April 29, 2025 • 38 mins
In this episode of The Last Honest Realtor, host David Fleming confronts a reality nobody wants to admit: Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok—they’re all lying to you about real estate. And it is reshaping what buyers and sellers expect in ways that no one is prepared for.
What starts with a rant about food photos on Instagram turns into a sharp, critical look at how social media has distorted the housing market. David dives into the rise of curated content, AI-polished listings, and the dangerous new standard of “scrollable perfection” that buyers now demand—and how all of it is quietly setting everyone up for failure.
In This Episode:
- Why social media is creating unrealistic expectations for buyers and sellers
- How algorithms, not agents, are misleading today’s real estate consumers
- Why perfect staging and Instagrammable marketing are backfiring
- How buyers have been conditioned to expect “12 out of 10” houses
- Why engagement metrics like showings and likes no longer equal demand
Timestamps:
00:00 – Social Media is Lying to You About Real Estate
05:00 – Why Real Estate Has Become a Sport (and an Addiction)
10:00 – How Algorithms Misprice Homes and Mislead Buyers
16:00 – The Rise of Scrollable Perfection and Unrealistic Standards
24:00 – Sellers Are Overstaging, Overpricing, and Overestimating
32:00 – Why Likes Don’t Equal Offers in 2025
38:00 – How to Focus on Fundamentals Instead of Fantasies
Also in This Episode:
- David explains how filters, AI, and real estate apps are setting buyers up for disappointment
- The hidden damage caused by HouseSigma, Instagram staging, and “perfect” listings
- Why honesty, substance, and brutal realism are the only things that will get deals done in 2025
Subscribe to The Last Honest Realtor on YouTube or your preferred podcast app. Drop a comment if you’ve ever been fooled by a too-good-to-be-true listing—or if you’re just fed up with the filters.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Instagram is lying to you.
So is YouTube.
So is Facebook.
So is TikTok, which I'm not on,but I've heard of it.
Hello, everybody, and welcomeback to The Last Honest Realtor.
I'm your host, David Fleming.
In all seriousness, yes, I'mfamiliar with TikTok.
No, I will never be on it.
I know what Snapchat is becauseI have nieces.
But in a real estate context...
All of these social media appshave changed the way that we
(00:23):
look at real estate.
And it has certainly changedbuyer and seller expectations.
Now, for those of you that haveread my blog before, I'm going
to go back to the well here.
I don't understand people whotake pictures of food and post
on social media.
I don't know.
We all have our pet peeve.
And for whatever reason, this islike the hill I'm going to die
on.
Now, maybe it's me doth protesttoo much.
(00:45):
I don't have time to cook.
I eat too fast.
My wife will tell me that.
But for the love of God, peoplethat use the word plate as a
verb, you know where I'm goingwith this?
Oh, it's excellently plated.
I've never understood peoplethat take pictures of food and
put it on Instagram.
Now, this started years ago.
And I started years ago on myblog making fun of it.
(01:07):
You know, two girls out forlunch.
Becky, do not start that saladbefore I get a photo of it for
my gram.
I actually remember going outonce.
For Valentine's Day dinner withmy wife, we went to, I can't
remember the name of the steakrestaurant.
It was in Yorkville and I didn'tlike it.
The two girls next to us werestanding on their chairs to get
a great angle of their entreeswith their upgraded iPhones
(01:30):
because they probably buy thenewest one every single time it
comes out.
Look, that's not me.
But the point I want to makehere is that what you see with
that first photo of Becky'sdinner on Instagram, is this
perfected version of Becky'sevening.
What you don't see is that Beckythen goes out and gets trashed
(01:51):
at the club, stumbles home, andit could be Jimmy as well, okay?
I don't wanna make this justabout ladies.
Jimmy goes home, he gets trashedat the club.
Jimmy has a headache all night.
He's completely dehydrated.
He yaks a couple of times.
He sleeps in, through his alarm,misses his gym class, and
then...
He's late for his grandmother'sbirthday.
But it all started with thatincredible photo Jimmy took of
(02:14):
his pasta and put it onInstagram.
Folks, excuse the long lead-in,but that's how I feel about real
estate right now in the socialmedia age.
