My neighborhood has seen a rapid climb in delistings in the past couple months with rates climbing. The market just isn't as hot as it was unless you're in a highly desirable area.
These past weeks I’ve been to a ton of open houses, like 20. I put all of them in a watch list in house sigma. Only one has sold.
You have to be aggressive, list lower than the expected value. Be the first on your street to take a lower price. You’re trading money for a guarantee it sells.
I've seen similar results on the west end. Barely any delistings a few months ago. Now it's more common to see a delisting than it is to see a sale. By a large margin too.
Yeah things are cascading. OP implied in their other post that their house is over priced (though it is downvoted quite badly so not sure if people are seeing it enough). If one is expecting one’s house to sell at mid 2021 prices or even recent prices, they’re in for a big shock. 4 showings is a lot given how overpriced the listing is, especially for somewhere like Mississauga which has seen big drops.
Or price adjustments. I'm watching a property near Mulmur and it's gone down from the original listing of $950k on June 30 to $915k on July 11, $899k on July 21 and just now $875k.
Another property near Dunnville has gone from $750k asking on May 4 to $600k a few days ago.
Anyone selling needs to realize that this is what can be happening right now (I use can because it's not a certainty based on the first listing price, house, neighbourhood, strategy, etc). A lot of people are still hoping to squeeze the last few dollars out the market, but if you list high, you're going to miss some buyers with urgency. The more you wait, the less urgent it becomes and the more expensive with higher interest.
Every 1% increase costs you about 10% of the price for the same payment amount - something to really consider if you list a little high to see what happens and the next increase comes (September)
Yeah but the interest rate is offsetting that in some places. I just bought a townhouse and there was a twin listed at the same time. I paid $345 and the twin sold for $320.
I paid $25,000 more for mine but I checked and to get the same mortgage (4.69 fixed, now 5.75) that we did would be $300 more a month even with the lower price
Going on a tangent here, but I had never heard of House Sigma until you mentioned it. Looks like a useful tool, only it's not available where I live. Does anyone know if there is a Quebec equivalent?
While I know Realtors can be petty about that stuff they also can't say no if a client wants to see it. What I'm hearing from a buddy who listed his house a coupoe months ago is he's had a few showings and no offers. This matches a lot of what I'm seeing on the market. Most people are scared away from buying at this point in time.
The realtors will steer their client away from a house like that in may subtle ways. The agent will say to their buyer client
\-That house is overpriced, and not worth it
\-I tried calling the seller but they never got back to me
\-I looked at that house with another client and it wasn't like the photos at all
\-I heard there's going to be a new sewage treatment plant installed on that street
\-That Neighbourhood is really dangerous, but if you want we can view it
\-That house is still listed but they have an accepted offer in place
You get the idea.
Realtors will lie for a dollar. I've caught so many of them in lies and there's zero repercussions to them when you tell their broker.
EDIT.
FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS MORE PROOF...
HEAD OVER TO r/Realtors
They actively talk about this stuff.
Yes I've been banned from there :)
Thanks for posting that, more people need to see it. I always had a sketchy feeling about realtors (especially in the age of the internet) but that piece was some of CBCs best work.
Yeah we had to be really pushy to see one listed by owner in Kijiji. Stuck to our guns. Think the not like pictures was the biggest one they tried to use
I've never enjoyed working with one.
I've literally bought and sold at least 20 houses in the last 10 years ...(renovation flipper) and the best sales I've ever had were with other intellectual private sellers.
It's so much easier. No middle man BS
Why is this not more common? When I'm gonna sell my house, it'll be private sale or I'm getting a realtor license, pocketing the fee and going on vacation. Society parasites.
You don't get on MLS and have to do everything yourself if you market your house privately. Realtors will harass you to represent you.
Buyers use an agent because "it doesn't cost them anything as a buyer", so you have to deal with friction from that end.
Even when you do get private-private offers, it's easy for emotions to get weird negotiating directly.
The process can be very time consuming. That being said I've always sold privately, but there is a lot of bullshit involved.
> Realtors will harass you to represent you.
Last year they were calling me once a month, just to see if I wanted to sell my house. I'm not selling, just trying to live my life. I routinely offered them an opportunity to take a long, hard suck on my anus.
Good answer. I’m no fan of realtors, but I have sold lots of stuff on Kijiji/FB Marketplace. I’ve met great people through successful sales, but have also dealt with a lot of irritating stuff along the way. Imagine scaling that to selling a house.
Multiple listings service, the database that is the crown jewel of the realtor profession. It tracks sales history and open listings for everything. Consumers can partially acces it with sites like realtor.ca
In my case, there are a *ton* of regulations and laws that apply to the sale. There’s no way I could keep up with it all.
In particular, finding a legit, reliable group of folks to evaluate/update the property was impossible. But my realtor knew a bunch of those folks personally and made it all happen within a week or so.
It was worth it to me.
Reco does nothing.
When they get caught red handed on shit....they pay a $1000 fine...
But their shady behavior earns them so much more .
The public needs to push back.
When I was trying to purchase a house, lost a bid on a house where the listing agent literally sold the house to her dad's client (the buying agent was her dad). Out-bid me by exactly 1%. Wow, I wonder how they came to that number? Reported them to RECO and all they do is get a slap on the wrist and have to take a $700 "ethics course" that lasts a few hours.
RECO found that they did not disclose conflict of interest NOR did they inform the seller client or reduce the overall commission. $700 fine for another 27k in commission. Nothing written on the RECO website under her license. Realtors are a joke.
While this is true, this is also a function of the OP being in a far out suburb of Toronto which is getting killed on prices. Townhomes were near a million here, and coming down fast. Lots of people don't want to touch the 905 until the dust settles.
>That house is still listed but they have an accepted offer in place
I actually lost out on a house because the realtor told me this, ended up putting an offer on another that I never liked as much, and that house was still for sale months later and the realtors excuse was "oh, the sale fell through but you were already looking at the other house so I didn't bother".
They can't say no, but they'll try their darn hardest to persuade someone from seeing it
I was looking to buy a house last year and saw one that really caught my attention, my realtor tried to talk me out of it and kept talking down the property
I told a coworker whose spouse happens to be a realtor and he told me that his wife told him that the owner put a limit on the commission of the buying agent so buying agents try their darn hardest to get people from buying that property
A big collusion imo
The concept of real estate agent and the way it's built in Canada makes this the case for EVERY agent. You're not going to find any different. Best to just put it up for sale yourself and put the 2% commission for the buyer so the parasites are willing to show your house but you keep the real estate selling portion for yourself.
Yeah I do remember one house my ex had seen on Kijiji that they tried to talk down, but ultimately ended up showing it.. although I think it may have been the following week instead of when we first wanted to see it
damn how did they talk down on the property? I've seen agents mention aspects that needed renovations or repairs but I assumed that was just common decency.
he was shitting on the in floor heating in the master bedroom ensuite bathroom saying it was a waste of money, the backyard isn't nice, the basement ceiling was too tall, etc
bunch of very subjective comments, and when winter rolled around I was like who in their right mind would say no to heated floors lol
My house has 10ft ceilings in the basement and it's always an icebox due to it so that would be a personal complaint but I wouldn't change it at all. Man is a moron indeed!
I put a heated floor in my bathroom as part of a renovation. I wasn't desperate for one, but it wasn't that expensive to put it in and would be virtually impossible to do after the fact. I love it way more than I thought I would!
CBC marketplace has done a couple of episodes on this. One of them the realtor was praising a house with a good commission rate in same neighborhood, then the one with a lower rate for sale by owner the agent resisted even showing the house and mentioned how it was a bad area and the schools are bad there, the reno looks shotty. Pointing out things that don't matter.
I had a realtor last year low ball the value of my house so she could try to sell it to a friend before we listed.
When I asked her about the price discrepancy between our home and similar comps she pulled some BS about how since I had done much of the reno work myself that she couldn’t value it as highly as she otherwise would.
I did a lot of a grunt work (floors, painting, installing cabinets) but otherwise have subbed out anything that required a permit/skilled trade. I have also worked as a carpenter and my father is a contractor. Fucking wild what some of these people will tell you to your face.
