Tag Archive for listed for sale

Laurin Jeffrey | September 25, 2010
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Top five signs of a bad real estate agent

There are other factors to consider, beyond how quickly the agent sells your home

Tara Struyk – Investopedia.com

If your home is listed for sale and it just won’t sell, it may not be your real estate agent’s fault. However, there are many ways to gauge if your agent is doing a good job. Here we look at some of the top signs of a bad real estate agent.

1. Lack of Communication

If you haven’t heard from your real estate agent in a few weeks, it’s time to find a new one. Even if no one has called for a showing of your home, or your agent hasn’t found any homes that meet your requirements as a buyer, he or she should be touching base with you regularly to keep you up to date on the work that has been done on your behalf. After all, there’s no doubt you’re thinking about your home transaction almost daily – as an agent acting on your behalf, shouldn’t your real estate agent be keeping you in mind?

2. Lack of Leadership

If your real estate agent agrees with you on every point, this is the sign of someone who’s eager to please – not someone who’s committed to doing the best possible job at representing your interests in the real estate market. When it comes to pricing a home for sale, insist that your agent produce the research that was used to arrive at that price. An agent who asks you what you think your home is worth and lists it for that price is a sign of trouble.

Your real estate agent is supposed to be an expert, so look for one who can take the lead and provide you with well-reasoned advice. That said, your agent should also be acting on your behalf, and must take your final word in the end.

3. Unused Resources

Many real estate agents will use all of the tools at their disposal to market your home to the public and help you find a new one that meets your needs. Some, however, will do next to nothing and rely on other real estate agents to market your home to their clients. Expect your real estate agent to take good photos and descriptions of your home if it’s for sale, and list it anywhere that may draw more interest to it, including putting the listing onto real estate websites, into local newspapers and even distributing flyers to homes in the area. Sure, your home might sell without this extra effort, but is that really the kind of person to whom you want to pay a commission?

4.Too Much Pressure

While you should seek out a real estate agent who is knowledgeable enough to have an educated opinion and confident enough to (respectfully) voice it, if you feel your agent pushing you in any particular direction, this should send up a red flag. Particularly when you’re buying a home, there is no real reason why an agent should want you to buy any particular home over another. If you get the feeling this isn’t the case, you could be being steered toward homes listed by your agent or your agent’s brokerage, which can produce additional commissions for your agent.

Most state laws force real estate agents to reveal this conflict of interest to buyers, but if you feel your agent isn’t being entirely open, beware. Your real estate agent’s job is to act in your best interest and ensure that you’re happy with the outcome of your real estate transaction. If you think your agent is preoccupied with his or her own interests, it’s time to find another one.

5. Lack of Follow-Up

Whether you’re buying or selling, many real estate agents think their job ends on the home’s possession date. This is the day upon which the transaction is considered complete, and the real estate agent is paid. An agent who calls beyond this date to address any follow-up questions you might have and ensure that you’re happy with his or her work is going above and beyond what is required and showing a commitment to customer service. After all, at this point your agent’s commission check has already been signed, so this level of care is a great sign of an agent who is willing to do what it takes to make you happy and keep your business in the future.

The Bottom Line

As in every line of work, there are great real estate agents and there are terrible ones. However, in a tough real estate market like this one, you might have to gauge their performance on more than just a speedy transaction, which for home sellers, may be all but impossible.

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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information  -  416-388-1960

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Category: Ajax Real Estate, Buying Real Estate, First Time Buyers, General Real Estate, Pickering Real Estate, Selling Real Estate | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Laurin Jeffrey | April 19, 2010
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Home sellers rush to market in record numbers

The Canadian Real Estate Association said Thursday that 97,663 homes were listed for sale across the country in March, a 20% increase from the same period in 2008

Garry Marr, Financial Post

Realtors pounded a record number of for sale signs into Canadian lawns last month, something that is expected to cool down the red hot housing market, the Canadian Real Estate Association said.

The Ottawa-based group, which represents more than 100 boards across the country, said there were 97,663 new listings in March, up 25% from a year earlier. For the first quarter, 233,402 new listings have hit the market — the highest for any first quarter on record.

“Negotiations still favour sellers during the home buying process in a number of major Canadian housing markets,” Georges Pahud, CREA’s president. “The rise in new listings means that buyers may shop around more before making an offer.”

Demand has come down slightly. There were 130,072 seasonally adjusted home sales on the first quarter, a 3.4% decline from a quarter ago but still a 46.7% increase from a year earlier.

New records for sale activity were set in Ontario, Quebec and

Newfoundland in the first quarter. However, units sales declined in British Columbia 16.7% from the fourth quarter and in Alberta 9.7%.

Prices also continue to rise, albeit at a slower pace. The average price of a home sold across the country reached $340,920 last month, a 17.6% increase from a year earleir and just $300 off the all-time peak touched in October, 2009.

Even with the strong number of new listings, home listed for sale across the multiple listing service were down 9% March from a year ago.

The number of months of inventory in the system, based on the present pace of actual sales, was 4.4 months in March. That figure was down from 6.7 months a year earlier.

“The erosion of housing affordability is crimping activity in some of Canada’s priciest markets in the lower mainland

of British Columbia,” said CREA chief economist Gregory Klump. “Higher mortgage interest rates and the rise in new listings may also soon reduce some of the urgency to purchase in

Toronto. Sales activity in British Columbia and Ontario is expected to ease over the second half of 2010 once the

HST comes into effect, pulling national activity lower. Rising supply and lower activity will take the steam out of the pricing environment following upbeat home sales this spring.”

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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information  -  416-388-1960

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Category: General Real Estate, Selling Real Estate | Tags: , , , , , , ,