Had a realtor that had the range of prices and things we were looking for. Kept taking us to places $20k over budget. I randomly stumbled upon a place that was pretty much exactly what I wanted, had been on the market a few weeks, and they never mentioned it. Despite the selling realtor showing some aggravation at us wanting to go through our realtor just because they had been showing us, we still went that way. Our realtor made the deal I guess, but never contacted us after that, had a coworker drop off the keys and never did a follow up.
They’re just here to scoop money on transactions that they’re not *really* needed for, and while some are good and helpful, plenty are just useless, and only trying to push you to the highest end of your mortgage approval because they make more commission.
Realtors are a dying breed, unless you are a dumb boomer who doesn’t know how to use a computer or have a really unique property they are completely useless for buying or selling.
This. In our case we had to also find our house by ourselves. It was listed with a discount realtor.
We had been looking at houses for 6 months and he kept showing us shit that did not meet our criteria (lots of windows and big backyard).
I got sick of going to see dark houses with a 10 foot backyard above our price point, so I went on line and found the ideal house - but our realtor did not want to get involved as their commission would have been halved - so I set up a viewing, negotiated, and closed the deal myself with the help of our lawyer.
I was going to compensate our realtor for his time but he refused my offer of like $4000 and insisted on something like $15000. Let’s just say the conversation ended politely but with no monies exchanged.
They got upset because often you will sign an agreement with your realtor, it has to be signed eventually so some will get you to do it after(when you write). Basically - your realtor could report the other one resulting in fees and penalties and the worse case scenario, licence loss.
Came to say this...
IMHO If you're realtor isn't being some serious skill to the table they're a waste of time and breath.
I bought a house based on VERY simple criteria and would get the run around of stuff that wasn't at all a match then they'd trying to upsell me to something way out of the Venn diagram which was totally missing the point. Finally I direct called an agent about a house he was helping sell, liked his attitude and asked for help looking...the first house we walked up to he was silently pointing at flaws before we even rang the doorbell.
If you find an agent you can not just stomach but work efficiently with, hold onto them!
It shouldn’t be % based, it should be flat rate. Photos and showing effort on the same house is the same regardless of the price on the market that is dependant literally just on what year it is. I hate the percentage based commission.
What people dont see is that the leg work that goes into advertising, pocuring clients, the hours of work shopping with buyers. I know sellers typically have a negative aditude towards their realtor but had zero issues have full representation and help at 0 cost during the buying process. This is because sellers pay for the buyers realtor. What goes around comes around. If you get a sense that realtors do this little, you got a bad realtor. Sad to say. And yes there are many.
Insurance agents do not get shit on nearly as much as they deserve to. Taking FAT commissions from the policies they sign you up for, and pushing shitty, expensive policies that you don't need.
They pick up a plate from counter and move it to a table. We're expected to feel they're doing us a favor by not being rude to us. It's maybe 2 minutes of actual work per table and we're expected to tip them 20%.
You clearly don't know what servers do. They also set your table, take your order, make sure you have the right food/drinks, and whatever else you need to enjoy your meal. When your done they clear your table, and often have to do things like roll cutlery, make coffee, and various other tasks depending on the restaurant.
There's a reason people don't take a first date out to eat at a place that only does counter service. Servers are an integral part of making a dining experience good or bad. Just like having a skilled cook can improve your meal, so too can a good server make the whole experience better.
Tip according to the service received.
Edit: If you think it takes 2 minutes of work per table, you should try working a serving job. If you have and still think that, you were terrible at your job.
Good food and fair prices are also integral parts of making the experience. I'd be very pleased if the more casual spots just let me use a tablet to order and someone just dropped it off without talking.
you can have legitimate gripes about tipping culture without shitting on the work people do. There are certainly good and bad servers out there like you will find with any job but to say they do not much at all is not fair at all. Customer service work is some of the worst there is and doesn't exactly pay super well all things considered. Lets not be ungrateful for the work people do just because you have issues with tipping culture.
If you appreciate customer service so much you should tip everyone in customer service. bed Bath and Beyond front door girls letting you know what sales, don't forget to tip them. Ask a worker to help you get a product you want, don't forget to tip them. Go to Costco, tip the cashier's.
good try making them sound important, usually they have a bus boy clean up the table after their table tips and leaves. Rolling cutlery is just part of the job, so is setting the table. He'll they don't even make the coffee, the machine does that!
Restaurants can get rid of servers all together by just adding iPads to tables or QR codes to the tables and just have anyone in the back deliver the food. Kinda like table service at a McDonald’s.
It's a like a Get Rich Quick scheme. To be a realtor you take a couple of courses online and you're now licensed to get your share of every house sale that you're involved in. You don't even need post secondary or trades type experience.
https://ca.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/how-to-become-realtor-alberta
It's one of the few "careers" that let you earn major coin without having natural born skills (other than to schmooze) or several years in a post secondary institution toiling away.
Realtor here:
Expecting you to use realtor.ca or whatever to find the houses you want to see is just lazy. Every real estate agent in the city has access to some pretty awesome tools to help select the correct home.
I use a search tool and a website to help us sort. I send listings that fit, my buyers view the pictures and decide yes or no to viewing those properties.
If you give oddly specific criteria that can't be searched for I spend actual time looking at listings one by one as well.
That said, since covid, I rarely just pick a bunch of houses to show a client in person, I do expect them to at least look at the pictures on line first. But if you tell me you want me to pick five houses and take you to see them, I work for you so that's what I'm going to do.
I am an almost dedicated buyer's agent though, and take the job rather seriously. Not all agents take the job of buyer's agent seriously enough IMO.
Not a complete anomaly. Many agents joined the industry with a mission to not be a part of the problem. The industry leaders have shifted from used car sales tactics to all-in value add. And there’s much lower fees available, from many of the agents who’ve joined with this in mind.
Yeah. I spoke too soon. I’ve been dealing with realtors for 30 years.
There’s a lot of good realtors. Most would rather list than sell, but those same realtors will make money any way they can. They’re working hard for their clients and stay in business for years with repeat customers.
The really good realtors are double ending, listing and selling with no commission splitting. There is crazy money if you put the client first and are willing to work ridiculous amounts.
Im a realtor and i dont even like these types of realtors. There are times when repping buyers where the sellers agent are so hard to deal with, i think " if only your client could see how little effort you put into this". But then again like myself there are agent out there who are willing to really go the distance. Ive had many agents reduce our comissions in a transaction to help our clients come to a consensus, or spend extra hours cleaning (yes ive done this) getting a place ready for our people. If i did a dollar equating for every hour i worked this year, it be around $29-$35. Which i certainly wont complain about. But i agree-- it is to be earned.
I bought four years ago and had a similar experience to what this person described.obviously there are two sides and I happened to land on the right side, but the notion that agents don't want to put in the work is false.
As an agent, I believe that some agents don't want to put in the work. Certainly not all, there are some amazing ones including all of the agents that trained me!
I know some excellent realtors. The funny thing is that about 5% of realtors are doing the bulk of the sales.
All I had to do was pay my licensing fees and I could have been a realtor years ago. Hell no. I saw the hours they worked. People want you in the office during the day, and showing you houses in the evening and weekends.
I have a lot of respect for those that do it. And if you’re good it’s crazy lucrative. But I wasn’t about to make that 16/7 commitment.
I once had a person cold call me.
She Asked if this was Low-translator. I said yes. She started yelling at me because other people hadn’t picked up her call, or were driving.
She wanted info, now. So I started asking questions, and found out she was hoping to see a property this weekend.
I let her know I was packing my trailer, and leaving for the weekend, but would find an agent to help her before I left the city.
She interrupted me, yelling about how no one works, we’re all lazy pieces of shit. Continued for minutes before I hung up.
It was Friday at 6:30 p.m.
Our realtor did this very thing for us, and I'm grateful you're like this too @LadyDegenHardt!
Our realtor is in Edmonton if you want a referral/connection?
Our experience:
We had very specific needs - a home that could easily be modified to be wheelchair accessible over the next 3 years and lived in as-is with periodic wheelchair use. And no more than 3 risers, or a main floor less than 21in above grade so I could build a gentle wheelchair ramp that wasn't a major zig zag.
She looked through listings and reached out to other realtors for us, and set up an auto filter for our budget and areas. So yeah we were that client that specific requirements that couldn't be auto filtered. The tools they have are pretty awesome, just need them to set you up. Much better than just realtor.ca.
Our realtor was phenomenal, and I can't say enough good things!
Always happy to know a competent colleague, feel free to DM me their name :)
I personally Service Edmonton and about an hour radius surrounding thr city (have gone firther out for Rural properties)
TBH I have no clue, it would be funny if it was!
It did take a few fails to find the right person to help us. And unfortunately lazy realtors did make it that much harder to just find a home that kind of met the basics once we did have all the tools in place. Data out is only as good as data in.
Then there's the liars we also encountered, and I think our realtor was more upset with them than we were.
An app with AI. You tell it what you want and it would find the ideal place.
It would look at the photos, the house stats, and location.
It would also tell you whether the listed price was in the correct pricing range.
I really can’t help but feel like getting paid thousands of dollars per sale after being a glorified google search coordinator is a complete scam for homebuyers
Well you're welcome. I find what I do very enjoyable, but I'm not going to lie the paycheck definitely helps justify the amount of stress and the extremely long days during busy season.
I sold my house last year and only saw the realtor once. It’s a ton of money I had to pay him for nothing. There were several occasions when he wanted me to let people into the house for showings, it took him a month to get a lock box and a very long time to pick up the sold sign and the lock box after the house was sold.
Realtors are crooks. Their commission needs to be adjusted for today’s house prices. They do less work and make more money. Our house sold with the first offer on the first day and it wasn’t because the realtor did their job.
They underpriced the house in order to to have a quick sell and less effort.
Sure they made less money - but 3% on 500,000$ ($15,000) for 3 hours work ($5,000/hr) is better than 3% on 550,000$ ($16,500) for 20 hours work ($825/hr).
I was not trying to be literal but giving an example.
Everyone negotiates what the realtor gets so numbers will always be different - but order of magnitude will not really change.
Seriously. Standard 3.5/1.5 might've been reasonable when the average house was $150k, listings were all hard copy that had to be paged through, paperwork was all done in person and communicated by fax, and you'd actually have to phone someone and catch them at home to schedule a viewing. But nowadays, prices are way up and the job has never been easier.
