Real Estate Myths

Simple Definition of myth:

"an idea or story that is believed by many people but that is not true"

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/myth

 

As with a lot of things in life, widely held beliefs that at one time may have had some validity & truth to them, but over time, some beliefs get exaggerated and blown out of proportion that they are no longer true from thier original meaning and intent.

 

There are many Myths associated with Selling and Buying Real Estate in the 21st century, that as mentioned, may at one time, many years ago, held some degree of validity but today have little or no relevance. Statistics from the 2015 National Association of Realtors Profile of Buyers and Sellers state the average Sellers typically lived in their home for nine years before selling, declining from 10 years in last year’s report.

 

As we all know, a lot of things can change every 9 years, especially when it comes to technology which has or is changing everything from the Travel, Financial Service & the Automotive industries and now the Real Estate industry. Click on the following link to get an idea as to how the Real Estate industry has and will be changing from the standard practices of the last 200 years:

 

https://www.auction.com/blog/how-the-internet-changed-the-real-estate-industry-forever/#sthash.rkaYt5oL.dpbs

 

As much as technology is changing the Real Estate industry, we firmly believe that the role of the Real Estate Brokerage and their agents will remain the focal point of the real estate transaction, but to a much lesser extent than it was previously.  Many people believe that if they list their property with a large national brokerage that has a large amount of agents, for a high commission rate, that their property will sell faster and for more money, due in large part to agressive and unfounded sales techniques that have worked well for the past 100 years or more.

 

Since the advent of National MLS® system in Canada (Realtor.ca), what most people don't know is that every Brokerage is now equal in the amount of agents that have access to and are able to bring a serious buyer to your property, regardless if the brokerage has 400 agents or 4 agents. The sharing of the commission with the buyers agent, no matter what brokerage they are with is has changed the old school way of how Real Estate is sold.

 

The truth of the matter is when selling your home anywhere in Canada, all agents and brokerages have access to the exact same marketing tools that expose your property to the overwhelmingly vast majority of serious potential buyers who are currently looking for a home, and in Canada that marketing tool is called Realtor.ca.

 

Realtor.ca has incorporated the latest technolgies including mobile search which allows todays tech savy buyers to search for properties that meet their requirements without the need to have a Realtor involved. Once they have narrowed down their search to 5 -10 properties, this is when they usually contact an agent, explain their situation and view a few properties that they have short listed and proceed to write an offer on one of their chosen properties.

 

The vast majority of marketing done to sell your home by any agent with any brokerage, is by uploading your listing to Realtor.ca

( MLS® ) mainly because this is where the huge majority of serious buyers go when looking for a home. As well, when you list your property on Realtor.ca, the brokerage has an option to load and share your listings on the DDF, ( Data Distribution Facility ) which allows all other participating brokerages across Canada to show and advertise your listing in hopes that a buyer who may be on their site will contact them for more information on your listing.

 

This program allows your listing to be potentially advertised on thousands of other real estate sites across Canada for maximum exposure.

 

The other important marketing aspect is to have a professional lawn sign on your property as most local buyers drive the neighbourhoods they are interested in living in and once they see that your property is for sale will then proceed to go to Realtor.ca, more than likely using either their smart phone or tablet, sitting in their car at the curb outside your home, to gather immediate information such as price, # of bedrooms, bathrooms, aerial, street views, photos etc.

 

The additional social media marketing that some agents say they do to try and justify high commission rates, has little to no effect in attracting serious buyers. There has been no evidence that any kind of marketing on social media such as You Tube, Twitter etc results in any serious buyers coming forward to offer on a property. Serious Potential Buyers go to the portal where they can be assured that they will find all listed MLS® properties including For Sale By Owner MLS® listed properties in one place and that is still Realtor.ca ( MLS® )

 

In devoloping our Low cost, Discount Real Estate Commission Program, we looked at all the costs associated with the traditional brokerage and eliminated all of the high costs that are not necessary such as large, expensive offices & equipment and passed along the saving to homeowners who take advantage of our low cost discount real estate commission. Virtually the same services you would recieve from any other brokerage that charge 4, 5 and even 6% commissions for the same results.

 

We save homeowners thousands of dollars in offering low cost, full service discount real estate commissions as well as flat rate services compared to traditional brokerages that charge high, full service real estate commissions mentioned above.

 

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