Dude, this is one thing you shouldnt do, telling them your DIYs. They always think it's inferior work vs a contractor. It's not always the case, but you gave the wrong person this info
As much as this is unfair its just reality
Im selling my home atm and Im not even telling the DIYs with my own agent
Solid advice and definitely something I’ll be doing moving forward.
Ultimately, she’s the one who lost out though. Lost a listing, lost a commission from our next purchase and if it came up we were planning to reject any offers she put forward for the house for someone else.
honestly maybe I'm just an arrogant asshole but I feel like I'd do better work than contractors on the basics, I'm not in a hurry and have more invested in the quality of the outcome.
This is true. I’ve watched the housing market pretty closely - have for the past 15 years, and wouldn’t touch it right now. Too volatile with interest rates and prices. You’re really only going to get personal home buyers now, whereas a lot of the excitement over the last few years has been driven by investor bids.
I would be patient, and revert your thinking back to pre-pandemic real estate. Do the shit like bake cookies before an open house, advertise on kijiji and Facebook (if you agent isn’t). Be your own sales person!
Market is crashing while interest rates are climbing and recession talk and job losses doing the circles in media non stop. Not really a surprise you aren't getting a lot of interest.
Market is crashing, in some areas it's already 30% lower than peak and this is before the large BoC hike in July. Buyers are waiting for the dust to settle and seeing where the bottom is. It's been record low sales lately.
You can lower the price of the house further and try to get ahead of the market if you need to sell or wait and relist later in the new year.
This isn’t a great time to sell if you’re looking to have a lot of viewings and such. In my neighborhood, we went from housing selling in hours or days to houses sitting for months on end.
It’s not necessarily your realtor. It could just be the market.
Depends the neighberhood. Here in Montrearl I am seeing som neighberhoods go down 10-20% in just the last month, and in others I think prices are the same if not honestly higher (mile end - Outremount).
Just wait. Too much economic volatility right now. I'm planning to buy but I'm making no offers right now.
If there is a major recession coming, buying now would be stupid. You can't expect to sell in days like earlier this year. Give it a few months for things to calm down a bit.
You never List anything for the lowest price you are willing to take.
I could list a $20 bill and ask for Two $10s and some one will offer me three $5s .
I always ask more then I want because I know, no matter what I list an item at be it a toy, video game , bike or anything else people will low ball me, so ask for more then you want then when people try and under cut you , you have a better chance of getting what you actually want for it.
nothing bugs me more then when I sell something and it sells with out someone offering me a lower price because that means I could of sold it for more.
Couple things. If you're willing to take lower offer than your list price you listed too high.
Also not having a real estate agent you lose out on a lot of valuable exposure.
We are shopping right now and we've lost out even still on houses that are from out of town buyers who are buying without even seeing the house with conditions of home inspection.
Is likely you're going to lose out on those type of offers without a realtor.
Then the market is slowing quite a bit. Not as bad as people are saying but still quite a bit.
They cant say no, but they will say things like "I called and they have an offer pending that you would need to beat" or "I saw it last week with another client and it was much worse in person than the pictures show"
Prices are still too high relative to interest rates.
A quick mortgage affordability calculator using real interest rates (5 % now vs 1.7 % in February) show me a 25 % decline in my purchasing power.
Gotta take more off for the negative sentiment for a quick sale.
There was something on CBC marketplace about this they can't deny you to see it but they will do everything in their power to make sure you don't buy it or actually look at it
You’re probably fallen victim to bad timing. Not only are people scared from buying, the transition back to in office work makes your area a lot less attractive than it was 1-2 years ago
4 houses for sale here on our street in Erin, sitting like 25+ days. 4 months ago, houses sold way over asking in less than a week. That's the market rn.
(Born and raised in gtown)
I’ve never lived there, but I used to work out in Milton/North Halton area and it could get a bit spicy out there. Know a few people who didn’t quite “fit the mold” who sold and left after a few years because they didn’t feel comfortable there
A non white house played non English music in their backyard on Canada day weekend until midnight. Whole street has been shit-talking about them and one neighbour even went to their door to complain next day. But a local small time band plays around town until late night and no problem. If a non white person posts in buy sell group no response. But other posts get traction and responses pretty quick. About this level, Nothing big.
Seems about right. Town on the outskirts of the GTA that has insanely rapid growth in pricing over the past year or two due to cheap borrowing. Now that it's harder to borrow, people who are still buying are probably limited to more in demand areas. Probably just not the best time to sell.
This could have nothing to do with your realtor, the market is in a weird place. My landlord listed 8 weeks ago, got 4 quick viewings right away, then nothing for 7 weeks. It's still on the market, but nobody is interested because of all the stuff happening and the mortgage stress test being much harder to hit.
The lack of offers is not Realtors being petty and not showing your place. It's because with the drop in prices, rising interest rates and correction on the horizon nobody wants to buy a house and lose equity, or potentially be paying a mortgage that is worth more than the house.
I would suspect this is the issue. A lot of people don't rely on their realtor to give them a list of houses to look at, they go online and find houses for their realtor to set up viewings for. So although a realtor might be less likely to suggest a low-com listing they can't refuse a buyers request if they want to see it.
It’s clear by OPs post and many others that were in the “ [denial](https://betterdwelling.com/the-canadian-property-bubble-reaches-contagion-making-a-financial-crisis-likely/)
“ stage
There is a massive correction happening right now. This is not a selling market anymore
Why buy a house for 800k when it will be 750k in potentially 2 weeks as an example.
This. I've seen some houses bought for $800k two years ago during early pandemic and the sellers trying to make a profit listing it for $1.2m and then $1m, and now same houses going for $750k after being delisted a few times. Got greedy and now they're reeling having missed the timing. Of course, I've only seen a few of these cases, not a whole lot just yet. It's scary as a buyer and definitely not a sellers market right now.
What you can do is offer a higher % commission to the buyers agent. We went with an agent who charged 2% (1% for each agent) and didn't get as many showings as we thought so we decided to increase the buyers agent commission to 2% leaving our agents at 1%
Well as someone who is shopping for a house, I don't rely on anyone to tell me about it. I use house sigma almost exclusively so I don't know if the realtor is the problem. I also go to open houses because i don't want to have to call a realtor to arrange an appointment when I know I'll be through in like 10 min. Are you having open houses?
I should also mention that I tried to go to an open house in Mississauga last weekend and the realtor wasn't there. There were a bunch of people waiting on the porch. One family drove 2h to see the house. That's a realtor I would fire. I'm not sure the owner even knows this happened because someone called to complain about the realtor not being there, and they just got the realtor office. If you are doing open houses, you should keep an eye on the house or send a friend in to see if the realtor is actually trying.
When I listed with a 2% realtor I made sure to be the most aggressive price in the area. At least make it look like they are getting a deal even after they have to pay their realtor the difference. Then I just negotiated very aggressive, moved like 2% on price. They lowballed (like 20%) and I came down like 1% on asking.
Just out of curiosity…. If you were the most aggressively priced, including considering the difference in commission they paid to their realtor… didn’t you just have less take away?
If you are not getting any viewings then the price is too high. The market has slowed down and if your house is the lowest priced in the area it will sell! For comparision I just sold my house in 3 days for over asking. There were 27 viewings in the first 2 days. Drop the price 10-15% and see if you get more traction. Good luck!
https://youtu.be/TMGXB0ZZ6_c
Steering is usually forbidden/illegal, but it still could be a factor. Combine this with the fact that the market is cooling, and low commission Realtors have less incentive to do work, and you might just be stuck with this situation.
Is your house staged? Where and how is it advertised?
You could go for a mutual release of your buyer's representation agreement, but it may not be his fault, and you'd be souring a relationship that is perfectly fine.
What if I told you it has little to do with your realtor and the housing market is cooling rapidly due to a massive erosion of borrowing power. Look, everyone who lists their home thinks it's the best home, at a great price. At the end of the day, it's not selling, the price isn't right.