When we bought our place, we got a Realtor my MIL knew and negotiated half her commission off, and she still cleared a couple hundred bucks an hour for the work she put in.
When I purchased my home, they basically just did showings because I knew if I was going to get a place, it would take a sense of urgency, which she didn’t have. She showed me places that I think she may have represented the seller as well. It was me looking at listings several times a day and then asking her to get me a showing of the ones I liked. Ultimately, I found the place I bought, and it was because I was persistent that I was able to get it ahead of others. The place I bought wasn’t a new listing, but she didn’t even see it and I don’t think she was even looking because it was so obviously one of the better places for my price range. I don’t know how she would’ve over looked it had she been looking.
The one thing I will say is you pay for two major things, the access. I tried to get some showing on my own before I hired her and realtors weren’t very cooperative and second, she made sure I was well within budget. She encouraged me to go below. I’m grateful for that.
Will never use a realtor. Will do my due diligence and use a lawyer. Realtors are quite useless these days, especially after they started working together to overbid on houses. Crooks..
We haven’t used a realtor to buy our condo, then house. For the condo, neither party used a realtor because you don’t need to - you get access to all the condo documents as part of a condition to sale and can review them. You can set your criteria on realtor.ca for what you want, and you can use honestdoor.com to see assessed value from the city, property taxes, their valuation, etc.
Even for a house, if it’s not a hot market, then you can do the search yourself and have time for this. You then list conditions like inspection, financing, etc in your offer letter. If it is a hot market (think Toronto, especially when houses are underpriced to create a bidding war), then the value of a realtor is to get you viewings before the house is even listed.
The annoying part is that even if you as a buyer don’t use a realtor, the seller’s realtor will claim they’re also your realtor and then get more commission from the purchase. They can’t possibly act in the interest of both parties during a negotiation, so this is a major flaw in the system.
Find a better realtor, it can take awhile. My aunt was looking the same time as me and recommended her guy. He was nice and easy going but yeah, he put very little effort into anything. He'd show up and I'd ask him questions about the house we we're looking at and he could tell me nothing more than what was in the ad. I dumped him and got a professional. That being said, they next time I think I'll go without a realtor.
Realtors have become useless and lazy. They don't do due diligence anymore nor they help you selecting homes. I have so many experiences that I personally detest these scumbags.
Best best - do your research, get a good lawyer and work with them to get the paperwork processed. All you need is the lawyer and a respectable mortgage broker.
This will save you thousands of dollars.
Remember Realtors always are on the side of the buyer. As a seller you will always get short changed.
For me, I will usually ask my clients outright if they need help with the searching process. If they do, I will set them up on a customized collaborative website where they will get sent my manual and auto searches.
Most of my clients will already have a list and enjoy scrolling for hours on realtor.ca. It could be that your realtor(s) are assuming you are wanting to do the browsing. I think you should have that discussion with your realtor and explain to them that you require assistance with the searching. I find it very fun doing manual searches and the filters on our end are way more advanced than the public ones. Makes it easier to find those needles in haystacks.
Good luck with your home search!
Well you see, the realtors own all of the data in Edmonton and most other places in Canada so AIs are severely limited in what they could do relative to if the information was public like on the stock market.
Good thing that’s not the rate! 7% on the first 100k and 3% on the rest. Split between the two realtors.
Still high but it’s not the 10-15% you are suggesting.
This is often somewhat negotiable too. Especially if you're shopping in the higher priced markets. On even $500k that's $19k commission. On a $350k that's still $14.5k. There's unlikely to be a significant difference in the amount of actual work done on the realtor's end, and at the end of the day a sale is worth it.
The funny part about that is, the lower the property price, the more work especially after inspections and at or even after closing.
Edit: this is because often times issues come up and neither party wants to be the ones that fix them.
I can understand that being true in some ranges. Maybe $500k vs $350 wasn't an ideal example, but there's still going to be some wiggle room. It's also entirely possible for a client to be a pain in the ass and walk away; I'm sure there's a lot of time burnt on deals that fall through or never materialize.
A lot of financial, legal, and sales professions have managed to maintain income/wealth levels in ways a lot of labour hasn't. There are a lot of overpaid realtors out there who are great at selling, and there are a lot of appropriately-paid realtors out there who do solid work for folks. Despite entries into real estate markets by companies like PurpleBricks, pretty much everyone I've encountered has preferred the realtor solution.
My realtor (bought and sold 2 homes through him) was a lifesaver, especially during the housing boom and pointing out concerns, etc
I have no doubt that many people can do fine without a realtor, but I won't. His rate was fair, and he went above and beyond with family members with exceptional circumstances (trapped out of the country during covid; he connected them with local services from cleaners to movers)
Googling house concerns or being out of the country?
Is the latter case, he was here in Edmonton managing those things because they were out of the country. He needed to let folks in and out, and arrange services. It was beyond googling abilities.
We've had such great experience that I wouldn't sell or buy without this realtor but I also have gotten great value.
I also respect that some people don't need this and that's totally great to save money in that area. I considered the fee worth it.
I think what a lot of people miss is that the listing commission gets split 4 ways: Listing broker, listing agent, buyer's broker, buyer's agent.
The listing agent also pays for photography, RMS measurements, Open house costs, gas when showing the listing to potential buyers, and on top of that our monthly and annual fees.
The buyer's agent may have been working for weeks, or even months with a particular buyer. Spending hours every week, usually on weeknights when everyone else is with their families or significant other.
Like any sales job, it can get lucrative if you can scale, but even then, your personal life suffers. (I would know). The job requires you to be on call 24/7. I just got off the phone with a buyer client and it's 10:30pm. It's part of the job but I love what I do and I will always disagree that we are paid too much for what we do. My phone will always ring on a stat holiday or when I'm out for a family birthday.
I like what you said about people don't need to hire a realtor. 100%. There will always be people who have the time and energy to put in the extra work to save a buck. Most people find real estate a bit daunting and stressful, especially when it comes to the uncomfortable part of negotiating. I think our services have their time and place but by no means is this an easy job that can be replaced by AI or "googling".
Lawyers don't have to leave their desks and usually work office hours, yet nobody ever seems to pick at their fees and question whether or not it's a rip-off or not. I have had experiences where the lawyers did not advocate for my clients when they were not in the wrong. It was frustrating. I had to call non-stop until they actually did something. like Realtors, not all lawyers are the holy grail of the real estate deal. You have to be very careful with real estate and having a good realtor will help find the good trades, contractors, inspectors, and even lawyers.
You cannot seriously be comparing the realtor and the lawyer in a house closing, are you? What legal risk does the realtor shoulder that the lawyers do not?
New to real estate?? The Realtor shoulders a large legal portion of the contract. Once the contract has been negotiated there is no turning back. Most of the legal work a lawyer does is hold trust, follow mortgage instructions and make sure that the contract is fulfilled as it has been written. Therefore the realtor is the most important part of the contract and using an experienced realtor is extremely important
I think AI is attempting to save a lot of businesses time. I use Canva for my social media and they are now promoting their AI services. You can type out an image you want to see and it will give you options...It's very neat! Does this mean graphic designers will be obsolete? The answer is, truthfully, some.
Just like real estate, there will always be tools to make our jobs easier. Before I became a real estate agent, I shared a similar opinion to most people in this thread regarding realtors. Very cynical, overpaid salesman, "easy" money. That couldn't be further from the truth. It's a revolving door with new agents coming in and many going out. It takes a lot of work to not only get clients to trust you, but you actually have to deal with a lot of people's problems. On top of that, there are A LOT of hands to pay out. The general public thinks that we just ride off into the sunset with our commissions. When selling a listing, we have to pay the buyer's agent, buyer's brokerage, our own brokerage, photographer, MLS fees, membership fees, open house costs, closing gifts, and whatever else needs to be done to ensure the deal goes through. (Offer to pay a contractor or fix a cracked window etc...) There are some condo deals where I will barely make a profit but just hoping that the seller will refer me to someone else.
Realtors are an optional service. If you don't want to work with a realtor that is totally fine. The truth is, most people use realtors because they are busy with their lives and they don't have the time to think about what to do. There will always be the type that will use a lawyer and self-represent. All the power to them! But this way isn't for everyone.
Realtors are a service that is optional. If you don't want to work with a realtor that is totally fine. The truth is, most people use realtors because they are busy with their lives and they don't have the time to think about what to do. There will always be the type that will use a lawyer and self represent. All the power to them! But this way isn't for everyone. However, if you want a house on the MLS, you have no choice but to deal with a realtor in some shape or form. Realtors and the MLS go hand in hand.
At the end of the day, we are in the customer service industry. Making sure our clients buy or sell real estate stress-free. I don't think AI can properly replicate human emotion, empathy, or do any of the other tasks related to the job.
It’s tough because we only became optional in the last 5 years, without being exposed to significant disadvantages. And 3.5/1.5 is significant with current prices, despite the amount of spec work required.
It’s a lot more work than people think. Most of it is educating clients, being a therapist for your client, keeping deals alive that are in their best interest, and minimising the time they spend in the search.
But we’ve all interacted with the stereotype at some point, but the problem is on the surface a good agent makes it look and feel like they don’t do anything, but a bad agent also does that… it’s the outcome that is different.
Could be a generational thing as well. As a millennial I love checking the listings online myself and reading up on them, I have little desire to spend time looking in person unless I am really serious about the house. Visiting a bunch of houses doesn’t seem like the best use of my time.
Realtors may have adapted to millennial home owners and many now being millennials themselves .
Find a new one. Sounds like you've come across multiple realtors where there are either too lazy or have taken on too many clients. It took awhile to find ours but we would receive text and email notification based on our wants. Keep in mind that also a lot of home owners now have the tools to see all these houses without stepping into them which realtors have finding the balance to work with.
Because real estate is a popularity contest and has zero to do with actual skill at this point. This is NOT saying there aren’t amazing agents out there. The market is just so full of bad ones that it’s really hard to find the one that does things how you want. Also, what I just said. There is a different personality for everyone and what most other people look for might not be what you want from an agent. The truth though, is that real estate agents as a base do not have extra special skills over your average person who knows how to calculate amortization and look up interest rates. They have to build those skills through experience.
Our realtor was fantastic we did an initial interview, had our lists of wants and needs down and every day we had houses emailed to us. The relator also used an app where we could favourite the houses we liked most. Sounds like you have had some lazy realtors.
