By Tina Gardin
We still hear more lawyer jokes than Realtor jokes. I prefer the candid teasing to the veiled hostility I sometimes sense around my beloved profession.
Realtors are the life blood of the cornerstone of our wealth portfolio. How’s that? Realtors have established a reliable market for real estate over the past 100 years by creating a complex infrastructure that establishes a predictable market for properties. Without this infrastructure, it would be impossible to correctly price and successfully market a property. Realtors fund this infrastructure in its entirety.
They pay local board dues, provincial and national association and regulatory dues. Realtors lobby for property rights and monitor the climate. Typically they are volunteers in this process. They establish pricing based on their industry’s data with surprising accuracy using our beloved, Realtor-funded and populated MLS system. This Realtor-created market has helped our portfolios yield an incredible, leveraged return.
The MLS is not always successful, by the way. In a balanced market, less than 40 per cent of the MLS properties sell. In a downturn, it can be as low as one in 12. That means that while MLS is necessary to the successful sale and pricing of a property, it is not sufficient. Having a good agent is still key to the process.
On that point, I also suggest to clients that before a hug is warranted, they should be sure that the Realtor is the real deal. That would mean that they are full time and serious about the business. They would work at a brokerage that feels that they have a duty of care in the training, supervision and conduct of their sales staff. They would also participate in the conversation by being involved in the industry to help elevate the profession, or they are working at a brokerage that is active in that regard.
We are seeing more warehouse models where agent numbers far exceed appropriate management ratios. I fear this might ultimately diminish us all. Maybe just a handshake for those guys?
Tina Gardin is the creator of the New Age Agent Program offered exclusively at Sutton Quantum Realty Inc. in Mississauga and Oakville. www.suttonquantum.com
