You’re smarter than the rest of us.

You have it all figured out.

You don’t believe in the value of a real estate agent, but thankfully, your cousin Mandy, who lives in Burlington and is a part-time spin instructor and part-time real estate agent is willing to work for you for free, or close to it.

I could go on.  I could talk for hours on this.

But instead, I’ll thank God that this is Toronto Realty Blog and not Reddit, YouTube, or Tik Tok where 98% of the readers or viewers are angry, spiteful, and to be honest, probably don’t own real estate to begin with.

Seriously though, there’s a direct correlation between the platform where real estate discussions take place and the opinions expressed therein.  It’s only been one year since I started my podcast on YouTube, but the comments posted there versus the comments posted here are very, very different…

In any event, I don’t expect the TRB readers to agree with me all the time, but what I can say is that there’s a better understanding of the real estate market, the participants therein, and the real estate industry on a whole, here on Toronto Realty Blog than most other places.

So while many readers today might be disenfranchised by the following story, I think you can look at this in two different ways:

1) The actions of the real estate agent described in this post represent the entire industry and explains why every single one of them are scum.

2) The actions of the real estate agent described in this post simply demonstrate why having an experienced, knowledgeable, professional working on your behalf is completely worthwhile.

You decide…

A friend of mine from another brokerage, whom we’ll call Haley, has a handful of listings at the moment, some freehold and some condos, some good listings and some not so much.

One of her listings is a condominium that has been on the market for two months.

Haley listed this condo for $674,900 and after two months, dropped the price to $649,900.

Showings have been scarce.  Interest has been non-existent.

About two weeks after the price reduction, Haley received an offer on the condo.

$580,000.

“That’s actually pretty good in this market,” Haley said to me, and then added what I was thinking: “I don’t even know if I’m joking or not.”

That’s where we are in this market.

Once upon a time, an offer of $580,000 on a $649,900 listing was laughable.  It was an insult.  It would never be taken seriously.

But today, it’s a different story.

Haley figured that this was a “starting offer” from the buyer agent and was hopeful that she could get him up in price.

They say, “Eighty percent of negotiations meet in the middle,” so the midpoint in this situation would have been $615,000.

“I didn’t love it,” Haley explained to me, “But my clients really needed to sell and the difference of five or ten grand wouldn’t have been make-or-break.”

Haley’s clients told her, “Anything over $600,000 is a ‘win’ for us,” and asked Haley to get an indication from the buyer agent of where the buyers would go.

The buyer agent simply said, “I’ve given you an offer.  Sign it back, and we’ll talk.”

He did what any experienced agent would do, of course.  But not all agents, as we’ll discuss later…

Haley’s sellers signed the offer back, and the buyers signed it back again.  This went a few rounds, and eventually they settled at $610,000.

Good price?  Bad price?

The opinions will be split 50/50 on this, but suffice it to say, the sellers were happy, the buyers were obviously willing to pay the price, and all parties went on to the next step: satisfying conditions.

Unfortunately, the buyer elected not to proceed with the purchase after all was said and done.

Why?

Who knows.

When an offer is conditional on three different items, financing, lawyer’s review of the status certificate, and (for some reason) a home inspection (on a condo?), the buyer can walk away for any reason.

Haley was disappointed, as were the sellers, but the real estate Gods were watching, and they rewarded Haley and her clients rather graciously two weeks later.

Haley is…..how do I say this…….nicer than me.  When she told me this story, she referred to the next character in our tale as “really cute,” but I took that to mean “really dumb,” and I have a feeling that you’ll agree with me when this tale has been told in full…

We’ll call this next character “Mandy,” since that’s the name I used at the onset.

Mandy is, in fact, a part-time real estate agent who works for a well-known discount brokerage, with a name that gives me shivers any time I hear it, because I know the agent coming my way is going to be a nightmare to deal with.

Haley substituted “challenging” for what I would call “nightmare,” and she might have put a rosy glow on the situation by suggesting that it was an “opportunity.”

Mandy showed Haley’s listing and followed up with Haley to ask, “Are there currently any registered offers on the unit?”

Hint: if an agent is asking you if there are any registered offers on a condo that’s been on the market for three months, they’re probably a bit naive and they’re definitely not tapped into the current market conditions.

Haley told Mandy, “Nope, nothing at the table on the moment,” and then bit her tongue, said her prayer, and optimistically hoped that Mandy would follow up with something positive.

Mandy asked Haley, “Do you think your clients would be flexible on the price?”

Hint: if an agent is asking you if there’s price flexibility for a condo – in June of 2025, that’s been on the market for three months, they’re definitely naive and they’re definitely not tapped into the current market conditions.

Haley said, “I think the sellers would look at any offer that comes in, and I would encourage you to put something on paper if your buyers are interested,” completely avoiding offering a “yes” but ensuring that she responded favourably to Mandy’s question.