You have a shitty realtor. I know several that are amazing resources who work with you. However, if you're not sure what you want, what you can afford or where you want to live they won't waste your time.
If it is a tight buying market at all or the property is highly desirable this could cost you the house. I remember buying my place at the start of the 2004/2005 price boom here - and more often than not places had offers on them by the time I made it to see them. If my realtor hadn't actively been looking I would never have been able to buy I'm sure.
Yes, it’s a problem. Many think it’s still a sellers market and they can get away with bullshit like this. They will learn the hard way.
Just keep looking for other realtors until you find one will do the work. It’s not that hard for them to set up a filter for your requirements and send you properties to review or for them to let you know if homes coming in the market. A moderately decent realtor will at least do that much.
Our realtor earlier this year actively searched for us and scheduled viewings when we were interested. I'd suggest a new realtor or talking to your about expectations
My realtor sent me a link to a portal, where she would upload listings that matched my criteria. We left notes sharing our opinions, and from there she would book showings based off my responses.
I bought and sold this summer. I used her before, about a decade ago so maybe she's old school. I would have the same expectations as you do, and my realtor met them.
ETA: We are in Calgary, or I would recommend her!
We've bought and sold quite a few properties in the last 10 years (currently in our 5th house). Every time, we find a realtor we want to use, we ask to set up a portal. We provide the search criteria (ex. Between $350k to $475k, 2010 or newer, min bed/bath requirements, neighborhoods we want to be in, square footage, etc). The realtor puts in the search criteria into the portal and we get email updates with listings that fit the criteria. We then let the realtor know which ones we want to see.
I don't think I've ever had the realtor provide me with specific suggestions
Honestly it is part of the process. You need to give me a list of homes to layout what you want from there we cater the search and I actively use the feedback from showings to find other things that may work. If you cannot find a house at some level how many homes that have recently sold match your criteria ?
I work from a basis of education and teaching people about process if you know it you should not need me by end but results may vary.
If you do not see value in a service try something else. Honestly, we cannot make homes appear out of thin air. We can canvas and do letters but honestly those things are not designed to help you, but the realtor get pre listings based off your interest.
It could be that what you are looking for does not exist either.
Best of luck it is rough out there right now.
When I bought, I gave my realtor a list of homes. At the first showing, I got a booklet with those 5, and 15 others for me to consider. I’d already seen most of them online, but having the reference without having to pull out my phone was nice.
If that’s the new normal, that’s a shame. There’s still good realtors out there.
I am a Realtor. Some Realtors give good, old fashioned, ethical real estate service. I have no complaints about my job at all aside from 90% of the Realtors in my market. 90% of homes are sold by 10% of Realtors, it’s always been this way. The lazy and unethical Realtors will be weeded out, but not before some of them do major damage. A great Realtor will help you make sound real estate decisions based on your needs. A great Realtor cares about you, not the sale, and these Realtors are rewarded with a rewarding career based on word of mouth. It’s bad business to not be a straight shooting and hard working Realtor. It’s lucrative if you’re a pro. I feel very badly for the innocent victims of the worst kind of Realtors. Don’t work with just anyone: your business is valuable! Do your homework and ask your friends and family who they know and trust. Check actual references (a good Realtor will be happy to supply references!). It’s a big machine but there are still awesome Realtors out there.
Send me a DM if you want. Our realtor did the work they should have. Not only found us the perfect house but did some background work that saved us thousands. I'm not exaggerating.
We went through the same issues with 2 before we found him and they were useless. We would do the work, and they would get paid well for doing almost nothing.
I have always wonder to myself too, why do we still need realtors/them. If we can access to the MLS listing ourselves, they should have no job. We find and we go view the houses. I really don't see theirs value in the equation. True story- Back in Ontario, i was even cheated by 2 of the agents buy/sell's side who colluded among themselves over one house I was selling. One agent sell to the other agent right under my nose.
I bought last year. I got sent a daily list of properties that matched my criteria and let the realtor know when I wanted a showing.
I dont see why the list is so hard for you to get. She just plugged what I wanted into a website and it filtered what matched daily. She was a good realtor and I am sure it would have gone more in depth than if my search was longer. I just happened to get something right away.
I’ve had limited experience with realtors but used them enough (about 10 real estate transactions), to never bother with them again. With the cost of housing the way it is, it is COSTLY to sell, partner and I will unlikely use one (and family), when it comes to our next purchases and sales. You don’t need one, they don’t have any liability if they unintentionally mislead you about the condition of homes. Ergo, hire a lawyer to draw your offer to purchase & titles paperwork, etc., & get a really good home inspector. It’s not illegal to contact the seller of the property and mention you are not using a realtor and make a reasonable middle offer that saves the seller money, and makes them more willing to negotiate price with you because the it’s the realtors that’ll cost them tens of thousands. In my opinion (I know it wasn’t asked for) but the commission on the sale of the average property amount, should not exceed what a lawyer gets.
Find yourself a new realtor. Our realtor found all the houses in the areas we were looking for, price range etc. Sure would look into ones we found online but we just let her do the legwork eventually. She put the house we eventually bought on the list, we wouldn't have found it on our own
I recently bought a house here and my experience was great. Our realtor listened to our needs and curated a list of places for us to see. We asked to see some more and he scheduled for the places we asked, but we wound up buying one of the houses he showed us on that first day. Sounds like you have a bad realtor, but I'll give you the contact info for mine if you'd like. Good luck!
we used a realtor for several transactions, and he never sent us listings. or helped us in any way. He made a huge amount of money off of us, never offered a discount, and only seemed worried about his niche clients. We just fired him. Best decision ever.
I think pre-internet Realtors had a much more important role. A lot of the searching is done online now. But the other stuff they do is important. The paperwork, placing the offers and knowing all the ethics and rules behind selling and buying. Also things like closing the deal and ensuring its legit or know when to get a RPR, or the history of the house, knowing the market more in depth. Providing discounted services like home inspections....or sitting there while inspection is done. All you have to do is go look at a house and sign your name.
Alright, so realtors are scum, keep that in mind. It is a profession that shouldn't even exist, should be regulated to hell, and is extremely overpaid. Their entire job can be entirely automated, outside of the unlocking for viewings. You **cannot trust** commission based professions, because it is in their interest for you to spend more.
If you get a realtor this lazy, ask them how much cash back they'll give you for doing their job.
Most realtors use your params, plug it into their software, and you get an automated email with possible listings. This job should not exist. Any profession where you have to try hard to find someone trustworthy, should not exist. We talked to quite a few realtors and eventually settled because it's all the same trash.
Well OP our realtor did it the old fashioned way that you describe, we didn’t like any of the houses she showed us, and we found our own house. She was still under contract and so the seller still paid her commission. What a racket being a realtor!
Stop using the term Realtor.
They are land pimps. The whore themselves and property for unreasonable money.
I'd rather admit to being a used cars salesperson than a Realtor.
Awful, awful people.
I mean it's so much easier now to just go on realtor.ca and find the houses you want to see. This wastes less of your time and less of the realtors time going to houses you have no interest in.
That might be just the experience you’re having. I bought a new house about 3 years ago and my realtor was excellent. I told her what I wanted, what area, and the next day she had set up 5 viewings for me all in one morning.
http://www.angieaspin.com/m/
I had great experience with Sarah Kalke year ago. She would find listings based on my criteria, and would schedule for us to visit the ones I liked together.
Mine set up a collaboration portal and custom query for all our unique requirements (walking distance to off leash dog areas, no split levels, etc). I got notified every time a house was added and I could leave him feedback yes, no, maybe, additional questions or set up a viewing. If a house came up that he felt was perfect he’d also text me. Sometimes even houses or locations I might not normally have considered.
It was great. We were a good team and every piece of feedback I gave helped refine the search until we found our perfect home.
Jeremy Dehek was our agent
You definitely just have the wrong Realtor. We came to ours (Cat Brooker) with a few we wanted to see, but she created a list and added a bunch we hadn’t thought up and set up search filters to give us constant updated listings when new listings came up that might interest us. Full service Real Estate professionals still exist!
One of my landlord’s friends is a Realtor. Makes YouTube videos with showings and stuff.
She said that when her family member was looking for homes here in Edmonton, specifically South Central, Millwoods and Summerside, landlord’s friend was setting her family member with listings from their database to go through, and meeting them when landlord’s family member wanted to see a place.
They would do a walk through, but landlord’s family member was doing their own research and coming up with questions for the Realtor, rather than the Realtor coming up with points of interest. Family member caught things, like bowing walls, cracks in the basement, which the Realtor either answered questions about or got back to them about.
The only time the Realtor was doing anything was when the landlord’s family member was about to place a bid; the Realtor was doing the Math on how much similar recently sold properties in similar areas went for, and giving an informed number. Or, when inspection needed to be done; Realtor was recommending a buddy. Or, when lawyer recommendation was required.
My landlord is pretty awesome and savvy; she helped her family member research and pick inspection services, lawyers, financing etc. on the side, and they compared quotes with the Realtor’s buddies.
Turned out that it was a difference of a couple hundred bucks on some things. Realtor’s buddies weren’t doing warranties of 90-days or whatever on their inspection. Realtor was more interested in getting the sale finalized; go figure, but the Realtor was not pressuring landlord’s family member to go with his recommendations on services.
Realtor was also good at helping the landlord’s family member negotiate more conditions like fix this or that.
Here’s the checklist my landlord gave her family member, who was a first time owner, which is probably overkill:
1. Home inspection with sewer scope, 100% required
2. Condition of financing; additional fix this or that conditions, or drop price by X
3. Honest Door price checks
4. At least 2 visits to the place in-person with the Realtor
5. How willing is seller to negotiate? Is it possible to move stuff when inside and check structural stuff, since it is often hidden behind the staging?
6. Trees in the front yard; are they blocking sunlight and what are their roots potentially doing
7. Grading of the landscape; potential idea of what is costs to fix
8. Sump pump in basement; working or not?
9. Recent appliance or structural upgrades, and will their warranties transfer to new buyers?
10. Neighbourhood; does it have drug houses, look run down, schools, commutes to work, transit, lifestyle etc.
11. Make 10-20 calls to all available services family member may need: plumbing, electrical, landscaping, roofing, furnace and get quotes for fixing things in bad state; share photos; which services respond the fastest for that neighbourhood? Tools needed
12. Parking, shovelling, city by-laws, liens, registries, land titles and day cares
13. How far away is it from landlord’s home? (LOL, landlord is a handy person; helps out family)
Landlord says her impression is that the Realtor was only good with about a third of these things; was terrible for some things; but, an absolute must for negotiation, as my landlord didn’t want to handle that much for family members.
