A friend asked me over lunch the other day, “What do you guys do anyway, I can go onto the internet and find my own house if I wanted to, can’t I?” What a bold and intriguing question to ask!
I answered him with the following:
Well we [Realtors] do a number of things, but I’ll tell you some of them and tell me if we have any value in our work?
First thing that a Real Estate Professional does is he studies the housing market from a statistical as well as a subjective standpoint, meaning we study the flow of the prices and market conditions, we also learn the trends that people are following for example the Young Urban Professionals-What are they attracted to? How long do they tend to stay in a particular home? Where do they tend to move to next? Because communities tend to move together, not always, but generally speaking – This in turn tells us Where to look for buyers for specific properties when we list our clients homes.
Also through studying the market conditions a Real Estate Professional is aware of the news that the media tends to report 1-2 months later! Oh and by the way, we receive listings in real time, not once they’ve sold… The general public receives a lot of houses once they’ve been on the market for a longer period of time. Sometimes they even get access to them once they have already sold!
Now let’s get into the emotional part of buying or selling a house or a home! The owner tends to want a whole lot of money for their home, and a buyer tends to want a house for very little money!
The best and proven method is to have a third party involved who is educated and un-biased. With both parties being biased to their own individual needs in other countries disasters ensue. Because it gets very, very, very personal and people end up getting insulted! Luckily here in Canada we are blessed with a system that protects the consumer and holds the professionals accountable for their actions. As Real Estate Professionals we must adhere to a strict code of ethics by numerous governing bodies.
To wrap it up we are able to get sellers more money by making sure their home doesn’t get damaged by buyers seeing it as “not worth it”, and we get buyers the value that the Canadian market will allow them to get…
One thing that A Real Estate Professional understands is what affects the price of a house or a home, and what doesn’t affect the price of a house or a home… This is another topic of discussion.
Manjit Virk
Sales Representative with Signature Service GMAC Real Estate
www.manjittorontohomes.com
