Walk a Kb or Two in my Moccasins- Nobody 'splained it to me like that!

Simple answers to Complex Questions and Complex Answers to Simple Questions. In real life, I'm a Greater-Toronto (Canada) Realtor with RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd, Brokerage. I first joined RE/MAX in 1983 and was first Registered to Trade in Real Estate in Ontario in 1974. Formerly known as "Two-Finger Ramblings of a Forensic Acuitant turned Community Synthesizer"

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Location: Province of Greater Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Are the days of the licensed realtor numbered due to the web and pay per listing?

Q. Are the days of the licensed realtor numbered due to the web and pay per listing?


from Zoocasa
Ask the Pros


A. Days numbered? yes for some.




But .... the attrition rate for Sales Reps is historically 80% in first two years. So this "new era" will only be one factor.



Many folks in industry today started their careers after 1997 and know only Seller's Market and or Boom conditions.



A return to "normal" ie Buyer's Market or "balanced" conditions will be a shock. Recall Q4 2008 and Jan 2009? Listings easy, full commissions promised at listing-time and sales difficult?



The web is but an info source and advertising vehicle - like the Saturday TorStar and the Friday Globe & Mail used to be.



What buyers want initially is "all the info on all the homes", then ... they discover that they need to filter the info and want ONLY to see good-value homes, IN their price-range and IN their target market-niches.



The rest don't matter.



The result is, Buyers either find their "dream home" by gracious good fortune within a few weeks OR find a Registrant who seems to understand their needs/wants/objectives and has a selling-style or personal-manner that agrees with the Buyer.



Then together, the registrant sorts and suggests and the Buyers view only the "best of the bunch"



Simply placing a property on a website (even on www.realtor.ca TM) is not sufficient in a competitive market of many listings.



The Buyer Brokers "match the buyer to the home" -s/he's not an order-taker (in a normal market anyway) in an effort to find the buyer a suitable property within a reasonable time-expenditure on the BUYERBROKER's part - and as a result in a time-efficient manner for the Buyer her/himself.



Money IS time.



The Listing Agent's primary job is to prepare the Seller's expectations on time and money.



The Seller must be acclimatized to the current up or down value ACHIEVABLE within the amount of time they have to offer the home for sale ... allow for viewings .... allow for conditions and searches ... until the closing.



Example it's Dec 15/2010 and the seller want to move to Calgary for a new job on March 31/2011.



Work backwards March 31 is planned closing ...allow 60 days ... must have a firm transaction by Jan 31, so need a conditional offer accepted by Jan 15.



Allowing 4 weeks to find a buyer (notwithstanding school-break/ seasonal 'pause' Dec 20-Jan 10)gotta get going today!!



The changes I predict we'll see are with "teams" - they'll get smaller, 2-4 family or close members.



The pace will change and so carrying 30-50 listings as a "Team Leader" and delegating servicing to others will be more difficult if homes stay for sale beyond 33 days .... Sellers want attention ... personal attention.



The "great promise" of "list for small fee and pay only $1 to Buyer Broker" concept has already faded.



The Seller who is attracted to the idea of "out-smarting" the commission-based sales force .... soon discovers s/he's outsmarted her/himself as s/he gets no reaction from Buyer Brokers and super-discount offers from private and or "assisted" buyers.



We'll talk about again in 12 months.

A listing says "Fronting on the South", what would it mean?

From Zoocasa
Ask the Pros

Q. In Real Estate Terms, what does "Fronting" mean? Say a house says "Fronting on the South", what would it mean?



A. The term goes back to "Metes & Bounds" description system of land under the Torrens system (used by surveyors and the Registry system est. in Ontario/Upper Canada after 1791).



A parcel of land (almost always)must touch a roadway, so the legal description started with a point on a road. It carried on by saying ~ 220 feet on a bearing of x degrees SSE, then westerly 150 feet on a bearing of ? degrees, then .....on and on ... returning to the point of commencent.



If a road runs north-south, then the properties "front" on the east or west side of that n/s road.



Similarly, properties "front" on the north and south side of an east-west road.



Recently confusion has arisen because in condos the direction stated on listings is the direction faced by the "Exterior Exposure" ie what the "view" is from the windows.



Listing accuracy is important regarding "Fronting" because some buyers prefer certain "exposures" ie front door facing N or S or E or W for sunlight (inside or in garden) or for artistic or geomancy reasons.



Just be mindful of whether you're looking at a condo or freehold listing and then use the "Front on X side of a Street" or "views towards" rule.


rce
Dec 11/10

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