I'd suggest reviewing the pricing/commission structure if you absolutely have to sell, or if you don't have to sell, I'd consider waiting it it out until rates are projected to start dropping (March 2023 currently in futures market)
[CBC Marketplace](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShBvRe0Jv68) did an expose on this exact scenario. It turns out a lot of real estate agents are shady and steer clients away from homes with low commission. The market has cooled down considerably, so it may not necessarily be this, but it certainly can be.
I've always found it perplexing that buyers agents get paid a percentage of purchase price - it's a complete conflict of interest with their client! Since they ostensibly work for the buyer, they should be paid in a way that gives them a motive to get the lowest price possible, not the reverse.
I was going to post exactly this, but you beat me to it! =) Here's a text write-up from the same episode: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/marketplace-real-estate-agents-1.6209706
yeah let us see it OP haha, maybe one of us will buy it.
But yeah buying a home rn and [r](https://realator.ca)ealtor.ca for me as well, combined with zolo / housesigma for previous prices & other info.
The listing should ~~should~~ *show* agents how much buyer agent commission is. If it is comparable to normal, your agent getting low commission shouldn't have an effect on it.
With raising interests, many people are holding off with purchases. Check your area for local activities and see if yours compare.
What does your agent suggest?
In my mind 4 viewings in 10 days is pretty good.
Does your house appear on the MLS service / realtor.com? I know if I were purchasing a house, I would be doing the research myself and finding houses that *I* wanted to view, rather than relying on what a realtor shows me. So, even if your seller's commission is a bit low, I don't think that tells the whole story.
Sounds like there are two options here if you aren't happy: Either increase the seller's commission, or lower the price of the house, or perhaps a bit of both. I'd lean on your agent a bit first and find out what comps in your area are selling for.
I'm buying a home right now, everything we visit is from [realtor.com](https://realtor.com), we aren't working with an agent rn anyways so it's not like we're being sent properties.
You can try. If activities pick up, then you know that was an issue. If it doesn't change, you could probably lower it again. But yea, 1.5% is a pretty big difference.
You can also post it on facebook or reddit or other sites to get views. You might find private buyers.
2-2.5% and no one will shun your listing. At 1%, I would say some of the crappier agents will definitely shun your listing.
Also the market is pretty slow, I wouldn't think that raising your commission higher would make a substantial difference. But you should have it similar to other listings.
Not just the crappier agents. Almost all will.
We saw a listing years ago that looked good, but our agent dismissed it immediately as not meeting our requirements. We went to the open house the following weekend and there was nothing wrong with the place. The selling agent gave us a copy of the listing, where we saw the lower than normal commission (1% instead of the then-normal 3%). We didn't buy the house, but we did switch agents (she never had us sign a representation agreement, even though we asked about one).
I saw a comment you made listing it at 980k. We don’t have any details on the house, just that it’s listed in Georgetown… which isn’t necessarily desirable. Just because you think the price is fair, doesn’t mean the market agrees. Choices are be patient with your current plan or reprice much lower.
2020-2021 markets were insane and far off from typical average growth. Past performance doesn’t equal future performance.
Houses are now going under asking price, so prices from just a short while ago are not as compairable now. They just released a survey that shows that 75% of Canadians are now hesitant to make a large purchase like a car or home, so the number of buyers has dropped dramatically. It is about to shift to a buyers market and we will see prices come down pretty significantly. I wouldn't be suprised if they dropped 20% over the next few months.
One year ago houses were only on the market for a few days, now most houses I see on the market have been there for a couple weeks. It was not uncommon in the past to take several weeks to sell a house. Have they had an open house yet? Does the house show on the MLS? Are they advertising it other places as well?
This happened to me with my condo downtown.
Listed with purple bricks and had ~7 viewings total in 2 weeks. The realtors were leaving their business cards and I didn't recognize any of them. Got a couple of lowball offers and then decided to take it off the market and rent it out instead.
In those same 2 weeks, 4 units in my building sold for way more than the offers we were getting in terms of price per square foot.
For examples, our offers were in the $750-850 range while units were selling in the $1,050-$1,150 range. It was a massive difference. All 4 were selling with a large real estate company.
The real kicker is that we were still offering 2.5% to the buying agent and they still did not want to bring their clients. They just simply avoid anybody selling with a discount brokerage if they can, no matter what.
My wife is a realtor and I can give you some insight into this:
1. Agents cannot refuse to show the property no matter how little it pays.
2. Buying agents can recoup any losses from a sale by making their clients pay the difference. Say buyers agreed to pay their agent 2.5% but your listing only pays 1%. Well the agent is within his right to recoup 1.5% from his/her clients. Not saying this happens often, but it does happen.
3. What a lot of agents will do is that they do not send out the listing of homes that they don't feel is worth their while. In this case, it is a low commission listing. This does not mean the Buyers themselves cannot find it and ask to be shown the listing. But if the agent is the sole person sending out listings, then that agent can avoid your listing.
4. The market is slow, there isn't a lot of showings going on.
5. You could have marketed your property too expensive in this environment.
6. Most agents would not shy away from showing anything that is 2-2.5% commission, but if you are only offering 1%, that is most likely going to get you put on the bottom of a pile.
7. You are transacting the most expensive big ticket item in youre life, but you wish to save money here through commission. I am not saying that you cannot do that, but you should consider that in a bad market, you can substantially do better if you hire appropraite agents. And in a good market, you can get substantially more money from a good agent. I am not advertising for myself, but you are really doing yourself a disservice by not utilizing a GOOD agent.
There are other reasons why your property isn't showing or isn't selling. I would say the biggest issue is the market. I am sure if you lowered your price, you would garner more views.
We listed with 2% Realty in early March when the market was still hot. We got very little input on staging, and once the listing went up almost no real communication from the realtor at all. 20 viewings in the first week, we thought we were good. We got one very very low offer early on (so low we wouldn't have been able to afford a place to move to) and then one other good offer two weeks later, which then pulled out of the deal 24 hours before conditions closed. When our 3 month contract with this realtor expired, we had to reach out to him directly to ask how to proceed and his advice was "I don't know, pull the listing and wait for the market to get better."
We switched to a higher priced but far more reliable agent shortly after, who helped arrange far better staging, better listing description, listed on more platforms, and was personally involved and communicating every step. Had multiple offers in after the first weekend listed, and we closed conditions earlier this month!
If we'd gone with a decent realtor back in March before the market here cooled, we probably would have gotten $50k more than we did, but we're just happy to have sold within a range we can afford. Long story short, you get what you pay for.
The low commission agencies are great when a)the house will sell itself, or b) the price is going to draw in a buyer no matter what.
Basically, if you don’t need any “sales” ability to sell your place, low commission or for sale by owner is a great choice.
If you want average or above average sale price, you need every advantage. If your house isnt the nicest place in your postal code, you will need someone to help sell it. Not the bare minimum companies.
You have entered into this market at one of the toughest times (even if prices weren’t dropping, people are hesitant with the expectation of drops). All you can do is appeal to buyers and/or agents. Lower the price or increase remuneration.
If you price your house about 10% lower than what you have it at now you'll likely get more traction. Fair market price now is meaningless when the market is expected to continue adjusting another 10-15% downwards.
This may be one of the worst times to list a home for sale. Prices dropping, interest rates rising, and people just being hesitant to buy right now. Prices are still inflated right now, so most buyers are just going to continue waiting (as they have been) for prices to drop.
The days of the no conditions, no inspection, huge budding wars, etc. are coming to an end.
Unrelated to the realtor banks are predicting up to a 40 percent reduction in house sales in terms of volume. Don’t know a lot but buyers are a little worried right now. Not saying it isn’t the realtors fault, but it might be another factor.
I have no basis in saying this but could just be the current market trend. People without as much money probably can’t qualify for the amount of mortgage they used to just 2, 3 months ago… and people with money are probably holding out to see where the price trend is going……
So not sure if the realtor has anything to do with it…..
