Ok, I need to take a minute and vent… I get an email almost every day, from a "loyal" or "faithful" blog reader, who loves our blog (yay!) and has hired someone else to sell their home and has a problem with them (boo!). They want to know what they can do…. My first reaction is – why are you asking me? If you love our blog, and you think we do a good job, why do you call us after you’ve hired someone else?
Anyway, here is the topic of the day – what do you do when you are unhappy with the person you’ve contracted to sell your home?
- Don’t call us. You are in a contractual relationship with another brokerage. Anything we say could interfere with that contract so we can’t say anything at all or we’ll be in trouble too!
- Call the person you hired. Let them know you’re unhappy and give them a chance to rectify the situation. If that doesn’t work…
- Call their broker. Your listing contract is with the brokerage, and the broker is responsible for their associates and may be able to rectify the situation. If that doesn’t work…
- Call your lawyer. I think that one is self-explanatory…
- If you have a legitimate complaint, you can contact the REALTOR’s Association of Edmonton – 780-451-6666 or the Real Estate Council of Alberta 888-425-2754.
If you don’t want to call anybody, you can find plenty of information online – the Real Estate Council of Alberta web site has tons of information, in particular in the Consumer Information section of the site.
Feel free to contact us anytime with questions about real estate, or for information on buying or selling real estate in the Edmonton area – you can even chat with us if we’re online using the cool chat box on this page. We don’t bite (usually).
I feel guys with other realtor(s) call you to varify the details you said in your blog.
see some points
1) The average prices you said is seems not realistic.
2) The sales datas you said are confusing.
3)If (RE) can sale above 1500 houses in a month why not builders can sale half of that and the starts of new houses go up?
4) you said last week the expired listing will come back with significant reduction in pricing . why ?
The sales is steady.
The new homes starts are down.
We can eat all inventories in 6 months.
I think a lot of realtors list the sellers home at the pie in the sky price that the seller wants and thinks he can get. The realtor plays along to get the listing and then breaks the news to the seller that he might have to drop his price to get some action. Now the realtor sucks and isn’t doing his job. JMO
Ummmm…Love….er what? I did not understand a single point in your post…
Part of this has to do with the “secrecy” of most professional associations. MLS doesn’t allow any non-members to list on the site. The EREB is really no help when it comes to screening realtors.
For example, I’ve spent far more time researching the parts for my computer ($1000) vs the time spent interviewing my agent ($15k). A google search for Intel Q9450 shows 687,000 hits. The search for Sheldon Johnston shows 1,850,000 hits, but most are not related to you. Luckily, the top 3 and 5 of the top 10 results are you. Of course, the information there still does not have impartial reviews of your service. It’s just not possible to view how your current and former clients rate your service.
You can list all the rewards you’ve received, but it would be really nice to have a service rating database so that we can all see how any realtor who has their sign up has done. Most professional associations seem to hold this information in secret.
Perhaps your next posting should be a “how to interview your agent”. Considering the price we pay, I doubt a lot of people put much thought into it. I know I didn’t.
Hi Love, I’ll try to answer your questions. It’s obvious by your syntax structure that English is your second or third language.
1. The average prices ARE realistic. Don’t forget that the average price for Edmonton includes the $120-150k dumps on Alberta Avenue and the $3,400,000 house for sale in zone 15 (if it sold). Obviously, the average price of a house in zone 55, 56 & 57 will be far higher than zone 5. It’s simple math.
2. ??
3. Not everyone can afford to buy a house due to the expense. How often do you buy a house? 2250 families/month moving around is quite a bit.
4. Your agent will list your house at any price you want if you put up a big enough stink. If you think your 70-year old bungalow on the corner of 118 Ave & 97 Street is worth $1,000,000, most realtors will list it at that price after telling you that you’re an idiot. After the listings expire and people laugh at the rediculous price, then you listen to your agent’s suggestion that your house is only worth $200,000 and then it’ll list at that price.
Inventories won’t go down because there are lots of speculators who have taken their investment properties off the market. I know my builder has taken an exact duplicate of my house off the market. He can’t get what he wants, so he’ll just keep it. There’s lots of empty properties just waiting to be listed, so unless there’s a new listings freeze, the inventory will be far more than 6 months. That and the fact that there are maybe 100 qualified buyers for the many $1,000,000+ houses on the market. The income required to qualify for that kind of mortgage would put them in the top 99.99% of earners in Edmonton and probably Canada. I’m sure they already have a house, if not several.