And again, I'm going to show myage here.
I'm 44, by the way.
But I was driving my daughter toschool this morning, and she
asked me randomly, Daddy, howdid the word cemetery come to
be?
And I explained to her, well...
(02:34):
You know, it probably came fromsome sort of different word in a
different language.
And she said, can you justGoogle it?
I wanted to explain to her thatI took Latin in high school and
so many words stem from Latin.
She said, just Google it.
That's the world that we livein.
And a more specific example forthose of you that are my age,
you might say something like,when I was a kid and I wanted to
know what the Eiffel Towerlooked like, I went to the
(02:55):
library.
I found a book.
And then I opened it, and Ilooked, and I saw it.
Now, just look it up on Google.
So what social media has done toreal estate, and there are so
many amazing things it has done,of course, but it has set this
expectation.
And today's podcast is probablygoing to be called, because I
love this idea, The Algorithm isLying to You.
(03:17):
This is Real Estate in the Ageof Misinformation.
And the algorithm itself,funnily enough, it's not a word,
how, Sigma?
It has an algorithm to tell youwhat the house is worth.
And I've told people over andover, House Sigma can't tell if
you have a house on MarkhamStreet that happens to be on the
east side of the street, well,it backs onto the houses on
Bathurst.
It doesn't know that.
That gets a huge downtick.
Does it know that it's next toan old hydro house?
(03:39):
Does it know it's across thestreet from social housing?
The algorithm, it's lying toyou.
But so too are all these socialmedia apps that seek to perfect
what we see.
Every buyer wants value.
And every seller wants topdollar.
But in 2025, social media isquietly reshaping what both
sides think those terms mean.
Now, this episode isn't blamingTikTok or YouTube.
(04:00):
It's about understanding howthis curated content is setting
the wrong expectations for whathomes should look like, how
deals should unfold, and what agood experience feels like.
Now, I mentioned this idea ofgoing to the library and taking
out a book to see what theEiffel Tower looks like.
If you wanna draw this back in areal estate context, because now
we just quickly go on one of ourmany apps, Once upon a time, you
(04:23):
would walk into ye olde localbrokerage and say, what listings
do you have for sale?
So say you don't like listingagents or buyer's agents or real
estate in general.
You can't imagine what it waslike in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s,
actually trying to buy realestate.
There was no cooperation.
Every brokerage had their ownlistings, and that's why
storefronts would put picturesof houses in the window.
That is why.
(04:44):
There's a little nugget you cantell your friends about when
you're taking photos of yoursalad.
But the point is, once you gotpast that first photo, you know
what there was more of?
Other photos, Polaroidsspecifically.
Imagine your real estate agentcame over to your home, they
knocked on your door, they satdown in your living room, and
they opened up a binder ofPolaroids to show you a house.
(05:04):
This house just came up, andthen they showed you Polaroids.
Well, of course, you can'timagine that.
Now, literally from your phone,you have everything at your
disposal.
And that is what we're trying totalk about today, how that has
changed.
Now, change for the good, butwith it comes a different
perspective.
Now, there is pressure toperform, and there is an unreal
(05:24):
expectation loop.
Every house nowadays seems likeit came out of architectural
digest.
Now, again, if I go back, theorigin of staging, for example,
I got into the business in 2004.
Staging was something that maybe5% of agents were doing.
And I wrote a blog about thisearly on in my career, I think
06, 07, where I talked about twohouses, one that was staged and
(05:46):
one that wasn't.
Two agents in my office werelaughing.
They got multiple offers.
They sold this house for a crazyprice.
It was probably like$400,000.
And they were like, huh, well,they staged it.
Just the word itself.
You're like, wait, what doesthat mean?
People didn't used to stagehouses and now they do.
So nowadays, and this is fastforward 21 years, every house
seems staged.
And even the bad staging isstill better than what it looked
(06:09):
like 21 years ago.
So I have this idea that buyerswill not accept anything less
than perfection.
I've seen it out there.
I've worked with some of thesebuyers who look at photos and
they go, I don't know why,because it's not staged.
because it's not with along-angle lens, wide-angle
lens.
It doesn't have the right colorin the photos.
