Here is a lesson that Greater Toronto Realtors recently learned, but it applies to all markets. If your client purchased a home in the GTA during the frenzied early months of 2017 and had not sold their home in advance, why did you wait to list their house? Was there work that needed to be done first? Did you think you had time and that the market would even continue to prosper? You aren’t alone.
Now let’s address the issues at hand. You are a real estate agent, not an order taker. You are paid to advise and consult and offer the most professional advice and opinions possible to your clients.
If you have a buyer out looking at homes with the intention of buying, and their current home needs some attention before going to market, your advice and direction should be to have the work done immediately so when they enter in to a binding agreement with a seller, their current home is ready to go market the next day.
Have a look at the many buyers who have firm and binding deals that they entered into in February or March and will be closing soon, who waited to put their homes on the market in May. Do you see the problem?
Markets are not guaranteed. I’m sure you have been to a high-end restaurant and on the menu next to lobster or fish, it says, “market price”. That’s because it can differ at any moment.
Real estate markets are no different. You can’t “wish” them to always be good or stay the same. My best advice is to not be a cheerleader, be a leader when it comes to looking after your clients.
Jeffrey Wagman is a partner and broker of record at Forest Hill Real Estate in Toronto. He sells homes and condominiums in the central Toronto market and is consistently ranked in the top one per cent of all real estate salespeople in Toronto.
