I know what you’re already thinking, but give me a chance to explain here, folks.
This blog will either go down as one of the more insightful things I’ve ever written, or something utterly weird, and misplaced.
But every day, every week, and every month in this business, I see instances of the addiction, whether it’s agent, buyer, or seller…
Maybe it’s not so much that real estate is a drug, but rather real estate is addictive.
Addiction is defined as: “The fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing, or activity.”
When it comes to real estate, we can look at the substance, thing or activity, and more.
Everywhere I go, people want to talk about real estate.
It’s the “flavour of the week” topic that has turned into the flavour of the decade, and onwards, it would seem.
Truth be told: I don’t really like talking about real estate when I’m not working. I know that as a Realtor you’re “always working,” but unlike many Realtors, when I go out for drinks, or to a dinner party, I’m not “working the room.” That’s not how I get my business, and I don’t aim to turn the topic to real estate at every chance I get.
I don’t have to do that, of course, because it’s always done regardless.
People in the city of Toronto want to talk about real estate, more than anything else, it would seem.
Real estate, in my opinion, has become a drug.
Torontonians, whether they’re in the market or not, have become addicted to real estate.
From what I can tell, there are four major ways that the addiction can be shown:
1) Agents Getting High
There are many ways to get high.
When I was in my early teens, I got high a lot, but it wasn’t through the use of drugs, but rather running.
I ran a 5K every other day, and I alway sprinted the last 100 meters as I turned off McRae onto Bessborough Drive. The feeling when I finished and hit my stopwatch was absolutely euphoric, and as I gasped for breath, panted, and walked gingerly with my hands on my hips, looking upward, I felt as high as can be.
As I said – there are many ways to get high.
Feeling “a” high comes via many mediums as well.
For a Realtor, doing a deal gives you “a” high, but that high is different for every Realtor.
When I first started, it took me three months to do my first deal. I’ll never forget that first night – I was smiling ear-to-ear, and I called at least 4-5 people. I felt high for weeks, and it took several weeks for me to do my next deal, so there really wasn’t much down time.
A more experienced agent might not feel high for weeks after doing a deal, but every agent feels something, and for some period of time.
I’m no expert on drugs, but apparently different drugs get you high for different periods of time, and some wear off rather quickly.
Well in real estate, it seems the more deals you do, and the longer you’ve been in the business, the less of a high you get from doing a deal, and the shorter the high lasts.
If I went back five years, I’m sure doing a deal gave me a high for several days.
Today, in a year when I’ll do about 65-70 transactions, there really is no high. It’s simply doing my job, and I don’t have time to pat myself on the back because I have other emails in my inbox from people who want an immediate response.
For other agents, however, the chase of that high is what keeps them going.
Some agents are absolute fiends, and they crave the high so badly that its what drives them. The high wears off, and thus they need another high, and the cycle continues…
2) Buyers Who Can’t Kick The Addiction
Be honest – when you bought your last house or condo, did you immediately stop browsing MLS, Zolo, Zoocasa, and all the other real estate resources?
You didn’t, did you.
Admit it – you were addicted, and you may still be.
If you’ve been in your house for two years now, and you still check new listings every morning, I have something to tell you: you’re addicted to real estate.
You might say that it’s not a bad thing, and that it doesn’t affect you, or the people around you, not does it affect the way you do your job. But you know what? “Denial” is not a river in Egypt…
You’re addiction is affecting your work performance whether you want to admit it or not. Surely you’d get more work done if that 30-40 minutes per day (or more…) that you spend on Zolo.ca were dedicated to working at…..you know……your job!
What if your boss knew about your addiction? What if your computer was monitored, and the amount of “house porn” that you view on your work computer was known?
Perhaps you fail to realize that two years ago, when you were searching for a house, checking MLS and looking at new listings each and every day was a means to an end. It’s like you took painkillers every day after you broke your arm, but even when you didn’t really need them anymore, you never stopped taking them.
By the same logic, the fact that you’re not in the market anymore, and yet you still check new listings, shows that you’re powerless to stop yourself.