We have set this expectation tobe so unrealistic that buyers
(06:32):
simply cannot look at anythingthat is not perfect.
Now, I've often mused that in ared-hot market, buyers, they've
got their top 10 list, butthey'll settle for seven, seven
out of 10 things, maybe eightout of 10 things.
In a cool market, buyers want 12out of 10 things.
Buyers want beyond perfection.
Now, some properties in ared-hot market look perfect.
(06:53):
too good.
So there's a question, can thisactually backfire?
Imagine that a listing comes outand it's at$9.99 and you've got
a one-two budget.
And you look at this and you go,there's no way I can afford
this.
This is going to go way over.
You don't see it.
I'm just saying, yes, we shouldstill stage.
Yes, we should still do all theright things.
(07:14):
But there is this idea that inthis pursuit of perfection, when
you make it so unrealistic,you're almost making it
unattainable in the eyes or theminds of the buyers.
Now, every real estate sale hasto feel like a win, even if it
means waiting too long oroverpaying.
And I have often mused that realestate in Toronto has become a
sport.
(07:36):
It's got winners and losers.
At least that's what I tell mydaughter.
We don't keep score in gymclass.
Well, you should, honey, becausethe real world has winners and
losers.
No, seriously, real estate haswinners and losers.
Real estate has become a sport.
Real estate has become anaddiction.
Every Torontonian wants todiscuss real estate.
Now, how Sigma and other appshave made people fans of real
(07:56):
estate?
Yeah.
In fact, I have a Hours andhours every single week just
looking at real estate,favoriting things, making lists.
It's become a sport.
It's become a hobby.
Now, years ago, we used to jokeabout the mother-daughter duo
that would go to open houses toget design ideas.
(08:16):
They're not really in themarket.
They would come in.
They're like, listen, we're notreally looking to buy.
We just want to peruse.
Oh, this is great wallpaper.
Where'd they get this?
I mean, that was then.
Now, I have clients that come tome and they want to start a
search and they send me a linkto a Google Drive.
And it has 30 photos of kitchensthey like.
It has MLS numbers inspreadsheets.
(08:36):
This is what House Sigma hasdone, House Sigma and other apps
and MLS and Realm and all thewonderful things.
And while it's amazing becauseit's really empowered the
consumer, again, it's set thisunrealistic expectation.
Now, I mentioned that HouseSigma has made people fans of
real estate.
So too has social media.
And that is both good and bad.
So I sold a house earlier thisyear.
(08:59):
I did not sell it to them in2021.
but they paid a huge amount andthey took a huge loss.
A real estate agent put this outon social media and said
something like, I can'tremember, some euphemism like,
you know, go get your soapbecause these sellers took a
bath, like something ridiculouslike that, and then said, here's
what they paid, here's what theysold for, here's their land
(09:20):
transfer tax, their real estatefees, and then highlighted their
loss.
I think that is so incrediblytacky and I think it's rude.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I write on Toronto Realty Blog,as I've been doing since 2007,
and I will talk about wins,losses, bad business practices,
bad photos.
But I have always adhered towhat I perceive are still the
(09:41):
rules.
You do not give out addresses.
It's that simple.
And when I put things in myblog, I will black out the
address.
I'll black out the intersection.
And this person didn't do that.
And I filed a complaint.
with Ricoh because I thought itwas really tacky.
Now, I haven't heard back fromthat, but one thing I did hear
back from years ago, and thiswas, I think, in 2021, 2022, I
(10:02):
had clients that bought a houseand there were 22 offers on this
house.
So my clients got it.
So they're either the smartestpeople in the world because they
pegged the price or they're thedumbest people because they
outbid 21 other people.
It's the market.
And another real estate agentput the address up there, put
photos up there on Twitter andsaid, this is the dumbest thing
I've ever seen.
These people have buriedthemselves.
(10:23):
They'll never get their moneyout.
What a joke, blah, blah, andblah.
And I filed a complaint withRico.
And I basically said, listen, Ihave been playing by the rules
my entire career.
If you tell me that this isokay, great.
I'll play by those rules too.
And I did hear that that agentended up having to take a
course, right?
That's what happened.
