In the third installment of my excessively long-titled web series, we’ll look at what has become of open houses in Toronto.
The public’s overwhelming sense of entitlement and lack of respect for one’s personal space is at an all-time high, although Realtors’ lack of due diligence might also be worth noting.
Thanks to blog-reader “Moonbeam” for allowing us to film in her house, all day, and still provide lunch for the whole cast and crew…
I was freaking out when we finished this video, since the first two people I showed it to asked, “What the heck is ‘froyo?'”
So then I began to wonder, “Don’t most people know that frozen yogurt has a cool short-form in 2015? Like how kids say “pre” instead of “pre-drink,” which of course refers to the drinking that takes place before the drinking?”
But alas, the next dozen people I asked did know what “froyo” means. So I guess office managers are the only ones who aren’t familiar with the term…
The spin I’ve put on this open house video has received praise from the “nosey-neighbour” angle, but a few people have told me, “Many Realtors are so in-your-face when you walk into the open house, that it makes you want to leave.”
I guess it depends on which Realtor you find there.
True, many Realtors work open houses as a means to meet potential buyers, so they basically hang from you as you move from room-to-room.
But many Realtors, as I’ve portrayed in the video, are so incredibly disengaged from the process that it’s clear they don’t want to be there. I see a lot more of this than I do of the clingy, needy Realtors who ask you for your cell phone number, and then actually call it – to see if you left a real number!
Either way, it’s just another day in the wacky, zany world of real estate in Toronto…
moonbeam!
at 8:25 am
Yes! agree with it all! I have to laugh at certain agents who boast on radio of dozens of open houses & over 100 showings…. as if this would be a good thing. Now that buyers can see on-line videos of a property, maybe the open houses aren’t even necessary… except for impulse viewers who are passing by.
G Rose - CMI
at 9:43 am
Me too!
As a Certified Master Home Inspector based in Alberta, usually when I arrive to perform an inspection & tell the Realtor it’ll be around 4 hours, their mouths suddenly spring open and the look of shock is a real picture! After around 90 minutes they’ve had enough, (Which tells you the sort of inspection they’re used to) they then ask me & the client to lock up on the way out and put the key in the lock-box!
In the open house scenario, its exactly the same here in Alberta, you can walk into any open house and you’ll see the Realtor sat down on the laptop – or tapping out on Facebook on the latest Iphone. He or she will not leave the seat, stuck to it with a gallon of superglue, you’re free to wander around, at the end your ‘own’ exploration, you feel like you’re committing a crime to ask anything about the house for fear of disturbing their Facebook conversation.
Then their tone gets sharper as you say: “Thank you very much, we’ll be in touch!”
Den
at 12:37 pm
Froyo is a Hobbit, yeah?
Ed
at 3:07 pm
That’s what I was thinking.
David Fleming
at 11:33 pm
I can’t tell if you guys are joking.
Frozen yogurt?
Damn. I wish I’d gone with “I can’t wait for my mani/pedi” as per the first draft…
Den
at 11:53 pm
Your what? Sounds like a masculine fold up bicycle………lol.
Some of us are OLD David, we’re not up on the current text speak abbreviations of the hip 20somethings of today. Heh.
Ed
at 3:08 pm
Off topic but David can you have your techie person up the volume on your Pick 5’s. I can barely hear it sometimes.
joel
at 9:58 pm
Yes! your voice is very quiet and the sound effects/music are loud.
David Fleming
at 11:34 pm
@ Joel
THANK YOU! 🙂
In thirty-four years, you’re the first person to EVER say my voice is quiet.
I wonder if people will start calling me “…..that quiet-mouthed jerk.”
(yes, I’ll turn up the volume from now on…)
Frances
at 3:18 pm
David, I watched your videos on the Toronto Real Estate Industry and I had some trouble making out the young woman’s words partly because the background music was too loud and partly because she spoke too fast. I do understand that I am not your target viewer, since I am another elderly female, so maybe it doesn’t matter. I did think that you make a good comic actor and that the videos were pretty funny.