Posts Tagged ‘Ontario’

postheadericon What Your Ontario Real Estate Agent Won’t Tell You – Part III

1. Showing you bad houses to buy before showing you the target house. Your Real Estate will first show you a series of houses in terrible condition and is overpriced. Then, after you see your terrible selection and you believe these houses are what you after to work with. Once that belief is set in, then your Real Estate Agent will show you a nice house. By the Law of Contrast, a valuable house looks even more valuable when it comes after a worthless house. If you find yourself viewing houses that are just rip offs, be careful when you see a decent house. It is actually less valuable than you believe. You Real Estate Agent may even try to compliment those worthless houses so that when decent house shows up, you believe it’s your perfect home! 2. Making you travel to look at the houses you want to buy first. This is a very common practice and it would seem to make sense. You would need to look at the houses before buying it, correct? Well, there is reason behind the Real Estate Agent wanting you to travel and spend your valuable time staring at these houses. By spending so much time on one house, it becomes too much of an effort to find your perfect house. You end up settling for your less than desired house. What should be happening is that before looking at the house, you should request a comparable analysis. Your Real Estate Agent has statistical information about the houses you are looking at and houses similar to what you are looking at. This statistical information reveals the market value of the home and whether the home is worth you TIME. By not showing you the comparable analysis, the time, effort and pain it takes for you to search for a home causes you to make a decision faster. If the Real Estate Agent shows you the comparable analysis first, it reduces the pain and you would wait longer to decide. Also, the Real Estate agent has to spend time to create the comparable analysis report where most likely, they would not want to do. Rule of thumb: Find a Real Estate Agent that will give you the comparable analysis first. Now, this isn’t to say you should never look for the house first. There is one exception. When you first meet your new Real Estate Agent, there is some level of concern on the agent’s side. The agent is spending valuable free time on you, gambling that you would buy a house through him. So if you start off by requesting comparable analysis, he will not do it. Any honest Real Estate Agent would not do it. A comparable analysis is valuable information that the Real Estate Agent gets for being a Real Estate Agent. They need to pay a fee to be a Real Estate Agent. What the Real Estate Agent needs to know, is that you need to provide some “level of comfort” that you will certainly buy the house through him in order to get the comparable analysis. To me, this is fair because if the Real Estate Agent is going to spend the time on you to help you find a home, then it would only be fair that you buy through him and let him get the commission. The legal way to show this “level of comfort” is to sign the 90-day commitment contract that indicates you would only work with him and no other agent for 90 days. This legal way is by no means the only way nor is this a bad way, either. It is only a matter of preference and your relationship with your Real Estate Agent that determines the best approach. 3. Encouraging you to put a high security deposit when writing up a contract to purchase your desired home. A security deposit informs the seller you are interested in purchasing the property and the amount lets the seller know how serious you are. The higher the amount, the more serious you are. The moment the contract is agreed upon by both parties and signed, you must provide the security deposit within the set time specified in the contract. This security deposit is suppose to be returned to you if the contract becomes null and void, if the conditions (usually financing and inspection) specified in the contract fails. Now, this procedure seems to be fair. Here is where the problem lies: If the contract becomes null and void and you want your money back, all parties must sign a form called a Mutual Release. This signature must include the buyer, buyer’s agent, seller and seller’s agent. If any one party does not sign, you will not get your money even if the contract has been null and void. If anyone party refuses to sign, you have to go through court, most likely small claims court, to settle your dispute and if you know anything about the court system in Canada, you know your court date could be as long as two years away! You should never be serious in buying house. It is poor negotiating tactics. If your Real Estate Agent encourages you to put a high security deposit, it is because your Real Estate Agent wants you to be serious about purchasing the property even though it is poor negotiating tactics. The reality is your security deposit can be very difficult to get back. Sadly, this is the general process in most home buying transactions and it is a very poor process. And did you know…

IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO PUT A SECURITY DEPOSIT AT ALL!

There are no limitations to a contract. It is only a matter of agreement. You can write anything you want on the contract as long as both party agrees. My suggestion is to encourage your Real Estate Agent to only provide the deposit after the contract passes the conditions. This is possible, but only if your Real Estate Agent is willing. Once again, I cannot stress this enough, to find a Real Estate Agent do not search through the Internet and pick the first one you see. Good salesmen do not make good Real Estate Agents. If you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to e-mail me at admin@freerentalads.ca You are also certainly welcome to e-mail me your good and bad home buying experiences. I may or may not choose to post them up. More to Come!

postheadericon What Your Ontario Real Estate Agent Won’t Tell You – Part II

Bad Real Estate Agents in Disguise I classify bad Real Estate Agents are those sneaky Real Estate Agents who claim to help you, but really just looking to get the commission. How do these bad Real Estate Agent masquerade as good ones? 1. The Bad Real Estate Agent pretends to be a Hard Worker If you hire a Real Estate Agent, you want them to work hard for your money because you do. And Real Estate Agent knows that. Salesmen know that. But working hard never guarantees success. A Real Estate Agent, like all people, should be have some level of workmanship, but not to the point of slavery. Do not be gullible enough to believe your Real Estate Agent will climb mountains for you. It is just a job. He should have other priorities. Do not base your Real Estate Agent selection based on how hard they work or how must time they spend with you. If your Real Estate Agent is wasting too much time pretending to work hard, then your Real Estate won’t have time to actually get you valuable information you need to make an informed decision. The moment the contract is signed and the agent get the commission, Bad Real Estate Agents will run to the next sucker and never want to talk or help you anymore. 2. Charmer Every now and then, you’ll meet the person who knows exactly what to say. He knows the words you are looking for you and make you feel comfortable to trust him. When trusting an agent, don’t look for how kind, gentle, or how witty he is. Look for the results. What has the Real Estate Agent really done for you? 3. Not providing sufficient information. Information is vital for you to make important decisions. Bad Real Estate Agents will hide information in order to get you to make the decision to buy the house. To make sure the agent is being absolutely honest with you and providing you all the information you need to know, always have another reliable source to verify the information. One good way to find honest Real Estate Agents is through referrals. If you friends have experience good results from the agent, then at least you found someone honest and you know the results. Do NOT go through the Internet and pick the first agent you see or the agent that has the most advertisements. They are just spending marketing money, which they intend to recover from you. I especially find the ones that are top ranked search engines to be the most conniving, especially the Mississauga location!!! Now for the good news. If you are fair and you are looking for a human being Real Estate Agent and you treat them like a human being with no slavery expectation, you should be able to find a decent Real Estate Agent to help you. There are indeed plenty of honest agents that are really hiding because they are too busy helping their clients. You have to scout around and do a lot of homework to find that close-to-perfect agent that matches your needs. Using the information in this article, you should be able to filter out the bad agents. Now, after all this discussion, one may even be asking whether you need a Real Estate agent. In private homes sellers, you do not. Only homes where sellers have a Real Estate Agent, you do need buyer’s Real Estate Agent to protect you. Whether you want to purchase home through private or through an agent should not be a deciding factor. Simply look at the house you want to buy and the price you want to buy it at. If your selected house requires a Real Estate Agent, then you should get one, too. If you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to e-mail me at admin@freerentalads.ca You are also certainly welcome to e-mail me your good and bad home buying experiences. I may or may not choose to post them up. For those who have not read my part 1, please do so. My next articles will take a closer look at tactics Bad Real Estate Agents pull.