Showing-Time Showdown!

Business

8 minute read

March 26, 2021

“You know that one blog you wrote, that one time?”

I get that a lot.  More than you can possibly imagine.

Buyer, seller, cold caller, agent, friend, whoever – they read a blog post that I wrote at some point between 2007 and 2021, and it’s fresh in their mind, so they ask me about it.

“You know the one, um, you were telling that story, uh, about the property that was over-priced?”

Uh-huh.  Yup.  Sounds like 227 of the 3,000+ posts I’ve written, but go on…

There is, however, this one really crazy agent, who is reading these words I’m typing right now, slowly realizing that I’m about to talk about her, who has not only read every one of my 3,000+ blog posts, but has read them all twice.  She’s not insane, but is equally as crazy as the next agent out there; just better-read.  Well, she really, truly does know every blog post I’ve written, almost by heart, and so perhaps the next time somebody asks me about “that post I wrote, that one time,” I can just ask her.

But do you know which blogs I do remember?  The ones I just wrote!

Case in point: Wednesday’s blog.

What seemed like an average-at-best post ended up spawning close to a dozen emails/texts/conversations with other agents talking about how we sell real estate in the new pandemic world, and the challenges that we face.  In Wednesday’s blog, I discussed how we no longer hand off keys to lawyers upon closing, how in-person offer presentations are dying out, how appointments are only a half-hour long, and how we don’t allow any double-bookings.

Well, it’s the latter two changes that resulted in all the hub-bub from my industry colleagues, many of whom are experiencing the same issues that I am.

The agents reading this will sympathize, and then sigh.  Seen that, done that, been there.

But for the buyers who are about to start their searches, or have just begun, you’ll want to understand these challenges in advance.

And for the prospective sellers out there, this might put a little fear into you as you prepare to sell the largest asset you’ll ever own, but honesty has always been my policy.

So, sellers, a word to the wise: get an extra key made.

Take that spare house or condo key and find a great “hide-a-key” spot.  Maybe one of those fake garden rocks that’s hollow and you can hide something in it?  Yes, that.  Put a key in there, place it in your garden bed, and leave it.

Why?

Because when a buyer agent accidentally walks off with the key, on a day when there are 14 showings booked, you’ll want to solve the problem in an instant.

On Thursday night, I dealt with “issues” at all three of my downtown condo listings, one after the next.

Imagine my poor wife, 9:45pm, waiting for me to come upstairs to watch maybe fifteen minutes of Yellowstone, only to have me say, “Sorry babe, I gotta figure out this key situation…”

So, single-people, word to the wise: don’t ever marry a real estate agent.

If you recall from Wednesday’s blog, I explained that no only have we done away with double-bookings, but we’ve also limited showings in most cases to thirty minutes.  So when you go to book an appointment on a 1-bed, 1-bath condo on King Street, this is how the available time slots look (white space for available, salmon-colour for booked):

And what you can’t see is that the time slots are booked right through until 8:30pm.

Casual buyers have no place in this market.  None.

When a listing comes out, you need to see it asap, for fear of losing out to a bully offer.  But even if you don’t need or want to see it asap, you had better book an appointment well into the future or risk losing out.

Case in point: I’m typing this at 12:42pm on Thursday.

What appointment time-slots are already booked for Friday?

10:00am – 10:30am
10:30am – 11:00am
12:00pm – 12:30pm
12:30pm – 1:00pm
2:00pm – 2:30pm
2:30pm – 3:00pm
4:00pm – 4:30pm
4:30pm – 5:00pm
5:00pm – 5:30pm
5:30pm – 6:00pm
6:00pm – 6:30pm
6:30pm – 7:00pm
7:00pm – 7:30pm
7:30pm – 8:00pm

I’ll save you the math here, but there are only five time-slots available for this property on Friday: 11:30am, 1:00pm, 1:30pm, 3:00pm, 3:30pm.

So if you’re a buyer, asking your agent on Thursday afternoon if you can see this property on Friday evening, the answer is no.

And don’t even get me started on Saturday afternoon…

That’s only one of the problems for buyers, however.  The other problem is that many buyer agents out there: a) can’t tell time, b) aren’t punctual, c) have no respect for anybody but themselves, d) all of the above.

On Thursday around 4pm, I got a call from a buyer agent.