And I saw the agent's responseand he or she was like, I'm
(10:44):
really into numbers.
And I was analyzing.
It's like, no, you weren't.
You were trying to get fans onsocial media.
And that's the point I'm tryingto make is that real estate has
become this sport and it'sbecome this thing that has fans.
And real estate agents, for goodor for bad, are trying to create
content and talk about it.
But Are you allowed to do that?
In these respects, no, obviouslynot, and it didn't really stop
(11:04):
those two particular agents fromdoing so.
Now, how do agents andbrokerages add to the noise with
their overly polished marketingthat masks flaws and inflates
confidence?
Well, I would say that AIenables people that cannot read,
write, speak, or spell to comeup with unbelievable listing
descriptions.
(11:26):
You know, there's a couple ofagents, and I'll just name
names.
Alex Broad, there.
People refer to Alex Brott aslike an adjective.
Oh, well, it's an Alex Brotttype listing, right?
Like a descriptor, right?
Or Fox Marin, for example,right?
Like, and there's all kinds ofthese agents like, you know,
Paul Johnson, right?
He always has these incrediblelistings, right?
(11:47):
His thing is unique urban homes.
Oh, wow.
Talking about these agents.
I'm getting really riled uphere.
Even holding my pen.
But, you know, Alex Brott issomebody that people always
refer to like the way that shewrites her listing description,
right?
And now you have AI that can doit for you.
And I remember an agent oncesaid to me, oh, you just wait
until AI, you can speak to itand say, write me a thousand
(12:08):
words in the narrative of DavidFleming's Toronto Realty blog.
And I was like, are you kidding?
That's something that canhappen?
So if you were to tell AI, writeme a description like Alex
Broad, write me a descriptionlike Paul Johnson, write me a
description like Ralph andCorey.
Well, what if it did that?
Now, I'm gonna go on recordsaying, and I have no basis, I
haven't studied it, I don'tthink AI is that good.
In fact, and this is a tangenthere, I once wrote a blog.
(12:32):
Gosh, I can't remember what itwas about.
Not important, but in my blogs,I write these introductions, and
this particular one happened tobe about Terminator.
Oh, that's what it was.
It was about Terminatorlistings, and I wrote this long
introduction about me and mybuddy, 1992.
We got a laser disc playerwatching Terminator 2, and so a
couple of the blog readers said,I asked AI to talk about
(12:53):
terminated listings in the realestate market and the movie
Terminator, and this is whatthey wrote.
And a bunch of readers postedit, and it was absolute nonsense
and jargon.
So excuse the tangent there.
I hope I didn't lose you.
My point is, I think in thecontext of real estate listings
and write-ups, there's anopportunity for some agents that
have absolutely no idea what toput on the listing to do a heck
(13:13):
of a lot better.
Now, how do agents andbrokerages add to the noise with
overly polished marketing thatmasks flaws and inflates
content?
The first thing I would thinkabout is AI writing for you.
Now, I'm a writer.
I love writing.
I started Toronto Realty Blog in2007.
Creative writing has always beena hobby of mine.
(13:34):
I'm a nerd.
During the pandemic, I literallywrote a 200-page book about
collecting sports cards.
Yeah, seriously.
So I love writing.
And I really am proud of thethings that we produce and we
put on MLS.
And I think there's a lot ofother real estate agents out
there.
For example, people will say,oh, I love the way Alex Brott
writes her MLS listings.
Or, you know, Fox Marin, forexample, or Paul Johnson.
(13:56):
There's lots of agents that do areally exceptional job.
But what if an agent that can'tread, write, or spell all of a
sudden used AI to do that forthem?
Now, I don't believe that AI canreally copy that voice.
I think that you can always kindof tell when it's AI generated.
But...
It's going to get better overtime.
And maybe the advantage thatsome of the agents that I just
(14:16):
mentioned or somebody like mewho's passionate about writing
have will fall by the wayside asAI gets better and you can just
say, hey, write me 600 wordsabout this house and this
location for my MLS listing.
So, you know, we talk about thepolished marketing that masks
flaws.
Another thing I would say isfilters as far as social media
goes, as far as these apps go.
