Month: August 2018

So I sometimes find that our people, ya that’s you, like to hear what happens in the back end of our industry. It’s nice to hear some news from the inside, nice to know where all of the fees and such go. Well I recently heard of a case that was submitted to RECO (Real Estate Council of Ontario), that had a somewhat unexpected outcome that was immediately split in controversy. An agent had clients he was taking out to view several properties, he booked all of the appointments and had his route all planned. Drove to the first house and waited, his clients were late then he got a call and for whatever reason they cancelled the entire evening with this agent and planned for another time. The agent then proceeded to call the respective offices and cancel the showings, as most showings are in an hour window, it’s certainly a burden on the seller to vacate the home between 6:30 and 7:30 or whatever when you have dinner, kids, bedtimes, dogs, limited mobility family members, etc.. Making sure you either show up and show it or cancel it so people can get back to their lives is not only just decent and respectful, and professional – but it’s now the law.

This agent cancelled his appointments, 1 by 1 from the data sheets he had, but merely made the calls and didn’t keep notes. Now, nobody knows the exact circumstances, whether he just missed one, or was busy/no answer as happens from time to time with some of the smaller brokerages/offices, maybe he did everything right and an overworked support staff at the listing brokerage forgot to notify the homeowner. Like I said, I don’t know the exact circumstances, neither does the agent who didn’t take notes on cancelling their appointments – the cold hard fact remains that the homeowner had one of those extenuating circumstances that made vacating the house, difficult and inconvenient and when nobody showed was livid, they went to www.reco.on.ca and on the main page clicked “file a complaint”. From there RECO investigated, with no proof that he actually spoke to someone about cancelling this showing, RECO issued him a $500 fine and he had to write an apology to both the homeowner and the listing agent. Some sellers will be so infuriated that showings are booked and nobody comes that they blame their listing agent and will, in fact cancel that listing – although the listing agent has no control over the accountability of the showing agents – RECO has that control. They have flexed that muscle and the precedent is set.

You may find it surprising I posted where to lodge a complaint, I feel it’s important for consumers to know who regulates us and why. We will NEVER give you a reason to need it, but it’s nice to know you are protected if you ever do! Mccarthomes.com

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Civic Holiday weekend! We couldn’t have asked for better weather, maybe a couple fewer bugs in Haliburton would have been ok too – but even the most beautiful home still has a lawn to mow! I, quite obviously, spend a lot of time talking to people about ‘general Real Estate stuff’ and the comments I hear all the time sometimes make my head hurt. I hear “my neighbour sold for XX and I won’t sell for less than they got” and I hear I won’t pay XX for that, they were only XX 5 years ago. What moves the market you ask, motivation! When someone saddles themselves up with often idealistic and well motivated expectations, it can make for a tough shell to crack. I have tried, oh how I have tried to explain the math and as my mother often reminds me, a lot of people don’t like having a conversation that involves math or percentages, no matter how hard one may try to make the numbers easy.

So we need to explain this out another way: has anyone noticed the high price or real vanilla extract? The last time I bought it – a few months ago, it was $38.99 for 473ml. Made me want to cry! Then I really thought about it and, knowing full well it’s extensive shelf life, and its importance to things I make all the time like whipped cream, crepes, banana bread, waffles, etc. I invested in my bakings’ flavour futures. Why had it gotten so expensive, the last bottle I was sure was under $10 and now 4 times the price? Well as it turns out the low price wasn’t making the vanilla farmers any money, so as any business person may decide to do, most of them, all decided with no communication with anyone to destroy their vanilla vines and just moved on to other more profitable crops. Couple that with nature flexing a little with a bad crop here, a little weather dominated destruction there and boom we have these prices (credit: vanillaqueen.com).

Well last year China announced to its citizens that would no longer be able to take money out of the country for foreign investment as of January 2017, this “new rule then holds people liable for what they do with that money – and could bar them from exchanging money for up to three years if they are found to have used it improperly, such as for the purchase of a home” (credit: Globe and Mail). So that was announced – there was a panic to get the money out of China before then rule became active and we have a Canadian Real Estate boom, even if they fueled the market and lose half the money they brought over, they still have the half they got here out of China so it was a win regardless. Now, it didn’t all drop by half, but that’s the easiest math to use in conversation – so your neighbour sold last year for a million and bought for one and a half million on the water in Barrie. You won’t sell because your home is only worth half a million now and he got a million, but where he bought is now only three quarters million now. So he sold and spent half a million more, you sell now and buy the place next to him and only spend a quarter million more – he sold higher and paid more, you sell lower and pay less – the difference is YOUR win! (sorry about the math I just had to) Its looking more and more like our Real Estate market has stabilized, that long list of uncertainties is becoming more of a way of life than the eerie music from behind a cellar door. Now is the start of our market making a solid move into 2019! We are here to make that as easy as possible for you and your family and friends mccarthomes.com.