“David, it’s (name) calling, I have a 4:00pm appointment for your listing, but the other agent is still upstairs and it’s 4:08pm.”

This isn’t uncommon, unfortunately.  See points a, b, c, and d above.

I told the agent, “So go upstairs, walk into the condo, and ask the agent if he or she has a watch, or wants to borrow yours.”

He laughed.  Then he waited for me to say something, perhaps, “I’m kidding,” but that never happened.

“Wait, you’re serious?” he asked.

“Yes, I am.” I told him.  “That agent had a 3:30pm to 4:00pm showing time and it’s now 4:08pm.  Get up there.”

He responded, “Well, the concierge says I have to wait here until the other agent comes back.”

I said, “Who cares what the concierge says?  He’s probably just making up ‘rules’ on the fly.  Do you want to get into the condo or not?”

He said that he would wait, and that was the end of our call.

Actually, that was the end of that specific call, since my phone rang about thirty minutes later.

“Hi David, it’s (name) calling again.  Um, I’m at your other listing around the corner, and the same thing is happening here.  I have a 4:30pm appointment and it’s now 4:40pm and the previous agent isn’t down with the key yet.”

Can you guess what I told him?

I was more aggressive this time.

“(name), go up there and get in that agent’s face.  Ask the agent what makes him special and why he can screw up an entire evening of showings with his selfishness.”

This time, the agent said, “Okay, alright, I’ll do that.”

I guess some people have to be told twice.  Or, maybe I’m just a dick.

Now, back to the first property, which was an absolute gong-show.

I received a phone call from an agent who said, “There’s an agent upstairs who’s a half-hour past her showing time, and she’s holding us all hostage.”

Showings were backed up, with that agent now pushed a half-hour past her 5:30pm showing time, and the 6:00pm agent being punctual, only to find an agent already there, essentially forming a line.

I called the agent who had the 5:00pm to 5:30pm and asked her if she was still in the unit.  She confirmed that she was.

I said, “I’m looking at my watch right now and it’s 5:50pm, can you tell me what I’m missing?”

She said, “You know, this is really no way for a buyer to view properties; all this rush-rush nonsense, we’re trying to do our job here and we’re up against the clock…”

Having not acknowledged, let alone answered my question, I said, “Sorry, (name), are you aware of the time, or not?”

She let out a huff, and said, “We’re just about through, David.”

So then I did something that I’m not exactly proud of, but for which I have no regrets.  I yelled, “Get the hell out of my listing, or I’ll file a RECO complaint!  And GET A WATCH!”

What was I supposed to do?

She had either been up there in a 500 square foot condo for fifty minutes, or, she was twenty-five minutes late and had been up there for an additional twenty-five minutes.  Either way, she was in the wrong.

Her point about “this is really no way for a buyer to view properties” is taken, but two wrongs don’t make a right.  If she doesn’t like it, then tough luck, show your client something in Barrie.  If your client is spending fifty minutes in a 500 square foot condo, they’re not buying this place.  At least, not at market price.

Thankfully, showings on this property got somewhat back on track, with the next handful of agents only taking 15-20 minutes instead of the full half-hour.  However, and this is a big ‘however,’ I received a call after 9pm from an agent saying that the lockbox was gone.

Huh?

How was that possible?

At this particular condo, there’s a full wall of lockboxes which are laid out like a grid, individually-numbered, and impossible to screw up.  These lockboxes are owned by the condominium and rented by listing agents like myself.

“The lockbox face is gone,” the agent told me.  “The box is there, obviously, it’s glued to the wall.  But the face is gone.  Like, somebody took the key and the lockbox face.”

For those who can’t picture this, perhaps some photo evidence is necessary:

So who walks away with the “face” of the lockbox?

I told the agent to go up to the unit, but she said that she already had.  She tried the door but it was locked, and she knocked and knocked, but nobody answered.

This was our last showing of the night, so luckily we only missed out on the one showing, and that agent has already rebooked for Saturday.

So on Friday morning, bright-and-early, I went down to the condo to suss out the situation.

Picture a wall with a grid of lockboxes: six wide by five deep.

The problem, as I discovered, is the “system” that property management has put into place.  Only the lockboxes that are in use will have the “face” up on the wall.  The others are merely the hollow shell.  This is intended to make things easier, I suppose.  This way, you know how many lockboxes have been rented by seeing how many lockbox faces exist.

