Each agent develops a style with services that they include when selling property. Knowing this, the first question I am surprised that a consumer does not ask is “What services will be included in the commission that I will be paying?” Each successful Realtor I know, has developed their own technique that they use to accomplish a successful result.

Before the discussion begins please realize that the listing agent, who collects the commission from the Seller, usually offers half of that commission to the Buyer’s agent. That agent needs to be out in the marketplace daily, viewing listings, guiding and presenting successful offers for their clients. Please note that no commission gets paid to either until the property closes successfully. Not many business models exist where all the work has to be completed before any money changes hands.

I cannot speak for what other Realtors provide, but here are the services that I include for my half of the commission:

1. I am a big believer in staging so I offer all my clients a written consultation with a home stager at my expense.
2. Floor plans allow a prospective buyer to imagine their furniture in the property so I pay for the Home to be measured. There are also some Buyers who can only justify asking price in relationship to square footage.
3. Property photos are hugely important in today’s marketplace so all my listings are professionally photographed at my expense, and featured with Virtual Tours.
4. Your property will be on TorontoMLS and on REALTOR.ca but they will also have virtual tours and at least 21 professional photos as well as professional floor plans attached to the listing for both Realtors and the consumer to view.
5. I am known for providing Agent Open Houses with food served at my expense. It encourages the Realtors to spend more time, look around, feel comfortable and engage with each other. Announcements of new listing and their Open Houses are broadcast on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more.
6. I have often been surprised at the power of “neighbour marketing” so I send out Just Listed and Open House invitation cards to the surrounding 2000 homes at my expense.
7. I long ago realized the importance of the Internet so not only are properties placed on the TorontoMLS  system, they are on REALTOR.ca , shared on the Toronto Real Estate Board’s  Internet Data Exchange or IDX, they also appear on my sites: www.RichardSilver.com, www.Torontoism.com, and www.DowntownTorontoNews.com as well as our Company site www.BosleyRealEstate.com. All these sites are optimized professionally to be on the front pages of the Search Engines  in the top 30 Categories of search terms for Toronto Real Estate.
8. I am available always and have a licensed assistant, Jan Robinson who handles extraneous appointments, database and follows up with showings  and updates on your property.
9. Recognizing that Today’s Buyers  have changed the way they shop (that is a whole other Blog), I suggest Open Houses for the Public on every possible weekend. I have been working with a trusted group of Realtors below who handle those Open House if I am not available.
10. There are three Realtors who I look to for assistance in making sure my Buyers are getting the best of service: Kimberley Ezeard , Ken James ,  and France Trudeau. I have found that over the years, property marketing has become much more complicated and a consuming time commitment leaving me  frustrated when trying to search for Buyers at the same time. These three have been excellent in helping our buyers find that best available in today’s marketplace because they focus on that task.
11. I do advertise in the Globe and Mail on Friday’s but find that a banner ad sending interested parties to the web is the best way to go. Very few contacts have ever come from Print ads today. 90% of Buyer are now searching on the Internet.
12. I happily work with other agents in facilitating offers on your property to get you the best price possible in Today’s market.

Hopefully this list provides some clarity about how I handle my business model but remember that each of us bring a different set of services to the table and those services may be offered to the consumer for different commission rates. My suggestion when shopping for a Realtor would be to ask them to list the services that they provide when listing a property. When you know what is involved, then it is up to you to decide whether the value is there to commit to that Realtor. If not, you have over almost 100,000 other options in Canada and over 1,000,000 in the United States.

Happy Shopping!

For all of us who has a vested interest in the future of our Riverdale Farm and in our neighbourhood, this grassroots event demonstrates another importance of the farm, beyond the obvious. The farm programs enable local groups, like the Toronto Guild of Spinners and Weavers, to have a viable place to come together and in return, the Guild’s efforts enable a wider audience to connect with the farm and with our community in a meaningful way.

