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BMW vs Honda: Which agent is working harder?

October 04, 2016

Real estate agents are walking advertisements. The way they conduct themselves in public is considered a representation of how they work and is usually the first impression that a potential client receives from them.

Let’s talk about the cars of real estate agents. We have two well-dressed real estate agents and at first glance, the individual driving the BMW seems like an agent who has many clients and has closed many successful deals. The fellow with the Honda, may be an individual who is starting out in the real estate field and is not as experienced yet.

Although we know that this may not necessarily be the case, our subconscious makes these assumptions for us whether we realize it or not and oftentimes it plays into our decision making. In reality, the individual driving the Honda may have purchased and paid the car off in full whereas the agent driving the BMW may be leasing it, paying several hundred dollars per month.

What we’re NOT trying to say here is that the agent driving a Honda is the better agent. What we’re TRYING to say here is that the brand of car your agent drives is a tool they use to market themselves, and not so much a representation of how hard hard of a worker or successful they are as an agent. Although this goes against our assumptions, it would simply be incorrect to label that one agent is working harder than the other simply by the car they drive.

When choosing a real estate agent, evaluate the agent’s marketing plan by seeing what they have done in past. Not everything in the marketing plan benefits you. Head on over here for our cheat sheet to on how to interpret real estate agent marketing plans, or even simpler, call us at 604.288.9166 or email us to list your home.

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What not to do when selling an investment or tenanted property

September 29, 2016

You’ve decided to sell your investment property and you’re unsure of whether you should tell the tenants as you are afraid that they might not want to stay, causing you to lose your rent.

Most real estate agents will let you as the owner decide whether to tell your tenant regarding the sale of the property and often, people will choose to not tell their tenants.

At Residencity we suggest:

  1. Have open communication with your current tenant(s)
    • Let them know that the property is for sale. Let them know that there will be people coming in to look at the property and that you will be tidying up your area and putting things away and that it would be great if they could do the same.
    • Provide 24 hour written notice if someone is coming. Open houses are a rite of passage and this goes hand in hand with letting them know that people will be coming.
  2. Let them know their rights. Perhaps the new owner may want to use the property, or do a major renovation meaning that the current tenant has to move out.
    • 1+2 factor. 1 month rent + 2 months notice. In BC, the landlord is required to give you 2 months written notice and compensate you with 1 month rent. Tenants can leave sooner within that 2 month time frame by giving the landlord 10 days notice in writing and compensation will be a prorated amount calculated on a daily basis.
  3. If they want to leave, let them. If anything, this might even be better. You get to clean the place and stage it to your liking. This also eliminates the possibility of having to deal with uncooperative tenants.
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Realtor

Buying a pre-sale: with or without a real estate agent?

September 27, 2016

There’s a developer that’s planning to build a condo at the end of your block. You’re looking to move into a bigger place and you wonder, is it necessary to have a real estate agent present when you looking to purchase/purchasing a presale condo?

We’re going to advise that it is not necessary to go with a real estate agent. When a real estate agent oversees a pre-sale condo purchase, they automatically get a commission, even if they have not done any consultation or research. All they have to do is bring you to the presentation centre. On the flipside, real estate agents are not that interested in pre-sale condos either since they don’t get paid until the building is completed, which can be several years away as they get paid on closing.

Residencity believes that you should purchase directly from developers when looking to buy a pre-construction condo. It is important to see past the promotions and other distractions that may be present at the presentation centre and really analyze the contracts and details that are presented to you. If you are unsure with your purchase, it is worth noting that a pre-sale contract can also be cancelled within 7 days of signing.

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Common problems with brand new homes: should you worry?

September 22, 2016

You just finished moving and decorating your new home. It is everything you have ever wanted and the location is perfect. 8 months later you discover hairline cracks in the corners of the drywall, minor cracks in the tiles in the basement, small protrusions in your walls due to nails rising and your own anxiety level rising as well.

This is a brand new house so why is this happening? New homes are subject to settling due to the forces of nature which makes these problems inevitable and not because your home inspector did not do a good job. These are not structural problems but minor cosmetic damages that can be easily fixed.

Below are some examples of the most common problems with new homes.

  1. Hairline cracks in the drywall. Moisture content in the air varies as the seasons change, which causes materials to expand and contract. The expansion and compaction of materials are constantly happening, but the effects are most prominent in the 1st year.
  2. Nail pops. Similar to hairline cracks in the drywall, nails popping out are also the result of changes in moisture content in wood causing the wood to push out the nail when expanding and compressing.
  3. Minor cracks in basement tiles and foundation of basement walls. These problems are usually due to soil compaction. Soil compaction is taken into consideration before construction workers start building the house, but slight settling still occurs after the finished product.

If you see any of these problems happening in your new home, we advise you to wait a year, see what else needs to be fixed, then contact the builder. Your new home is insured by a 2-5-10 warranty and offers complete coverage on labor and materials for the first 2 years.