Hey, I didn’t understand the blog.:(
My guess is some sellers get “displeased” with their chosen realtor if it is suggested that the list price be reduced in order to increase competition with comparable properties in order to attract buyers.
So they crawl around looking for second opinions, hoping for some better news elsewhere.
Sellers enjoyed the “new RE reality” in E-town, but now they seem reluctant to accept the “new new RE reality”. Buyers have more to choose from, more time to shop, and literally no competition with “specuvestors” who have all taken their loot and run away long ago. Well, the SMART ones did anyways.
Cheers,
E-town
Love your argument of inventory dissapearing would make sense if
1) Sales were not cycilic
2) There will be no new listings from this point on
3) The median affordability of edmonton citizens were to not change in coming months
There does seem to be something going on but its difficult to say if its a trend yet or an anomally. As for an answer to (4). Houses have not sold so people will eather:
1) try to sell again aka re-list
2) rent out the property; given the university is starting up soon this represents a large number of new temporary renters.
3) settle because they can no longer clear the price they expect
Given they try and relist if for the peek season there sale was unsuccesful they obviously have to make the purchase more attractive. The most effective way to do this is drop the price.
Also keep in mind “new home starts” is start of construction – not occupancy. Delays are often so people usually wait for construction to complete then sell there old property.
Lisa, as for ways to better screen your agents and impartial realtor reviews, your timing couldn’t be better. We just (Aug. 27) launched a realtor review/rating site for Edmonton and area. It’s called What Customers Say, and you can find it at what hyphen customers hyphen say dot com.
Leave a review of your realtor and get your friends to. Then, when the database fills with honest reviews from real customers (we have ways of verifying!), people will be able to search for realtors the way they should be. Unbiased reviews rather than filtered testimonials. It is the future of hiring an agent (because you’re absolutely right: we spend more time researching computers and hotels, which cost a fraction of what a realtor costs, than we do researching realtors).
With a database like What Customers Say, the best realtors will rise to the top. So realtors need not be afraid —- if you’re any good, then you’re in great shape on this site.
This new website will be a good tool, a “Consumer Reports” of real estate agents. What is stopping an agent from posting bogus reviews, though?
I think people generally do not spend enough time researching agents because real estate “services” are a big grey cloud that is hard to define.
No different than ‘rate your doctor’ or ‘rate your teacher/professor’ websites. Reviews tend to be polarized I find- as such of limited value.
Jeff
I think you will get a lot more bogus reviews from some bloggers/people that hate Realtors, than Realtors themselves. These bloggers/people seem to have all the time in world to post.
Joanna
I would look up the meaning of “defamation”. From previous experience I can tell you your new website will have a lot more legal problems when you post reviews on individuals than you will if you post reviews on corporations or the goods or services they sell. Just something to think about.
Thanks for your feedback about the site. We’ve had legal review of our site and have terms and conditions to protect us as well as a privacy policy to protect reviewers/customers. We protect realtors from bogus reviews with tools to flag and pull down questionable reviews promptly. Furthermore, anything that comes across as ‘defamation of character’ rather than an honest critique of a real estate experience (absolutely allowed in an online environment) will be up for review and able to be pulled down.
We’re not trying to hurt realtors. It’s too bad it comes off that way. Some of our closest friends are realtors, and we’d never consider selling or buying a home without one.
The purpose of http://www.what-customers-say.com is to elevate those good or great realtors (who may not have mucho moola for marketing) AND to let clients honestly explain what a good realtor is to those who may not know.
Funny that our whole intention was to give people a great way to find a realtor… and yet realtors are the ones who don’t want the site. Customers, on the other hand, have been asking for it. And I’m willing to put myself out there —- insofar as getting sued by an unhappy realtor or two may be concerned —- in order to let customers tell the truth and to help good realtors market themselves.
It’s online reputation management for realtors. And that’s allowed.
Hope you check the site out and like it!
Joanna
Thanks for the clarification. Sounds like a great idea.