The next day, Mandy sent a text message to ask Haley, “Which forms do I use for the offer?

Hint: if an agent is asking you which forms to use for an offer, not only are they new and/or really bad at their job, but they’re also indicating that they don’t have a colleague, manager, or broker they can ask.

Haley is sharp.  She knew that, as dumb as this agent was, and as much as she could use this to her advantage, she could also put herself and her seller client at risk.  Haley didn’t want to offer any implied representation by helping Mandy, nor did she want to invite a situation where an unqualified agent and an unqualified buyer get involved with her seller, taking everybody for a ride to nowhere.

Haley was very careful in “helping” this buyer agent to follow the trail of bread crumbs to the promised land, and lo and behold, Mandy came through with an offer.

Amazingly, the offer was for $630,000.

Really.

On a $649,900 list price for a condo that had been sitting on the market.

Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, but also trying to cover her bases, Haley asked Mandy, “Is this their best offer?”

It was already a fantastic offer.  It was $20,000 more than the previous agreement that fell apart.

Mandy told Haley, “There might be a bit of wiggle room, but we’ll see.”

The only acceptable answer there was “NO,” for the record, not that Haley was going to complain.

Haley called Mandy back three hours later, feigning a difficult discussion with the sellers, but really just going grocery shopping, and then asked Mandy, “Would your buyers go to $639,000?”

Mandy said that she would check with the buyer-client, and an hour later, she called Haley back to say, “Yes!”

Hint: if a listing agent calls you to ask, verbally, if your buyer would come up in price, it means that they don’t want to risk signing back your offer, as it would negate the initial offer, meaning they couldn’t accept it.

Haley papered the change to $639,000, sent it to Mandy, and Mandy’s clients accepted it.

They had a conditional agreement.

But this isn’t the “story,” folks.

None of the actions, decisions, or mistakes made above are anything to get excited about.  I mean, sure, it’s inexperience and poor performance all day long, but that’s common in any industry.

The preceding was merely the preamble for one of the most egregious examples of incompetence that I have ever seen.

The three conditions still needed to be satisfied in order to firm up this deal, and the buyer would spend the next week working to satisfy her financing, conduct a satisfactory inspection of the condominium, and receive a satisfactory report on the condominium’s status certificate from her lawyer.

All three of these conditions were “due” on the same day: Friday.

Haley didn’t hear anything from Mandy all week long, and she figured that the saying, “No news, is good news” rang true in this case.

Now, pay very, very close attention to what happens next.

Those who aren’t in the business and/or haven’t transacted in real estate might not follow, but you’ll want to understand exactly what happens!

So let me provide the following:

In order to satisfy a condition, ie. remove the condition and make the conditional agreement go firm, the buyer signs a “Waiver” of that condition and submits this to the seller.  Only the buyer needs to sign this.  It’s a completely unilateral decision on behalf of the buyer.

Completely unrelated is something called an “Amendment.”  This is used between the two parties, buyer and seller, when one wants to change an item within the Agreement of Purchase & Sale.  For example, the buyer wants to move the closing date up from June 15th to June 1st.  However, this agreement is bilateral, meaning the buyer would draft, sign, and submit the Amendment to the seller, and the seller would have to accept.  This is effectively the same process as an Agreement of Purchase & Sale.  There’s an offer and an acceptance.

Why am I explaining and defining Waivers and Amendments?

Well, because it seems that Mandy had absolutely no idea what these were.

Seems to reason, of course, since so many part-time, discount, and/or inexperienced agents don’t have any training, guidance, mentorship, or interaction with their manager or broker – since there usually isn’t one.

Haley was sitting in her office on Friday afternoon when she received an email from Mandy.

There were four attachments to the email:

1) Waiver of financing condition.
2) Waiver of status certificate condition.
3) Waiver of home inspection condition.
4) Amendment.

The email contained nothing but a subject line, which noted the condo’s address, and these four attachments.  There was nothing in the body of the email.

You’re dying to know what was in the Amendment, right?

The Amendment sought to reduce the purchase price from $639,000 to $625,000 as well as have the seller remedy several silly “deficiencies” found in the inspection, such as fixing the “noisy” bathroom ceiling fan, replacing the frayed cord on the window treatments, etc.

Remember something very important before we move forward:

Waivers are signed by the buyer and once they’re sent to the seller, the buyer can’t take them back.

Amendments offered by the buyer and sent to the seller must be agreed to by the seller and then signed.

Simply put, Mandy had absolutely no idea what she was doing.

By sending those three waivers to Haley, Mandy had removed the buyer’s conditions and firmed up the deal, whether she meant to or not.

And she did mean to, of course.  When she eventually spoke to Haley, she noted that her buyer did want to move forward.