What is a 2-5-10 Warranty? Here’s a quick explanation: 

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What are the 2 most valuable things to real estate agents?

September 20, 2016
  1. Listing Contract – Where the agents signs the listing with the seller
  2. Sale/Purchase Contract – Where the agents helps facilitate the transaction

 

Everything else in between the two becomes an obligation. This mentality is not limited to real estate but is present in every business that is backed by a commission based structure.

 

The real estate agent’s efforts on marketing, open houses, taking phone calls, setting up and being present at showings are not directly related to their commission, but directly impacts the sale price of your home.As the real estate industry is

 

As the real estate industry is commission based, it’s natural for people to think like this when you relate every task to a dollar.  Everything has bestowed a value and tasks become an obligation when there is little to no value behind it.

 

This is not to say that people are purposely neglecting steps in between, but that it is just in human nature to want to go for things that provide you with the most value.


So how can you prevent yourself?  Ask your Real Estate agent for a marketing plan and clearly, ask them what are investments will they be doing in terms of services and products to sell your house OR call us at the Residencity Real Estate Team.


The true value of your property is closely intertwined with the steps that your real estate agent takes to market your property and your listing price is directly impacted when components are missed.

 

Contact us at 604.288.9166 for a free consultation as well as a pre-inspection and to work with a team that truly values the marketing aspect and the ‘steps in between’ of the real estate industry.

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Decoding days on the market: does it matter?

September 15, 2016

You come across a property that has been on the market for many months and still hasn’t been sold. You go inside and the place looks fine, it’s in a good neighbourhood and you’re wondering why an offer hasn’t been made yet. The natural assumption here is that there is something majorly wrong with the property.

Read on for reasons why properties stay on the market for a while:

  1. Property is overpriced in the first place. Properties receive an initial rush of buyers when they’re listed and if the property is over listed, buyers will pass.
  2. There was an existing contract that fell through after many months.
  3. Sellers decided to renovate their home for improvements. The sellers held open houses and discovered that there are a few changes they can make to improve the home.
  4. Poor Marketing.  The seller’s agent is not pulling their weight, there’s poor photography and the seller doesn’t want to have a ‘for sale’ sign.
  5. Seller is not being accommodating. Seller may be hesitant on holding open houses and viewings. They claim that photos are online already and that they don’t want nosey neighbours coming into their home.
  6. Seller being unreasonable. The seller believes that their house is worth every dollar it is listed for and is unwilling to negotiate and sell the property for anything but the list price.  

If you come across a home that has been on the market for quite a while, do not exclude it simply due to how long it has been on the market. It’s also important to also check out the average amount of days that a house is on the market for that neighbourhood, maybe it is typical of them to be on the market for this long. Go see the home, ask the agent questions and call for an inspection to see for yourself if you’re ready to make an offer.

Residencity believes that the number of days a property has been on the market is not a good indicator as to whether there’s something wrong with the home. Call 604.288.9166 or email us if you are interested in selling your home and to see what we’re all about. If you list with Residencity, we can guarantee that your home will never be on the market for that long.

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3 major flaws of the real estate industry

September 13, 2016

If you carefully analyze the workings of the real estate industries, you will notice that there are 3 major flaws. We believe if these were to be fixed, this would highly revolutionize how the industry currently works.

  1. The procedure of receiving offers. Let’s say an agent receives 6 offers for a property they’re selling and at this point, each offer is confidential between the selling agent and the buyer’s agent. Although it is not legal to do so, the seller’s agent has the ability to hide offers from the owner of the property who is selling- they have no idea what each and all of the offers are until their agent shares it with them.Agents have been fined by the Real Estate Council of British Columbia in the past for mishandling offers. The council is only aware of an issue if it has been reported and most of time, things go by unnoticed.
  2. Lack of knowledge on how to market a property. Nowhere in the real estate agent’s education or training whether it be the books or the office they work with, equips them with skills on real estate marketing. They are only exposed to skills on legalities, lead generations and how to grow their business. Not having the skill on how to properly market a home directly impacts the selling price of your home.
  3. Industry driven on transactions than service. If you carefully analyze the steps in the real estate industry, you will notice that they are designed to speed up transactions and not really service.  Have a look at public listing websites and you will notice that over 90% of properties have poor photos usually taken by the real estate agent on their phone.  Professional photography would be a minimum requirement for even selling a lip balm, but not in real estate.  Their priority goes to is getting it listed over photographing a property.

Residencity has solutions for all of these problems. All offers are sent through the office before being dispatched to the agent responsible for your listing, so you will see all of the offers that are being made on your property. We are a team of marketing professionals where the transaction comes secondary to promotion. Our team ensures your listing gets professional photography, video tours, feature sheets, floor plans- all the tools that get a property sold. If you’re interested in listing with Residencity, call 604.288.9166 or email us to see what we’re all about.

