Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Alright welcome to another episode of my video blog. 3 2 1. Okay Jon what have we got?
We have a For Sale By Owner Alert. You need to deal with that mistake people make in real
estate. Then you'll finish off with Did You Know? You need to talk about Bird Dog Fees.
Alright thanks Jon. Let's go over to that "For Sale By Owner".
Siri what should I say to the owner? A Canadian, a Brit and American iPhone walk into a bar.
Wait I forget the rest. That's ok. That's not really the information I was looking for.
LOL Okay let's get some comparables up on this
property and make adjustments for time, distance, and features & benefits. I'm on it.
You know according to Royal LePage, 90% of FSBO's end up listing with a REALTORĀ®. What
is an FSBO? It's short for For Sale By Owner. I thought so.
Anyway, unfortunately, what they do ends up creating confusion in the marketplace when
the REALTORĀ® needs to re-position the property from a marketing standpoint. They would have
been better off going to the REALTOR in the first place.
FSBO's don't seem to understand. Even with changes brought about by the Competition Bureau
opening it up to a more sell yourself approach through MLS systems, that people need to understand
my buyers do not usually pay for the buyer's portion of the commission. They get professional
representation without paying out of pocket in most cases. If a listing is not paying
a buyers commission, that means my buyers will have to pay it to the brokerage. When
faced with that option, they are likely to opt out of purchasing that property. Also,
my concern is with dealing with the buyer directly that my clients need to be aware
they people are not required to follow our board rules & regulations. They are also dealing
with someone who does not have errors and omissions insurance.
To sell your home for top dollar, you need to cast a large net to attract a lot of buyers.
Even Melanie Aiken, the former commissioner for the Competition Bureau who fought so hard
for discount services knew that, she reportedly listed her Toronto home for 1,849,000, with
a full service brokerage, and they sold it within 6 days for considerably more than that.
Is that so? The creator for the ForSaleByOwner.com web
site resorted to paying a 6% commission for his two bedroom condo in New York to be sold.
Well....where does that leave others who want to try to sell themselves or actually sell
but below market value.
Water finds it's own level. It's time for did you know?
Did You Know it is unacceptable for REALTOR to pay a "bird dog fee" in Ontario, Canada?
It's a popular enough subject that the Real Estate Council of Ontario published a bulletin
about it. In the bulletin it defines a "bird dog fee" as "some form of compensation paid
to a 3rd party to a real estate transaction in recognition of that person's referral of
a lead resulting in a customer, be it buyer or seller dealing with either the Brokerage
firm or a specific broker or salesperson". I remember years ago getting a mass mailing
postcard from a pair of REALTORS offering $1,000 if you referred someone to them that
ended buying one of their new construction condos. That's illegal and it does not even
have to be as much as $1,000. The form of payment could be a bottle of liquor and it
would still be wrong. So paying any form of compensation to someone who is not registered
to do so in the province of Ontario for activities that would be defined as "in furtherance of
trade" is prohibited unless that person is either the buyer or the seller in the transaction.
So, if you refer a friend to me -- my eternal gratitude will have to be enough!
Well we have come to the end of another episode. Unfortunately we did not include some things
we wanted to include in this episode. We just ran out of time. And for you For Sale By Owner
types, I hope you didn't feel I was talking down to you because I wasn't, no I wasn't.
And for those of you that believe you would benefit from an experienced full service broker,
I hope you'll continue the conversation with me. Please give me a call -- love to hear
from you.