QUICK HITS
- Realtors in Canada are increasingly failing to show up to scheduled house showing appointments without notice.
- The rise in “ghosting” has been attributed partly to the explosion of new agents with little experience or training.
- Realtor education around professional standards is in need of reform, according to Toronto Regional Real Estate Board President Kevin Crigger.
There’s been a steady rise in the number of agents not turning up for scheduled house showing appointments in recent years. It’s accepted that realtors may have to cancel, even at the last minute. But failing to show up without letting the listing agent know is verboten, and many in the industry are fed up.
“It’s incredibly unprofessional,” says Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) president Kevin Crigger. “It’s certainly a concern. Sellers go to a lot of trouble to prepare for a showing. It’s frustrating to them when no one shows up.”
Sellers and renters tell stories of cleaning their home to white-glove standards, picking up every Cheerio, packing up the kids and pets and driving somewhere to sit in their SUV for much of the day during showings, only to discover later that no one even turned up.
The rise of “ghosting”
To varying degrees, this type of ‘ghosting’ occurs coast to coast. Reportedly it tends to crop up more in large municipalities and hot markets.
There are assorted potential causes, among them blatant entitlement and disrespect. The increasing facelessness of the industry is likely a factor, taking into account virtual transactions and swelling numbers of out-of-town agents. And there’s plain old bad planning. Realtors in one community accuse those in another of not knowing enough about the area to allow time to reach appointments punctually, or at all.
Although realtors of any age can be at fault, the recent Canada-wide explosion of new agents has played a pivotal role. These entrants tend to have “less experience and less engagement,” particularly as their training during pandemic shutdowns was virtual, hands-off, and likely focused on deskwork more than on the practical aspects of the job, Crigger and others note. They haven’t yet learned showing etiquette, in other words.
New agents lack experience and training
“One of the elements of licensing education should be a focus on these professional obligations,” states Crigger. New agents with no idea what to do in the field may land in a brokerage that doesn’t mentor them. Realtor education around professional standards is key both for fledging and established realtors and is in need of reform, in Crigger’s opinion.
“We need to do more as an industry to educate our membership.” TRREB has taken its own steps to do this, he explains, adding, “It’s promising that over the last couple of years, we haven’t seen repeat offenders at professional standards” where no-shows are concerned. As the largest housing market in Canada, Toronto tends to be regarded as the wayward poster child of no-shows, perpetually blameworthy.
Realtor education needs reform
In reality, “it’s a small fraction of agents” who no-show, says Crigger. “But that being said, there’s no excuse for it.” Realtors have an ethical and professional responsibility “to immediately advise the listing brokerage – who in turn will advise the seller – prior to the appointment if cancelling or late,” Crigger advises.
“Pick up the phone or go on the (booking) app. You can notify people quickly. There are lots of options. There’s less excuse now than ever before not to do so.” Realtors need to report no-shows to their provincial regulator or local board, he stresses. “There are rules around this. It ties into professionalism. There is a range of options to deal with this, from a reprimand to fines and/or ordering the agent to take education courses.”
Real estate blogger and Bosley-Toronto Realty Group broker David Fleming agrees that more agents should report this violation. To some realtors, a showing is “just a house,” he speculates. “They don’t recognize it’s someone’s home,” and how seriously no-shows can impact owners. Fleming is tired of agents’ excuses and believes that “unless stiff fines are imposed,” nothing is likely to change.
“We need to work together. There’s no perfect solution.” Unfortunately, many realtors find that going the official route leads nowhere. A case in point may be the Ontario real estate regulator, which the provincial auditor general recently found often to be neither effective nor timely when dealing with complaints.
A learning opportunity
Says Calgary realtor and coach Michael Montgomery, “I think it’s best to give the agent the benefit of the doubt and hope they make this a learning opportunity. I’d simply call the agent and let them know how this impacted the seller… If the issue persists with a given agent, our process in Alberta is to have the brokers discuss it before going to the regulator.”
Kitchener, Ont. realtor David Schooley, a local newspaper columnist answering readers’ real estate questions, thinks that no-shows may be “one of those problems” amplified by the frustrations of the pandemic, harking back to when every showing had multiple bookings, each with only a 30-minute window.
The protocols and market are different now, but the problem of no-shows hasn’t gone away and won’t without further education, Schooley feels. When you don’t cancel, you’re adding to the sellers’ stress and the listing agents’, he says. “Just cancel.”
Susan Doran is a Toronto-based freelance writer who has been contributing to REM since its very first issue.
Fabulous article. As a member of our Professional Standards Committee, I have seen this complaint come to our meetings far to many times. And the excuses that agents use for not cancelling or notifying listing agents of a cancelation run form ridiculous to stupid. Even with financial penalties at stake, many agents (and yes, many of them new and less experienced) still can’t have to curtesy to call, text or email the listing agent in a timely manner.
Speaking of pandemics, this disregard not only for the rules but for common curtesy is hitting pandemic rates and needs to be stopped through education, tough enforcement of board rules and fines that really hurt!
Financial penalties at stake and financial penalties being imposed are entirely two different animals. TRREB needs to raise its professional standards. I’m tired of deaf ears at TRREB as so many are. Why bother to report it when penalties won’t be imposed and are only at stake.
Get ready for more poor behaviour. With the high degree of advertising for people to get in the business, real estate recruiting at perhaps an all time high, there will be more hungry mouths who will do anything, say anything and behave poorly.
Exactly. Time for Humber College to put a lid on it!