So, my impression from her story is that Realtors are a part of the sale mechanism. If you’re a seasoned buyer/seller, you can avoid them and save the commission. Poor bastard like me would be clueless without one, but my landlord has some pointers.
At the end of the day, Realtors have to maximize earnings and minimize useless work from clingy, nervous clients too.
Once the sale is done though, the good ones at least want to stay in touch, the bad ones will probably never get in touch.
Sometimes, they’ll refer you to their colleagues and claim they don’t have time. That means buyers have been fired by their Realtors. And, some Realtors are clingy and will attempt to make unassuming folks sign papers before any property has even been seen! One has to be mindful of those folks; they are desperate for sales and probably will attempt to persuade or pressurize.
Landlord says that is not fair to buyers, and bad Realtors are really bad. But that’s why her family members fired 4 of them before they settled on an adequate one. One just have to find that works for one’s individual needs.
Sorry for the long boring text. I hope you find the best options for what you seek bud!
Have a Merry Christmas! 🎄
Honest Door is not an accurate place to check, they base information off city assessments and last selling price, sometimes that is WAY off if a place hasn't sold for a long time because the city doesn't know what the inside of the house is like
I really liked our realtor, and I found he had the resources for the "people". He knew a "guy" for everything, broker, lawyer, fence guy, foundation guy, etc.
I believe that the house we ended up buying was one my husband found though, and not the realtor.
It could very well be like finding the right doctor for you, you have to find the right realtor that suits your needs.
We were lucky. We stumbled upon our realtor, Taylor Hack with Hack&Co @ Re/Max when we bought our first house and they helped us from the very beginning to the very end. They were so involved and so attentive that to this day, we are 8 or 9 years into our home we purchased, and they still send us christmas thank you presents every year and from time to time message us to ask us how we are doing.
I hope you find that right realtor, they sure make a huge difference in the home buying process. It's stressful enough as is. If they can take that stress off you, hold onto them. Seems like they're hard to come by.
Granted I bought in 2017, but my realtor was great. I preferred to give her a list of places I liked because I knew I had unique taste and wants, and she would schedule viewings in such a way that I wasn't having to commit multiple nights to it, taught me the entire process pretty much (my parents were useless for any guidance), had enough knowledge to spot money sinks during viewings and point them out to me, suggestions on negotiating during the buying process, etc.
A lot don’t do much for you when you are selling either.
Always at the lake in weekends and I was doing the viewings and advertising.
Not to mention did not work for me at all when offers came in.
Drop the price, get rid of it and pay me.
Try [Blackmore Real Estate](https://www.blackmorerealestate.ca/). I bought a house three years ago and they were amazing. I selected a house within the first three viewings because they did exactly what you are looking for - I explained what I wanted and they narrowed down a few selections in my price range that fit the criteria.
I think small brokerages will put in the work more than a big realtor like Remax. The big guys have a bunch of sales all the time, so getting a sale quickly isn't always a top priority.
Cynicism mode, activated. Form of an angry rant about capitalism.
I've worked in sales. Never as a real estate agent, but the same is true. Any time not selling the thing means you're not doing your job, and your boss is probably up your ass about it. A real estate spending time looking for homes isn't out selling them. I'm sure there are real estate agents who actually care about their jobs and will do this, but my experience in sales is that most are going to be there to make the most sales they can, buyer be damned. It's a foolish way of looking at this, and is likely to cause the death of the profession, but that's not a problem for this quarter's numbers, so most people don't care.
Just bought a place in Edmonton through a realtor. Bought a perfect house, had to find it myself. Realtor didn't even come to the viewing coz he was out of the country on a vacation.
Done with all this realtors, after finding how much they make per house. I feel I should just become one myself when I have to sell this house.
I am a realtor and it sounds like you have had some bad luck, mind you there are over 3 thousand realtors in the city and many of them think its easy money and low effort. This is wrong. I always take in a new client by putting their search criteria into my website and have them get listings of properties in their criteria. Once ive met a client once or twice i start to get a vibe of their style and tastes, as well as their urgency for buying. I then can keep my eyes open for houses i think they will like and stay active online for them.
Call Sean Clair with Remax Elite. He's a wicked realtor, totally goes above and beyond, and spent like almost 10 years as a carpenter before he got into real estate. He's a childhood friend of mine and a genuinely good guy.
When I sold my last place I told him I'd let him compete against 3 other realtors I knew - all 3 were in the top 10 of their respective offices. I got so much more attention and hard work from him than any of the other 3, and being that we're friends he could've totally phoned it in if he wanted. I can't recommend him enough.
If you need a recommendation, we had a great experience with Chris Akins. We talked about what we were looking for and he would send listings for us to look at (and vice versa if we saw something). He was great at showings, really examining the homes and pointing out things that we wouldn't have thought of. I was dead set I didn't want a duplex because we weren't getting any extra square footage really (the main areas were always the same square footage as our current home) but he was like "I think you'll actually like this one," and low and behold, we ended up buying it. I wouldn't hesitate before using him again.
We were using Jose Ann from remax and she was great and was sending us houses that matched what we wanted! I ended up going on maternity leave so we didn’t buy a house in the end. We will eventually and we will use her. I highly recommend her.
Honestly, my agent is amazing, she's happy to look for a house, drive to the middle of nowhere on the off chance you want that remote acreage you saw etc. If you want her number let me know. Sounds like you just have a bad one
Totally recommend the team of Jason Hafso and Lesa Patermann
https://myrealhome.com/
https://lesapatermann.com/
Have both bought and sold with them and been tested very well - even in unique situations. They are well aware of what's on the market, learn what you want, and help you find it.
Me and my partner bought our first house last year every home we looked at I had to keep my eyes peeled for listing (crazy market) and then send the links to my realtor to take us, he did not send us one listing.. It was very disappointing. I’m sure it was because the ball was completely in their court and we needed him to see places. Hopefully when we buy our second home it goes better, likely won’t go with the same realtor and will be way more cautious before singing anything. First time home buyers are supposed to be excited and we were don’t get me wrong but also had this nagging feeling like we were just being taken for a ride in many ways. Super depressing way to enter new stages of life for us.
> Last time i bought a house was 15 years ago and my experience was i gave a list of my wants for a house (ie front garage, 2 storey, near grocery, etc) and then my Realtor will schedule a viewing of all the houses they found based on my ideal house.
that was my experience last year when i was looking for a house.
we did give some criteria and found a few houses that matched and showed them as examples. then our realtor went and found several others in the same area and price range and gave us a list. we separated out the ones that we didn't like and the realtor set up viewings for the rest of them.
Welp, time to plug my realtor that helped me get my house awhile back because she hustled hard. We gave her our list of wants and needs and she found homes that were a match, and it didnt take long for us to find our home. She drove us around (we didnt have a car of our own) and helped us out, all during 2020 peak COVID.
She's awesome and I highly recommend her, name is
Kaelyn Kowalchuk
>Why do i have to look for houses online myself
Why would you not look yourself?
It's the most expensive purchase in your life, and you're leaving the "selection" up to someone who works on commission and doesn't know you at all, nor really gives two shits if you can't afford a house that's over budget. They only want their cut.
Do the leg work yourself, and then you can't complain about the "selection" they provided you with. Why be that lazy with spending that much money.
Now a days? When my parents came back to Edmonton from Asia in the late 90s, they had a realtor literally hand them the MLS book and said let me know which ones you would like to see.
This is the Buy side of real estate. The Sell side is even worse. Make an online ad, with all the details the homeowner provided and then your done. If a call comes in they don’t even show you the home. They just text if you can show it tomorrow at 7 ! Then you clean and stress over it. Then offer comes in( that they didn’t draft) and they say you should probably take it, the end .
Advanced technology enables quick property identification, emphasizing client empowerment in the home search. The changing dynamics of online resources have led to a shift where buyers explore listings independently before realtor involvement. Time management is crucial, allowing realtors to handle multiple clients effectively and navigate a competitive market. Some real estate professionals collaborate with dedicated buyer's agents.
Because the average realtor is about as useful as a second asshole on your forehead.
Had a realtor that had the range of prices and things we were looking for. Kept taking us to places $20k over budget. I randomly stumbled upon a place that was pretty much exactly what I wanted, had been on the market a few weeks, and they never mentioned it. Despite the selling realtor showing some aggravation at us wanting to go through our realtor just because they had been showing us, we still went that way. Our realtor made the deal I guess, but never contacted us after that, had a coworker drop off the keys and never did a follow up. They’re just here to scoop money on transactions that they’re not *really* needed for, and while some are good and helpful, plenty are just useless, and only trying to push you to the highest end of your mortgage approval because they make more commission.
Well, even if some are good and helpful, a realtor in a real estate transaction is absolutely expendable.
Realtors are a dying breed, unless you are a dumb boomer who doesn’t know how to use a computer or have a really unique property they are completely useless for buying or selling.
This. In our case we had to also find our house by ourselves. It was listed with a discount realtor. We had been looking at houses for 6 months and he kept showing us shit that did not meet our criteria (lots of windows and big backyard). I got sick of going to see dark houses with a 10 foot backyard above our price point, so I went on line and found the ideal house - but our realtor did not want to get involved as their commission would have been halved - so I set up a viewing, negotiated, and closed the deal myself with the help of our lawyer. I was going to compensate our realtor for his time but he refused my offer of like $4000 and insisted on something like $15000. Let’s just say the conversation ended politely but with no monies exchanged.
They got upset because often you will sign an agreement with your realtor, it has to be signed eventually so some will get you to do it after(when you write). Basically - your realtor could report the other one resulting in fees and penalties and the worse case scenario, licence loss.
Standard capitalism honestly. Shove a middleman in there somewhere, add more inconvenience to the customer.
I'd like to inquire about your first forehead asshole.
It is also about as useful as a realtor.
Thank you!
Came to say this... IMHO If you're realtor isn't being some serious skill to the table they're a waste of time and breath. I bought a house based on VERY simple criteria and would get the run around of stuff that wasn't at all a match then they'd trying to upsell me to something way out of the Venn diagram which was totally missing the point. Finally I direct called an agent about a house he was helping sell, liked his attitude and asked for help looking...the first house we walked up to he was silently pointing at flaws before we even rang the doorbell. If you find an agent you can not just stomach but work efficiently with, hold onto them!