3) Non-Participants Feeling Peer Pressure
You’re not in the real estate market.
You can’t afford it, or it’s not your time, or you’re fine where you are.
But how come you still browse real estate websites, and check out virtual tours?
All the people around you are doing it, and you feel the need to do it too, right?
Be honest – if it weren’t for all of your co-workers and friends constantly talking about real estate, and the newspaper articles, and Facebook feeds, and Toronto Life magazine covers – you wouldn’t really have any interest in real estate, would you?
You didn’t like the taste of that cigarette that you tried when you were 13-years-old, but you did it anyways, because all the people around you were. You tried really hard not to cough, just as you try really hard not to show your co-workers that you don’t know the difference between Leaside and Davisville Village.
You do it, because the people around you do it. But you won’t admit that.
You act like it started as YOUR hobby, but that’s only because you’ve been doing it for so long. All of this started for you back when other people got you into it, and that’s what started your kick.
Life is full of pressures, so don’t feel bad. You fell into the same trap that so many others around you did.
But be honest – are you going to actually transact in real estate just because everybody else did? All the folks at your office bought condos, so you’re going to as well? Would you also reach your hand into the bowl and grab a random pill at the “pharm party,” or would you get off the couch, and walk to the front door?
4) Sellers Looking For The Next Hit
The first hit feels great.
How can it not?
It’s the day of offers on your home, and your agent emailed you at 9:30am with the subject line, “One Registered Offer!”
It feels great, it really does.
You feel the rush chorus through your body, from your head to your toes.
It’s been a long, trying week of living at your parents’ place while there are 50+ showings on your home, and let’s not forget that it took you three full weeks to get your house ready for sale to begin with, and oh yeah – that was AFTER the three-month housing search for the property you bought!
So with offers being reviewed on your home at 7:00pm tonight, doesn’t it feel a-m-a-z-i-n-g to get that email from your agent?
Yessssir!
But admit it: by 10:05am, you want more.
Seriously – tell me that you’re not jonesing after a half hour.
By 10:30am, you’re already biting your nails.
By 11:00am, you’ve bitten all the nails on your other hand, and at this rate, you’re about to take off your shoes…
When your hip starts to vibrate, your pulse goes up slightly, and you pull your phone out to see the subject line of that email, which says, “Second Offer Registered.”
Sweet god-damn. That’s good stuff.
A deep inhale, and a slow, controlled exhale.
You don’t even have to smile, because your facial muscles do it for you.
It’s not more than six minutes later that your phone buzzes and the email from your agent reads, “Third Offer Registered.”
Now you’re into overload. You weren’t expecting to get an email that quickly, and your heart is absolutely racing!
Eleven minutes later, your phone buzzes again, and you swear it has to be an email from your mother asking how “PVR” works, and if you can explain it over the phone. But it’s NOT! It’s yet another email from your agent, and guess what? “Fourth Offer Registered.”
“Joy” isn’t the right word to describe what you’re feeling right now; it would be the understatement of the century – like calling Rob Ford “an average Joe.”
It’s barely noon and you have four offers on your house! You’re going to break the bank tonight, and probably get thirty offers.
You actually feel a bit of relief over next half hour after your phone goes silent, and then you turn it on “silent” as you go into that meeting, focus group, or swimming pool, and an hour later you come out to expect a slew of emails, but guess what? Nothing.
In fact, you don’t get another email for an hour, but that was just a phishing email from a guy in Tanzania asking if he can send you $10,000,000.
Time seems to move a lot slower over the next hour, as you continue to bite the nails of the person sitting next to you.
You begin to sweat, and you’ve almost worn a hole in your sleeve from rubbing it so hard. Why are you rubbing your forearms anyways? Is this something new? Did you used to do this when you were anxious?
You rock back and forth in your chair, and lick your lips uncontrollably.
You notice your knee has been shaking, and wonder for how long you’ve been doing that?
You don’t believe in God, but you find yourself saying, “Please, please, oh God please let there be another offer!”
You don’t just want it. You need it.