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The 3 Types of Real Estate Agents (Which One Are You Using?)

September 08, 2016

If you go on public sites to search for properties you will notice listings with poor property descriptions, a lack of photos as well as poor presentation of the property.

How do these properties get sold? Regardless of poor presentation, these properties get sold for one reason – by riding the wave of a hot market.

We broke down agents of these listings down into 3 categories:

New or Emerging Agents

 Most new agents may not have money to market a house. They pass their licence and a significant amount of their savings goes towards their education, branding, website, business cards and perhaps leasing a BMW.

An agent gets paid on closing, which is the date the keys transfer and this can take months. They are bogged down with expenses while waiting to receive their pay cheque and it will take a few deals to get out of this cycle to have capital on hand to market a property.

Experienced Agents

Experienced agents evaluate the market conditions and spend accordingly – for the most part.  If the market is hot, they will do a minimal amount of marketing as the property is most likely going to sell anyway.  

If the market is slow, they will cut back on spending as there is a risk that the property may not sell and they would have to take money out from their own pocket.

Professional Agents

These agents have a structure for marketing that they follow each time they acquire a new listing. These are the agents you want to list your property with as consistency is key.

These people have systems in place for every step of the process, from the consultation to marketing to signing the deal.

Where do you find professional agents?

Through your own research, what you want to look for in an agent is consistency.

One way is to go on the agent’s website and look for consistency in the description, lighting, and style of images on the active properties.

Or the easy way is to hire Residency.

At Residency we are all about consistency and having systems in place for the entire sales process. This way we do not have keep making things up as we go along.

This ensures your experience with us is that much more enjoyable.

Call 604.288.9166 or email us to see what we can do for you.

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Realtor

Why are there so many Realtors out there?

September 06, 2016

There’s a perception that the real estate industry is a lucrative one and that you can make a lot of money. While this is definitely true, success in the real estate industry is something that only less than 10% can achieve. Many get licensed and do okay for the 1st and 2nd year but then change career paths after they have finished serving their friends and family and have run out of clients.

It’s not difficult becoming a real estate agent. Here are the 4 steps:

  1. Language Requirement. English is the language used for all real estate documents set by the Real Estate Council of British Columbia (RECBC), and you need to know enough to have an understanding of these documents. This is evaluated by a Language Proficiency Requirement which candidates must satisfy before registering for the licensing exam.
  • Education of 2 courses. You will need to take a Real Estate Trading Services Licensing Course which introduces you to the legal side of things;  
    • how to write a contract
    • how to interpret contracts
    • what to say and when to say it

After taking this course, you will be licensed to work under a real estate brokerage. Taking the Residential/Commercial Trading Services Applied Practice Real Estate Course builds on your knowledge from the first course.

  1. Find a brokerage, and have them sign your licensing application. The BC council approves your application and you become a real estate agent.
  2. Join a real estate board. This way, you can gain access to online Multiple Listing Service (MLS), Paragon (the dashboard to view sold history and perform detailed searches) and standard forms when performing transactions with your clients.

As you can see from the steps outlined above, the bare minimum you really need is to take a licensing course which is approximately a year long commitment but can be done in as quickly as 3 months. Not too difficult or as lengthy compared to some other professions and there is no other requirement aside from taking the course, being able to communicate, read and write in English.  On average there are 10,000 to 14,000 active members at a time registered with the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.  

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3 reasons that ‘for sale’ signs are here to stay

September 01, 2016

“I don’t want my neighbours or tenants to know that I am moving, it’s none of their business.”

“The for sale sign is not aesthetically pleasing.”

These are excuses sellers have given us when we talk about putting a “for sale” sign up on their lawn. We’re here to tell you that lawn signs are a great marketing tool and there are no disadvantages to having a for sale sign up in your front lawn, only benefits.

  1. Identification Point. Real estate agents are bringing their buyers to countless of properties throughout the week. Having a “for sale” sign on your property makes their job a lot easier and your home more inviting. Same goes for people who are from out of town/not from the neighbourhood.
  2. Attract attention. If your property is located on a main road, having a for sale sign markets you to all the individuals that pass by on this road. Perhaps they are interested in purchasing a property in your neighbourhood and haven’t had the time to start looking yet- your house could be their start and potentially end point.
  3. Neighbours. Although your neighbour won’t be buying your house, they are great for referrals. If your neighbour has friends or relatives looking to move into their area, your property is automatically on their radar, even if they are not looking for listings.

In the end, you never know who will see the sign and having one is better than not. If you list with Residencity, we will strongly suggest that you should have a sign on your property. Call us at 604.288.9166 or email us to see what else we can do for you.

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What Your Real Estate Agent Should be Doing to Sell Your Home

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