There are a lot of ways to screw up in the business of real estate, and an infinite amount of ways to be lazy and cut corners.

But the photo I’m about to show clearly demonstrates that every day, there is a new low…

I tried searching my own blog for the term “I thought I’ve seen it all,” but it brought up about two-hundred results, and that can’t be right.  Or can it?

I love writing about poor work ethic in the business of real estate, not to make myself look better by comparison, but rather in a desperate (hopeless?) attempt to get other Realtors to work harder.  I only wish I could publish the name and brokerage of the agent who is responsible for the following discussion…

Some preamble, if you don’t mind…

When searching for a property on MLS, there are two search criteria that are most frequently used, above all others:
1) Location
2) Street Name

The latter is more prevalent in the case of condos, since residential neighbourhoods are more defined, and also since condominiums are well-known by their addresses.

A nice little hidden gem is 11 St. Joseph Street, which is only steps from the thriving retail strip on Yonge Street, but more importantly for much of the demographic that inhabits the building, it’s also steps to U of T, hospitals, and government buildings.

It’s a great building; I’ve put several clients in here, and the feedback has been quite positive!

So imagine, for a moment, that you’re the proud owner of a condo at 11 St. Joseph Street, and you decide, for whatever reason, to sell the unit.  Maybe you’re moving out, or maybe you’re selling your investment property, but either way, you’ve hired a Realtor to sell your condo, and it’s going to be listed for sale!

You sign all the papers, agree to pay a commission, and hopefully, you get a run-down of the services that agent provides, as well as the knowledge, expertise, and experience that the agent possesses.

So what then, ladies and gentlemen, do you do when your Realtor does the following:

Wow!

11 S Tjoseph St

I think I’ve been there before!

Yes, as I recall, I had just drank four litres of windshield washer fluid and eaten several cigarette butts that I found in the gutter, and then a train went thought a tunnel, a giant bold of lighting struck, and POW!  I was at 11 S Tjospeh St.

Pathetic.

Absolutely, pathetic.

Whoever is responsible for this ‘typo’ is a joke, plain and simple.

(I should also mention that the “PC” for price-change is there because the administrator also messed up the price and had to change it right away).

Before I go on – the reason why I put those black boxes over the unit number and the asking price is because if I were to name the property, and then go on to disparage it, and the agent, I would be reprimanded.  Yes, folks, I would get in trouble for pointing out that the moron who listed this unit with the street address spelled incorrectly is, indeed, a moron.  Sure, FML Listings and The Mash can say whatever they want, but that’s because they’re not licensed Realtors.  You see, we are prohibited from saying, “325 Smith Street is an awful house and it’s over-priced.”  If we said that, we’d be fined through RECO.

So, I’ll use those black boxes, nobody will know what the property is and which agent has the property listed, and I’ll proceed to tear it apart…

What can we make of this ‘typo’?

Well personally, I think that the agent who listed this unit for sale is lazy, incompetent, and shouldn’t be in the business.

Now before you say, “Wait a minute, he didn’t input the listing – his administrator did that,” let me explain what I do when I list a property for sale.

First, I double and triple-check the MLS Data Sheet that is filled out and handed to my administrator.

Second, as soon as the property is up on MLS, I print a copy of the listing, and go over it for mistakes.  Mistakes do happen (rarely at my office as my administrator has been here for 20 years and is the best of the best), but if there’s something small that I want to change, I’ll do so – five minutes after the listing hits MLS.

So yes – the listing for 11 S Tjoseph St was likely uploaded by the listing agent’s administrator, BUT, he left it like that for days on end.  He obviously didn’t check the listing when it first hit MLS, and certainly hasn’t viewed it since!  That means he hasn’t sent it to any prospects (let alone his own seller to say, “Hey, have a look!”), made any changes to the listing (different photos, ensure virtual tour is working, update open house times), or really checked on his active business at all.

So let me ask the obvious questions:
1) What the hell are people paying this guy for?
2) How does this guy actually get any business?

Some of the onus has to be on the seller as well.

When I meet a buyer or seller for the first time, I like to tell them about my company.  I like to tout our company history, our experience, and our active positions throughout organized real estate.

You’ve heard this spiel from me before, but Tom & Ann Bosley have both served as President of CREA and TREB, and Richard Silver and Maureen O’Neill just finished terms as the president of TREB as well.  We are a solid company, built on name-sake, and our agents are all experienced, and they all sell.

So when you go and hire an agent from a two-man-shop on Highway 7 in Markham, what the heck do you expect?

You get 11 S Tjoseph St, and you get very few showings on your property because more people are seaching for “Poop Avenue” than are searching for S Tjoseph St!

No, I can’t name the agent who is responsible, and no, I can’t name the brokerage.  But I would have bet any money that it was an agent from Markham, from a company that may as well be named “ABC Real Estate,” and I was right.

I also would have bet that there were no photos on MLS, errors in the write-up, room measurements in feet insetead of metres (wow, is that living room really 8,000 square feet?), but I digress…

I wonder if it’s the same agent who gave us this gem:

What’s worse: Condo Apartment Boulevard?  Or S Tjoseph St?

The former was inputted by a moron, the latter by somebody who was incompetent.

I guess it doesn’t really matter, does it?

Well folks, there are a lot of different brokerages employing a lot of different agents, all working according to different business models.  But when you go and hire some 905-er because you save a couple-thousand dollars, just know exactly what you are getting…