Will It Benefit Me To Use The Listing Agent?

To those of you who recently watched the “Real Deal on our Marketplace”, a CBC exclusive on realtors in Canada taking advantage of the system, I must say I am extremely disappointed. For context, CBC recently went undercover and caught multiple realtors on camera using their “power” to manipulate potential clients. These realtors used various negotiation tactics during a showing to persuade potential clients to use their services and entice them to put an offer directly through them for their listing. This is known in the industry as multiple representation and while at this point, it is not against any law, it can lead to unfair practices. Hands down, this is unacceptable behaviour, and I feel strongly that we as an industry need to come together and follow best practices to ensure we are serving our clients best interests.
 
These realtors were not disclosing that they were in a multiple offer situation, blocking competing offers, using words of inducement and unfair negotiation practices, just to name a few. Here are a few points I would like to share regarding this topic: 

• Purchasing a home may be one of the biggest investments of your life. Be sure to use a realtor that you can trust and has a strong track record of success. You will not be “getting a deal” by walking into an open house and asking the listing realtor to represent you in the deal. Think about it this way, would you use the same lawyer as the defendant or accused in a court case, No! It would be hard as a professional to best serve both sides of a deal due to the conflict of interest.  Words to live by, consider having an arm’s length.
• While I do not believe “bidding wars” themselves need to be banned from our real estate market, I do think we need to educate realtors on the best practices and the system itself must be regulated. We must keep in mind one of the driving forces of our strong market and the reason for these bidding wars are due to low supply with a strong demand. As a listing agent we must best represent our seller but consider using the follow proticol prior to reviewing all offers, consider disclosing to all parties of any multiple representation or collateral agreements and details with total number of registered offers. With full disclosure to all parties it will ensure a fair playing field. I have had the pleasure of working with a great broker of record that has taken the time to educate us and allocates resources so that we are best prepared during an offer presentation.

In closing, I would like to mention that I was shocked by the results found in the report and disappointed that some found the need to taint our industry which has been helping people find their dream homes for over 100 years. We also need to realize that this is a very small sample of the 66,000+ realtors registered in Ontario. Unfortunately, I am sure not all realtors that may have acted professionally were demonstrated on the show but as we know that would not make up for good T.V. With over 95,000 sales reported by TREB this year, these examples only represent a fraction of the industry. I will continue to take pride in my industry and rest assure that at Royal LePage Supreme we always maintain professional and act ethically throughout all our transactions. If you ever have any questions regarding today's real estate market never hesitate to contact me directly.