PS: To bad there wasn’t a way to review customers also. Some can be….mmm… well a royal pain in the a***.
Neil:
No matter what you buy or sell, there are going to be some people that are just too opinionated or headstrong to be reasonable. Some older people are very stuck in their ways, and some people are way too caught up in the emotional side to be rational about things.
Just because it is a buyers market does not give people the right to waste working people’s time with frivolous things – but you know some will do just that.
When the point is reached where you have exhausted all resonable efforts to assist a client and they stil won’t come to terms with certain realities, it may be time to kindly recommend they “seek someone who is better suited serve their immediate needs”. Aka, tell them to fly away in a very nice way!
Don’t forget too a lot of grumpy bears and 1st time buyers are coming out of hibernation and they’re not welcoming the “new RE reality” in E-town with open arms. Especially in the case of some starter homes that had their prices run up just a wee bit too enthusiastically compared to better properties that can justify their “new” asking price.
Cheers,
E-town
I wonder what this realtor and his customer are thinking by now:
Home listed at 858,800 on 8/30/2007
Reduced on 9/12/07 to 848,800
Reduced on 10/11/07 to 828,800
Reduced on 2/11/08 to 799,800
Taken off the market on 3/02/08
Back on 3/04 reduced to 768,800
Reduced on 4/01 to 767,800 (- 1K !)
Increased on 5/17 to 868,800 (+ 100K !!! )
Taken off the market on 7/03
Back today at 697,800…..
2006 construction, probably never lived in, listed 3 times, reduced/increased 9 times. Slight progress: the latest picture shows a completed driveway
Following specific houses from listing to sale provides a lot of insight into the decision making process (i.e. take the house off in the Fall, and relist higher or lower in Spring, depending on the seller’s bullish or bearish disposition), but this one has me truly puzzled, especially the 1K price reduction somewhere in the middle !
Edmonton is the #1 place to invest in Real Estate in North America and possible on the surface of the Earth.
(Journal, August 28. 2008 Business Page)
I guess, I can not complain!
Written by none other then Don Campbell a real estate consultant, author for Real Estate Investment Network.
The surface of the earth? To funny
Uh, Karl…
Edmonton is a dangerous place to invest is a better description.
First of all, the “running out of land in Edmonton” and “buy or be locked out forever” scare tactics that fueled the first price run are not impressing anyone anymore. You want scare tactics? How about some of these scary things?
a) Obama bashing Canada’s dirty oil
b) The “Green shift”
c) Ontario and East are hurting = new energy policy = get that Alberta cash!
d) volatile world markets
e) softening oil prices
f) environmental impact of tarsands is in the headlines the world over
g) new “level” of living and housing costs here make it less likely of a second “people flood”.
h) “Chindia” oil demand said to be vastly overestimated
i) Investigations into oil speculation and insider trading.
j) Non-OPEC countries like Iraq with massive oil surplusses in the tens of gigabarrels.
k) 0/40′s are no longer available to specuvestors with shaky credit who have watched too many episodes of “flip that house”.
l) US oil consumption is down, not up – and we supply our so called “dirty oil” mainly to them.
Hey, it could all just be the THREAT of a perfect storm. If the storm does not happen, sure E-town could continue to grow. Or if the perfect storm happens again, so could the bust early 80′s.
You can go ahead and invest in a bunch of e-town real-estate. My money is nowhere near oil right now, and E-town real-estate is still too caught up in tarstruction. Alberta has diversified? Nope. We’re still the one-trick pony we’ve always been.
Good luck though!
Cheers,
E-town
A little recent history on ol Don Campbell and his wonderful predictions on Alberta.
http://albertarealestatewatch.blogspot.com/
E-Town,
don’t bash the TV Show “Flip that House”
I watched loads of episodes, a few years ago, and concluded that Edmonton’s house prices were too low to make flipping a truly viable option.
Given that I have quite a lucrative day job, improving a house for flipping would have taken too long for me to take advantage of the very short window that may have existed somewhere in 2006.
My new favorite shows are “Til Debt do us Part” and “All Maxed Out”. Quite a bit to learn from those, too. For example why people find it difficult to save up for a decent down payment….
Brent and E-Town,
You guys sound like Picasso to me.
Tell me, you are, at least, very good friends.