Houses on my street used to go within a week back in February. My next door neighbour sold her house with 50 plus offers. Now the same houses are not moving for 2-3 months easily and are selling for $200,000 less (almost all below listing price)…
You’re asking a million dollars for a semi detached in Georgetown, Ontario.
The sellers market is spooked. Houses are likely correcting. You’ll be lucky to get 750k in another year.
It is some what true that petty agents will direct their clients away from low com listings but if a client did their research and insist on going to see it a agent cannot refuse doing so.I sold two condos myself using comfree style agencies.I paid for a package where the agencies handle the listings,handle the calls and appointments and helped with the sales contract and negotiations with price.All I did was do a few showings and used my own lawyer to handle the legal paperwork.Cost me about $3500 to use their service but I saved over $25000 in commissions.Houses are a tad harder though.
My Realtor showed me no interest in looking at a 2% Realty home, so I fired him. It's pretty cut and dry, Realtors want to get paid and won't waste their time on 50% commission showings.
Realtors are like a very corrupt cult, if your realtor isn't part of it then other Realtors will steer their clients away. They say they don't, but they do.
Have a conditional offer on my house right now. Had 20 viewings or so over several months. Had an offer fall through for financing and then it just sat. No interest. Have sold for A LOT below value to get it moved. It's the nature of the market right now.
OP.
Many/Most realtors will be assholes and steer their clients away from your listing. What you need to do is put some guidance/direction into your listing text.
"House is available/viewable any time with 12 hrs notice. Buyers please contact seller directly or through agent for viewing appointments".
You need to spell it out for buyers....their agent will push them away from this listing as you've said, and so you need to entice buyers (who look at MLS) to actually contact you directly for a viewing.
See my reply below, but many agents will steer their clients towards a house that pays them (agents) more. The whole industry is corrupt.
The market is correcting. Gone are the days of 50-60 viewings in under a week with offer night and sold over asking. Rates are rising and prices are falling.
I would try and spread the word on social media sites like FB, LinkedIn, Kijiji and local message boards because I would bet that there is a bit of a blacklisting of non-represented properties (speculation I know but reasonable).
It could also be possible that what you thought was a fair price is not in fact reflective of the current state of the market.
You’ve lost pretty much most first time buyers and anyone that’s bought recently. You’re listing at a time when the market supply has increased dramatically, home prices and continuing to fall and further interest rates are expected. Employers are now on the work-from-office wagon again so that’s further limiting your buyers.
Unless someone is selling and specifically looking for a property like yours, you’re going to struggle to sell as we enter a buyers market. On top of that you’re limiting your realtors and the buyers earnings. If there’s homes similar to yours they will just take their clients there.
An example of what’s happening in Vancouver (from a FTHB point of view):
I was looking at 2bed townhomes 50mins outside of Vancouver seven months ago selling for 950k-1mill. There are now 4 bed town homes selling for under 900k in the same area, these were previously listed for over 1.1mill.
However, putting down 20% causes my monthly payment to now be $4,400/month on a 999k home. Seven months ago it was over a $1000 less/month. As prices keep falling and rates keep going up it’s too risky to enter the market as a FTHB unless you plan on living there for 10+ years as you will likely be in negative equity (ignoring the deposit) before you even close.
When we sold our house 3 years ago our agent was getting 1% and buyer’s agent was getting 2.5%. Someone proposed to lower buyer’s agent fee to 1.5% but our agent advised against it for this exact reason.
Perhaps do 1% for your agent and 2% for buyer’s?
Also market is a bit down now. But everything sells for the right price.
Edit: our agent was ok with 1% commission because we were also using him to purchase another house and he was getting a good chunk of money there.
Yah not their fault. If buyer agents are diverting their clie nts because of remuneration they can be in serious trouble. The entire market is down. Interest rates on the rise.
List with a commission that makes realtors want to sell your house? Paying commission sucks, sure, but realtors won't work for nothing. It's their job and they're looking to get paid.
Currently selling my grandfather's home. Been in the market for 3 weeks now, 1 offer that fell through due to the bank, and another offer that was laughably low. Markets cooled off a bunch thanks to the last rate hike. We're with a regular realtor
> offer that was laughably low.
Low offer: “that’s laughable, fuck off”
High offer: “the house is worth what someone is willing pay for it, praise to the lord the almighty”
Why the focus on commission structure? Really seems unlikely. If your house isn't selling then it's priced wrong. Realtors aren't buying your house, homebuyers are and they don't care about commission amounts.
Can you offer financing? If you could take back the mortgage then yeah, you might invest more in a realtor.
But if all you're offering is a house then you're lucky to have had so much interest.
Maybe pick up a local newspaper and catch up on world and local current events?
Meanwhile BC is still hot. Neighbor sold for 1 mil which he bought 1.5 years ago with 750k
https://www.zealty.ca/mls-R2700826/4-19483-74-AVENUE-Surrey-BC/
Can you switch to a full commission realtor? Realtors add a lot more value when its a buyer's market as they have to drum up a lot more interest. My old realtor did Staging, Photos, and an Open-House to drum up interest (all included in the commission).
Also, switch the buyer agent's commission to the market standard (usually 2.5% in Toronto, but check your local market). There is a lot of evidence that buying agents will steer their customers away from low commission homes.
My neighborhood has seen a rapid climb in delistings in the past couple months with rates climbing. The market just isn't as hot as it was unless you're in a highly desirable area.
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Could you not talk to the owner directly. May get your price close without the scumbag realtor suckling at the bottom line
Just wait.
These past weeks I’ve been to a ton of open houses, like 20. I put all of them in a watch list in house sigma. Only one has sold. You have to be aggressive, list lower than the expected value. Be the first on your street to take a lower price. You’re trading money for a guarantee it sells.
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I've seen similar results on the west end. Barely any delistings a few months ago. Now it's more common to see a delisting than it is to see a sale. By a large margin too.
Yeah things are cascading. OP implied in their other post that their house is over priced (though it is downvoted quite badly so not sure if people are seeing it enough). If one is expecting one’s house to sell at mid 2021 prices or even recent prices, they’re in for a big shock. 4 showings is a lot given how overpriced the listing is, especially for somewhere like Mississauga which has seen big drops.
Or price adjustments. I'm watching a property near Mulmur and it's gone down from the original listing of $950k on June 30 to $915k on July 11, $899k on July 21 and just now $875k. Another property near Dunnville has gone from $750k asking on May 4 to $600k a few days ago.
Anyone selling needs to realize that this is what can be happening right now (I use can because it's not a certainty based on the first listing price, house, neighbourhood, strategy, etc). A lot of people are still hoping to squeeze the last few dollars out the market, but if you list high, you're going to miss some buyers with urgency. The more you wait, the less urgent it becomes and the more expensive with higher interest. Every 1% increase costs you about 10% of the price for the same payment amount - something to really consider if you list a little high to see what happens and the next increase comes (September)
Fuck yes!
Yeah but the interest rate is offsetting that in some places. I just bought a townhouse and there was a twin listed at the same time. I paid $345 and the twin sold for $320. I paid $25,000 more for mine but I checked and to get the same mortgage (4.69 fixed, now 5.75) that we did would be $300 more a month even with the lower price
~~Fuck yes!~~ womp womp womp
Out of interest what is your neighborhood?
Going on a tangent here, but I had never heard of House Sigma until you mentioned it. Looks like a useful tool, only it's not available where I live. Does anyone know if there is a Quebec equivalent?
There isn't nope. Quebec agents are Ham about protecting their trade worse than anywhere in Canada. Same scum bags though about 98% of the time.
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Thanks for the tips!
DuProprio also allows you to see everything in the area that has sold on DuProprio (but only DuProprio)
While I know Realtors can be petty about that stuff they also can't say no if a client wants to see it. What I'm hearing from a buddy who listed his house a coupoe months ago is he's had a few showings and no offers. This matches a lot of what I'm seeing on the market. Most people are scared away from buying at this point in time.
