How To Select A Realtor To Represent You

Charles Hanes
January 18, 2012

When you are looking at spending/investing somewhere around a Half Million Dollars (the average price of a condo in Toronto is $460,000) you had better know what you are doing.

It is difficult to do research on your own despite or more accurately because of the Internet.  Many Realtors today buy editorial content to dress up their web site.  You can subscribe to services today where a writer lays down generic narratives weekly, daily (based on what you are willing to pay) and they are automatically published on your web site.  As they are writing generic articles due to selling their services on a national if not global basis, you don't get any in-depth analysis or area specific insights.  That's NOT the kind of information that you need to be able to make your own "informed decisions".

You can't count of articles published in local newspapers as their writers do NOT have backgrounds in real estate or real estate investing so once again you get a generic, window-dressing approach consisting of documented "fluff".  It may be well written but it's NOT informed commentary.  The newspapers sell one day ads to condo developers for tens of thousands of dollars a day so the writing is designed to "sell you condos" as opposed to deliver you meaningful content on which you can then form your own conclusions.

And you can't count on those FREE Condo magazines that you see in boxes at every corner in downtown Toronto as they are glorified ad rags.  The most recent manifestations in these magazines is ads that are written to emulate editorial content.  You read them and believe that you are reading articles written with journalistic integrity (if there is such a thing) but they are really written by condo developers and their high priced ad agencies.

When a developer is designing a pre-sale condo development they incorporate specific new corporations with unique names, usually the name of the condo Inc., for two specific reasons:  1.  if they get in financial trouble they can let it go into bankruptcy and not impact their company, and 2.  their name is not associated with the building so there is not track record involving their name (outright bad developers can't be discovered by research).

The only way you can hope to have some kind of inside track is to have the first hand knowledge that only decades in the business can deliver or find a Buyer's Agent that has that first hand experience and knowledge.  That said, it's still not easy to find the right Buyer's Agent.

The first thing you want to know when interviewing Realtors is "HOW MANY TRANSACTiONS THEY HAVE PERSONALLY HANDLED IN THE PAST DECADE"!  If they haven't been in the business for a decade it is highly unlikely that they can help you with either a resale condo (existing building) as they haven't been around long enough to know about it and its history.  When it comes to pre-sale condos they won't really be able to share inside knowledge with you as they won't know the track record of developers.

So a decade of "hands-on" experience is criteria number one.  But it cannot just be ten years of experience as a Realtor as condos are very unique within the entire realm of real estate.  If they've been specializing in detached houses, for example or leasing commercial space, they may have had a real estate license for the right amount of time but if they haven't been directly immersed in the day to day activity of buying and selling condos, they really don't have the knowledge that you need to be able to make your own informed decisions.

I started selling condos in 1979 successfully turning around a failing high end condo ("Queen's Quay Residences") on the harborfront in Toronto and have been directly involved in the business ever since.  There are good older condos and bad older condos in Toronto and there a good developers and bad developers.  If you are thinking of buying/investing in a Toronto condo, loft or townhouse the best advice that I can give you after three and half decades of doing this is to Register with me.

The best thing about having me represent you as your Buyer's Agent is that my services are absolutely FREE!  That's right, you get my 33 years of hands-on knowledge and experience added to your buying team FREE!  In all this time period I have never had a dissatisfied client.   Some references from my client are on the front page of my web site.