My colleague’s boyfriend told her that his perception of her job is that all she does is “drive around, talk on her phone, go look at furniture, and get paid to do it.”

Yeah….something like that.

This business isn’t all fun and games, and like many jobs in many industries, it can leave a bad taste in your mouth at the end of the day.  Like the following experience…

Now that is demeaning!

But sometimes in this job, I feel just like that.

Take Wednesday night, for example.

A listing came out on the market at an un-named building in the West Queen West area last week; let’s just call it “Royal Street.”  Listed at $314,900, I couldn’t help but notice that it was the exact same unit (square footage, layout, finishes) as a unit two floors below that I had sold six months earlier for $290,000.

$25,000 in six months – not a bad little appreciation!

Mind you, when my client bought six months ago for $290,000, the market was very weak.  To make matters worse (or better for my buyer), the seller was re-locating and was as close to “desperate” as you can come when selling real estate in Toronto.

The $290,000 purchase price was an absolute dream for a 900 square foot hard-loft, and I wouldn’t have expected this identical unit two floors up to sell for anything close to that today.  In fact, the seller of this current unit paid $280,000 four years ago!  Take a 5% appreciation per year, and you’re looking at about $340,000.

My clients elected to come in slightly under my $340K recomendation, hoping that we would get a second chance to improve our offer if we were in the running, but we also included several other negotiable elements that can effect the outcome.

For example, our offer was unconditional.  We did our due diligence in advance – securing financing, and speaking with residents of the building about the financial stability of the condominium corporation.  We were able to remove conditions on Financing & Status Certificate, and come in “clean.”

We included a 30-day closing, which would save the owners two monthly mortgage payments and two month’s worth of maintenance fees and property taxes compared to those buyers looking for a 90-day closing.

And I relished the opportunity to present my offer in person so that I could gain access to the seller and give them my “pitch.”

In the end, none of this mattered.

The whole experience could be described as demeaning.

I arrived at the building on Royal Street at about 6:45PM.

Situated in the lobby were eight real estate agents, all eagerly awaiting the “winner” of tonight’s contest.

Offer presentations started at 6PM, and when I registered my offer at 4:30, there were four offers.  But when I arrived at 6:45PM, I was informed that there were actually TWELVE!

I opened the front door to the Royal Street building and I was immediately greeted by a snarky agent with, “Are you the last agent?  Is it you we’re all waiting for?  Huh?”

Before I could even open my mouth to respond, another agent added, “Yeah – you know, some of us would actually like to get home tonight at a decent hour!”

I then had to walk through the “gauntlet” – four agents per side, all sizing me up as I walked up the stairs.

There is some truth to the fact that appearances play a role in real estate.  Why else do many agents put their photos on their business cards?

When you show up to an in-person offer presentation, you have to prepare to be judged by eight other agents on everything from your hair to your jacket to whether or not you look like you have the “winning” offer.  Or, these agents are internalizing their own lack of self esteem as they watch the other agents file by!

Silly, I know.  But that’s just the nature of the beast.

After successfully clearing the first psychological hurdle, I knocked on the door of the condo.

The listing agent greeted me with, “Hey – you made it!  I thought you weren’t gonna show, did you get lost?”

I get it. 

Put me down as soon as I walk through the door so that you can be in a position of strength.

The sellers were seated on their leather sofa and looked like they were on their way out to some sort of social gala, fundraiser, or art gallery opening.

He wore a blazer over a subtle black argyle sweater with what looked like Canali slacks, and wing-tipped shoes.  Slightly over-dressed for 7PM in his own house, I would say.

She wore a massive diamond ring, and I think some clothing of some sort but I just couldn’t get past the ring…

If you could define what the term “smug” means, I would say it looked like these two sellers as they sat on their couch and entertained the twelfth of twelve offers that night.

They were so happy with themselves.

I was like a little puppy dog begging for scraps at the side of their dinner table.

They may as well have been sitting up on a throne because that’s exactly how they acted.

Part of my “plan” was to explain how an unconditional offer may actually be worth more to them than a slightly higher offer with conditions.