Don Campbell knows all, what you mentioned.
Consider this:
Edmonton Re prices are just about right on the canadian average, 3 hundred thirty and something thousend bucks, but
on just about everything we outperform the rest of the country.
( more jobs,higher wages,low unemployment rate etc. )
In other words, we are above average in everything,
so, why is it so unbelievable, that this place is a good investment for the future?
Why should we have above average performance and below average prices?
Karl:
I’ve commented on this before. I never said homes were overvalued. I said homes in good condition in decent neighbourhoods were selling REGULARLY at or near their asking price. I’ve also said that I believe that the glut of listings was likely due to overinflated properties that did not represent as good of a value and may have been “overpumped” during the price run. I said that this could explain why there were regular sales despite high inventories.
I also said that I personally would not INVEST in E-town RE right now. But I don’t call buying a home to live and work in e-town “investing” (although Canadians have been duped into thinking that taking 40 years to pay triple for
something that might not even triple in value in that time period is a “good investment”!)
I was being sardonic, but you have to admit that there are forces at work federally and globally that could impact the tarsands in Alberta which is almost directly tied to the positive migration and resulting demand for housing.
I think the easy money RE investing came and went. People who had some foresight and RE experience did make money in 06. Last minute joiners or people who believed in “infinity and beyond RE prices” and peak oil at $200/barrel that bought at the peak in 07? Not so lucky.
I’m just saying that folks who are cheerleading a 2nd price run any time soon when 1st time buyers are already feeling the pinch might be a bit too optimistic.
I’m also saying that economic and political forces “greater than Alberta” (yes, we’re not the center of the global economy) might cause a lot of planned expansions in the tarsands to get put on hold or get scrapped altogether. Like I’ve been saying – it takes an army of skilled construction trades and engineering support to build an upgrader. And 50 people to run it.
Time will tell, but I myself would leave RE investment to those with money they can afford to lose. Back in 06 was a different ball game.
Cheers,
E-town
E-Town
Your figures for the number of people required to run an upgrader are off by at least a factor of 10. Existing Upgraders in Alberta employee anywhere from 350 to 500 people for everyday operations. Upgraders have maintenance requirements every couple of years which can require up to 3000 people. Most upgrader on the books right now require 4000+ workers to build. These numbers don’t include the support services/suppliers required when both are being built or up and running. So each upgrader project will require quite a bit more than the 50 people you alluded to.
Right now there is not enough qualified people in Alberta to staff all these proposed upgraders.
And I agree with you that if Dion is elected PM, it’s not only over for Alberta, but Canada also. As far as the US presidential race goes, Mr. Obama clarified his remarks on reliance on foriegn oil.
“I will set a clear goal as president: in ten years we will finally end our dependence on oil in the Middle East,” said Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/politics&id=6359976
No mention of Alberta’s dirty oil this time around.
I also wouldn’t buy SFH’s or condo’s in Alberta as investment property right now, the rent to mortgage ration is not there. I would buy rental apartment buildings though, the ROI is still very good, if the price per door is right. I also know for a fact that the professional renovate and flip companies are still investing in Alberta and making a killing. I just did a deal with a renovate and flip company on a property we held the mortgage and had to foreclose on. This type of market is a dream market for them. Don’t forget it’s a bull buyers market right now so there are great deals are out there for these guys.
None of the last 6 or 8 comments have anything to do with this article. Please have this discussion somewhere relevant or I’ll have to close the comments on this article. Thanks.
Hi Karl,
Brent and Picasso are the same person. They banned picasso and along came Brent. I actually complained that Picasso stoped posting and saw my quote on bubble blog. I am leaning more towards his way of thinking for the next year
Karl:
Sara is right – the sub-thread veered off topic.
If we ever get the chance to resume this particular conversation, I would like to come back with more realistic “construction versus operations” manpower estimates.
I could, ahem, perhaps be accused of a exaggerating just a wee little bit there…
Cheers,
E-town
Canada is only second to the U.S for plummeting household saving rates for countries.
Here’s the url…
http://tinyurl.com/5tzaxx
Very good read
Sara, sorry for being off the topic.
Thanks for the courage to share ideas on issues many of us have faced. When a consumer has hired an agent they should contact that person for help.
Aloha,
Keahi