But do you know what this also means?  It means that instead of taking the face and the key up to the unit, then returning to find 30 lockboxes with only one open lockbox, thereby knowing which one you had taken, you actually return to find seven or eight open lockboxes.  If you’re not careful, you may snap the lockbox face into the wrong spot.

So here I was at 8:30am, punching in my code on twenty-something other lockboxes until one of them went “CLICK.”

Lockbox #25.

Mine was #16.

I have no idea how an agent makes that mistake, but alas, it happened.

I went upstairs and tried the key in the door, and it worked.  Phew!

Disaster averted, but how long until this happens again?  Or until another agent plays God with the key?  Or until another agent shows up at the wrong time, or on the wrong day?

On Wednesday night, I also got a call from an agent who swore to me that the lockbox for my Richmond Street listing was empty, so I had to call a long-time agent whom I knew to be quite capable, and ask, “So, um, did you, uh, is there any chance that, um, the key………” To which she immediately said, “David, I know how to close a lockbox, come on.”

I hated calling her with that.  But I had to.

Then low-and-behold, the buyer agent who had just called to say that the lockbox was empty, had magically found the key inside!  I know that, in actual fact, she was simply at the wrong lockbox.  But agents don’t admit things like that.

So all told, on Wednesday night, I had over ten calls about lockboxes, appointment times, and/or keys.  And that’s just one day…

The moral of the story is: the market is insane right now, and we’re all rushed.  You have to get your clients in asap or you might lose to a bully offer, but showing times are restricted, slots aren’t available, and you think you can book for that one property and 5:30pm and make it to the one up the block for 6:00pm, but you can’t, and you don’t, so you screw everything up for everybody else.  Buyer agents are like ants on a playground, that look like they’re moving erratically, but kind of, sort of have a pattern as they zig and zag.

Buyers out there have absolutely no idea what they’re getting into, and while this gives the market bears more reason to say, “This can’t continue,” until there’s a dump of supply in our market, I don’t see it changing.

One of the agents I spoke to on Wednesday who was waiting for the key well past his showing time told me, “This isn’t fair, and it makes me look really bad in front of my buyer.”  He’s not wrong, but he also should have prepared his buyer-client for the current market conditions out there so the buyer wasn’t surprised when this happened.

It’s not uncommon to drive by a house with a “FOR SALE” sign on the front lawn and see a dozen people, clustered in four different groups, mulling about.  Watch for it when you’re out this Saturday and Sunday and you’ll see what I mean.

Showing times are tough to get, they’re overlapping in many cases, and it won’t be long before the agents resemble those warriors featured in today’s blog photo at the top of this page.

If you’re a buyer agent and you find yourself in a showing-time showdown this weekend, and if you’re the one who’s not in the wrong, then don’t be afraid to tell the other agent what’s up…

Written By David Fleming

David Fleming is the author of Toronto Realty Blog, founded in 2007. He combined his passion for writing and real estate to create a space for honest information and two-way communication in a complex and dynamic market. David is a licensed Broker and the Broker of Record for Bosley – Toronto Realty Group

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33 Comments

  1. Pingback: Best Real Estate Agent In GTA – Showing-Time Showdown! – Toronto Realty Blog
  2. Sirgruper

    at 9:10 am

    Maybe you can channel your inner Beth Dutton and straighten the whole situation out:)

    1. David Fleming

      at 10:08 am

      @ Sigruper

      Are you watching?

      We just got to season two where the, um, ‘visitors’ meet up with Beth and Jason in the office. This show is really taking off. It’s like the Sopranos of Montana!

      1. Sirgruper

        at 11:53 am

        Great analogy. A rare day that someone doesn’t buy it. I’ve seen all 3 seasons. Beth and real estate are a natural. Enjoy it.

    1. Mark

      at 5:59 pm

      I completely agree. We sold our house downtown last year and had a smart lock on the front door. No luck box, no hassle with keys. You can see what time the door was unlocked and locked again. Proof positive that the door was relocked. Add a door cam and it’s really easy to monitor the traffic.

  3. Chris

    at 12:42 pm

    Real estate’s really dominating talk lately.

    First with BMO expressing concern about the real estate market “playing with fire”, then the Globe and Mail and RBC both advocating re-examining the principal residence capital gains tax exemption, to the Financial Post warning that Canada “risks becoming house-rich and everything else-poor”, and finally Finance Minister Freeland stating they’re “of course watching housing markets across the country very, very closely and carefully”.

