-
Hi Guest: Welcome to TRIBE, the online home of TRIBE MAGAZINE. If you'd like to post here, or reply to existing posts on TRIBE, you first have to register. Join us!
The Toronto Real Estate Market
- Thread starter kuba
- Start date
Completely depends on the agreement between the brokerage and salesperson.
RE/MAX was the first big brokerage to give 100% of commissions to the agent and charge a set monthly fee. Some will charge a 70/30 or some sort of split - which i think creates a limit on how many sales a person would want to do in a month. There are many that instead charge a fee for each transaction/photocopy/written cheque/desk/phonecall etc.
groovespinna
TRIBE Member
splits vary greatly. you can never tell. Im on a particular split that is x% up to 60,000 and then it goes to y% which is in my favour. also transaction fees and franchise fees. being an agent itself brings a tonne of fees and dues. we dont clear up like the average person might think.
so you didn't include your tribe handle on your business card?
Some basic questions
- What is the value added when using a Realtor to buy a pre-owned house?
- What is the value added when using a Realtor to sell your house?
- Can a regular person list his/her house on MLS without being associated with any Realtors?
- If not using a Realtor to sell your house, what is the best way to advertise it if you can't post on MLS?
Flashy_McFlash
Well-Known TRIBEr
I don't think normals can use MLS (to post stuff). Just realtors.
In terms of value added, realtors can search the treb database and find out whether the price you're asking/offering is fair. They can see the whole history of the house from construction too, so that can be helpful. There's probably other benefits but I'm hungry.
In terms of value added, realtors can search the treb database and find out whether the price you're asking/offering is fair. They can see the whole history of the house from construction too, so that can be helpful. There's probably other benefits but I'm hungry.
Can a normal person access the database without using a Realtor?
Flashy_McFlash
Well-Known TRIBEr
Nope, not at all. Only realtors.
Ask any realtor, they'll tell you. Hard to quantify "value added" because each case is different, each market is different.
Regular person can't access MLS except to view what's up there already- thought this was common knowledge already.
So far it seems that the only value added by the realtor is for sellers - to be able to list your house on MLS. Paying a percentage of your sale to be able to advertise on some popular online database seems like an expensive monopoly.
I still don't understand why buyers would ever want to pay a percentage of their purchase to realtors.
Bass-Invader
TRIBE Member
They don't. The seller pays the agent they used to list their property, AND the agent who brought in the buyer. Sometimes the agent is the same person and they give a bit of a discount. Unless you are talking about discounting that sunk cost from the price...
It is retarded (the monopoly aspect)
However - from what I recall, you bought from a builder, yeah?
When it comes time to selling your property, - circumventing this monopoly will be difficult. "For sale by owner" is one option, craigslist/kijiji is another. If it's a straightforward transaction, you could do it yourself.
As what bass-invader says - buyers don't technically pay for the realtor. Well, they do.
Example; buy a house for $500,000 and there are 2 agents. Assuming they split 5%, they each take home $12, 500 - and seller takes $475K. If you can go around the buying agent and go straight to seller, you can actually pay $487, 500 if the selling agent agrees to only take 2.5%. Some assholes will want to double - dip, and if an unsuspecting buyer doesn't know that, then that's their loss (and the sellers).
Exactly.
From what I recall, a Toronto Star ad to list a house for sale is a G note per week - although I could be totally wrong. A G note! That's a lot of coin if you are going to advertise in the Star, Globe and Nat Post Disgusting Piece Of Shit Paper, sorry, Post - PLUS the other costs associated. I don't love agents and certainly feel the industry needs a massive shake out - however the good ones are definitely worth their weight in gold.
If you have any sense about staging your property, the main value a realtor adds is in being able to post your listing on mls. It's a total monopoly and it makes me angry.
Most people will pay the 5% when selling because posting your property on mls can make a massive difference in terms of what you can expect to get for it. It's also nice to have a middle-man negotiating for you, but not at the 5% cost.
There should be a sliding scale of what agents get percentage wise. I think 5 or 6% for under 300k is reasonable, but when you start charging 5% on a 600k house that basically sells itself, it makes me sick.
Most people will pay the 5% when selling because posting your property on mls can make a massive difference in terms of what you can expect to get for it. It's also nice to have a middle-man negotiating for you, but not at the 5% cost.
There should be a sliding scale of what agents get percentage wise. I think 5 or 6% for under 300k is reasonable, but when you start charging 5% on a 600k house that basically sells itself, it makes me sick.
dj Red Turtle
TRIBE Promoter
Being a real estate agent is about branding and marketing yourself. It's easy to forget a name, but you will most likely remember a face. Think about some acquaintance you met in the past and you know them by face but totally forgot their name. Now apply that to Real Estate. Seeing a face next to a name will make it that much easier to remember the agent.
I personally hate taking pictures of myself, but I put my ugly mug on my card to help with my branding.
Sure there are plenty of agents that will list a house and only put it on MLS without any other advertising - but thats the fault of the seller that chose an agent because they were offered a small discount or other incentive. In this market (for the most part) thats also the first person who will complain that "Realtors suck" when their house doesn't sell in a week.
As for allowing 'for sale by owners' to list on MLS? The Canadian Real Estate Association has almost 100,000 members that pay yearly, monthly and per-listing fees to promote and maintain the service. Why would ANY company willingly give up control of something they have worked so hard to build and promote?
That said, ANY member of CREA (which also requires membership in a local real estate board) can post listings and there is no rule saying that commission has to be offered to a buyer's agent. There are some minimum service requirements put in place that in my opinion keep the information entered on the database reliable and holds someone responsible to keep it that way.
As for allowing 'for sale by owners' to list on MLS? The Canadian Real Estate Association has almost 100,000 members that pay yearly, monthly and per-listing fees to promote and maintain the service. Why would ANY company willingly give up control of something they have worked so hard to build and promote?
That said, ANY member of CREA (which also requires membership in a local real estate board) can post listings and there is no rule saying that commission has to be offered to a buyer's agent. There are some minimum service requirements put in place that in my opinion keep the information entered on the database reliable and holds someone responsible to keep it that way.
Flashy_McFlash
Well-Known TRIBEr
I find it hard to believe that MLS takes THAT much effort to maintain. It's a glorified Google mashup.
I'm referring more to the database and serivces that each city or region's board has to maintain - I'm pretty certain that mls.ca and realtor.ca are just daily snapshots of each. Obviously, its the most visible to the public (and I think it has a terrible interface, but thats another issue) but there is a lot more to it.
Doubtful it takes much work, but they finally got around to the google maps option as you well know.
I'm surprised we haven't heard more from the agent suing TREB for having his licence pulled, because TREB alleged Bell Canada was backing his venture into an MLS competitor. Isn't the MLS system one of the last legal monopolies in Canada? (LCBO being one as well)
So far I haven't heard any reasons for using a Realtor when selling your house other than to list on MLS: MLS is a giant monopoly and listing on it, as opposed to CL / kijiji, may attract more buyers thus raising the price.
Does anyone know if any realtors would be willing to significantly lower their commission and just post the house on MLS rather than provide any other services (that i'm still not sure what they are)?
Does anyone know if any realtors would be willing to significantly lower their commission and just post the house on MLS rather than provide any other services (that i'm still not sure what they are)?
Flashy_McFlash
Well-Known TRIBEr
I'm not sure how common it is, but some realtors will only show houses to other realtors, so you may have a tough time getting into some properties.