It’s 5pm, and you leave work, not having got that glorious email from your agent telling you about a registered offer for five full hours.
Are people staring at you? What the hell? Yeah, your hair is a bit messy, and you may or may not have been slobbering, but that kid selling chocolates for charity deserved to get yelled at…
You get into your car, and look up in the rear view mirror, and notice that your eyes are completely bloodshot. How long has the collar of your shirt been up for? And what happened to your necklace? Did you put one on this morning???
You turn on the radio, but every song on every channel irritates you. You try listening to talk radio, but those people are annoying as hell and you disagree with everything that they say. You put on your seat warmer, but then it’s too hot. You open the window, and then you catch a chill.
Hey – how come your cuticles are bleeding?
Over five hours its been since your last hit, er, um, I mean the last time you received an email from your agent, and you’re an absolute mess.
You wonder why you EVER asked to be emailed in the first place! You created a monster yourself, and had you just shown some restraint, perhaps you’d never be in this position…
–
Okay.
I think I got a bit carried away with that last one. 🙂
But seriously folks, can you not relate? Maybe not to #4 (although I have some current clients that are probably reading this and thinking, “I won’t be that bad…”), but tell me you don’t see the parallell here?
Everywhere I go, people are fixated with real estate.
It doesn’t matter the age, background, financial situation, or whether people are actively searching for a house or in the process of selling one – everybody seems to have one foot in the real estate pool.
Maybe it’s just “our time” and this will all fade, and people will move on to, oh, I dunno……Honey Boo Boo.
But from my perspective, today’s Torontonians are more real-estate obsessed than ever before.
And the habit seems exceptionally difficult to kick…
Kyle
at 7:23 am
Hi, my name is Kyle…
And I have a problem…
moonbeam!
at 7:36 am
I empathize… people also are experts on education… ask any teacher! Everyone has an opinion, usually negative, about the role of teachers, and the field of the education!
Boris
at 8:49 am
Lazy bastards
Kyle
at 9:46 am
@ Bore Us,
Clearly the Teachers that were supposed to be teaching you were indeed lazy bastards, because somehow you managed to make it to adulthood, with the intelligence of a second grader.
Peter
at 7:39 pm
@Kyle
I see what you did there!! You clever guy!
The TRB equivalent of ‘I know you are but what am I’.
Since you asked, I will answer your implied question.
Ball is in your court.
Joe Q.
at 9:31 am
I’ve also heard real estate described as a “sport”. This was in the context of Vancouver, though.
Marina
at 9:39 am
I admit I still check MLS 2-3 times a week after buying our house four years ago.
BUT there is a good reason! It took us over a year to buy the house and I had to learn so much about real estate. I don’t want to just unlearn it. It feels like an investment in future real estate transactions, so this “addiction” is helping me maintain the knowledge.
Is that so wrong?
steve
at 10:55 am
Not unlike cars, RE has become an emotionally charged issue. Very dangerous.
Fro Jo
at 10:59 am
Great article, David!
Time to pull out the apocryphal shoeshine boy story. This is from a 1996 article in Fortune:
April 15, 1996
(FORTUNE Magazine) – JOE KENNEDY, a famous rich guy in his day, exited the stock market in timely fashion after a shoeshine boy gave him some stock tips. He figured that when the shoeshine boys have tips, the market is too popular for its own good, a theory also advanced by Bernard Baruch, another vested interest who described the scene before the big Crash:
“Taxi drivers told you what to buy. The shoeshine boy could give you a summary of the day’s financial news as he worked with rag and polish. An old beggar who regularly patrolled the street in front of my office now gave me tips and, I suppose, spent the money I and others gave him in the market. My cook had a brokerage account and followed the ticker closely. Her paper profits were quickly blown away in the gale of 1929.”
Boris
at 3:41 pm
The shoe shine client should have shorted the market then.
Someone should securitize some sort of instrument that lets people short housing.
And Teachers.
Lazy bastards.