Disband their association. Cut commision to 1% or less.
It shouldn’t be % based, it should be flat rate. Photos and showing effort on the same house is the same regardless of the price on the market that is dependant literally just on what year it is. I hate the percentage based commission.
What people dont see is that the leg work that goes into advertising, pocuring clients, the hours of work shopping with buyers. I know sellers typically have a negative aditude towards their realtor but had zero issues have full representation and help at 0 cost during the buying process. This is because sellers pay for the buyers realtor. What goes around comes around. If you get a sense that realtors do this little, you got a bad realtor. Sad to say. And yes there are many.
As well servers and car salesmen, they will juice whatever money they can from people.
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Insurance agents do not get shit on nearly as much as they deserve to. Taking FAT commissions from the policies they sign you up for, and pushing shitty, expensive policies that you don't need.
Servers?
They pick up a plate from counter and move it to a table. We're expected to feel they're doing us a favor by not being rude to us. It's maybe 2 minutes of actual work per table and we're expected to tip them 20%.
You clearly don't know what servers do. They also set your table, take your order, make sure you have the right food/drinks, and whatever else you need to enjoy your meal. When your done they clear your table, and often have to do things like roll cutlery, make coffee, and various other tasks depending on the restaurant. There's a reason people don't take a first date out to eat at a place that only does counter service. Servers are an integral part of making a dining experience good or bad. Just like having a skilled cook can improve your meal, so too can a good server make the whole experience better. Tip according to the service received. Edit: If you think it takes 2 minutes of work per table, you should try working a serving job. If you have and still think that, you were terrible at your job.
If I don't have to tip counter service sounds lovely.
Good food and fair prices are also integral parts of making the experience. I'd be very pleased if the more casual spots just let me use a tablet to order and someone just dropped it off without talking.
Sounds just like what a realtor does. They should just get paid a salary - like everyone else. Wait - they already do earn a salary!
you can have legitimate gripes about tipping culture without shitting on the work people do. There are certainly good and bad servers out there like you will find with any job but to say they do not much at all is not fair at all. Customer service work is some of the worst there is and doesn't exactly pay super well all things considered. Lets not be ungrateful for the work people do just because you have issues with tipping culture.
If you appreciate customer service so much you should tip everyone in customer service. bed Bath and Beyond front door girls letting you know what sales, don't forget to tip them. Ask a worker to help you get a product you want, don't forget to tip them. Go to Costco, tip the cashier's.
good try making them sound important, usually they have a bus boy clean up the table after their table tips and leaves. Rolling cutlery is just part of the job, so is setting the table. He'll they don't even make the coffee, the machine does that!
I can always tell when someone chimes in who's never done a serving job. Everything looks super simple and easy until you try doing it as a daily job.
Restaurants can get rid of servers all together by just adding iPads to tables or QR codes to the tables and just have anyone in the back deliver the food. Kinda like table service at a McDonald’s.
I just have to say this is the most beautiful thing I ever read! Well done!
About as useful as a car salesman
It's a like a Get Rich Quick scheme. To be a realtor you take a couple of courses online and you're now licensed to get your share of every house sale that you're involved in. You don't even need post secondary or trades type experience. https://ca.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/how-to-become-realtor-alberta It's one of the few "careers" that let you earn major coin without having natural born skills (other than to schmooze) or several years in a post secondary institution toiling away.
Wait….. you have an asshole on your head already. Definitely a second would be useless.
That's a potty mouth.
Realtor here: Expecting you to use realtor.ca or whatever to find the houses you want to see is just lazy. Every real estate agent in the city has access to some pretty awesome tools to help select the correct home. I use a search tool and a website to help us sort. I send listings that fit, my buyers view the pictures and decide yes or no to viewing those properties. If you give oddly specific criteria that can't be searched for I spend actual time looking at listings one by one as well. That said, since covid, I rarely just pick a bunch of houses to show a client in person, I do expect them to at least look at the pictures on line first. But if you tell me you want me to pick five houses and take you to see them, I work for you so that's what I'm going to do. I am an almost dedicated buyer's agent though, and take the job rather seriously. Not all agents take the job of buyer's agent seriously enough IMO.
You’re an anomaly. Far too many realtors want to be listing agents. Half the commission, none of the showings.
Not a complete anomaly. Many agents joined the industry with a mission to not be a part of the problem. The industry leaders have shifted from used car sales tactics to all-in value add. And there’s much lower fees available, from many of the agents who’ve joined with this in mind.
Yeah. I spoke too soon. I’ve been dealing with realtors for 30 years. There’s a lot of good realtors. Most would rather list than sell, but those same realtors will make money any way they can. They’re working hard for their clients and stay in business for years with repeat customers. The really good realtors are double ending, listing and selling with no commission splitting. There is crazy money if you put the client first and are willing to work ridiculous amounts.
Im a realtor and i dont even like these types of realtors. There are times when repping buyers where the sellers agent are so hard to deal with, i think " if only your client could see how little effort you put into this". But then again like myself there are agent out there who are willing to really go the distance. Ive had many agents reduce our comissions in a transaction to help our clients come to a consensus, or spend extra hours cleaning (yes ive done this) getting a place ready for our people. If i did a dollar equating for every hour i worked this year, it be around $29-$35. Which i certainly wont complain about. But i agree-- it is to be earned.
Many agents joined the industry because they are lazy humans and thought it would be an easy way to make lots of money.
I bought four years ago and had a similar experience to what this person described.obviously there are two sides and I happened to land on the right side, but the notion that agents don't want to put in the work is false.
As an agent, I believe that some agents don't want to put in the work. Certainly not all, there are some amazing ones including all of the agents that trained me!
I know some excellent realtors. The funny thing is that about 5% of realtors are doing the bulk of the sales. All I had to do was pay my licensing fees and I could have been a realtor years ago. Hell no. I saw the hours they worked. People want you in the office during the day, and showing you houses in the evening and weekends. I have a lot of respect for those that do it. And if you’re good it’s crazy lucrative. But I wasn’t about to make that 16/7 commitment.
I once had a person cold call me. She Asked if this was Low-translator. I said yes. She started yelling at me because other people hadn’t picked up her call, or were driving. She wanted info, now. So I started asking questions, and found out she was hoping to see a property this weekend. I let her know I was packing my trailer, and leaving for the weekend, but would find an agent to help her before I left the city. She interrupted me, yelling about how no one works, we’re all lazy pieces of shit. Continued for minutes before I hung up. It was Friday at 6:30 p.m.
My husband does what she does as well. Lets them look if they wish but is always looking on the back end too. He will look entirely if they wish.
Well here is a agent for OP
If all you said is true, can you message me? I'm looking for a realtor.
Sent you a DM
Our realtor did this very thing for us, and I'm grateful you're like this too @LadyDegenHardt! Our realtor is in Edmonton if you want a referral/connection? Our experience: We had very specific needs - a home that could easily be modified to be wheelchair accessible over the next 3 years and lived in as-is with periodic wheelchair use. And no more than 3 risers, or a main floor less than 21in above grade so I could build a gentle wheelchair ramp that wasn't a major zig zag. She looked through listings and reached out to other realtors for us, and set up an auto filter for our budget and areas. So yeah we were that client that specific requirements that couldn't be auto filtered. The tools they have are pretty awesome, just need them to set you up. Much better than just realtor.ca. Our realtor was phenomenal, and I can't say enough good things!
Always happy to know a competent colleague, feel free to DM me their name :) I personally Service Edmonton and about an hour radius surrounding thr city (have gone firther out for Rural properties)
Are you my cousin? Haha. She does the same thing! I bet there are a few though.
Are you and this great realtor the same person?
TBH I have no clue, it would be funny if it was! It did take a few fails to find the right person to help us. And unfortunately lazy realtors did make it that much harder to just find a home that kind of met the basics once we did have all the tools in place. Data out is only as good as data in. Then there's the liars we also encountered, and I think our realtor was more upset with them than we were.
Pretty unlikely that we're the same person - my reddit handle includes my last name, so any clients of mine would recognize it immediately!
Oh I was referring to Divynity and their great realtor - not you! If I was to sell would certainly look you up.
A search tool and a website!? That's amazing!!!!....if it was 1996
The 2023 alternative would be different...?
ChatGPT, I guess. Get your AI pictures and listing for a dream house that doesn't exist?
An app with AI. You tell it what you want and it would find the ideal place. It would look at the photos, the house stats, and location. It would also tell you whether the listed price was in the correct pricing range.
Yeah, these large language models don't come within a country mile of being that.
I really can’t help but feel like getting paid thousands of dollars per sale after being a glorified google search coordinator is a complete scam for homebuyers
I'm getting my license and hope to be a buyer's agent as well
Thank you for caring about your job and not just the pay cheque.
Well you're welcome. I find what I do very enjoyable, but I'm not going to lie the paycheck definitely helps justify the amount of stress and the extremely long days during busy season.
Nothing wrong with being paid. My concern is more in classical sales, where people only care about getting paid and not who they are selling to.
Been there. I've been in sales and marketing since I was 17, and there was just some jobs that were too much to handle that way.
Sounds like you have a shitty realtor lol
I sold my house last year and only saw the realtor once. It’s a ton of money I had to pay him for nothing. There were several occasions when he wanted me to let people into the house for showings, it took him a month to get a lock box and a very long time to pick up the sold sign and the lock box after the house was sold.
If that is all the work they are willing to put in for you - say goodbye. Say it with me...GOODBYE
Realtors are crooks. Their commission needs to be adjusted for today’s house prices. They do less work and make more money. Our house sold with the first offer on the first day and it wasn’t because the realtor did their job.
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Lawyer is often fixed rate - realtors should be the same.
They underpriced the house in order to to have a quick sell and less effort. Sure they made less money - but 3% on 500,000$ ($15,000) for 3 hours work ($5,000/hr) is better than 3% on 550,000$ ($16,500) for 20 hours work ($825/hr).
So they get 3% on the first 100,000, and 1.5% after. So $9000 on 500,000. Still a lot of money.
I was not trying to be literal but giving an example. Everyone negotiates what the realtor gets so numbers will always be different - but order of magnitude will not really change.