SAVE THE DATE: Sunday Dec 4th, 2011 – 1pm & 3pm

CREATIVE SPIN – TEXTILE ART SHOW & SALE

KENDALL & Co. and the Toronto Guild of Spinners & Weavers cordially invite you to our “Promote Our Local” in-store event – Creative SPIN aims to promote the craft of textile art and the Riverdale Farm programs.

Event details, directions and info about the Guild are available online at http://kendallandco.ca/fyi/promote-our-local/creative-spin/  

RSVP: creativespin@kendallandco.ca

From Farm to Fibre, please come for a good cause and a merry ole time at KENDALL & Co. 541 Parliament St on Winchester St, in the heart of Cabbagetown.

Please connect with me should you need any clarity.

Home renovations undertaken by Ontario’s 3.2 million home owners produced over $20.3 billion in economic activity last year. Unfortunately, a large amount of home renovation work in this province is conducted via the ‘cash deal’ or through the underground economy. According to housing experts at Altus Group, 37 per cent or $5.2 billion of the output from the provincial home renovation industry in 2010 was conducted through the underground economy.

Unlicensed workers hurt the reputations and competitiveness of legitimate renovation contractors and cheat governments out of billions of dollars. The Ontario Home Builders Association (OHBA) estimates that the underground home renovation economy causes the loss of up to $298 million in HST revenue annually, $1.6 billion in income tax revenue annually and $767 million in other revenues such as CPP, WSIB, Employer Health Tax and Employment Insurance Premiums.

In addition, the underground home renovation industry poses a number of serious risks to home owners. Underground contractors often do not meet health and safety standards, carry no liability insurance and do not offer warranties. Moreover, home owners have little to no recourse in the event of shoddy or unsafe workmanship. If a worker falls on your property, you, as the property owner, may be held liable.

REALTORS® and home builders believe that the best way to mitigate the growth of the underground home renovation economy is to give home owners a financial incentive to use professional contractors. Professional contractors have HST numbers, maintain insurance and pay taxes.

Specifically, REALTORS® are urging all candidates running in the 2011 Ontario election to support the creation of a permanent Ontario Home Renovation Tax Rebate. If the provincial government were to institute a renovation rebate, payable to the homeowner, homeowners would be far more likely to insist on a receipt creating a paper trail that would deter underground economic activity.

The payment to the homeowner provides the incentive for written contracts which is good for everybody, particularly governments losing billions of dollars in tax revenue to the underground economy and at the same time it can go a long way to stimulating the provincial economy

REALTORS® look forward to continuing to deliver this and other messages important to home buyers and owners during and after the provincial election campaign.

Adorna is totally irreverent, and exacting in her teaching and understanding of Rules, Regulations and just plain common sense within the Real Estate community.  After a class I asked her to discuss Fiduciary duties and Buyer representation. I loved her response so much that I asked her recently if I could share these explanations with you.

Adorna Carroll Explaining Fiduciary Duties

Mr.and Mrs. Buyer thank you very much for the opportunity to meet with you and I’m very excited that I have this opportunity to discuss with you my most important legal responsibilities.

I am obligated by law to follow your lawful instructions pertinent to the transaction.  My responsibility is provide you with your options and alternatives; discuss the ramifications of your choices and then take a step back and give you an opportunity to think about what you want to do while I wait for your lawful instruction.

I’m here to watch out for your interest above my own. When’s the last time a sales person ever said that, to you? I’m not in sales, I’m in service Mr/Ms Buyer.

Whatever I know in a transaction, you’ll know.  Sometimes it’s fact, sometimes it’s rumour but I’m not allowed to decide what is important for you to know.  I am obligated by law to tell you what your situation is and then you determine if that information is important to you.

My highest responsibility is confidentiality.  I promise you right now I’m an excellent secret keeper and I will not talk about your personal secrets, your financial position, your motivation to sell or your urgency to anyone including the agents in my office.

I am accountable to you by law for your money, your paperwork and your dates so that you will not put any of your deposit money or general funds in jeopardy.

I am obligated to provide you with skills and contentious service.  The minimum required by my license law and regulations is competent service but I am obligated to a higher standard.