And I'm thinking about, I don'tknow, when my niece takes a
(14:38):
picture of me and turns it intoa woman or when my daughter and
son are talking to me onFaceTime and all of a sudden,
now I'm a monkey and now I'm afish.
I don't actually know what thoseare, but I'm thinking about the
filters.
I'm thinking about how we couldchange the way that properties
look by polishing them tosomething that is so incredibly
unrealistic that what?
Disappoints buyers.
(15:00):
See where I'm going with this?
So I mentioned a few minutes agothat if you set the bar too
high, you might push peopleaway.
By the same token, if you setthe expectation and the
excitement so high, what happenswhen they get inside and it
doesn't meet it?
That is what we call the baitand switch.
Now, an example of this beforeAI, before filters, would be
(15:20):
simply taking a photo andstretching it.
You can do that in paint.
What about a wide angle lens?
And I would always say, if youlook at a fridge, you know what
a standard fridge looks like andthen an extra wide fridge?
When you see the extra widefridge and then in the
background, there's a coffee cupthat instead of being two inches
is like eight inches, you'relike, okay, they stretch that
photo.
But we see this all the time.
And then you walk into thehouse, you're like, wait a
(15:41):
minute, this room is half as bigas it looks on MLS.
You are setting yourself up forfailure.
And I see agents and sellersdoing this all the time.
Now, the other thing that Inoted here is The amount of
photos of stuff and things,kitchen, living, dining, throw
pillows, bedroom, bathroom, jarof willows.
(16:04):
There are so many photos on MLSthat are just of design.
Does that help or hinder?
My first condo, I staged itmyself because this was, I don't
know, 2010, I think.
And I went out and bought likethis glass jar of sticks or
willows or whatever.
And then in my new condo, I waslike, well, I might as well
bring this.
My first buddy that shows up, hegoes, yo, Dave, where'd you get
(16:26):
the jar of sticks?
But now it's everywhere.
And now there's photos of it.
So it's one thing to havestaging items and accessories.
And we do this with regularity.
That's what stagers do.
They put all of this polish inthere.
It's another thing entirely tohave dedicated photos on MLS of
a stack of books, dedicatedphotos of a set of throw
(16:49):
pillows.
And when we look at listings,and we have so many of these
photos, we start to lose sightof the fact that this is a
three-bedroom, two-bathroomsemi-detached on a 20 by 100
foot lot with one car laneparking.
We're looking at throw pillows.
Now, there are buyersunfortunately, that have seen
way too much.
And smart buyers enter themarket, but they've been
(17:11):
conditioned by months of thiswhat we call scrollable
perfection.
So again, think of the jar ofsticks.
Think of the throw pillows.
Think of the books.
All you see is perfection.
Their expectations areabsolutely through the roof.
Then what happens is nobodywants to do any work on a house.
So here's an example.
(17:31):
I have an off-market listing, orI should say I had.
We sold it.
It went to market and wentthrough the process.
But before we were going tomarket, a colleague of mine
said, oh, my clients would beinterested in that.
So I took my colleague through,and she took photos and sent
them to the buyers.
Now, these are photos on aniPhone, so they're not polished.
They're not through aphotographer's eye.
And these are photos of anunstaged house.
(17:52):
You know what the buyer said?
Doesn't look like it's for us.
Are you kidding?
This is exactly what you want.
The right beds, the right baths,the right street, the right
location.
It has parking.
It's all those things.
You know what I think?
I think they saw that the househas carpets.
Oh, God.
We can't change that.
Oh, no, wait.
You actually can.
(18:12):
Yeah, you know what you can do?
You can remove them and then putin hardwood.
But the buyers didn't want to dothat.
In fact, they didn't even wantto look at the house.
I was so passionate, I took myglasses off.
So this is what I mean by buyersbeing conditioned by scrollable
perfection.
They got these photos.
They weren't through the lens ofa photographer's camera.
And they weren't of a fullypolished, perfect place.
(18:34):
Not only that, they couldn't getpast broad loom.
They had to see carpet.
They probably would have settledfor a really crappy laminate
from Home Depot when this broadloom was actually four times as
much as said laminate.
Now, what do buyers expect?
They expect turnkey homes, theyexpect major deals, and they
expect frictionless service.