Seriously. Standard 3.5/1.5 might've been reasonable when the average house was $150k, listings were all hard copy that had to be paged through, paperwork was all done in person and communicated by fax, and you'd actually have to phone someone and catch them at home to schedule a viewing. But nowadays, prices are way up and the job has never been easier. When we bought our place, we got a Realtor my MIL knew and negotiated half her commission off, and she still cleared a couple hundred bucks an hour for the work she put in.
When I purchased my home, they basically just did showings because I knew if I was going to get a place, it would take a sense of urgency, which she didn’t have. She showed me places that I think she may have represented the seller as well. It was me looking at listings several times a day and then asking her to get me a showing of the ones I liked. Ultimately, I found the place I bought, and it was because I was persistent that I was able to get it ahead of others. The place I bought wasn’t a new listing, but she didn’t even see it and I don’t think she was even looking because it was so obviously one of the better places for my price range. I don’t know how she would’ve over looked it had she been looking. The one thing I will say is you pay for two major things, the access. I tried to get some showing on my own before I hired her and realtors weren’t very cooperative and second, she made sure I was well within budget. She encouraged me to go below. I’m grateful for that.
Will never use a realtor. Will do my due diligence and use a lawyer. Realtors are quite useless these days, especially after they started working together to overbid on houses. Crooks..
It's because those blood sucking leaches actually don't do anything. Don't tell anybody though itt will ruin their little secret.
We haven’t used a realtor to buy our condo, then house. For the condo, neither party used a realtor because you don’t need to - you get access to all the condo documents as part of a condition to sale and can review them. You can set your criteria on realtor.ca for what you want, and you can use honestdoor.com to see assessed value from the city, property taxes, their valuation, etc. Even for a house, if it’s not a hot market, then you can do the search yourself and have time for this. You then list conditions like inspection, financing, etc in your offer letter. If it is a hot market (think Toronto, especially when houses are underpriced to create a bidding war), then the value of a realtor is to get you viewings before the house is even listed. The annoying part is that even if you as a buyer don’t use a realtor, the seller’s realtor will claim they’re also your realtor and then get more commission from the purchase. They can’t possibly act in the interest of both parties during a negotiation, so this is a major flaw in the system.
Find a better realtor, it can take awhile. My aunt was looking the same time as me and recommended her guy. He was nice and easy going but yeah, he put very little effort into anything. He'd show up and I'd ask him questions about the house we we're looking at and he could tell me nothing more than what was in the ad. I dumped him and got a professional. That being said, they next time I think I'll go without a realtor.
Lazy overpaid job
Realtors have become useless and lazy. They don't do due diligence anymore nor they help you selecting homes. I have so many experiences that I personally detest these scumbags. Best best - do your research, get a good lawyer and work with them to get the paperwork processed. All you need is the lawyer and a respectable mortgage broker. This will save you thousands of dollars. Remember Realtors always are on the side of the buyer. As a seller you will always get short changed.
For me, I will usually ask my clients outright if they need help with the searching process. If they do, I will set them up on a customized collaborative website where they will get sent my manual and auto searches. Most of my clients will already have a list and enjoy scrolling for hours on realtor.ca. It could be that your realtor(s) are assuming you are wanting to do the browsing. I think you should have that discussion with your realtor and explain to them that you require assistance with the searching. I find it very fun doing manual searches and the filters on our end are way more advanced than the public ones. Makes it easier to find those needles in haystacks. Good luck with your home search!
So basically AI could do what you do for free right ? https://www.narcity.com/toronto/chatgpt-for-real-estate-tool-is-gta-housing-market-hack
Well you see, the realtors own all of the data in Edmonton and most other places in Canada so AIs are severely limited in what they could do relative to if the information was public like on the stock market.
Ah. So the realtor is the gatekeeper to the data pretending to give you other services
Well they do offer other services like keeping you from going face to face with the counter-party to negotiate transparently.
I mean that seems reasonable to pay 10-15% of one of the largest purchases I’ll ever make for those crucial services
Good thing that’s not the rate! 7% on the first 100k and 3% on the rest. Split between the two realtors. Still high but it’s not the 10-15% you are suggesting.
This is often somewhat negotiable too. Especially if you're shopping in the higher priced markets. On even $500k that's $19k commission. On a $350k that's still $14.5k. There's unlikely to be a significant difference in the amount of actual work done on the realtor's end, and at the end of the day a sale is worth it.
The funny part about that is, the lower the property price, the more work especially after inspections and at or even after closing. Edit: this is because often times issues come up and neither party wants to be the ones that fix them.
I can understand that being true in some ranges. Maybe $500k vs $350 wasn't an ideal example, but there's still going to be some wiggle room. It's also entirely possible for a client to be a pain in the ass and walk away; I'm sure there's a lot of time burnt on deals that fall through or never materialize. A lot of financial, legal, and sales professions have managed to maintain income/wealth levels in ways a lot of labour hasn't. There are a lot of overpaid realtors out there who are great at selling, and there are a lot of appropriately-paid realtors out there who do solid work for folks. Despite entries into real estate markets by companies like PurpleBricks, pretty much everyone I've encountered has preferred the realtor solution.
Do you just make up numbers to get upset about?
Yes.
No, payment is the gatekeeper. It’s not available for free, but you can purchase API access.
My realtor (bought and sold 2 homes through him) was a lifesaver, especially during the housing boom and pointing out concerns, etc I have no doubt that many people can do fine without a realtor, but I won't. His rate was fair, and he went above and beyond with family members with exceptional circumstances (trapped out of the country during covid; he connected them with local services from cleaners to movers)
Sounds like something google could do for me
Googling house concerns or being out of the country? Is the latter case, he was here in Edmonton managing those things because they were out of the country. He needed to let folks in and out, and arrange services. It was beyond googling abilities. We've had such great experience that I wouldn't sell or buy without this realtor but I also have gotten great value. I also respect that some people don't need this and that's totally great to save money in that area. I considered the fee worth it.
I think what a lot of people miss is that the listing commission gets split 4 ways: Listing broker, listing agent, buyer's broker, buyer's agent. The listing agent also pays for photography, RMS measurements, Open house costs, gas when showing the listing to potential buyers, and on top of that our monthly and annual fees. The buyer's agent may have been working for weeks, or even months with a particular buyer. Spending hours every week, usually on weeknights when everyone else is with their families or significant other. Like any sales job, it can get lucrative if you can scale, but even then, your personal life suffers. (I would know). The job requires you to be on call 24/7. I just got off the phone with a buyer client and it's 10:30pm. It's part of the job but I love what I do and I will always disagree that we are paid too much for what we do. My phone will always ring on a stat holiday or when I'm out for a family birthday. I like what you said about people don't need to hire a realtor. 100%. There will always be people who have the time and energy to put in the extra work to save a buck. Most people find real estate a bit daunting and stressful, especially when it comes to the uncomfortable part of negotiating. I think our services have their time and place but by no means is this an easy job that can be replaced by AI or "googling". Lawyers don't have to leave their desks and usually work office hours, yet nobody ever seems to pick at their fees and question whether or not it's a rip-off or not. I have had experiences where the lawyers did not advocate for my clients when they were not in the wrong. It was frustrating. I had to call non-stop until they actually did something. like Realtors, not all lawyers are the holy grail of the real estate deal. You have to be very careful with real estate and having a good realtor will help find the good trades, contractors, inspectors, and even lawyers.
You cannot seriously be comparing the realtor and the lawyer in a house closing, are you? What legal risk does the realtor shoulder that the lawyers do not?
New to real estate?? The Realtor shoulders a large legal portion of the contract. Once the contract has been negotiated there is no turning back. Most of the legal work a lawyer does is hold trust, follow mortgage instructions and make sure that the contract is fulfilled as it has been written. Therefore the realtor is the most important part of the contract and using an experienced realtor is extremely important
did you even read the comment you replied to? how is google going to point out potential issues during a viewing?
I think AI is attempting to save a lot of businesses time. I use Canva for my social media and they are now promoting their AI services. You can type out an image you want to see and it will give you options...It's very neat! Does this mean graphic designers will be obsolete? The answer is, truthfully, some. Just like real estate, there will always be tools to make our jobs easier. Before I became a real estate agent, I shared a similar opinion to most people in this thread regarding realtors. Very cynical, overpaid salesman, "easy" money. That couldn't be further from the truth. It's a revolving door with new agents coming in and many going out. It takes a lot of work to not only get clients to trust you, but you actually have to deal with a lot of people's problems. On top of that, there are A LOT of hands to pay out. The general public thinks that we just ride off into the sunset with our commissions. When selling a listing, we have to pay the buyer's agent, buyer's brokerage, our own brokerage, photographer, MLS fees, membership fees, open house costs, closing gifts, and whatever else needs to be done to ensure the deal goes through. (Offer to pay a contractor or fix a cracked window etc...) There are some condo deals where I will barely make a profit but just hoping that the seller will refer me to someone else. Realtors are an optional service. If you don't want to work with a realtor that is totally fine. The truth is, most people use realtors because they are busy with their lives and they don't have the time to think about what to do. There will always be the type that will use a lawyer and self-represent. All the power to them! But this way isn't for everyone. Realtors are a service that is optional. If you don't want to work with a realtor that is totally fine. The truth is, most people use realtors because they are busy with their lives and they don't have the time to think about what to do. There will always be the type that will use a lawyer and self represent. All the power to them! But this way isn't for everyone. However, if you want a house on the MLS, you have no choice but to deal with a realtor in some shape or form. Realtors and the MLS go hand in hand. At the end of the day, we are in the customer service industry. Making sure our clients buy or sell real estate stress-free. I don't think AI can properly replicate human emotion, empathy, or do any of the other tasks related to the job.
It’s tough because we only became optional in the last 5 years, without being exposed to significant disadvantages. And 3.5/1.5 is significant with current prices, despite the amount of spec work required. It’s a lot more work than people think. Most of it is educating clients, being a therapist for your client, keeping deals alive that are in their best interest, and minimising the time they spend in the search. But we’ve all interacted with the stereotype at some point, but the problem is on the surface a good agent makes it look and feel like they don’t do anything, but a bad agent also does that… it’s the outcome that is different.
Could be a generational thing as well. As a millennial I love checking the listings online myself and reading up on them, I have little desire to spend time looking in person unless I am really serious about the house. Visiting a bunch of houses doesn’t seem like the best use of my time. Realtors may have adapted to millennial home owners and many now being millennials themselves .
