Milton blog

Competition is fierce in real estate so as part of his branding, Mississauga broker Parwesh K. (PK) Sabharwal wears a snappy hat with his business attire.

New Realtor Realities: Many in the GTA go above and beyond to earn loyalty because competition for clients has become so stiff

One agent packs up and stores a client’s massive shoe collection to minimize clutter. Another puts up a mother and her kids in her basement or provides amateur marriage counselling. And many more now deliver seemingly unusual services in an attempt to stand out in the fierce GTA real estate market.

“A real estate agent cannot afford to have an ego,” Mississauga broker Parwesh (PK for short) Sabharwal says. “In this cutthroat competitive market, one must meet all kinds of demands, even if they seem funny or weird.

“I even sat and packed up 100 pairs of shoes for one client and carried those big boxes all the way to her tiny basement,” recalls Sabharwal of one such extra service.

“Packing shoes isn’t part of my job description,” he says with a laugh. “But since the shoes were an eyesore – in the entrance of the house, and the lady wasn’t getting that – I offered to help out.”

Helping out is now often taken for granted, increasingly, by demanding clients, says this ReMax broker. Another factor is the number of agents in the game.

Phil Soper, president and CEO at Royal LePage, says the lure of real estate has caught on even with the younger set. The company now recruits many graduates from universities during their campus recruitment drives in Toronto.

And in such a market, there’s no dearth of unusual requests, agents say.

“A client who had daughters asked me to find out if the adjoining house to the one that they liked housed young boys. And if there were boys next door, then they wouldn’t buy that house,” Sabharwal says. “Awkwardly, I did comply by knocking on the next-door house, and casually inquiring about their family composition.”

Agents say the business is one that’s heavily based on referrals and clients will remember agents who go the extra mile even years after their house sells.

“Good service is being increasingly used by brokers as a way to distinguish them from the competition,” Soper says. His company coaches its agents on good practices.

Sabharwal says in the world of fancy packaging, branding is important. So he dons a matching hat with his business suit.

When he meets a client, he gives them a big docket of marketing material, which contains a huge photograph in that attire– smiling in a standing pose with his fancy P. initial engraved alongside each page describing the services he provides.

He gives clients a two-pack tutorial CD and testimonials from other clients he’s served. In addition he provides a colourful, two page-newsletter called Sabharwal’s Neighbourhood News.

To be an agent also means to be blessed with tons of patience, says Susan Taylor, a 20-year veteran, who jokingly admits she could easily fill in as a “marriage counsellor.”

In some cases marriages have broken up and couples have decided to sell a house. Taylor recalls one such incident where she spent more than two months coaxing, cajoling and counselling the husband to get him to sign papers, so that she could sell the house.

Taylor, a Royal LePage agent, says the dynamics of the real estate game have changed. Twenty years ago it was more of a nine-to-five job.

“The Internet and the advent of TV home improvement shows have raised awareness levels and it’s almost as if they (buyers) want houses to be perfect,” she says.

It all means that agents need to work extra hard to make sure the house is good to sell.

Taylor says if that means pouring in some extra bleach in (the clients’) dirty kitchen sink then that’s fine. She draws the line, however, when it comes to cleaning toilets. Instead, she has called cleaning services and paid for the services.

Taylor isn’t alone in that regard. Jillinda Greene, a longtime ReMax Hallmark agent in the Beach area says staging a house is very important. She has paid the bills for a florist or even rented paintings which cost her between $500 and $1,800, depending on the size of the house.

But Betty Durocher gives a whole new meaning to the term open house. In July 2002, this Royal LePage agent from Newmarket moved some of her clients – a mother and two children – into her own basement for two months. The trio shared Durocher’s kitchen and other facilities upstairs.

“The mother had bought a townhome but could not afford a place in the interim period, and not many rentals were available for such a short time and I just knew she couldn’t afford it,” says Durocher.

The agent’s retired husband at times also cooks dinner for clients, or babysits children while she takes the parents out.

Extra services don’t surprise Soper, who says consumers have a right to expect good services as they pay a considerable fee in commissions.

Agents say that commissions are under pressure and many in the market work for less than 5 per cent.

Not surprisingly, Internet sites that allow people to list their homes and eliminate the agent completely are growing steadily. Gabi Fish is vice-president of the Canadian online home-selling site, propertysold.ca. Fish says many home sellers don’t want to pay costly commissions. The website – barely two years old – garnered 1.81 million unique visits (12.5 million page loads) last year, higher than what it got when it started in 2006 (1.1 million unique visitors).

It sold 394 properties last year compared to 119 in 2006. Fish says listings in Toronto, the website’s largest market, have increased with the GTA area getting 340 listings this year, compared to 152 in 2006.

But agents say the Internet cannot replace the human element of being able to service clients in unique circumstances.

Linda Morgan, a Niagara Region real estate agent for Royal LePage, tells the story of a single mom with multiple sclerosis who was living on a disability pension that she helped — first to sell her house, and then buy a new one.

The house where this mom and her son were living was in danger of being lost for nonpayment of municipal taxes. Morgan called in the help of her husband and his friends who repaired it so that it could be put up for sale. After selling the house and finding a condo that fit her client’s needs, Morgan found out the lady wasn’t qualifying for a mortgage, so she worked with her own bank to see that through.

Morgan says she also paid her own money for the remodelling of the bathrooms because the owner couldn’t and then, with countless trips to the local MPP’s office, and the March of Dimes, the owner was able to get a grant finally approved that repaid this money back.

CROWDED FIELD

Despite the increased competition in the market, more and more people want to become licensed real estate agents.

» The Real Estate Council of Ontario, or RECO, the regulating body for agents in Ontario, says there has been a 20 per cent overall increase in the number of registrants in Ontario since 2005, with the agency processing more than 400 applications for new registrations each month. In 2003, there were about 300 new applications per month processed by the agency.

In 2005, Ontario had 40,665 registrants with 11,675 of those coming from Toronto (M postal codes) and 26,792, which included Toronto and Brampton, Durham, Mississauga, Oakville, Milton, Orangeville, and York. In 2007, Ontario had 49,429 registrants with 12,472 of those coming from Toronto (M postal codes) and 29,222, which included Toronto and Brampton, Durham, Mississauga, Oakville, Milton, Orangeville, and York.

As of Feb. 1, 50,000 agents were registered with RECO in Ontario.

» An increase can also been seen (in the past three years) in memberships with the Toronto Real Estate Board: 2005 – 22,953; 2006 – 24,894; 2007-26,861; 2008 – a further 185, taking the total number close to 27,046.

» ReMax says it has 8,540 agents in Ontario and Atlantic Canada. (nationally 17,600).

In 2007, of the 751 agents it added to its roster, 445 were in the Ontario-Atlantic region, which was the largest growth for ReMax globally last year. As well, in 2006, of the 1,200 new agents, 650 were from the Ontario-Atlantic area. This region has been growing by 400 to 600 agents on average per year, with growth ranging from 5 per cent to 10 per cent over 10 years.

Sources: Real Estate Council of Ontario, Toronto Real Estate Board, ReMax

– by Rakshande Italia of the Toronto Star