By Lynda Cox
As a real-estate agent abroad awaiting the birth of a grandchild, I have recently become aware of the fact that buyers and sellers in Ottawa, and for that matter in all of Canada, have a real-estate system that works in their best interests.
Whenever I travel I always visit the local real estate offices to introduce myself to see how these offices work and how they are different from what I am used to in Ottawa. I am currently in a European city the size of Kingston where there is a real-estate office every few city blocks. I took the time to visit one in particular where the agent spoke some English.
I asked him if all the real-estate offices worked together to sell their listings? Did they have a computerized Multiple Listing Service (MLS) ? The answer was “No.”
Each office has exclusive listings and there is no central computerized service. What does that mean?
It means that every interested buyer must trek to all these individual offices to learn what they are offering for sale. There is no co-operation between brokerages. That means that every agency is double-ending every deal. The agency represents the sellers interests only, so buyers must beware.
I was shocked.
The workload for every serious buyer is horrendous. Buyers can’t have an agent working for them, scouring all the listings to come up with a short list, and showing them all the homes they are interested in. They must deal with different agents if the properties are listed with different companies. No one agent can show them all the homes they are interested in. No one agent can get to know them and help them narrow down their search. They are alone trying to sift through the listings on offer and then trying to set up appointments.
What a nightmare!
We are so lucky in Ottawa to have a co-operative system where one agent may show listings offered by any real-estate company. In Ottawa, buyers can work exclusively with one agent to find the home they desire, put in the offer, negotiate and come to agreeable terms until the deal is done no matter whose sign is on the lawn.
Both buyers and sellers in Ottawa benefit from the cooperative approach to buying and selling homes aided by the MLS system.
Real Estate Update from September 25th to November 5th
Residential: Active 4 Conditionally Sold 0 SOLD 28 (11 over list price with an average
of $24K over asking)
Condo: Active 27 Conditionally Sold 3 SOLD 124 (19 over list price with an
average of $14K over asking)
We are still in a seller’s market! It’s a great time to sell.
Lynda Cox is a member of the Cox Home Team, and a sales representative with Faulkner Real Estate. She is currently an agent abroad (in expectation)