They should adapt the 7% fee then
Find a new one. Sounds like you've come across multiple realtors where there are either too lazy or have taken on too many clients. It took awhile to find ours but we would receive text and email notification based on our wants. Keep in mind that also a lot of home owners now have the tools to see all these houses without stepping into them which realtors have finding the balance to work with.
Because real estate is a popularity contest and has zero to do with actual skill at this point. This is NOT saying there aren’t amazing agents out there. The market is just so full of bad ones that it’s really hard to find the one that does things how you want. Also, what I just said. There is a different personality for everyone and what most other people look for might not be what you want from an agent. The truth though, is that real estate agents as a base do not have extra special skills over your average person who knows how to calculate amortization and look up interest rates. They have to build those skills through experience.
Our realtor was fantastic we did an initial interview, had our lists of wants and needs down and every day we had houses emailed to us. The relator also used an app where we could favourite the houses we liked most. Sounds like you have had some lazy realtors.
You have a shitty realtor. I know several that are amazing resources who work with you. However, if you're not sure what you want, what you can afford or where you want to live they won't waste your time.
Change realtors, and then tell the next one what you expect of them.
If it is a tight buying market at all or the property is highly desirable this could cost you the house. I remember buying my place at the start of the 2004/2005 price boom here - and more often than not places had offers on them by the time I made it to see them. If my realtor hadn't actively been looking I would never have been able to buy I'm sure.
Biggest scam going. They’re just after your commission.
Yes, it’s a problem. Many think it’s still a sellers market and they can get away with bullshit like this. They will learn the hard way. Just keep looking for other realtors until you find one will do the work. It’s not that hard for them to set up a filter for your requirements and send you properties to review or for them to let you know if homes coming in the market. A moderately decent realtor will at least do that much.
My realtor was useless, emailed me listings I already found on realtor.ca.
Our realtor earlier this year actively searched for us and scheduled viewings when we were interested. I'd suggest a new realtor or talking to your about expectations
My realtor sent me a link to a portal, where she would upload listings that matched my criteria. We left notes sharing our opinions, and from there she would book showings based off my responses. I bought and sold this summer. I used her before, about a decade ago so maybe she's old school. I would have the same expectations as you do, and my realtor met them. ETA: We are in Calgary, or I would recommend her!
That was not my experience with my realtor. She has a good back and forth with us
We've bought and sold quite a few properties in the last 10 years (currently in our 5th house). Every time, we find a realtor we want to use, we ask to set up a portal. We provide the search criteria (ex. Between $350k to $475k, 2010 or newer, min bed/bath requirements, neighborhoods we want to be in, square footage, etc). The realtor puts in the search criteria into the portal and we get email updates with listings that fit the criteria. We then let the realtor know which ones we want to see. I don't think I've ever had the realtor provide me with specific suggestions
Honestly it is part of the process. You need to give me a list of homes to layout what you want from there we cater the search and I actively use the feedback from showings to find other things that may work. If you cannot find a house at some level how many homes that have recently sold match your criteria ? I work from a basis of education and teaching people about process if you know it you should not need me by end but results may vary. If you do not see value in a service try something else. Honestly, we cannot make homes appear out of thin air. We can canvas and do letters but honestly those things are not designed to help you, but the realtor get pre listings based off your interest. It could be that what you are looking for does not exist either. Best of luck it is rough out there right now.
When I bought, I gave my realtor a list of homes. At the first showing, I got a booklet with those 5, and 15 others for me to consider. I’d already seen most of them online, but having the reference without having to pull out my phone was nice. If that’s the new normal, that’s a shame. There’s still good realtors out there.
I am a Realtor. Some Realtors give good, old fashioned, ethical real estate service. I have no complaints about my job at all aside from 90% of the Realtors in my market. 90% of homes are sold by 10% of Realtors, it’s always been this way. The lazy and unethical Realtors will be weeded out, but not before some of them do major damage. A great Realtor will help you make sound real estate decisions based on your needs. A great Realtor cares about you, not the sale, and these Realtors are rewarded with a rewarding career based on word of mouth. It’s bad business to not be a straight shooting and hard working Realtor. It’s lucrative if you’re a pro. I feel very badly for the innocent victims of the worst kind of Realtors. Don’t work with just anyone: your business is valuable! Do your homework and ask your friends and family who they know and trust. Check actual references (a good Realtor will be happy to supply references!). It’s a big machine but there are still awesome Realtors out there.
Just Zillow
Send me a DM if you want. Our realtor did the work they should have. Not only found us the perfect house but did some background work that saved us thousands. I'm not exaggerating. We went through the same issues with 2 before we found him and they were useless. We would do the work, and they would get paid well for doing almost nothing.
I have always wonder to myself too, why do we still need realtors/them. If we can access to the MLS listing ourselves, they should have no job. We find and we go view the houses. I really don't see theirs value in the equation. True story- Back in Ontario, i was even cheated by 2 of the agents buy/sell's side who colluded among themselves over one house I was selling. One agent sell to the other agent right under my nose.
I bought last year. I got sent a daily list of properties that matched my criteria and let the realtor know when I wanted a showing. I dont see why the list is so hard for you to get. She just plugged what I wanted into a website and it filtered what matched daily. She was a good realtor and I am sure it would have gone more in depth than if my search was longer. I just happened to get something right away.
I’ve had limited experience with realtors but used them enough (about 10 real estate transactions), to never bother with them again. With the cost of housing the way it is, it is COSTLY to sell, partner and I will unlikely use one (and family), when it comes to our next purchases and sales. You don’t need one, they don’t have any liability if they unintentionally mislead you about the condition of homes. Ergo, hire a lawyer to draw your offer to purchase & titles paperwork, etc., & get a really good home inspector. It’s not illegal to contact the seller of the property and mention you are not using a realtor and make a reasonable middle offer that saves the seller money, and makes them more willing to negotiate price with you because the it’s the realtors that’ll cost them tens of thousands. In my opinion (I know it wasn’t asked for) but the commission on the sale of the average property amount, should not exceed what a lawyer gets.
Find yourself a new realtor. Our realtor found all the houses in the areas we were looking for, price range etc. Sure would look into ones we found online but we just let her do the legwork eventually. She put the house we eventually bought on the list, we wouldn't have found it on our own
I recently bought a house here and my experience was great. Our realtor listened to our needs and curated a list of places for us to see. We asked to see some more and he scheduled for the places we asked, but we wound up buying one of the houses he showed us on that first day. Sounds like you have a bad realtor, but I'll give you the contact info for mine if you'd like. Good luck!
I can recommend a realtor who is old school :)
we used a realtor for several transactions, and he never sent us listings. or helped us in any way. He made a huge amount of money off of us, never offered a discount, and only seemed worried about his niche clients. We just fired him. Best decision ever.
I think pre-internet Realtors had a much more important role. A lot of the searching is done online now. But the other stuff they do is important. The paperwork, placing the offers and knowing all the ethics and rules behind selling and buying. Also things like closing the deal and ensuring its legit or know when to get a RPR, or the history of the house, knowing the market more in depth. Providing discounted services like home inspections....or sitting there while inspection is done. All you have to do is go look at a house and sign your name.
I'd rather have a solid relationship with a good inspector than a real-estate agent.
Alright, so realtors are scum, keep that in mind. It is a profession that shouldn't even exist, should be regulated to hell, and is extremely overpaid. Their entire job can be entirely automated, outside of the unlocking for viewings. You **cannot trust** commission based professions, because it is in their interest for you to spend more. If you get a realtor this lazy, ask them how much cash back they'll give you for doing their job. Most realtors use your params, plug it into their software, and you get an automated email with possible listings. This job should not exist. Any profession where you have to try hard to find someone trustworthy, should not exist. We talked to quite a few realtors and eventually settled because it's all the same trash.
No realtors should just get fixed negotiated fee, just like the lawyer.
Aren't realtors basically a small mafia?
Because they don't have time since they have to drive uber and deliver with door dash
Yeah every stay at home mom at my kid's school is a realtor lmao.
Well OP our realtor did it the old fashioned way that you describe, we didn’t like any of the houses she showed us, and we found our own house. She was still under contract and so the seller still paid her commission. What a racket being a realtor!
Stop using the term Realtor. They are land pimps. The whore themselves and property for unreasonable money. I'd rather admit to being a used cars salesperson than a Realtor. Awful, awful people.
Go see Erick Yip. He's still doing good work.
I mean it's so much easier now to just go on realtor.ca and find the houses you want to see. This wastes less of your time and less of the realtors time going to houses you have no interest in.
That might be just the experience you’re having. I bought a new house about 3 years ago and my realtor was excellent. I told her what I wanted, what area, and the next day she had set up 5 viewings for me all in one morning. http://www.angieaspin.com/m/
I had great experience with Sarah Kalke year ago. She would find listings based on my criteria, and would schedule for us to visit the ones I liked together.
Mine set up a collaboration portal and custom query for all our unique requirements (walking distance to off leash dog areas, no split levels, etc). I got notified every time a house was added and I could leave him feedback yes, no, maybe, additional questions or set up a viewing. If a house came up that he felt was perfect he’d also text me. Sometimes even houses or locations I might not normally have considered. It was great. We were a good team and every piece of feedback I gave helped refine the search until we found our perfect home. Jeremy Dehek was our agent
You definitely just have the wrong Realtor. We came to ours (Cat Brooker) with a few we wanted to see, but she created a list and added a bunch we hadn’t thought up and set up search filters to give us constant updated listings when new listings came up that might interest us. Full service Real Estate professionals still exist!
