Interview your Realtor!

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For about the past 10 or so years the Real Estate market has been on a steady upward pace that has been unprecedented. While previous good markets in real estate would see some areas of Canada gaining of 6-9% in value per year, the last ten years have seen increases of value in the 20% per year across the country, and in some areas as much as 30% year over year. With these types of returns it was little wonder that there was a huge amount of investors from this country and beyond who wanted a piece of that market which continued to drive the market.

Then Ukraine hit, and for the first time, listing Realtors who for the last ten plus years simply needed to list a property and wait for the multiple offers to come in and list it as “sold”, now had to figure out how to get those listings sold in a quickly softening market. Now you might think that this shouldn’t be such a difficult task for a Realtor because they are trained to sell real estate and should know how to deal with a changing market, but there you would be wrong. You see, since the Real Estate Council of Ontario took over education of realtors there is nothing in the Real Estate licence curriculum about marketing or selling real estate. That’s right, the realtor you hired to sell your house has never been taught 1 minute of marketing real estate. Realtors are taught a myriad of other subjects including agency law, types of real estate, parts of the house, inspections, representation and so forth but not one minute on marketing Real Estate or market research to determine where your property should be positioned in a falling market, or any market. How to market and sell Real Estate is left to the realtor themselves and to their broker of record or manager if the Realtor is interested in learning. But what needed to be learned since 2009?  

So, with a complete lack of any education on selling real estate it is little wonder that approximately 80% of Realtors leave the industry every 5 years. They simply have never been taught how to do the job. So here is the difficult point for you the home seller, with an average attrition rate of 80% of Realtors leaving the market every 5 years, a 10 plus year market that didn’t require much if any skill in marketing, and older Realtors leaving the market for retirement, how many Realtors are actually in the business that know how to market or negotiate? Most likely what we are left with is only 5-7% of Realtors currently working in the industry have ever had to negotiate an offer, have ever had to market a property, or have had to do the research to ensure your property is properly positioned in the market so it will sell.

Even though the Realtor you called may have been selling 2 houses a month prior to the downturn in the market, what do they know about marketing? And with a market that is dropping in value about 2% per month are you just going to sign the papers and hope for the best, or are you going to ask some questions? Remember what the investment industry says, “ past performance is no guarantee of future returns”. So ask these questions and add some to the list if you like, and remember, the realtor you hire is going to sell the biggest investment you have ever made.

  1. What was a property that was difficult for you to sell and how did you market the property?
  2. What were the toughest negotiations you were ever involved with and how many sign backs did you have before putting the deal together?
  3. What price should I list my property at and why?
  4. In todays market how long do you think it is going to take my property to sell?
  5. Where are the buyers for properties like mine coming from and how many are buying per month?
  6. What are you going to do to market my property?
  7. How quickly is the market dropping in my area?

Once you’ve made the decision to hire a Realtor, it does not mean that your property will be the next one to sell, but having a skilled Realtor could make the difference between selling or chasing the market as it continues to drop.

Michael Marienwald has been in the Real Estate industry since 1989 and has seen his share of down markets. Michael holds both a Certified Real Estate and Accredited Auctioneer of Real Estate designation, and is a Broker of record at Anchor Realty Brokerage, President of Mountain Realty Brokerage and Founder and President of North American Auctioneers, a national Real Estate auction company.

#NorthAmericanAuctioneers #RealEstateAuction #Auction #PropertyAuction #PropertyForSale #HomeForSale #HouseForSale #HomeAuction #HouseAuction #PropertyAuction #BuyAHome #auctioncanada #auctionontario #anchorrealty


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AUTHOR’S NOTE:

Michael Marienwald is founder and president of North American Auctioneers, Broker of record for Anchor Realty and president of Mountain Realty. He is one of 4 Accredited Auctioneers of Real Estate in Canada, and a Certified Real Estate Auctioneer. Michael has been selling Real Estate conventionally and through auction throughout Canada since 1989 and has also taught Real Estate auctioning at the Ontario School of Auctioneering. 

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