    Anyone want to fathom a guess as to what the April 19th budget will contain related to the topic?

    1. Bal

      at 1:26 pm

      these days everyone only and only talking about houses…lol…at work…with relative…friends…joggers:::lol…and everyone is amazed that how house prices increased 400k within eight months…now we don’t want to work …it is easy to make money in houses:::i have to work half of my life to make 450k but if i buy house …booom….lol

      1. Chris

        at 2:04 pm

        Too true, Bal! Most these days are talking about the money they’re making in real estate, stocks, their business, some in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. And now wacky stories about NFT sales. I don’t understand those at all.

      2. Condodweller

        at 2:53 pm

        It always has been easier to make money other than work for it, it’s just that now you’ll be forced to do it if you have aspirations to own your home in the city.

    2. Condodweller

      at 2:46 pm

      I was actually surprised they didn’t increase the capital gains inclusion last year and I would equally be surprised if they didn’t do it this year. WRT PRE tinkering I read in a recent article somewhere that taxing PR would be like pressing the self-destruct button for any government. I have to say I agree and it wouldn’t make much sense to do it now that the horse is out of the barn. I mean if they were to do it, surely they won’t do it retroactively.

      I know two people who recently sold their homes to cash out. One was planning to sell but not yet, the other sold after seeing how much the first one got for their house.

      1. Chris

        at 3:00 pm

        “I read in a recent article somewhere that taxing PR would be like pressing the self-destruct button for any government”

        Maybe. Although, in that link I shared above, about BMO’s warning, the accompanying video has Greg Bonnell talking about a BNN poll where they asked about support for a party that ended the principal residence capital gains exemption. 43% said they would support them, while 57% said they would not. Fairly close outcome.

        1. Condodweller

          at 7:21 pm

          Well, yeah, the more people who are priced out and the more “bitter bears” become voters it makes sense the sentiment may shift and the majority will call for it.

          1. Chris

            at 8:00 pm

            I don’t know that it is even exclusive to those priced out. John Pasalis has tweeted before about how many homeowning parents he speaks with are concerned about housing affordability, as it will impact their children. Angus Reid published research a couple years ago showing that a substantial number of homeowners in Toronto and Vancouver want to see prices decline.

            https://angusreid.org/greater-toronto-housing-prices-policy/

            Maybe they’re all just “bitter bears” too though?

    1. Chris

      at 2:02 pm

      Interesting. Hussen says no home equity tax which isn’t equivalent to a capital gains tax. Vaughan does say in other tweets that it “isn’t happening” though.

      Personally, I wouldn’t be shocked to see them impose a lifetime capital gains tax exemption for principal residences, akin to what’s currently available for sales of QSBCS. Would probably be at a level that only impacts GTA and GVA.

      But who knows?

      1. Condodweller

        at 3:27 pm

        We already had a lifetime capital gains exemption which was eliminated 27 years ago. When they inevitably eliminate your version in the future it will just make our tax code that much more complex. There are probably still people affected by the first one who has held onto their property for the last 27 years. I vote for just leaving PRE as is.

        1. Chris

          at 3:36 pm

          Even when there was the wider lifetime exemption, beyond just farmland, fisheries, and small business shares, principal residence capital gains were exempted from inclusion under that ceiling, I believe?

          Reimposing a broader lifetime limit would definitely add layers of complexity to individual taxation. Not sure it would materially change much either.

          But the chorus of those calling for government to step in is growing louder by the day.

          1. Appraiser

            at 5:19 pm

            You’re not even trying to hide your Shadenfreude boner are you?

          2. Chris

            at 5:31 pm

            Did you misread? I didn’t advocate for removing the exemption, and don’t think capital gains taxes would materially change the situation.

            Investment properties are already subject to capital gains tax. Many flippers as well, or worse, they may have any gain rolled into income. Some try to skirt the rules, and all power to CRA if they want to crack down on this evasion.

            But for people simply looking for a home to buy and live in, the spectre of a tax when they go to sell at some unknown future time won’t, in my estimation, much change their calculus.

          3. Condodweller

            at 7:27 pm

            The previous LCGE applied to as the name implies capital gains. If you remove the PRE the gain will be a capital gain therefore it would have applied even back then if it wasn’t for the PRE. In fact, if you go back far enough you were allowed PRE on TWO residences. So, you see how they are slowly pulling the rug out from under our feet?