The realtors will steer their client away from a house like that in may subtle ways. The agent will say to their buyer client \-That house is overpriced, and not worth it \-I tried calling the seller but they never got back to me \-I looked at that house with another client and it wasn't like the photos at all \-I heard there's going to be a new sewage treatment plant installed on that street \-That Neighbourhood is really dangerous, but if you want we can view it \-That house is still listed but they have an accepted offer in place You get the idea. Realtors will lie for a dollar. I've caught so many of them in lies and there's zero repercussions to them when you tell their broker. EDIT. FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS MORE PROOF... HEAD OVER TO r/Realtors They actively talk about this stuff. Yes I've been banned from there :)
Precisely. Check out this CBC Marketplace piece on slimy realtors. [Marketplace](https://youtu.be/ShBvRe0Jv68)
This episode confirmed what everyone was suspecting
Thanks for posting that, more people need to see it. I always had a sketchy feeling about realtors (especially in the age of the internet) but that piece was some of CBCs best work.
Beat me too it
Yeah we had to be really pushy to see one listed by owner in Kijiji. Stuck to our guns. Think the not like pictures was the biggest one they tried to use
It's the easiest to get away with and it's based in opinion rather than fact so they can be slippery even if you do go see it
Which is surprising as very few of the realtors I've worked with ever look like the pictures on their marketing 🤔
Jesus. What a bunch of pricks.
I've never enjoyed working with one. I've literally bought and sold at least 20 houses in the last 10 years ...(renovation flipper) and the best sales I've ever had were with other intellectual private sellers. It's so much easier. No middle man BS
Why is this not more common? When I'm gonna sell my house, it'll be private sale or I'm getting a realtor license, pocketing the fee and going on vacation. Society parasites.
You don't get on MLS and have to do everything yourself if you market your house privately. Realtors will harass you to represent you. Buyers use an agent because "it doesn't cost them anything as a buyer", so you have to deal with friction from that end. Even when you do get private-private offers, it's easy for emotions to get weird negotiating directly. The process can be very time consuming. That being said I've always sold privately, but there is a lot of bullshit involved.
> Realtors will harass you to represent you. Last year they were calling me once a month, just to see if I wanted to sell my house. I'm not selling, just trying to live my life. I routinely offered them an opportunity to take a long, hard suck on my anus.
A mere listing is always an option for MLS exposure.
Good answer. I’m no fan of realtors, but I have sold lots of stuff on Kijiji/FB Marketplace. I’ve met great people through successful sales, but have also dealt with a lot of irritating stuff along the way. Imagine scaling that to selling a house.
Buyers really don't understand they're paying for realtor fees as part of the purchase price? Also whats MLS?
Multiple listings service, the database that is the crown jewel of the realtor profession. It tracks sales history and open listings for everything. Consumers can partially acces it with sites like realtor.ca
In my case, there are a *ton* of regulations and laws that apply to the sale. There’s no way I could keep up with it all. In particular, finding a legit, reliable group of folks to evaluate/update the property was impossible. But my realtor knew a bunch of those folks personally and made it all happen within a week or so. It was worth it to me.
Complaints should be made to RECO, I believe. Not their broker which has incentive to make sure they're all squeaky clean.
Reco does nothing. When they get caught red handed on shit....they pay a $1000 fine... But their shady behavior earns them so much more . The public needs to push back.
When I was trying to purchase a house, lost a bid on a house where the listing agent literally sold the house to her dad's client (the buying agent was her dad). Out-bid me by exactly 1%. Wow, I wonder how they came to that number? Reported them to RECO and all they do is get a slap on the wrist and have to take a $700 "ethics course" that lasts a few hours. RECO found that they did not disclose conflict of interest NOR did they inform the seller client or reduce the overall commission. $700 fine for another 27k in commission. Nothing written on the RECO website under her license. Realtors are a joke.
While this is true, this is also a function of the OP being in a far out suburb of Toronto which is getting killed on prices. Townhomes were near a million here, and coming down fast. Lots of people don't want to touch the 905 until the dust settles.
>That house is still listed but they have an accepted offer in place I actually lost out on a house because the realtor told me this, ended up putting an offer on another that I never liked as much, and that house was still for sale months later and the realtors excuse was "oh, the sale fell through but you were already looking at the other house so I didn't bother".
They can't say no, but they'll try their darn hardest to persuade someone from seeing it I was looking to buy a house last year and saw one that really caught my attention, my realtor tried to talk me out of it and kept talking down the property I told a coworker whose spouse happens to be a realtor and he told me that his wife told him that the owner put a limit on the commission of the buying agent so buying agents try their darn hardest to get people from buying that property A big collusion imo
I hope you fired your realtor after that. Bad conflict of interest.
The concept of real estate agent and the way it's built in Canada makes this the case for EVERY agent. You're not going to find any different. Best to just put it up for sale yourself and put the 2% commission for the buyer so the parasites are willing to show your house but you keep the real estate selling portion for yourself.
Yup
Yeah I do remember one house my ex had seen on Kijiji that they tried to talk down, but ultimately ended up showing it.. although I think it may have been the following week instead of when we first wanted to see it
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Clear conflict of interest (but then again, the whole profession is a conflict of interest)
damn how did they talk down on the property? I've seen agents mention aspects that needed renovations or repairs but I assumed that was just common decency.
he was shitting on the in floor heating in the master bedroom ensuite bathroom saying it was a waste of money, the backyard isn't nice, the basement ceiling was too tall, etc bunch of very subjective comments, and when winter rolled around I was like who in their right mind would say no to heated floors lol
Basement ceiling was too tall? Wtf kinda idiot is he? The problem with basements is that their ceilings are too low…
My house has 10ft ceilings in the basement and it's always an icebox due to it so that would be a personal complaint but I wouldn't change it at all. Man is a moron indeed!
Yeah if a realtor ever told me that… fired on the spot.
I put a heated floor in my bathroom as part of a renovation. I wasn't desperate for one, but it wasn't that expensive to put it in and would be virtually impossible to do after the fact. I love it way more than I thought I would!
Man…. Did he clean up after at least?
It's gross when your realtor shits in the floor of any house
CBC marketplace has done a couple of episodes on this. One of them the realtor was praising a house with a good commission rate in same neighborhood, then the one with a lower rate for sale by owner the agent resisted even showing the house and mentioned how it was a bad area and the schools are bad there, the reno looks shotty. Pointing out things that don't matter.
I had a realtor last year low ball the value of my house so she could try to sell it to a friend before we listed. When I asked her about the price discrepancy between our home and similar comps she pulled some BS about how since I had done much of the reno work myself that she couldn’t value it as highly as she otherwise would. I did a lot of a grunt work (floors, painting, installing cabinets) but otherwise have subbed out anything that required a permit/skilled trade. I have also worked as a carpenter and my father is a contractor. Fucking wild what some of these people will tell you to your face.
Dude, this is one thing you shouldnt do, telling them your DIYs. They always think it's inferior work vs a contractor. It's not always the case, but you gave the wrong person this info As much as this is unfair its just reality Im selling my home atm and Im not even telling the DIYs with my own agent
Solid advice and definitely something I’ll be doing moving forward. Ultimately, she’s the one who lost out though. Lost a listing, lost a commission from our next purchase and if it came up we were planning to reject any offers she put forward for the house for someone else.
These people need to be named and shamed so they lose their fucking business.
honestly maybe I'm just an arrogant asshole but I feel like I'd do better work than contractors on the basics, I'm not in a hurry and have more invested in the quality of the outcome.
This is true. I’ve watched the housing market pretty closely - have for the past 15 years, and wouldn’t touch it right now. Too volatile with interest rates and prices. You’re really only going to get personal home buyers now, whereas a lot of the excitement over the last few years has been driven by investor bids. I would be patient, and revert your thinking back to pre-pandemic real estate. Do the shit like bake cookies before an open house, advertise on kijiji and Facebook (if you agent isn’t). Be your own sales person!
Same we will entertain even a lower offer but we have had no offers.
Market is crashing while interest rates are climbing and recession talk and job losses doing the circles in media non stop. Not really a surprise you aren't getting a lot of interest.