As I said, buyers want 12 out of10 things.
(18:56):
Their expectations are throughthe roof.
And now that we're starting tosee this market where, hey, wait
a minute, some properties aren'tselling on offer nights, some
things are falling through thecracks.
You know what you get?
You get my colleague I justtalked to who listed a property
for$1,150,000.
Four days in, she gets an offer.
She says to me, oh, it's bad.
I said, oh, it's bad.
(19:17):
$1,070,000?
She said, take off$100,000.
I said, you're joking.
She got an offer of$970,000 on a$1,150,000 listing that's been
on the market for four days.
I want to say congratulations tothat buyer for trying something,
but that's just stupidity.
There's deals out there.
Don't get me wrong.
(19:38):
But this unrealistic expectationis based on what?
Again, it's based on socialmedia.
The market's bad.
We're in a recession.
Donald Trump and tariffs.
So it cuts both ways.
It's not just about the way thatthese things look.
It's about this idea that, hey,maybe we could get a deal out
there.
Okay, you know what?
This property, it's at$115,000.
The comp was$118,000,$119,000.
(20:00):
And this property has no offerdate.
And instead of being like,that's really interesting.
Okay, I can get a deal.
I don't have to bid againstother people.
Maybe I get it for 112.
Oh, no, 970.
Now, what the market delivers,compromises, nuance, and
negotiation.
And within all that, you have tobe realistic.
(20:21):
It's in everything that I'vejust said.
It's in every podcast and everyblog I've written.
And a lot of people aren't beingrealistic.
Now, not just on the buy side,that person offering 970 on 115.
on the sell side too.
And there are so many stories ofsellers that are overpricing,
listing agents that go along forthe ride, that that is an
entirely different blog.
I have also written multipleblogs and podcasts and done
(20:43):
videos and spoken about theagents out there.
I was with Chris the othernight.
We were reviewing offers on alisting and we were talking
about the two agents and how badthey were at their jobs.
I'm sorry, that's so rude.
I get it, but just work with mehere.
My phone buzzes and it's myfriend Amy from another
brokerage.
And she texts me, you would notbelieve the agent I'm dealing
(21:06):
with tonight.
It's an epidemic, a pandemic.
Ooh, no one wants to go backthere.
And I'm serious.
All of these agents who gotlicensed in 2020, 2021, 2022,
the market was ripping.
They have absolutely no ideawhat they're doing now.
And more to the point, theydon't know how to communicate.
And we will go back to that in aminute.
Now on the seller side,Overconfident, overcurated, and
(21:26):
we have talked about this.
Sellers think their homes shouldperform because it looks like
the homes they see online.
But they don't see what we see,and they overstress the
positives, and they shoo awaythe negatives.
Now, picture the seller thattells you about a particular
feature, and your response is,hmm, cool.
But then they go on and on andon about it.
Now, on the flip side of that isyou point something out, oh,
(21:47):
hey, what about this?
They go, yeah, don't worry aboutthat.
That's the conversation thatwe're having.
So...
I visited a house not too longago, met with the sellers.
I thought it was not quite asgood as they thought it was.
We didn't quite agree on theprice.
And then we went down to thebasement, and the floor was
(22:07):
like, how do I say this, sinkinginto the core of the earth.
And they were like, ah, it's nota big deal.
We'll throw a rug over it.
This is a Victorian home.
This is built in like 1890, andthere's about a 12-inch gap
between the baseboard and wherethe slab has fallen into.
And they're like, we'll throw arug over it.
So I can't unsee that.
I would need to disclose that,which we disagreed on.
(22:29):
Oh, in an unrelated story, I'mnot the listing agent for that.
But Victorian home sinking intothe core of the earth on a long
enough time horizon will bemolten lava.
And they just shoot it away.
Dropped my pen again.
So this is what I mean.
You're overstressing thepositives and you're just
shooing away the negatives.
It's tunnel vision, if you will.
(22:50):
Now, beautiful staging doesn'tguarantee strong offers.
It depends on the volume in themarket.
So if you've got a great houseand you've staged to perfection,
you've got that one buyer forit.