Kyle
at 8:10 pm
Ok, so you think someone will loan you their house so you can sell it short and then have you cover that short by delivering a completely different house. STUPIDEST IDEA EVER! Honestly, every time you touch the keyboard you reaffirm that you have the IQ of belly button lint. Next time you decide to randomly attack commenters on this board (myself included), remember one thing – everyone here is smarter than you. Hell my bowel movements are smarter and witty than you and your lover Peter. And I will not hesitate to make you will look like the worthless dumbass that you are.
Chroscklh
at 9:54 am
The Boris have the point – though made with crude language and much talk of male genetalia. Contract for difference or total return swap is the possible however the Kyle is right, house is no widget. Good luck tell guy who short rosedale mansion that Case Schiller report say Toronto house return -7% this year when he know is not his house. Simplistic example but is problem with bifurcated market. That said, unprovoked attack on teacher by Boris “the Troll” is unaccept. Back home, I taught by trained snow leopard grade 3-5, is terrible teacher – is horrible and traumatize experience. Here, teacher of my kids spend own money make classroom look nice because govt no provide. And teacher no accept money or vegetables from us! Is crazy. Maybe some teacher lazy, like some Boris cut-and-paste from investpedia but no paint profession broad brush. I can have u take detention with snow leopard – no like, I guarantee
Geoff
at 4:20 pm
omg Chroscklh dude you need your own blog.
It would just be a collection of all your comments on everybody else’s blog.
For everyone else calling other people names, that’s exactly the purile behavior I was referring to. Stop it. It’s not 1996, and the internet is not new.
David Fleming
at 10:43 pm
@ Geoff
He’s pretty awesome, I gotta say.
One of my buddies is obsessed with the guy. He’s always texting me, “Did you SEE Chroscklh’s latest comment???”
Andrew
at 5:36 am
The real question is, is Chroscklh actually Russian???
Boris
at 12:00 pm
If I am going to be banned, then Kyle NEEDS to be banned also.
Chroscklh
at 11:29 am
This is truth article. I recommend after buy, no look MLS for few weeks – why want to see “what else is out there?” (potential for buyer remorse) or that house like u buy sell $25k less. I say enjoy first months in house, start look again when go into reno mode – should I do kitchen? should I add powder room? To max value, should have idea. If look MLS every day, is too much – you can sell stock in second so watch market makes sense, but with house, you own long-term less-liquid asset – no need to mentally mark-to-market value each day! Diff story if you like look pictures of rosedale houses or multi-mill condo
Geoff
at 11:33 am
I think anyone here who posts even periodically is likely ‘addicted’ in some way.
I think what I hate most about posting about RE online is that inevitably someone will call you a bull or a bear (can’t wait to read what Chroscklh says about that).
If you say it’s possible real estate won’t crash, you’re an idiot bull. If you suggest that it’s possible that real estate will crash, you’re an unsufferable bear. And if you suggest that since all markets are local, and real estate is largely a commodity and not a product, so you may have both events simultaneously, you’re an ignorant bullabear.
Chroscklh
at 4:37 pm
I met one of these you speak – bullabear. Is happen one very cold winter when bear and bull share barn on farm. I wont say offspring ugly but you no buy calendar of him.
mcbloggert
at 11:37 am
Psha – maaaaybe. But in fairness, there is a plethora of things I am addicted to!
Perhaps it is the commodification of real estate that has us fixated; after all it is likely your biggest asset(s) and contributor to your net worth. When you see it rise, fall and often carrying with it large “paper gains” it is understandable how one follows it so closely. Should I cash out, should I capitalize on it, and move to the next etc.? Not only that it is a pretty asset, that you can live in and raise kids in – I can’t do that w/my ETFs!
I think age may also be a contributing factor; you are a early 30s agent; your clients are likely +/- around their too. They are in the building phases of their lives; careers families etc. I imagine or hope, that when people hit their 40s they are more settled into their lives and are too busy to think about their RE. Work work, hockey practice, ballet something, parent teacher interview etc.