But her buyer also wanted to reduce the purchase price and have a bunch of items fixed in the condo.

The problem, as I think I’ve explained by now, is that the three waivers made the deal go firm, and the Amendment didn’t hold any water.

Haley acknowledged receipt of the three waivers, emailed Mandy to say, “Congrats on a firm deal,” updated the listing on MLS as “SOLD FIRM,” and that was that.

You’re wondering about the Amendment, right?

What Amendment?

Oh, you mean that silly attachment on the email that had absolutely zero value at this point?

Yeah, Haley just ignored it.

Mandy followed up the next day and said to Haley, “Did you have a chance to look at the Amendment?”

Haley said, “Yes, we did.”

Mandy replied, “Oh, okay, so what’s up?

Haley, playing chess against somebody who had never even heard of checkers, said, “We reviewed the Amendment and we’re going to politely decline.”

That was all she really needed to say, right?

The Amendment was offered to the seller, but the seller needed to agree.  In this case, the seller obviously did not.

Mandy said, “Wait, what?  We’re only going ahead with the purchase if the seller changes the price to $625,000.  And we need a bunch of stuff fixed in the condo.  The inspector found all these deficiencies, and my buyer thinks she overpaid at $639,000, so she doesn’t want to go ahead with it if that’s the price she’s going to pay.”

Haley asked, “So then why did your buyer send us three Waivers?”

Mandy said, “Those Waivers go with the Amendment.  We’ll firm up the deal if you reduce the price and fix everything.”

Haley replied, “Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.  Your buyer signed three Waivers and sent them to us – that firms up the deal.  The Amendment needs to be agreed to and signed by the seller in order for it to be valid, and the seller did not agree.”

There was silence on the other end of the line.

Mandy started to panic.

She said a bunch of “Oh, my God’s,” and then just muttered “but….but…”

Haley said, “I’m sorry, Mandy, but this deal is firm and MLS is updated, I don’t know what you were trying to do here.”

Amazingly, Mandy said, “I don’t really know what I’m doing, that’s the problem, you see!”

That would make for a great slogan for her brokerage, right? 🙂

Now, you might be asking yourself, “What should Mandy have done?”

Draft an amendment as follows:

INSERT:

-Purchase Price: $625,000

-Seller to remedy deficiencies A, B, and C

 

DELETE:

-Purchase Price $639,000

-Financing Condition

-Status Condition

-Inspection Condition

 

Sign that Amendment, insert an irrevocable date, and send it to Haley.

Mandy’s buyer would be offering to delete the three conditions in exchange for a reduction in price to $625,000, and an agreement that the deficiencies are fixed.

Now, Haley’s seller has a choice.

Haley’s seller can agree, sign the Amendment, and firm up the deal for less money, or she can decline and let the deal fall through.

“My seller would have jumped at that, obviously,” Haley told me.  “But lucky for me, this tool on the other end had no clue what she was doing.”

Some of you reading this might not find the humour in it.

After all, Mandy cost her client money!  She screwed up!  Why are we glorifying this?

We’re not.

As I said at the onset, you can choose to see this story however you’d like.

I look at this and think, “Wow, there are some really bad agents in the business.  I feel bad for whoever hires them, but I’m more than happy to take advantage of them to benefit my buyer and seller clients, and I’m completely cognizant of the fact that every industry has better and worse participants.”

But for those of you who want to conclude, “This just underscores how bad ALL real estate agents are,” I don’t think I’ll get through to you.

Oh – and there’s one more way of looking at this, I suppose.

If anybody is wondering whether or not Haley did the “right” thing or whether it was unethical, I simply can’t help you there.  It’s not Haley’s job to do Mandy’s job.

In actual fact, Haley is bound by a representation agreement whereby she must act in the best interest of her client, so it would be absurd to suggest that Haley should have, oh, I dunno, say, called Mandy and asked her what the heck she was trying to accomplish, and then draft an Amendment for her?

You don’t want to think that things like this can happen, but they do.

There are a lot of market participants, and not just agents, who suffer from serious inexperience and a lack of knowledge.

There’s an arbitrage opportunity in the market at every possible turn, depending on who is standing around the corner.

You might say that Haley lucked out, but it’s not luck; it’s circumstance.

Last night, I sold one of my very stale condo listings for far more than it’s worth, with all the concessions made on the buyer’s side, in an exceptionally difficult condo market.

What was the differentiator?

The agent on the other side.

To call these “rookie mistakes” wouldn’t be fair, because many of these inexperienced or incapable agents have been in the business forever, but only sell one property per year, and develop bad habits, cut corners, or aren’t caught up on industry changes, new forms, and modern protocols.

But Mandy.  Poor, poor Mandy.

I hope she can pedal all that anger away when she teaches her next spin class…