But what if there are 30 otherhouses that are beautiful and
staged to perfection and youstill have that one buyer?
It's simple numbers.
It's supply and demand.
And while I will be the firstperson to talk about all the
(23:10):
wonderful things that we do toget a property ready for sale,
you still have to monitor thenumbers.
And I'm a data nerd.
So there are a lot of listingswhere, and I know in advance, we
might have an issue.
This is one of the things I'mgonna talk about later, setting
your clients up for success byactually telling them what's
happening.
A lot of listings where I willshare a Google Excel sheet and I
will continue to update with allof the sales in the area so that
(23:32):
the sellers understand what'shappening.
It's simply about volume.
Now, once upon a time, stagingalone brought in buyers and
offers, but what if the entireindustry stepped up its game?
For example, I'll be the firstperson to talk about all the
wonderful things we do and howwe stage, but not all staging is
the same.
You've seen bad staging.
It's sparse.
It's minimalist.
There's no accessories.
(23:53):
The frames of the pictures don'tmatch.
The color schemes are off.
The couch doesn't fit the space.
But I'll do you one better.
What if every single property isstaged to perfection by the same
stager and it's all A plus, butyou only have one buyer?
It's just about numbers.
And the point I'm making hereis, and I will make shortly, is
that I will, when I identifywhat could be a soft market and
(24:14):
problem listing, prepare mysellers by putting together a
Google sheet that tracks all ofthe properties that are
competing and what's selling andwhat's not so that they
understand what's happening inthe market.
Take every property, stage it tothe nines, make it absolutely
perfect, and that's wonderful.
But if there aren't the samenumber of buyers for the number
of properties, it's just simplemath.
It's simple supply and demand.
(24:34):
Now, let's talk about how socialmedia-fueled pricing fantasies
are setting sellers up forfailure.
Now, you know that saying you'refive times more likely to
provide a negative review thanif you have a positive
experience?
Yes.
So then, when it comes to realestate, I would say you're far
more likely to hear about thatincredible house that got 20
(24:55):
offers and sold for 140% a listthan the 15 houses that got zero
offers on their scheduled offernight.
And I'm the nerd that tracksthat.
I see how many houses out thereare failing on offer nights, but
the sellers see what they wannasee.
They will all talk about thatone property that did
exceptionally well and they'llget that tunnel vision and
they'll forget about everythingelse.
(25:15):
Now there is a disparity problemin the market.
Buyers think that homes areoverpriced because they don't
feel like what they saw online.
And here's where we talk abouteither overstaging or we talk
about that bait and switch.
What you present out there onsocial media has to reflect what
the buyer's going to see whenthey walk inside.
And so whether it's usingsuperlatives on social media or
(25:37):
in your MLS description, orwhether it's just filtering the
heck out of this, it has torepresent the property when the
buyer walks in.
That's what I mean by the baitand switch.
You do not want it to look toogood.
Filters, editing tricks, wideangle lenses, you're setting
buyers up for disappointment.
Now, sellers, they think they'reunderappreciated because these
(25:59):
likes aren't translating intooffers.
And to that, I would say blameagents for not being honest and
open from the onset.
So as I mentioned, I will have aphone call with my clients
before I list.
Weeks in advance, I might puttogether a shared Google sheet
with every property that'scoming out.
And so say I list on a Tuesday.
Folks, let's talk on Mondaynight.
We'll set expectations.
(26:20):
We're coming out on Tuesday.
First day of the listing, I'dlike to see four to five
showings booked.
Second day listing, it's usuallya pretty big day.
I'd like to see six to eightshowings booked.
Now the next day we'll seeanother five to six.
Things will taper off before theweekend.
I'll get back to you about thenumber of people through the
open house.
Set the expectationsaccordingly.
And then if on that first dayyou have zero showings and on
the second day you have two,well, you can explain that
(26:43):
you're performing below average.
And what I would say to thatwith a caveat is that once upon
a time you could rely on thenumber of showings as a
representation of the number ofoffers.
And I wrote a blog on this.
I think it was in 2021.
I took a bunch of listings wehad with the number of showings
and the number of requests forthe home inspection for houses,
the status certificate forcondos, and then looked at the
(27:06):
percentage.