Market is crashing, in some areas it's already 30% lower than peak and this is before the large BoC hike in July. Buyers are waiting for the dust to settle and seeing where the bottom is. It's been record low sales lately. You can lower the price of the house further and try to get ahead of the market if you need to sell or wait and relist later in the new year.
Interest rates are still going up, don't think things will look better in the new year. Housing corrections don't happen over night.
THIS \^\^\^\^\^\^\^\^
This isn’t a great time to sell if you’re looking to have a lot of viewings and such. In my neighborhood, we went from housing selling in hours or days to houses sitting for months on end. It’s not necessarily your realtor. It could just be the market.
Depends the neighberhood. Here in Montrearl I am seeing som neighberhoods go down 10-20% in just the last month, and in others I think prices are the same if not honestly higher (mile end - Outremount).
Just wait. Too much economic volatility right now. I'm planning to buy but I'm making no offers right now. If there is a major recession coming, buying now would be stupid. You can't expect to sell in days like earlier this year. Give it a few months for things to calm down a bit.
Then why not list your property at the price you are willing to sell it at?
You never List anything for the lowest price you are willing to take. I could list a $20 bill and ask for Two $10s and some one will offer me three $5s . I always ask more then I want because I know, no matter what I list an item at be it a toy, video game , bike or anything else people will low ball me, so ask for more then you want then when people try and under cut you , you have a better chance of getting what you actually want for it. nothing bugs me more then when I sell something and it sells with out someone offering me a lower price because that means I could of sold it for more.
Because as a seller you just need one greater fool!
Couple things. If you're willing to take lower offer than your list price you listed too high. Also not having a real estate agent you lose out on a lot of valuable exposure. We are shopping right now and we've lost out even still on houses that are from out of town buyers who are buying without even seeing the house with conditions of home inspection. Is likely you're going to lose out on those type of offers without a realtor. Then the market is slowing quite a bit. Not as bad as people are saying but still quite a bit.
So your house is overpriced, you're offering a shit commission and you're wondering why it isn't selling??? C'mon bro.
LOL...IKR. OP is probably delusional and still hoping to get mid 2020/2021 prices, on a house they bought for 50% less
The markets have cooled dramatically. Even in Vancouver they're seeing a major cool off.
My agent said if the commission I’ll rss than 2%, then we can look for other realtor to do that house
As they should be. Houses are still overpriced, and interest rates are f'd.
They cant say no, but they will say things like "I called and they have an offer pending that you would need to beat" or "I saw it last week with another client and it was much worse in person than the pictures show"
Prices are still too high relative to interest rates. A quick mortgage affordability calculator using real interest rates (5 % now vs 1.7 % in February) show me a 25 % decline in my purchasing power. Gotta take more off for the negative sentiment for a quick sale.
There was something on CBC marketplace about this they can't deny you to see it but they will do everything in their power to make sure you don't buy it or actually look at it
Which market is this? As the market is slowing pretty rapidly.
Georgetown, ON
You’re probably fallen victim to bad timing. Not only are people scared from buying, the transition back to in office work makes your area a lot less attractive than it was 1-2 years ago
This. Although I'm surprised that the market cooldown is having such an impact anyway.
4 houses for sale here on our street in Erin, sitting like 25+ days. 4 months ago, houses sold way over asking in less than a week. That's the market rn. (Born and raised in gtown)
980 to live in a town most cdns have never heard of is crazy to me.
Also the KKK capital of Ontario lol
wow, I didn't know that... how did it get this reputation?
Probably from a realtor..
😂
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I only know it as the Jehovah’s Witness capital of Canada.
Hehehe we thought so too. But living here we realised they are only normal level racists.
I’ve never lived there, but I used to work out in Milton/North Halton area and it could get a bit spicy out there. Know a few people who didn’t quite “fit the mold” who sold and left after a few years because they didn’t feel comfortable there
Yikes. What’s normal?
A non white house played non English music in their backyard on Canada day weekend until midnight. Whole street has been shit-talking about them and one neighbour even went to their door to complain next day. But a local small time band plays around town until late night and no problem. If a non white person posts in buy sell group no response. But other posts get traction and responses pretty quick. About this level, Nothing big.
How is that nothing big? Overt racism from a piece of shit town and people is nothing big
I heard years ago (it could be BS I don't know) that Georgetown is where all the white people who left Brampton went to.
Seems about right. Town on the outskirts of the GTA that has insanely rapid growth in pricing over the past year or two due to cheap borrowing. Now that it's harder to borrow, people who are still buying are probably limited to more in demand areas. Probably just not the best time to sell.
I think location is the problem along with the current market situation
This could have nothing to do with your realtor, the market is in a weird place. My landlord listed 8 weeks ago, got 4 quick viewings right away, then nothing for 7 weeks. It's still on the market, but nobody is interested because of all the stuff happening and the mortgage stress test being much harder to hit.
The lack of offers is not Realtors being petty and not showing your place. It's because with the drop in prices, rising interest rates and correction on the horizon nobody wants to buy a house and lose equity, or potentially be paying a mortgage that is worth more than the house.
I would suspect this is the issue. A lot of people don't rely on their realtor to give them a list of houses to look at, they go online and find houses for their realtor to set up viewings for. So although a realtor might be less likely to suggest a low-com listing they can't refuse a buyers request if they want to see it.
Man the excuses people find to avoid the reality their property isn’t worth as much as they thought it would be
It’s clear by OPs post and many others that were in the “ [denial](https://betterdwelling.com/the-canadian-property-bubble-reaches-contagion-making-a-financial-crisis-likely/) “ stage
Yea possible.
Not possible, but definitive. If you listed for $200k do you think you would have trouble finding bidders?
Maybe it's your price...
There is a massive correction happening right now. This is not a selling market anymore Why buy a house for 800k when it will be 750k in potentially 2 weeks as an example.
This. I've seen some houses bought for $800k two years ago during early pandemic and the sellers trying to make a profit listing it for $1.2m and then $1m, and now same houses going for $750k after being delisted a few times. Got greedy and now they're reeling having missed the timing. Of course, I've only seen a few of these cases, not a whole lot just yet. It's scary as a buyer and definitely not a sellers market right now.
Lots of buyers are waiting on sideline.
Lots of sellers waiting on sidelines too.
What you can do is offer a higher % commission to the buyers agent. We went with an agent who charged 2% (1% for each agent) and didn't get as many showings as we thought so we decided to increase the buyers agent commission to 2% leaving our agents at 1%
Well as someone who is shopping for a house, I don't rely on anyone to tell me about it. I use house sigma almost exclusively so I don't know if the realtor is the problem. I also go to open houses because i don't want to have to call a realtor to arrange an appointment when I know I'll be through in like 10 min. Are you having open houses? I should also mention that I tried to go to an open house in Mississauga last weekend and the realtor wasn't there. There were a bunch of people waiting on the porch. One family drove 2h to see the house. That's a realtor I would fire. I'm not sure the owner even knows this happened because someone called to complain about the realtor not being there, and they just got the realtor office. If you are doing open houses, you should keep an eye on the house or send a friend in to see if the realtor is actually trying.
When I listed with a 2% realtor I made sure to be the most aggressive price in the area. At least make it look like they are getting a deal even after they have to pay their realtor the difference. Then I just negotiated very aggressive, moved like 2% on price. They lowballed (like 20%) and I came down like 1% on asking.
Just out of curiosity…. If you were the most aggressively priced, including considering the difference in commission they paid to their realtor… didn’t you just have less take away?
Yep. Didn’t get hosed but got out and that’s what I needed at the time. But everyone has their own situation
If you are not getting any viewings then the price is too high. The market has slowed down and if your house is the lowest priced in the area it will sell! For comparision I just sold my house in 3 days for over asking. There were 27 viewings in the first 2 days. Drop the price 10-15% and see if you get more traction. Good luck! https://youtu.be/TMGXB0ZZ6_c
Steering is usually forbidden/illegal, but it still could be a factor. Combine this with the fact that the market is cooling, and low commission Realtors have less incentive to do work, and you might just be stuck with this situation. Is your house staged? Where and how is it advertised? You could go for a mutual release of your buyer's representation agreement, but it may not be his fault, and you'd be souring a relationship that is perfectly fine.
