Last week, I watched a newer agent’s tenacious efforts result in a “win” for her clients in a situation where the property in question should have received multiple offers.

And then it got me thinking, “How many experienced agents would have been this aggressive?”

I hope this doesn’t come off sounding like some sort of public service announcement for myself or for my brokerage, but either way, it will deal with “The right way” and “The most common way,” and readers will be left to decide whether they trust that all Realtors are not necessarily equal.

Before I delve into the story, I think some preamble is necessary.

I work for Bosley Real Estate, which is a family-owned company that has one of the best reputations in the city of Toronto.  Our management and ownership team have held every position at TREB, OREA, and CREA – multiple times over, but what I like most about my company is the camaraderie among the agents.

I’m fortunate enough to work on the “lower level” at 290 Merton Street where there are only nine Realtors, and we’re all like family.  We’re all aware of what everybody else is working on, and we know many of each other’s clients by name.  We lean on each other, and we learn from each other.

Last week, one of our agents was working on an offer for a very unique, aggressively-priced loft on Queen Street West.  I had seen this unit come onto MLS and I immediately emailed it to three active buyers.  I knew it wouldn’t last long.

My colleague was working on an offer and had both her clients there in the office with her – a young couple who were moving to Toronto from Oakville where they had been living in a townhouse.  They drafted an offer and were just about to send it to the listing agent, when my colleague decided to call the listing agent first.

The listing agent was pleasant, but said that “unfortunately” he wouldn’t be able to review the offer until the next day (Friday) at 3PM because he was heading out to an office Christmas party and he wouldn’t be available that evening, or the next morning (I guess it was going to be a rager!).

He added that there would certainly be competition, as another agent had already called that afternoon hoping to submit an offer, but was told about the raging Christmas party and was advised to submit the offer on Friday.  There were a couple other agents asking the appropriate “buyer” questions, and he had showings booked all weekend.

The buyers were a bit bummed, but figured that they’d head back to Oakville to lick their wounds and “hope for the best.”

“Hope” has no place in real estate.

You’ve got to be much more aggressive, and at times – tenacious.

A couple of us had witnessed the whole exchange, and just as the buyers were about to leave (and without stepping on our colleagues’ toes), we suggested that they submit the offer anyhow.  The buyers looked shocked.

“Who cares if the listing agent is going to a Christmas party?  How do you think his sellers feel?  Do you think they care about the Christmas party?  Draft the offer, leave the irrevocable at 11:00pm, and fax it to his office.  Then scan it and email it to his personal email address.  Then register the offer through the front desk at his brokerage, and have him paged.  He has a duty to his sellers to present the offer, and if he refuses, then email the offer back to him and CC his broker of record.”

Need I say more?

The last step is a confrontational one, but let’s take a step back for a moment.

When you – as a seller, sign a “Listing Agreement,” who are you signing that agreement with?

If you answered “the Realtor,” you are incorrect.

When I sign a listing agreement, I don’t write in “David Fleming;” I write in “Bosley Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage.”  Every Realtor does the same thing.

The listing isn’t signed with the individual Realtor, but rather with the brokerage itself.  I fear that more often than not, this isn’t explained to the seller, and I’m positive that most buyers aren’t aware either.  Why would they be?

So let’s go back to the case above where the listing agent refuses to present an offer because he has a Christmas party to attend.  If I’m the cooperating agent, I wryly ask, “No problem – so which of your colleagues will be presenting the offer to your sellers on your behalf?”

Huh?  What?

Most Realtors would be shocked and borderline insulted if you asked them that!  But it’s not the Realtor’s listing; it belongs to the brokerage!  If you’re the cooperating agent, you can suggest (or insist…) that the offer is presented by somebody else at the brokerage, or even the broker.

Maybe it’s not the best way to make friends, but I don’t think it’s out of line.  In fact, I think it’s just business.

My colleague did exactly as we suggested last week, and her clients were completely on board.  Knowing that there was another offer (and potentially more than one of they waited another 24 hours), they put down $455,000 on paper (listed at $440,000), made the offer irrevocable until 11:00pm, and were off to the races.

“Do you have access to $20,000 right now?”  We asked.

They did.  And so, we sent them off to TD Bank to get a bank draft for the deposit.

My colleague took a photocopy of the bank draft and put it together with the offer.  She then sent the offer to the listing agent via fax, email, and registered if with his office.  As she was on the phone registering the offer with the receptionist, another agent in my group whispered “make sure you specifically tell them it expires at 11pm!”

Man, I love where I work!  Everybody was getting in on this!

The buyers were thrilled – they now had four agents working on their behalf – each one more aggressive than the next.

A half-hour later, the listing agent called my colleague back and said, “Yeah, wow, this is a really, really good offer.  I’m going to have to show this to my clients.”

What choice did he have?

If you’re wondering whether or not the property was “worth” the $465,000 offer price – it was.  Perhaps more.  It’s tough to pinpoint the exact value of a property, but had the “bidding” gone into Friday afternoon where there were two guaranteed offers and the chance for more, I think the price would have been pushed much higher.

As you might imagine, the sellers accepted the offer that night, and my colleague’s buyers were thrilled.

But the moral of this story, in my mind, is not what did happen, but rather would could have happened with a less aggressive Realtor (or group of four…).

I’m not going to shock you when I say that probably half of the 32,000 Realtors in the GTA don’t work full-time, and I can only imagine how many of these people work a full 40-hour work week, let alone 60-80 hours to be a top producer.

Regardless, I have to wonder how many agents would have simply said, “Great – see you on Friday” to the situation above.

To many of my readers, who seem to be incredibly smart and chock full ‘o common sense, the above story seemed like the obvious thing to do.  You’d hope that your Realtor wouldn’t think twice about it!  But I’m here to tell you that it’s not automatic, and tenacity isn’t a requirement to get your real estate license in the Province of Ontario.

I’m quite proud of my colleague for getting this deal done, and her buyers are ecstatic.

As for the ‘other’ buyers whose agent was waiting for Friday to present their offer, well, maybe they should seek ‘alternate representation.’