Thank you for allowing me to explain our most important legal responsibilities Mr/Ms Buyer. I know that there are a lot of real estate agents in our marketplace but only a true professional would be able to explain them like I did and I would be honoured to represent your interest.

Adorna Carroll Explains Buyer Representation

Once you’ve been pre-approved for your loan, we’ll start to go out shopping for property. When that time comes you will be provided with lists of property that are in your budget range and you will be doing your “homework” by driving around to determine if properties in your price range are in neighborhoods that you may be interested in.

When you see a for sale by owner sign on the front lawn, I just represent you.

When you see another company sign on the front lawn, I just represent you.

When you see our company sign on the front lawn, then my company has two clients in the same transaction – equal treatment, equal information- if I were to know the lowest prices the sellers can accept I can’t tell you, if I know the highest price you’re willing to pay I can’t tell them; you are entitled to know market information and all client confidential nformation (financial situation, motivation, urgency and personal secrets) will never be betrayed- do you have any questions?

She says it so well….

The first time home buyer land transfer tax (LTT) rebate is out of date. Due to increasing home prices, the rebate no longer covers the average LTT bill for first time home buyers. Instead, they pay almost $1,500 in LTT after receiving the rebate.

The provincial LTT is a significant tax: it costs the average Toronto home buyer almost $7,000, and when added to the Toronto Land Transfer Tax, average Toronto homebuyers face almost $14,000 in land transfer taxes.

REALTORS® believe that the first time buyers of today should not have to bear a heavier tax burden then previous generations. We believe that affordable home ownership is as important in 2011 as it was in 1996 when the LTT rebate program was first introduced.

From 1996 to 2010, the average price of a resale home in Ontario went up 120 per cent from $155,725 to $ 342,245. During the same period, the provincial government increased the LTT rebate by $275 or just 16 per cent. As a result, a first time home buyer today in Ontario pays $1,500 in LTT more than the previous generation on an average priced home after receiving the rebate.

REALTORS® are therefore urging all candidates running in the 2011 Ontario Election to support increasing the LTT rebate for first time home buyers from $2,000 to $3,500. This would return fairness to the LTT rebate program and allow present day first time home buyers to enjoy the same tax savings as buyers in previous years.

The Ontario LTT is paid on top of other closing costs such as legal fees, moving expenses, home inspection fees and mortgage insurance. Together, these closing costs eat away at a purchaser’s down payment, increasing the size of their mortgage principal.

The tax punishes young first time home buyers in particular because they pay the majority of their closing costs out of their own pocket, not from the proceeds of a previous home sale. As a result, closing costs, such as LTT, prevent some first time home buyers from entering the market altogether.

As a working REALTOR® I know the dream of home ownership among young Ontarians is as strong as it has ever been. Returning fairness to the LTT rebate program will go a long way towards ensuring that dream continues to flourish.

I look forward to providing knowledge and insight on important real estate subject throughout my term.

Richard Silver, President Toronto Real Estate Board

Reposted from The Toronto Sun

The past six months have really been a great trial by fire as I have had my busiest Spring in my Real Estate career plus chairing two committees at the Board, doing some teaching (Blogging and Social Media) and being part of the negotiating team that met with the Competition Bureau…Some friends have wondered how I could do it all but I have always found that “give a busy man a job and it will get done!”

My intention is to do what I always have done…work full time at real estate, manage my volunteer commitments, and stop teaching to free up more hours each month. I will always work to make sure that my clients are number one and well looked after.  However, you will be seeing more of me in the Press and think that I am too busy for you. Let me tell you that will not be the case. My Toronto Real Estate Board involvement only serves to help my clients benefit from trends that I learn about in the marketplace.

Like most years, I will be taking a quick two week holiday in July and a family holiday at Hanukkah/Xmas/New Year’s…this time with nephews, neices, great-nephews, brother, sister-in-law and friends…should be great fun!

I love my job, so know that at all times, even if I am out-of-town, technology will always allow me to respond quickly. Whether by Blackberry, iPad or laptop, I will always respond. Remember mail@richardsilver.com….

Please do not hesitate to contact me at any time.