          4. Chris

            at 8:05 pm

            I will admit to not being as up-to-date on taxation laws from three decades ago, but I can’t find anything to suggest that principal residences were included in the LCGE pre-1994.

            In fact, this paper seems to suggest that principal residences were excluded pre-1994, showing in Table 7 the cost of “non-inclusion of capital gains on principal residences” back to 1990.

            https://www.business.unsw.edu.au/research-site/publications-site/ejournaloftaxresearch-site/Documents/Capital%20gains%20taxation%20in%20Canada,%201972-2017%20evolution%20in%20a.pdf

          5. Sirgruper

            at 11:08 pm

            I think you pegged it. By the way pre 72 there was no capital gains tax and you’d do a valuation as at Dec 31,1971 to set the new star point. And yes a husband and wife could each have a principal residence. Usually the wife had the house and the husband the cottage. And capital gain inclusions have been 2/3 and 3/4 in the past.

          6. Condodweller

            at 12:23 am

            My Google skills aren’t what they used to be because all the results bring up the 2016 PRE changes when there wasn’t an actual change we just had to report selling a PR on our tax return. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the PRE was available since the day capital gains tax was introduced for 1972. Each spouse could claim PRE until 1981 so PRE was definitely available prior to 81. Since PRE was already in place when the LCGE was introduced in 85 ,according to the article you linked, it didn’t need to include a PR since as the E indicates they are both exemptions. This would make a good drinking game with PRE!

          7. Condodweller

            at 12:28 am

            Wow, it to took me over an hour to come up with that while watching TV as I didn’t see Sirgruper’s response. The initial capital gain inclusion was 50%

  4. Clark Blair

    at 10:10 pm

    Thanks David,
    I think your suggestion of complaining to RECO is a good one – and should be taken one step further. How about RECO introducing a rule or order that any agent who overstays their time slot will be fined? Perhaps allow 5 minutes grace, but after that any other agent waiting in line can – with just a time-stamped iphone photo – show the delinquent agent who is overtime, and send the photo to RECO? What would be appropriate – $100 per minute overtime?

  5. QuizzKid

    at 11:13 pm

    How exactly would a capital gains tax on real estate sales lower home prices? Maybe I’m missing something but I can’t connect the dots (and none of the “experts” at BMO, RBC, etc. offer any explanation).

  6. Appraiser

    at 12:53 pm

    “It is rare for a Minister to comment on any tax measures before a budget. Today the Minister responsible for CMHC and Federal Housing Policy addressed this issue directly. There will be no new tax on primary residences” ~ Adam Vaughan March 25, 2021

    https://twitter.com/TOAdamVaughan

  7. Condodweller

    at 1:40 pm

    According to this article there are 300k Hong Kong residents with Canadian passports and there is a steady stream of people and/or their money with lots more to come. One law firm alone assisted 36 people (could be families) to shift on average between 1 1.5 million to Canada in one year. Hmmm have we seen these numbers elsewhere? Is it a coincidence? Banks are also seeing huge inflow increases. With the recent security law passed over there it seems it’s just a start.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-security-canada-insight-idUSKBN2BH3KR

  8. Shana

    at 6:38 pm

    This is all a side effect of the underlisting strategy. If you want to bring 100 people through so you can boast getting 30 offers even though only 3 of them would be close to sale price, then you are encouraging more than half of the viewers to waste everyone’s time with a viewing. As a collective, agents are doing this to themselves. The simplest solution is often the best…

  9. Appraiser

    at 10:45 am

    For those keeping score at home.

    TREBB unofficial sales data for the first 3 weeks of March, 2021 (GTA, year over year) :

    Condominiums – 3,285 sales (up 33%)
    Freeholds – 6,553 sales (up 39%)

    Total Sales – 9,838 (up 37%)

    On pace for over 460 sales per day.

    On track to smash through 14,000 sales in one month (an all-time record for any month in any year) and to set yet another all-time dollar volume record, after setting a new one just last month.

    April and May could set new records of their own.

    1. Bal

      at 1:00 pm

      Not sure what we are celebrating here? not sure how we are justifying these crazy prices? not only buyers …I think at this point Sellers should be worried too…anything of extremes is dangerous. For long term balance market is required.

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