I wanted to open them up to the idea of allowing my clients to improve their offer if perhaps we had great terms and conditions but were off on price.

I thanked them for allowing me to be there and told them “Congratulations – it looks like you’re going to get a great price for your condo tonight!”

But after about thirty seconds of me speaking, the listing agent cut me off rather abruptly and actually said, “David, buddy, I’ve gotta cut you off here dude, can we take a look at the offer?”

Shocked, I took out three copies of the offer.  I handed one to each of them, and the looked at the first page.

It ended there.

They looked at the first page, and didn’t go any further.

The smug couple exchanged glances; smirks, if you will.

They smiled at eachother after seeing the price, and she actually let out a slight giggle.

And the listing agent?  Well he didn’t even do me the decency of pretending to run through the offer.  As I began to read through our offer (since he wasn’t going to do it), he interrupted me and actually stood up and extended his hand to say, “David thanks so much for coming by tonight,” as if I was a trick-or-treater at his doorstep.

The couple shook their heads at eachother, and I caught the guy’s eye.  He didn’t even really seem to care, nor did he feel like he was doing anything wrong.

In fact, they acted like it was me who was wasting their time and ruining their evening by presenting such a terrible offer.

And the girl handed back the three offers and said, “Here you may as well take these with you.”

She stopped short of telling me to throw them in the garbage…

My problem with this experience has nothing to do with the fact that my client didn’t get the property, and nothing to do with the price that was paid for it.  A property is worth what somebody is going to pay for it, right?

My issue is this: if it weren’t for my offer, and ten of the other eleven offers, those two sellers wouldn’t be getting top dollar for their condo.

They fail to realize that if there was just one offer, they wouldn’t get $350,000 or whatever they ended up with.

They need my offer to prop up the others, yet they acted as if I was out of line, out of place, and out of my mind.

My desk at Bosley Real Estate is in the “lower level” or basement if you will, and when offer presentations are held in the conference room, the throng of agents wait in the cushy chairs located behind my work space.  I witness these agents go into the conference room, one at a time, and come out and make pleasant conversation with eachother when they’re done.

Maybe it’s a maturity thing.  Maybe the wiser, older agents have more respect for eachother, and the smug 29-year-old sellers at Royal Street and their agent have no clue how to interact with other people in the real estate industry.

The first and last thing that an experienced Realtor will say during an offer presentation is “Thank you for your offer.”

Why?  Because that agent knows that win or lose, that offer helped the sellers to achieve the final sale price.

I left the property at Royal Street and began to drive home, since I was pretty certain that diamond-ring-lady wouldn’t throw my offer at me if it was actually in the running.

While driving home, I got a text from the listing agent that said “No Go.”

A text.  Really?

Thank you for your offer.  That’s what needs to be said.  In fact, that’s what is usually said, over and over and over.

But the listing agent and the sellers seemed to feel entitled to the sale price that they received, regardless of whether or not there was one offer or twelve.  They all seemed to forget that an offer isn’t an offer unless it is presented, and that they can’t just skip the formality of actually selling their condo and just say, “Wake me up when it’s over.”

I’m being a bit facetious when I say the experience was “demeaning.”  It’s really just another day in the life, and I have a very thick skin; I’m a big boy and I can handle it.  There’s no time to be bitter in real estate.  The market moves way too fast for that.

I guess this experience just contradicts what I tell my sellers when we sit down to review multiple offers: “Use your best poker face, and don’t react to the offers.”  The sellers at Royal Street threw this right out the window.

I also tell my sellers, “We need each and every offer on the table, good or bad, to help us achieve the highest sale price possible.”  The sellers at Royal Street ignored this as well.

And finally, I tell my sellers, “Each of these agents has taken time out of his or her schedule tonight to come and sit with you and present their client’s offers.  Let’s show them that we’re appreciative of their time and efforts.”  Yeah, the Royal Street duo didn’t give this one a thought.

In the end, they got their price, and their actions didn’t matter.

But when they come to sell their next property in a down-market, their actions and attitudes could make all the difference…