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!

January 20, 2012 –

The number of new listings for condominium apartments was up by 14 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010.

“The condo segment of the market continued to be a key driver of sales in the fourth quarter. Even with an uptick in new listings following strong condo completions over the last year, market conditions remained tight. Tight conditions were the foundation for a robust year-over-year increase in the average selling price,” said Toronto Real Estate Board President Richard Silver.

The average selling price for condominium apartments in the fourth quarter of 2011 was $336,748 – a seven per cent increase over the fourth quarter of 2010.

“In addition to the healthy situation in the ownership condo market, the condo rental market tightened up at the end of 2011, with the number of units listed down and the number of transactions up. This prompted above-inflation increases in average one-bedroom and two-bedroom rents,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis.

TORONTO, February 3, 2012

“A favourable affordability picture bolstered by very low posted fixed mortgage rates has kept home buyers confident in their ability to achieve the Canadian goal of home ownership,” said Toronto Real Estate Board President Richard Silver. “The buyer pool remains diverse in the GTA with strong interest in home types across the pricing spectrum,” continued Silver.

The average selling price for January 2012 transactions was $463,534 – up by almost nine per cent compared to January 2011.

“Low inventory levels have kept competition between buyers strong, resulting in robust annual rates of price growth over the last year. Strong price growth is expected to attract more listings. A better supplied market should result in a slower rate of price growth, especially in the second half of 2012,” said Jason Mercer, the Toronto Real Estate Board’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis.

Here is what I think:…like our neighbors to the South, Canadians have a DREAM and that includes a home where they share family life. We have more stringent tax laws and mortgage laws than south of the border and the “Canadian Dream” has always included paying off your mortgage and not using your home as an ATM.

Since 1980 when I started selling houses the market has gone up and down a few times. To me it has been all about finding the right fit for a family and I have watched a lot of those families grow and enjoy a few properties as their repertoire of moments grew. Values have changed but the real value in Real Estate has not been financial, it has been lifestyle oriented. When did home ownership become more about the money and less about the family?

Granted, Toronto has changed and the market here has been one of the healthiest in North America. We are lucky but are we overpriced? Talk to someone from Manhattan, Chicago, San Francisco, Hong Kong or London and they will tell you no…

Buyers: make your decisions based on community, schools, street life, Kitchens and Family rooms,  realizing that the market will go up and it will go down…just enjoy the ride in a home that fits your needs and makes you feel that you are living your “Canadian DREAM”.

Here is a link to an excellent recent article in the Economist. The article does deal with the economics of the marketplace but don’t give up the long term lifestyle dreams. My house goes up and down in value, but it is the center of great family memories are unable to monetize.

Last month alone, a total of 4,718 homes changed hands, representing a seven per cent increase over the 4,395 sales reported in December 2010.

Consistent with the month’s strong sales, sellers’ market conditions continued, with the amount of time that homes were available for sale averaging 32 days last month compared to 37 days a year ago.

Year-over-year sales growth in the 905 Region outpaced that of the City of Toronto in December, with increases of more than 12 per cent and seven per cent respectively. In total 2,770 sales took place in the 905 Region while 1,948 transactions occurred in the City of Toronto.

The number of homes newly available for sale in December also increased, by nearly 14 per cent compared to a year ago, with 4,811 new listings last month. Despite the increase in availability, sales generally kept pace with new supply, resulting in continued price growth.

The average cost of a GTA resale home increased four per cent year-over-year to $451,436. Gains were stronger in the 905 Region, with the December average price climbing nearly six per cent to $435,378 and the City of Toronto showing a two per cent increase in its average price, to $474,270.

For all of 2011, the average selling price was up by eight per cent to over $465,000 in comparison to the average of $431,276 in 2010.  We experienced moderate to strong price growth throughout 2011 because market conditions remained very tight because of strong sales growth coupled with a decline in listings.  Enhanced competition between buyers led to strong upward pressure on selling prices.

We can see just how tight the housing market has been in the GTA over the past two years when we consider a new indicator published by TREB: Months of Inventory (MOI).  MOI tells us how long (in months) it would take to completely sell the average number of active listings over the past 12 months given the average number of sales over the same period.  A lower number of months indicate tighter market conditions and vice-versa.  Over the past two years, MOI has been in the 2.0 to 2.5 months range.  This is substantially lower than the pre-recession norm of between 3.0 and 3.5 months.

Despite price growth, the cost of home ownership remains affordable, due to low interest rates and a stable employment picture.  Five-year fixed rate mortgages continue to be available at approximately five per cent while Toronto’s unemployment rate came in at 7.8 per cent in December, an improvement of more than half a percentage point from the previous month.

Moreover, favourable news regarding our country continues to be generated.  A recent study release by the Legatum Institute, which measured the world’s most prosperous nations ranked Canada as the sixth best country in the world based on criteria that have an effect on economic growth and personal well being. The flood of favourable reports on our country in recent months has been tempered though by warnings from the Bank of Canada and the International Monetary Fund regarding Canadians’ high household debt.  This coupled with the potential impact of other nations’ volatile economies should give all Canadians pause for thought.

It is a fiscally conservative approach, with respect to lending practices for example, that has landed our Canada at the top of so many world rankings, and we should continue to exercise the same prudence with respect to household finances.  There’s never been a better time to begin a new mortgage in order to consolidate debt or perhaps even to move to a home better suited to your lifestyle.  To learn more about the process of buying and selling a home visit www.TorontoRealEstateBoard.com.

Richard Silver is President of the Toronto Real Estate Board, a professional association that represents 32,000 REALTORS® in the Greater Toronto Area.

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