Alisa
at 11:51 am
#2 is me. To the tee. I became addicted when we bought ~4.5 years ago and have checked new listings (and sold listings) every day since. David – I blame YOU for feeding this addiction in a large way. I also discovered your blog ~ 5 years ago and it has been part of my morning routine ever since! Your blog offers that third dimension unavailable from simple listings and makes me feel truly ‘plugged in’ to what’s going on. Thanks for all the hard work (despite the fact that it has hindered my daily productivity and fueled my addiction immensely)!
Cool Koshur
at 1:50 pm
I don’t see this as addiction. For me it is learning process and a hobby. Hobby is not an addiction.I browse the current listings, virtual tours, sold listings to see which home improvements are hot. This helps me make decisions on my home improvement projects. I once in a while go to open houses in the neighborhood to pick on ideas and improvements. I went to one open house recently and found they managed to create a basement apartment entrance through existing side doors using good creativity.
George
at 11:19 pm
I don’t see the addiction…just the realization of its importance. The vast majority of us will never buy or sell something more valuable than our property. I think the attention is deserved rather than unhealthy/misplaced.
Dr GK
at 10:21 am
Hi George, i fully agree with you. Buying/selling is not at al an addiction. It is a healthy moneymaking process.
URL: http://www.rentapartmani.com
Anchor text: Apartmani Beograd
Boris
at 10:40 am
If I am banned, You have to ban Kyle.
David Fleming
at 10:41 am
Nobody is banned guys – especially not you two, since you’re among the most involved readers and commenters.
Just had to delete a couple posts that got carried away, that’s all.
Boris
at 12:06 pm
Cool, sorry David.
Thing is Kyle, I am right. In fact these securities already trade on the Chicago Board of Trade.
http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/real-estate/
I think its safe for me to say this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAIoAjiDVf0
On a side note a lot of bloggers would have banned us. Thanks for not doing that. Most people are such PC idiots that can’t stand a little fire here and there. Spitting fire keeps people on their toes!
Kyle
at 9:13 am
@ Boris
I will say that you have much more substance than i gave you credit for, so why not use that substance, instead of resorting to unprovoked personal attacks on random commenters? Moonbeam has been a long time commenter who in my opinion adds a lot of value to this board, and does not deserve a drive-by slurring from anyone.
While you are correct that some product exists, lets look at your original statement – ” instrument that lets people short housing”. I was not arguing that such products do not exist, i was arguing that they are not and likely and never will be directly available to mainstream “people”, due to many practical considerations: direct shorting opportunities to mainstream investors basically exists through lending, not doable on unfungible products, Dealers aren’t going to make a market in a product that isn’t fungible because it becomes very cost-prohibitive to effectively hedge away their risks, and once the Dodd Frank and EMIR uncleared margin rules take effect, the products that exist now are pretty much going to become endangered or extinct species.
riina
at 12:12 pm
I would like to share a brief about an intriguing investor in the real estate business: Antonio Velardo
Remaining humble and grounded might be just as challenging as obtaining riches and success. In life, most of us seek out wealth and power, but if we can remain humble and wise along the journey, then that is the true reflection of successful life. There are many success stories, but few who have chosen to be humble and show the world that status symbols are not the real definition of their achievement. One such dignified personality is Antonio Velardo, a real estate developer with modest beginnings who made it big with his sheer hard work and passion.
Under his leadership and guidance, MADE SPA, an organization established in the 1800s by his forefathers, continues to win construction contracts both in the private and the public sector.
Antonio Velardo stays true to his philosophy of living grounded and humble regardless of his success and wealth. “I try to live a normal life, the way I grew up”, says Antonio Velardo. He uses his wealth to help people. He is charitable and likes investing in small start-ups and helping entrepreneurs.
All these qualities make Antonio Velardo a reliable bet for new-budding and established entrepreneurs alike. A personality to keep an eye on for sure. In fact, we have heard he is preparing to begin a charitable campaign and competion for entrepreneurs that is sure to be as successful as his real estate developments.
“To read more about Antonio Velardo and his investing advice you can see his blog at http://www.antoniovelardoblog.comhttp://www.antoniovelardoblog.com