The best agents don’t need to worry about proposed changes
Shelley Fralic
Sun
In 1984, my growing family decided it was time to leave our cosy Surrey co-op townhouse and buy our first single-family home.
We started the search in Surrey, which was more affordable, even though my husband and I were born and raised in Vancouver and longed to be north of the river, where commuting was less stressful, where most of our friends and family lived.
I called a local Newton realtor, and told him what we were looking for — price range, area, square footage, number of bedrooms and so on — and, more importantly, what we weren’t. At the top of my don’t bother-showing-us list? Split-level homes, and busy streets.
The first home he showed us was a split level. The second was a house adjacent to the King George Highway. If that wasn’t bad enough, he didn’t know the age of the house or the lot size but said I would like it because it had a great kitchen, which amused my husband who was the cook in the family.
We fired him, and with a noticeable dip in house prices, decided to try New Westminster.
I phoned the New West Re/ Max office and told the receptionist: “I need a realtor who does their homework and isn’t going to treat me like the brain-dead little woman of the house.”
On the phone came Roland Kaulfuss, who clearly drew the short straw and claims to this day that my request was a little more blunt than that.
Twenty-six years later, he is still my realtor — I have bought three houses and sold one with his help, and have referred many friends and relatives to him — and the reason is this: He is patient, honest, professional, knowledgeable and doesn’t try to peddle mutton dressed as lamb.
Today, I am a real estate junkie, as are many British Columbians, spending my weekends at open houses, scouring the online MLS listings, watching the market and mortgage rates rise and fall and rise again.
If you are one, too, you’ll know there are as many bad realtors as there are good ones, not unusual in any business, of course, but somehow more grating when house prices are so high that the person you hire to sell yours can earn a six-figure commission just by showing up and unlocking the front door.
How, many ask, does the industry justify a paycheque of $21,075 — the commission on $663,000, the average price of a Metro Vancouver property today — for what may be a house that stays on the market for only days, that virtually sells itself?
But that may be changing. The federal Competition Bureau wants to overhaul the national Multiple Listing Service, which is controlled by the Canadian Real Estate Association and allows only licensed realtors who are members of local real estate boards to list their properties.
The bureau wants to loosen the restricted access of the MLS, a 50-year-old operation that reportedly represents 90 per cent of Canadian house sales, and has already forced the association to give sellers more power over transactions by having listing agents give potential buyers the seller’s contact information, should the seller choose.
Many realtors are a-twitter over any move to open their MLS monopoly, fearing the inclusion of agents who will negotiate far lower residential commissions than the MLS standard, which is seven per cent on the first $100,000, 2.5 per cent on the remainder of the list price.
One wonders what they’re so worried about.
Most buyers and sellers these days, thanks to the Internet, have just as much information going in as the realtor. Anyone can house shop at will, checking comparables, mortgage rates and neighbourhood amenities, accepting and rejecting based simply on what they see online.
Which means realtors no longer hold the power, and haven’t for some time.
That said, most people still prefer to use realtors as middlemen, especially when it comes to the complicated and often costly art of negotiating.
Kaulfuss agrees: “None of my clients ever hired me because they wanted to directly deal with prospective buyers. My clients want me to be the go-between and negotiate on their behalf.”
If you’re a lookie-loo of any stripe, you’ll have encountered many terrific realtors of late, and just as many more who do or know little, who can’t tell you if there’s wood under the carpet, or where the closest school is or how old the roof/electrical/ furnace is.
You’ll have overheard realtors tell potential buyers that floors are oak when they’re fir, that the siding is cedar when it’s Hardiboard, that the basement is “suite-able” when there’s a six-foot clearance, that all the questions they are asking are answered on the information sheet available at the front door.
If those lazy and seemingly overpaid agents give the profession a bad name, then that’s a reality the industry needs to address, and if changes to the MLS beef up the competition and make some realtors pull up their socks and work a little harder, with negotiable commissions as an incentive, then that’s a good thing for consumers.
Adds Kaulfuss:
“A good realtor who is professional and knows what they are doing does not have to worry about any consequences that may come from the current situation with CREA and the Competition Bureau.”
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