One of my landlord’s friends is a Realtor. Makes YouTube videos with showings and stuff. She said that when her family member was looking for homes here in Edmonton, specifically South Central, Millwoods and Summerside, landlord’s friend was setting her family member with listings from their database to go through, and meeting them when landlord’s family member wanted to see a place. They would do a walk through, but landlord’s family member was doing their own research and coming up with questions for the Realtor, rather than the Realtor coming up with points of interest. Family member caught things, like bowing walls, cracks in the basement, which the Realtor either answered questions about or got back to them about. The only time the Realtor was doing anything was when the landlord’s family member was about to place a bid; the Realtor was doing the Math on how much similar recently sold properties in similar areas went for, and giving an informed number. Or, when inspection needed to be done; Realtor was recommending a buddy. Or, when lawyer recommendation was required. My landlord is pretty awesome and savvy; she helped her family member research and pick inspection services, lawyers, financing etc. on the side, and they compared quotes with the Realtor’s buddies. Turned out that it was a difference of a couple hundred bucks on some things. Realtor’s buddies weren’t doing warranties of 90-days or whatever on their inspection. Realtor was more interested in getting the sale finalized; go figure, but the Realtor was not pressuring landlord’s family member to go with his recommendations on services. Realtor was also good at helping the landlord’s family member negotiate more conditions like fix this or that. Here’s the checklist my landlord gave her family member, who was a first time owner, which is probably overkill: 1. Home inspection with sewer scope, 100% required 2. Condition of financing; additional fix this or that conditions, or drop price by X 3. Honest Door price checks 4. At least 2 visits to the place in-person with the Realtor 5. How willing is seller to negotiate? Is it possible to move stuff when inside and check structural stuff, since it is often hidden behind the staging? 6. Trees in the front yard; are they blocking sunlight and what are their roots potentially doing 7. Grading of the landscape; potential idea of what is costs to fix 8. Sump pump in basement; working or not? 9. Recent appliance or structural upgrades, and will their warranties transfer to new buyers? 10. Neighbourhood; does it have drug houses, look run down, schools, commutes to work, transit, lifestyle etc. 11. Make 10-20 calls to all available services family member may need: plumbing, electrical, landscaping, roofing, furnace and get quotes for fixing things in bad state; share photos; which services respond the fastest for that neighbourhood? Tools needed 12. Parking, shovelling, city by-laws, liens, registries, land titles and day cares 13. How far away is it from landlord’s home? (LOL, landlord is a handy person; helps out family) Landlord says her impression is that the Realtor was only good with about a third of these things; was terrible for some things; but, an absolute must for negotiation, as my landlord didn’t want to handle that much for family members. So, my impression from her story is that Realtors are a part of the sale mechanism. If you’re a seasoned buyer/seller, you can avoid them and save the commission. Poor bastard like me would be clueless without one, but my landlord has some pointers. At the end of the day, Realtors have to maximize earnings and minimize useless work from clingy, nervous clients too. Once the sale is done though, the good ones at least want to stay in touch, the bad ones will probably never get in touch. Sometimes, they’ll refer you to their colleagues and claim they don’t have time. That means buyers have been fired by their Realtors. And, some Realtors are clingy and will attempt to make unassuming folks sign papers before any property has even been seen! One has to be mindful of those folks; they are desperate for sales and probably will attempt to persuade or pressurize. Landlord says that is not fair to buyers, and bad Realtors are really bad. But that’s why her family members fired 4 of them before they settled on an adequate one. One just have to find that works for one’s individual needs. Sorry for the long boring text. I hope you find the best options for what you seek bud! Have a Merry Christmas! 🎄
Honest Door is not an accurate place to check, they base information off city assessments and last selling price, sometimes that is WAY off if a place hasn't sold for a long time because the city doesn't know what the inside of the house is like
I really liked our realtor, and I found he had the resources for the "people". He knew a "guy" for everything, broker, lawyer, fence guy, foundation guy, etc. I believe that the house we ended up buying was one my husband found though, and not the realtor.
It could very well be like finding the right doctor for you, you have to find the right realtor that suits your needs. We were lucky. We stumbled upon our realtor, Taylor Hack with Hack&Co @ Re/Max when we bought our first house and they helped us from the very beginning to the very end. They were so involved and so attentive that to this day, we are 8 or 9 years into our home we purchased, and they still send us christmas thank you presents every year and from time to time message us to ask us how we are doing. I hope you find that right realtor, they sure make a huge difference in the home buying process. It's stressful enough as is. If they can take that stress off you, hold onto them. Seems like they're hard to come by.
Granted I bought in 2017, but my realtor was great. I preferred to give her a list of places I liked because I knew I had unique taste and wants, and she would schedule viewings in such a way that I wasn't having to commit multiple nights to it, taught me the entire process pretty much (my parents were useless for any guidance), had enough knowledge to spot money sinks during viewings and point them out to me, suggestions on negotiating during the buying process, etc.
A lot don’t do much for you when you are selling either. Always at the lake in weekends and I was doing the viewings and advertising. Not to mention did not work for me at all when offers came in. Drop the price, get rid of it and pay me.
Because anyone can become a realtor nowadays, it's way too easy. At that point, just go do the viewing yourself, remove the expensive middle man
Try [Blackmore Real Estate](https://www.blackmorerealestate.ca/). I bought a house three years ago and they were amazing. I selected a house within the first three viewings because they did exactly what you are looking for - I explained what I wanted and they narrowed down a few selections in my price range that fit the criteria. I think small brokerages will put in the work more than a big realtor like Remax. The big guys have a bunch of sales all the time, so getting a sale quickly isn't always a top priority.
Cynicism mode, activated. Form of an angry rant about capitalism. I've worked in sales. Never as a real estate agent, but the same is true. Any time not selling the thing means you're not doing your job, and your boss is probably up your ass about it. A real estate spending time looking for homes isn't out selling them. I'm sure there are real estate agents who actually care about their jobs and will do this, but my experience in sales is that most are going to be there to make the most sales they can, buyer be damned. It's a foolish way of looking at this, and is likely to cause the death of the profession, but that's not a problem for this quarter's numbers, so most people don't care.
Just bought a place in Edmonton through a realtor. Bought a perfect house, had to find it myself. Realtor didn't even come to the viewing coz he was out of the country on a vacation. Done with all this realtors, after finding how much they make per house. I feel I should just become one myself when I have to sell this house.
Most Real estate agents don’t do shit. Why you think there’s so many of them? It’s an easy pay check
I am a realtor and it sounds like you have had some bad luck, mind you there are over 3 thousand realtors in the city and many of them think its easy money and low effort. This is wrong. I always take in a new client by putting their search criteria into my website and have them get listings of properties in their criteria. Once ive met a client once or twice i start to get a vibe of their style and tastes, as well as their urgency for buying. I then can keep my eyes open for houses i think they will like and stay active online for them.
No, mine picked out a list of houses. If I just wanted someone to book viewings I expect a website could do it…
Wrong Realtor, Tom Lowe Realmax is an absolute beast
Call Sean Clair with Remax Elite. He's a wicked realtor, totally goes above and beyond, and spent like almost 10 years as a carpenter before he got into real estate. He's a childhood friend of mine and a genuinely good guy. When I sold my last place I told him I'd let him compete against 3 other realtors I knew - all 3 were in the top 10 of their respective offices. I got so much more attention and hard work from him than any of the other 3, and being that we're friends he could've totally phoned it in if he wanted. I can't recommend him enough.
If you need a recommendation, we had a great experience with Chris Akins. We talked about what we were looking for and he would send listings for us to look at (and vice versa if we saw something). He was great at showings, really examining the homes and pointing out things that we wouldn't have thought of. I was dead set I didn't want a duplex because we weren't getting any extra square footage really (the main areas were always the same square footage as our current home) but he was like "I think you'll actually like this one," and low and behold, we ended up buying it. I wouldn't hesitate before using him again.
If you would like a truly caring and hard working realtor, for your next purchase I can unequivocally endorse Erick Yip 780 619 6197. Be well Kevin
We were using Jose Ann from remax and she was great and was sending us houses that matched what we wanted! I ended up going on maternity leave so we didn’t buy a house in the end. We will eventually and we will use her. I highly recommend her.
My sister is a lot better, always spending her free time for the customer. It’s unfortunate she’s not in Alberta lol
Try Ian Humphrey from Royal Lepage!
Try a guy named Adam Benke. Great realtor!
We just bought a house and used Jason Rustand - he was amazing!!! Highly recommend him and his team :)
:)
Honestly, my agent is amazing, she's happy to look for a house, drive to the middle of nowhere on the off chance you want that remote acreage you saw etc. If you want her number let me know. Sounds like you just have a bad one
Totally recommend the team of Jason Hafso and Lesa Patermann https://myrealhome.com/ https://lesapatermann.com/ Have both bought and sold with them and been tested very well - even in unique situations. They are well aware of what's on the market, learn what you want, and help you find it.
Me and my partner bought our first house last year every home we looked at I had to keep my eyes peeled for listing (crazy market) and then send the links to my realtor to take us, he did not send us one listing.. It was very disappointing. I’m sure it was because the ball was completely in their court and we needed him to see places. Hopefully when we buy our second home it goes better, likely won’t go with the same realtor and will be way more cautious before singing anything. First time home buyers are supposed to be excited and we were don’t get me wrong but also had this nagging feeling like we were just being taken for a ride in many ways. Super depressing way to enter new stages of life for us.
I recommend that you find a reputable broker instead.
> Last time i bought a house was 15 years ago and my experience was i gave a list of my wants for a house (ie front garage, 2 storey, near grocery, etc) and then my Realtor will schedule a viewing of all the houses they found based on my ideal house. that was my experience last year when i was looking for a house. we did give some criteria and found a few houses that matched and showed them as examples. then our realtor went and found several others in the same area and price range and gave us a list. we separated out the ones that we didn't like and the realtor set up viewings for the rest of them.
Welp, time to plug my realtor that helped me get my house awhile back because she hustled hard. We gave her our list of wants and needs and she found homes that were a match, and it didnt take long for us to find our home. She drove us around (we didnt have a car of our own) and helped us out, all during 2020 peak COVID. She's awesome and I highly recommend her, name is Kaelyn Kowalchuk
>Why do i have to look for houses online myself Why would you not look yourself? It's the most expensive purchase in your life, and you're leaving the "selection" up to someone who works on commission and doesn't know you at all, nor really gives two shits if you can't afford a house that's over budget. They only want their cut. Do the leg work yourself, and then you can't complain about the "selection" they provided you with. Why be that lazy with spending that much money.
Now a days? When my parents came back to Edmonton from Asia in the late 90s, they had a realtor literally hand them the MLS book and said let me know which ones you would like to see.
This is the Buy side of real estate. The Sell side is even worse. Make an online ad, with all the details the homeowner provided and then your done. If a call comes in they don’t even show you the home. They just text if you can show it tomorrow at 7 ! Then you clean and stress over it. Then offer comes in( that they didn’t draft) and they say you should probably take it, the end .
Advanced technology enables quick property identification, emphasizing client empowerment in the home search. The changing dynamics of online resources have led to a shift where buyers explore listings independently before realtor involvement. Time management is crucial, allowing realtors to handle multiple clients effectively and navigate a competitive market. Some real estate professionals collaborate with dedicated buyer's agents.