on Tuesday night and show up only to find three other groups of people had booked at the same time?

Yeah, that was annoying.  But it was necessary because of the demand from buyers.

Then along came COVID and suddenly, we were wearing masks, gloves, and trying not to go near anybody!

Because of social distancing requirements, we had to eliminate these so-called “double bookings” to ensure that people didn’t go into a house or condo at the same time.

But that’s so 2021.

Most people have long since moved on, and I think that the days of ensuring one group can’t book an appointment to see a 4,000 square foot house at the same time as a second group are long gone.

This fall, I expect that double-bookings will be allowed by most brokerages once again.  The winds of change have brought us full circle, and now we’re back to some pre-pandemic real estate market conditions.

For a condo, however, I might be tempted to leave the ban on double-bookings in place, not because of social distancing, but rather because it made for chaos when an agent showed up at 5:58pm to take the key for a 6pm showing, went up to the unit, then the second agent with the 6pm showing goes up to the unit at 6:18pm, but takes the elevator up when the first agent is taking the other elevator down.  So they miss each other, confusion sets in, time keeps on tickin’, and we’ve got a mess.

We’ll see how this plays out…

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So there you have it, folks.

Those are just a few of the many changes I expect to see with respect to the process of buying and selling real estate, but these are the changes that I feel will be most commonly felt by buyers and sellers.  What happens behind the scenes, among us agents, you need not worry about….too much…

…although that will surely make for some memorable posts this fall…