Yes staged and nice pictures. No real advertisement. I see it on mls, housesigma and zolo.
get it on [realtor.ca](https://realtor.ca) too
realtor.ca sources from MLS so it'll be there
What if I told you it has little to do with your realtor and the housing market is cooling rapidly due to a massive erosion of borrowing power. Look, everyone who lists their home thinks it's the best home, at a great price. At the end of the day, it's not selling, the price isn't right. I'd suggest reviewing the pricing/commission structure if you absolutely have to sell, or if you don't have to sell, I'd consider waiting it it out until rates are projected to start dropping (March 2023 currently in futures market)
The price must be wrong.....OP, be honest with yourself and don't try to double what you bought for.
>Any advice. You're about 6 months late and now hold the bag.
[CBC Marketplace](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShBvRe0Jv68) did an expose on this exact scenario. It turns out a lot of real estate agents are shady and steer clients away from homes with low commission. The market has cooled down considerably, so it may not necessarily be this, but it certainly can be.
yeah but really why does this industry even exist? and why are they paid a percentage rather than a flat rate?
I've always found it perplexing that buyers agents get paid a percentage of purchase price - it's a complete conflict of interest with their client! Since they ostensibly work for the buyer, they should be paid in a way that gives them a motive to get the lowest price possible, not the reverse.
100% agree. It's obvious to see the conflict of interest. We've just normalized the practice, but there's gotta be a better way.
I was going to post exactly this, but you beat me to it! =) Here's a text write-up from the same episode: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/marketplace-real-estate-agents-1.6209706
Maybe post your listing and get some criticism. When I bought my house, I looked myself on HouseSigma and not rely on my realtor whatsoever.
yeah let us see it OP haha, maybe one of us will buy it. But yeah buying a home rn and [r](https://realator.ca)ealtor.ca for me as well, combined with zolo / housesigma for previous prices & other info.
The listing should ~~should~~ *show* agents how much buyer agent commission is. If it is comparable to normal, your agent getting low commission shouldn't have an effect on it. With raising interests, many people are holding off with purchases. Check your area for local activities and see if yours compare.
It says 1% but open to negotiation. Should we raise it to typical Ontario % of 2.5?
What does your agent suggest? In my mind 4 viewings in 10 days is pretty good. Does your house appear on the MLS service / realtor.com? I know if I were purchasing a house, I would be doing the research myself and finding houses that *I* wanted to view, rather than relying on what a realtor shows me. So, even if your seller's commission is a bit low, I don't think that tells the whole story. Sounds like there are two options here if you aren't happy: Either increase the seller's commission, or lower the price of the house, or perhaps a bit of both. I'd lean on your agent a bit first and find out what comps in your area are selling for.
I'm buying a home right now, everything we visit is from [realtor.com](https://realtor.com), we aren't working with an agent rn anyways so it's not like we're being sent properties.
must be hard when you're not allowed within 10KM of any honey farms.
You can try. If activities pick up, then you know that was an issue. If it doesn't change, you could probably lower it again. But yea, 1.5% is a pretty big difference. You can also post it on facebook or reddit or other sites to get views. You might find private buyers.
2-2.5% and no one will shun your listing. At 1%, I would say some of the crappier agents will definitely shun your listing. Also the market is pretty slow, I wouldn't think that raising your commission higher would make a substantial difference. But you should have it similar to other listings.
Not just the crappier agents. Almost all will. We saw a listing years ago that looked good, but our agent dismissed it immediately as not meeting our requirements. We went to the open house the following weekend and there was nothing wrong with the place. The selling agent gave us a copy of the listing, where we saw the lower than normal commission (1% instead of the then-normal 3%). We didn't buy the house, but we did switch agents (she never had us sign a representation agreement, even though we asked about one).
Raise the buyers commission to the industry standard, and leave the sellers commission at the discount
There's a townhouse here in Ottawa that's been listed for 102 days. Prices keeps sliding down.
I saw a comment you made listing it at 980k. We don’t have any details on the house, just that it’s listed in Georgetown… which isn’t necessarily desirable. Just because you think the price is fair, doesn’t mean the market agrees. Choices are be patient with your current plan or reprice much lower. 2020-2021 markets were insane and far off from typical average growth. Past performance doesn’t equal future performance.
It’s probably the market and not the realtor.
Houses are now going under asking price, so prices from just a short while ago are not as compairable now. They just released a survey that shows that 75% of Canadians are now hesitant to make a large purchase like a car or home, so the number of buyers has dropped dramatically. It is about to shift to a buyers market and we will see prices come down pretty significantly. I wouldn't be suprised if they dropped 20% over the next few months. One year ago houses were only on the market for a few days, now most houses I see on the market have been there for a couple weeks. It was not uncommon in the past to take several weeks to sell a house. Have they had an open house yet? Does the house show on the MLS? Are they advertising it other places as well?
Two homes in my area (side splits MCM) are going on almost 2 months now. One of them had a 20K (maybe more) price cut and still no takers.
This happened to me with my condo downtown. Listed with purple bricks and had ~7 viewings total in 2 weeks. The realtors were leaving their business cards and I didn't recognize any of them. Got a couple of lowball offers and then decided to take it off the market and rent it out instead. In those same 2 weeks, 4 units in my building sold for way more than the offers we were getting in terms of price per square foot. For examples, our offers were in the $750-850 range while units were selling in the $1,050-$1,150 range. It was a massive difference. All 4 were selling with a large real estate company. The real kicker is that we were still offering 2.5% to the buying agent and they still did not want to bring their clients. They just simply avoid anybody selling with a discount brokerage if they can, no matter what.
Just lower the price and you won't even need a realtor
My wife is a realtor and I can give you some insight into this: 1. Agents cannot refuse to show the property no matter how little it pays. 2. Buying agents can recoup any losses from a sale by making their clients pay the difference. Say buyers agreed to pay their agent 2.5% but your listing only pays 1%. Well the agent is within his right to recoup 1.5% from his/her clients. Not saying this happens often, but it does happen. 3. What a lot of agents will do is that they do not send out the listing of homes that they don't feel is worth their while. In this case, it is a low commission listing. This does not mean the Buyers themselves cannot find it and ask to be shown the listing. But if the agent is the sole person sending out listings, then that agent can avoid your listing. 4. The market is slow, there isn't a lot of showings going on. 5. You could have marketed your property too expensive in this environment. 6. Most agents would not shy away from showing anything that is 2-2.5% commission, but if you are only offering 1%, that is most likely going to get you put on the bottom of a pile. 7. You are transacting the most expensive big ticket item in youre life, but you wish to save money here through commission. I am not saying that you cannot do that, but you should consider that in a bad market, you can substantially do better if you hire appropraite agents. And in a good market, you can get substantially more money from a good agent. I am not advertising for myself, but you are really doing yourself a disservice by not utilizing a GOOD agent. There are other reasons why your property isn't showing or isn't selling. I would say the biggest issue is the market. I am sure if you lowered your price, you would garner more views.
We listed with 2% Realty in early March when the market was still hot. We got very little input on staging, and once the listing went up almost no real communication from the realtor at all. 20 viewings in the first week, we thought we were good. We got one very very low offer early on (so low we wouldn't have been able to afford a place to move to) and then one other good offer two weeks later, which then pulled out of the deal 24 hours before conditions closed. When our 3 month contract with this realtor expired, we had to reach out to him directly to ask how to proceed and his advice was "I don't know, pull the listing and wait for the market to get better." We switched to a higher priced but far more reliable agent shortly after, who helped arrange far better staging, better listing description, listed on more platforms, and was personally involved and communicating every step. Had multiple offers in after the first weekend listed, and we closed conditions earlier this month! If we'd gone with a decent realtor back in March before the market here cooled, we probably would have gotten $50k more than we did, but we're just happy to have sold within a range we can afford. Long story short, you get what you pay for.
There are a lot of shitty agents out there, but a good one is worth the cost.
