Or perhaps we’re just not in Toronto…
I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can about real estate in the Golden Horseshoe over the last few years, and that means searching (and occasionally working) in St. Catharines, Oakville, Burlington, Ajax, Pickering, and the like.
I’ve found that the way buyers, sellers, and Realtors work in these areas differs immensley from that of Toronto…
About one month ago, I spent a lovely, sunny Friday afternoon driving through the streets of downtown Peterborough looking at investment properties.
One of my blog readers, who is about to begin his real estate career as a sales representative, was looking to add another student residence to his stable and wanted my help with the transaction.
In all my years in the real estate business, I had never looked at Peterborough investment properties, so it seemed like something new and exciting, and I took the job.
I’m not just in this business to sell real estate, or just to sell Toronto real estate.
I want to learn as much as I can about real estate in general, whether it’s foreclosures on a Florida beachfront, or summer homes in Croatia. Yes, I’ll likely specialize in Toronto and the surrounding area, but I think that having a decent knowledge of the entire Golden Horseshoe is essential in order to get a feel for the overall economy of our city, province, and country.
I’ve sold a few properties outside of Toronto this year, and I believe I’ve written the odd blog post or two about the experiences.
But last week, I received two phone calls from agents who work in Ajax, each one of which made me realize just how different the real estate business can be from city to city.
I was sitting at my desk last Thursday afternoon, and I was paged overhead.
I picked up the phone, and a person on the other end of the line rambled on and on about some property, some place…..or something.
I honestly had no clue what this person was saying, or what she was referring to.
From what I could gather, she said that I had called her and I was having trouble getting into her property.
I didn’t recall having trouble getting into any property recently, so I asked her what property it was.
She gave me the address, and I had never heard of it.
I said, “Well there must be some mistake, because I have never heard of that address, and I’ve never been there before.”
She claimed that I had called her and emailed her repeatedly, and called her broker as well. It sounds like something I would do, but I could have rattled off the address of every property I had shown in the last few days, and the name of every client! I’m highly organized, and I have a memory like an elephant!
She said, “Yes, yes, you called me three times! You demanded that I get back to you and now I am! I’m looking at one of your emails right now!”
I said, “Oh perfect – tell me the timestamp on the email and I’ll look it up in my sent items. I’m on my Outlook right now.”
That’s when this story gets a bit weird – keep in mind that this was last Thursday – the second day of June.
She said, “Ten o’clock in the morning…….on the fifteenth.”
The fifteenth?
What?
I answered, “Are you kidding me? The fifteenth of May and you’re just getting back to me NOW? It’s freakin’ JUNE!”
She replied, “No, no, you are misunderstanding me. It was not the fifteenth of May.”
Phew! Good thing!
“It was the fifteenth of April.”
I laughed out loud. I couldn’t help it.
Then things became a bit clearer and I said, “Is this property in Pickering?”
“No,” she said, “Ajax.”
“Well same thing,” I said, and I did remember the property and the situation! She had listed a property and I tried about a dozen times to get in to see it, even calling her broker in the process. I was told that she was on vacation and there was no way to get in touch with the owners of the property. So I flew off the handle and demanded that the broker remove the listing from MLS, since you must be able to show a property if it’s listed for sale on the MLS system. They didn’t do anything about it, and I moved on.
Now, she was calling me to say that I could finally gain access to the property! Only this was seven weeks later.
I finally asked, “So how come you’re just calling me now?” Amazingly, she said, “Well I was out of the country for two months and I’m only now able to handle the business again.”
Amazing. And to think that people like this are licensed to trade in real estate.
What’s even more amazing was when she asked, “Are your clients still interested in the property?”
I said, “No, my clients bought a property months ago, as they didn’t feel like wating out your two-month vacation so you could get your sh!t together and put a key in a lockbox.”
That was that.
One day later, on Friday of last week, I received another Pickering-esque call from an agent, only this guy had much better news!
I’ve met a lot of enthusiastic Realtors in my day, but this guy took things to a whole new level.
“Hello, Mr. David sir, and how are you on this fine day?”
“Um, good,” I said as I took a bite out of a disgusting Myoplex bar that had fallen behind my desk some time ago, yet I had decided to eat anyways.
“That is great, Mr. David. Just great. I am calling because you showed my property on 123 Blaven Court not too long ago, and I wanted to give you the good news over the phone.”
Good news? Okay, I’ll bite.
“I have successfully negotiated a price reduction for the property!”
He was indeed quite happy about this! I could feel his smile through the phone.
“The property is now listed at $369,000.”
So I asked the obvious question (since once again, I had no clue what property he was talking about), “And what was it listed at previously?”
“$379,000,” he said.
I paused, just to put things into perspective, and then asked, “So you’re just calling me now to tell me about the price reduction? Or you just got the price reduction?”
He explained, “No, you showed the property on the second of April, and it was priced at $379,000. I have just reduced the property to $369,000 and I wanted you to be the first to know!”
Yes, yes, of course, I was the first to know, bla bla bla. That’s cheesy; just ridiculously cheesy sales-speak.
I wanted to let the guy down easy, but there was really no way. “Sorry, but those clients bought months ago,” I said.
He was so deflated! There was silence for a few seconds before he said, “Oh…..I see.”
Just two minutes ago he was so happy! He had “successfully negotiated” a price reduction of ten-thousand-dollars. And who doesn’t love “negotiating” with their own clients?
He asked me, “So what do you think of the price, since I have you here on the phone and everything?”
I was honest with him and said, “Well, I’m not expert, but if a property didn’t sell in April for $379,000, and has been on the market for 3-4 months, what makes you think it can sell in June for $369,000?”
I added, “Don’t you think that if somebody was interested in the property, yesterday, the day before, or three months ago, they would have made an offer of $369,000 when it was listed at $379,000? Or maybe they’d have offered $359,000 or even $349,000! It’s not like people only offer the asking price. Maybe this is a $340,000 property and the $10,000 price reduction was just the first step in a lengthy process.”
Again, there was silence.
I wasn’t trying to be obnoxious. But after all, he called me!
After the two phone calls I received last week, I realized that it takes all kinds in this business.
I’ve seen multiple offer situations in Oakville, Burlington, Ajax, and Pickering, and I’ve seen agressive Realtors from small towns who could give many Toronto Realtors a run for their money!
But I’ve also seen some of the sloppiest most unorganized work that I’ve ever seen.
“Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
George
at 10:05 am
Laziness is not a good quality in any profession, but especially so in any type of agent job. Fortunately, I feel like the system will handle these people on its own since a lot of business is driven by referrals. Who would recommend a lazy agent?
As for the price reduction, sigh. A 2.6% price reduction is far from exciting. If a store proudly advertised a 2.6% sale, I’d laugh hysterically. 2.6% is not going to be the reason the property didn’t sell. The sellers were delusional/hopeful and weren’t ready to sell, that’s more likely the reason.
cagoldrealty
at 12:11 am
Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I will be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.
Moonbeam!
at 8:06 am
You get a lot of bang for your buck in real estate outside of Toronto…. If you don’t mind commuting or if you can find work there! Die-hard Torontonians might consider looking outside the GTA for some great values & spacious homes!