Real Estate Nightmares aka When Agents Go Bad

In this blog, I want to discuss the latest disturbing trend that is hitting the Toronto Real Estate Market.  My clients and I have been on the receiving end of this trend three times during the summer.  It is becoming ridiculous.

As a real estate professional, it is my job to educate the lay public.  In today’s market and with the seemingly unlimited access to data and information, this new trend is disturbing.  I have heard agents say it is the owners who are driving this, but from an educator in this market place, I place the trend totally in the real estate sales representatives ballpark.

What it is you ask?  Here’s is the typical scenario:  A home; single detached or semi-detached is placed on the market.  In the remarks to the agents (only agents can see these) there are stipulations about the property, offer requirements, and such.  Many real estate sales representatives are playing the “let’s set ourselves up for multiple offers” game.  They list a property at or below the sales prices in the neighborhood.  In the remarks to agents, it says something like “offers accepted Wednesday at 6 pm, register by 5 pm”.  This is usually a week to 10 days post listing.

My clients and I looked at 3 particular properties in a small defined area, in one instance, the “Little Portugal” neighborhood.  The first home we looked at was listed above the recent selling price for other homes in the area and had the offer date with a stipulation “owner reserves the right to view pre-emptive offers”.  In plain English, this means “if someone offers us enough money over asking we’ll consider selling before the offer date”.

In this case, watching the property online, the day following the offer date, no sold information was posted.  I called the agent, who indicated the house had no offers.  I called my clients and set things in motion to make an offer.  Less then an hour later the listing had been terminated AND re-listed for 80K more than it had been.  In another instance the list price “pre multiple offer expectation” and the “day after no offers increase” was $125,000.

That sounds horrible, right?  Well, the most egregious example was a home listed just below 1 million dollars “pre-multiple offer expectation” that changed price “post no offers presented day” by over 370K.  Yikes. And the home had a stigma associated with it that prevented obtaining a class A mortgage, AKA no standard banking institution would provide a mortgage.  Scary for a reseller as well.

So the lesson here for buyers, BEWARE of these multiple offer listings that appear to good to be true.  The homeowner/real estate salesperson's expectations are often far beyond what a buyer should be willing to spend or the listed sales price.

For more information on working with a Real Estate Professional and Educator, feel free to contact me at 647-898-7490 or timothy@swiftsells.ca