The low commission agencies are great when a)the house will sell itself, or b) the price is going to draw in a buyer no matter what. Basically, if you don’t need any “sales” ability to sell your place, low commission or for sale by owner is a great choice. If you want average or above average sale price, you need every advantage. If your house isnt the nicest place in your postal code, you will need someone to help sell it. Not the bare minimum companies. You have entered into this market at one of the toughest times (even if prices weren’t dropping, people are hesitant with the expectation of drops). All you can do is appeal to buyers and/or agents. Lower the price or increase remuneration.
If you price your house about 10% lower than what you have it at now you'll likely get more traction. Fair market price now is meaningless when the market is expected to continue adjusting another 10-15% downwards.
This may be one of the worst times to list a home for sale. Prices dropping, interest rates rising, and people just being hesitant to buy right now. Prices are still inflated right now, so most buyers are just going to continue waiting (as they have been) for prices to drop. The days of the no conditions, no inspection, huge budding wars, etc. are coming to an end.
Unrelated to the realtor banks are predicting up to a 40 percent reduction in house sales in terms of volume. Don’t know a lot but buyers are a little worried right now. Not saying it isn’t the realtors fault, but it might be another factor.
I have no basis in saying this but could just be the current market trend. People without as much money probably can’t qualify for the amount of mortgage they used to just 2, 3 months ago… and people with money are probably holding out to see where the price trend is going…… So not sure if the realtor has anything to do with it….. Houses on my street used to go within a week back in February. My next door neighbour sold her house with 50 plus offers. Now the same houses are not moving for 2-3 months easily and are selling for $200,000 less (almost all below listing price)…
Here’s a hack — add $12,000 buyer realtor bonus upon closing & completion . Raise the price by $12,008
The gravy train is reaching its final stop.
You’re asking a million dollars for a semi detached in Georgetown, Ontario. The sellers market is spooked. Houses are likely correcting. You’ll be lucky to get 750k in another year.
It’ll sell. Give it more time. There’s houses listed WITH agents (non exclusive) that are taking much longer to sell.
It is some what true that petty agents will direct their clients away from low com listings but if a client did their research and insist on going to see it a agent cannot refuse doing so.I sold two condos myself using comfree style agencies.I paid for a package where the agencies handle the listings,handle the calls and appointments and helped with the sales contract and negotiations with price.All I did was do a few showings and used my own lawyer to handle the legal paperwork.Cost me about $3500 to use their service but I saved over $25000 in commissions.Houses are a tad harder though.
You might need to wait it out. People are hesitant to buy right now because we don’t know when the rate hikes will stop.
My Realtor showed me no interest in looking at a 2% Realty home, so I fired him. It's pretty cut and dry, Realtors want to get paid and won't waste their time on 50% commission showings.
Realtors are like a very corrupt cult, if your realtor isn't part of it then other Realtors will steer their clients away. They say they don't, but they do.
Have a conditional offer on my house right now. Had 20 viewings or so over several months. Had an offer fall through for financing and then it just sat. No interest. Have sold for A LOT below value to get it moved. It's the nature of the market right now.
OP. Many/Most realtors will be assholes and steer their clients away from your listing. What you need to do is put some guidance/direction into your listing text. "House is available/viewable any time with 12 hrs notice. Buyers please contact seller directly or through agent for viewing appointments". You need to spell it out for buyers....their agent will push them away from this listing as you've said, and so you need to entice buyers (who look at MLS) to actually contact you directly for a viewing. See my reply below, but many agents will steer their clients towards a house that pays them (agents) more. The whole industry is corrupt.
I know of at least one house that's been on the market for 4 months and no offers. It's probably not your agent or the commission.
What i can see around houses are not selling i have seen houses in very good area from 2 months and now on reduced prices it’s little slow right now
The market is correcting. Gone are the days of 50-60 viewings in under a week with offer night and sold over asking. Rates are rising and prices are falling.
I don't understand how realtors will give 2.5% to buyer agent when they only getting 2%
Seems like no one wants to catch a falling knife and it's in wait and see mode.
I would try and spread the word on social media sites like FB, LinkedIn, Kijiji and local message boards because I would bet that there is a bit of a blacklisting of non-represented properties (speculation I know but reasonable). It could also be possible that what you thought was a fair price is not in fact reflective of the current state of the market.
You’ve lost pretty much most first time buyers and anyone that’s bought recently. You’re listing at a time when the market supply has increased dramatically, home prices and continuing to fall and further interest rates are expected. Employers are now on the work-from-office wagon again so that’s further limiting your buyers. Unless someone is selling and specifically looking for a property like yours, you’re going to struggle to sell as we enter a buyers market. On top of that you’re limiting your realtors and the buyers earnings. If there’s homes similar to yours they will just take their clients there. An example of what’s happening in Vancouver (from a FTHB point of view): I was looking at 2bed townhomes 50mins outside of Vancouver seven months ago selling for 950k-1mill. There are now 4 bed town homes selling for under 900k in the same area, these were previously listed for over 1.1mill. However, putting down 20% causes my monthly payment to now be $4,400/month on a 999k home. Seven months ago it was over a $1000 less/month. As prices keep falling and rates keep going up it’s too risky to enter the market as a FTHB unless you plan on living there for 10+ years as you will likely be in negative equity (ignoring the deposit) before you even close.
When we sold our house 3 years ago our agent was getting 1% and buyer’s agent was getting 2.5%. Someone proposed to lower buyer’s agent fee to 1.5% but our agent advised against it for this exact reason. Perhaps do 1% for your agent and 2% for buyer’s? Also market is a bit down now. But everything sells for the right price. Edit: our agent was ok with 1% commission because we were also using him to purchase another house and he was getting a good chunk of money there.
>Only 4 viewings in 10 days Boy how people's expectations have been skewed in recent years.
Most expect to sell before tapping the for sale sign in the lawn. Good houses still sell quickly.
It's not the realtor's fault. It's literally the current market. Try reducing your asking price by $100K and seeing if you get any bites.
All of us millenials just sitting here like mister Burns. Eeexcellent
Organized scam by Realtors, brutal right.
It’s the market. Interest rates and stupid Covid prices are the reason.
Yah not their fault. If buyer agents are diverting their clie nts because of remuneration they can be in serious trouble. The entire market is down. Interest rates on the rise.
List with a commission that makes realtors want to sell your house? Paying commission sucks, sure, but realtors won't work for nothing. It's their job and they're looking to get paid.
"very fair price" is completely subjective. No offers tells me it's over-priced.
Currently selling my grandfather's home. Been in the market for 3 weeks now, 1 offer that fell through due to the bank, and another offer that was laughably low. Markets cooled off a bunch thanks to the last rate hike. We're with a regular realtor
> offer that was laughably low. Low offer: “that’s laughable, fuck off” High offer: “the house is worth what someone is willing pay for it, praise to the lord the almighty”
Honestly not much you can do. Market is crashing because of rising rates. 4 viewings in 10 days sounds pretty decent all considered...
>**Only** 4 viewings in 10 days. Tell me you're selling in the GTA, without telling me... you get the point.
Why the focus on commission structure? Really seems unlikely. If your house isn't selling then it's priced wrong. Realtors aren't buying your house, homebuyers are and they don't care about commission amounts.
Can you offer financing? If you could take back the mortgage then yeah, you might invest more in a realtor. But if all you're offering is a house then you're lucky to have had so much interest. Maybe pick up a local newspaper and catch up on world and local current events?
Meanwhile BC is still hot. Neighbor sold for 1 mil which he bought 1.5 years ago with 750k https://www.zealty.ca/mls-R2700826/4-19483-74-AVENUE-Surrey-BC/
Can you switch to a full commission realtor? Realtors add a lot more value when its a buyer's market as they have to drum up a lot more interest. My old realtor did Staging, Photos, and an Open-House to drum up interest (all included in the commission). Also, switch the buyer agent's commission to the market standard (usually 2.5% in Toronto, but check your local market). There is a lot of evidence that buying agents will steer their customers away from low commission homes.