Heavy penalties, would fix this problem, cant pay the fine get out, this is a fantastic career and it should be respected as such. If Salespeople cannot follow the rules that we have then get out.
I can’t accept that the lack of common courtesy and professionalism is a “new agent” phenonmenon. But I would only add the following to a very good article:
for new agents any orientation ( which should be compulsory) should inlcude a recap of professional obligations to clients, customers and professional colleagues, and generally speaking brokers of record, and broker managers should be reminding all their agents about the professional requirements at meetings, brokerage wide emails, etc. There is no excuse for a lack of courtesy or a lack of communication especially when it is apparent that you will be late or need to cancel an appointment. When it happens it is an embarassment for the industry and as noted creates some grief for the Seller and their representatives.
In twenty years of experience, I realized that ANY Real Estate board in Canada has only one thing in mind: TO COLLECT MORE MONEY. (even when they say: “your success is our goal”). They don’t care if you sell one house or 50 houses per year
You don’t need education from boards to cancel an appointment. It’s common sense and a matter of respect. What a board is going to do about that ? Put a fine ? Ha !
“Education” is just a “by-product” which, by the way, it’s another excuse to get more money because in general, the courses are terrible and useless. But, at $44 per agent… make your calculation.
Just as an example of greed:, We don’t need almost 70,000 agents in Toronto and GTA. We are more than enough. But… the more licenses they give, the more the money they get. This is the reason why there are a lot of “disrespectful” agents out there (those who think that Real Estate is an easy job for everybody)
As Liza Minelli sung in the movie Cabaret: “money, money, money…”
We need a reset of our associations… where to begin.
Couldn’t agree with you more…you hit the nail on the head & time to get rid of the waste!!
Should an etiquette session should be taught at every Brokerage when they hire someone? The Brokerage could be made more accountable as it’s their reputation on the line as well.
We have living in Mexico for over 10 years now… here the word for appointment is “cita” and we find the Realtors to be early (and waiting in their cars) or right on time.
Strangely enough the only one late (and he apologized profusely) was very experienced Realtor from Toronto!
Lack of common courtesy is very irritating but not an offence.
Financial penalties at stake and financial penalties being imposed are entirely two different animals. TRREB needs to raise its professional standards. I’m tired of deaf ears at TRREB as so many are. Why bother to report it when penalties won’t be imposed and are only at stake.
It’s definitely unprofessional and disrespectful probably in part due to the fact that with waning sales these unprofessional agents don’t like the fact they actually have to spend more time working for less.
But the uglier side of this is found under RECO’s discliplinary actions where a significant number of all complaints (as published) are against those unprofessional and disrespectful agents who can’t be bothered to attend but instead give the buyers lockbox access to help themselves through the property.
The education system hasn’t gotten any better, it’s actually worse! But that’s what happens when you allow passit cheat sheets and online courses that are ripe for cheating.
I have one comment for those who do this irrespectfully with no personal/client rare medical emergency situation as a valid excuse: please stop and get with the program- understand you are just being plain stupid.
There is no excuse for ghosting in any profession, especially those where your paycheck relies on sales.
This will become a better argued for the listing DIYers who think agents are a big fat waste of money. Just sayin ‘
This is not GHOSTING. It may be a trendy word, but it still needs to be used properly.
Good article. You can’t teach good manners or professionalism. You can’t teach common sense either. And brokers don’t care about their reputation either. All they’re interested in is money. Just take a look at “MARKET PLACE”. Nothing gets done and Real Estate as a profession gets yet more bad publicity!
Here in the Vancouver Board, we have this situation you refer to as “ghosting” but with a different flavour. For better or worse, it is now standard procedure that Listing Agents attend at all the showings. Not only do Buyer’s agents not show up at all, in some cases they simply send their clients, unescorted, and expect that the Listing Agent will show the property. This practice has resulted in some nasty exchanges and complaints to our Professional Conduct Committee.
Any agent who fails to communicate to the LB a cancellation or change of appointment time should be put on notice, after that suspend them. This type of realtor is not welcome in our business. Lack of respect and consideration unfortunately prevails everywhere in our society. It is up to RECO/TRREB to weed out these types. Spend your time setting higher standards for the industry with serious repercussions for those not adhering to the rules.
Toronto being the problem as per usual
It’s the person (agent) not the amount of experience they have. Consideration doesn’t come with years of experience.
The whole industry needs a reset, from Commission Fees to pressure sales to underhanded deals and flipping. The greed has floated to the top like cream and that is not the cream of the crop. Too many agents, illegal signs, signs left in place for weeks exceeding local bylaws, directional signs at every corner (illegal) when its not open house and social media take over. Seems every application like LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook are all about Realtors and their luxurious parties events travels. Looking like a Reality Show is perhaps not the image to portray. Posing you big boats cottages expensive cars and travel. You are a realtor not a brain surgeon. The videos and posts have shifted from I am so great I sold the house in 2 hours to trying to convince the public now is a great time to buy or sell during a recession, inflation and high interest rates. Let the natural culling of excess begin.
“explosion of new agents”? How many exactly are we talking about?
You do not need any training to know that you should cancel as soon as you know that you will not be able to make the appointment. I did notice that the quality of people’s character has gone down in general. Mostly in younger people who have no respect and a feeling of entitlement. A blame education for that. It is a sign of times
It’s time the Brokerage Owner and the in house managers are held accountable for these inconsiderate agents.
Broker owners and managers turn a blind eye, because they bring in $$ and fees monthly .