We had 80 showings.
We had eight offers.
Okay, great.
We can work with that, right?
10%.
That's a good number.
Next property, we had 40showings.
We had four offers.
Hey, it's 10% again.
Let's find that pattern.
All that is out the window rightnow.
And that's what I mean when itcomes to these sellers.
The likes aren't translatinginto the offers.
So they get the showings, butthe agent doesn't follow up for
(27:29):
feedback.
They have people through theopen house, but you're not
really conveying to them that,hey, Mr.
Seller, we did have 40 peoplecome through the open house, but
every single one of these peoplewere young.
They were frustrated.
They think the market's terribleand they all own condos and they
talk about how they'reunderwater and they can't afford
your house.
This is what is missing.
It's not just a numbers gameanymore.
(27:51):
So let's now tie this alltogether.
Let's talk about what's actuallyselling and why.
And of course, we're looking atproperties that are perfect.
We're looking through the eyesof a buyer that seeks
perfection.
Some of them are, some of themaren't.
But what is actually selling andwhy?
I come back to the agents.
I know I've made this pointbefore, and I know that a lot of
(28:13):
people don't see the value in anagent, or they think a property
sells itself, but I am tellingyou right now, the A properties,
they're probably gonna sellregardless, maybe for more,
maybe for less, but the Bsaren't moving, and the Cs and Ds
have absolutely no chance.
And I've mentioned multipletimes in this podcast and
through the last couple of blogsthat I've written, the agents.
(28:33):
It is the agents, the peoplethat absolutely do not know how
to communicate, do not know howto sell real estate.
Now, one of the very importantthings when I talk about
communicating is communicatingwith your own clients, setting
realistic expectations off thehop, and not just going along
for the ride.
So you have a property that'sworth a million dollars.
The seller says, I want to listfor a million too.
(28:54):
Are you taking that listing?
I'm not.
I don't have a magic wand.
So there are a lot of agents outthere that are just taking any
listing.
They're not doing theiranalysis.
They're hoping the market sellsit.
Blind faith?
I don't know.
But that's not a listing thatshould be on the market, and
it's going to continue to sit.
And it eventually becomes what?
A statistic.
(29:15):
Now, substance and strategy isstill going to outperform
showmanship.
We stage all of our listings.
We have properties where wespend weeks upgrading them.
We have a property right nowwhere we're putting new
countertops in the kitchen todaybecause the counters are 20
years old.
It's a great house.
It's a great location.
But again, the buyers, oh, Idon't know.
I like the house.
But look at those laminatecountertops.
(29:36):
So we know what needs to bedone, but it's not just that.
The substance and strategy ismore important than the
showmanship.
So we have the knowledge, and wehave the context, and we have
the wherewithal.
The seller, of course, has thebudget and the trust in us to
replace countertops, put in anew sink, paint the kitchen
cabinets, re-sand the floors.
But at the end of the day, theart of the deal and knowing how
to talk to people is what isgoing to actually get a deal
(29:59):
done.
Agents are blowing deals left,right, and center right now.
Now, experienced agents areretraining clients to trust
facts over filters.
We can do all the amazing thingsto the property, but we've got
to be realistic on price.
We can have a weekend openhouse, but we have to understand
that it's not going to be wellattended.
Or a better example is, to beperfectly honest, if I had a
(30:23):
condo listing on the 40th floorof building XYZ and the seller
was like, hey, open houses areallowed in the building.
We should do one.
I'm going to be honest and say,why?
I can be honest.
And I feel like a lot of agentsout there can't be.
And look, I've been in this for21 years.
I'm blessed.
I have a really loyal clientele.
They trust me.
I feel for the agents out therethat feel like I can't stand up
(30:45):
to this client.
I can't tell them what's reallyhappening.
They need the deal.
But they're not going to get thedeal in the end because they
can't be honest enough with theseller.
Now, buyer agents who know howto work and guide buyers are
probably going to seek outlisting agents that know how to
work and guide sellers.
It's a perfect fit.
(31:05):
So if I've got a buyer and I'mlooking at a house or three
houses, I'm going to look at whothe agent is.
There are so many agents outthere that are unrealistic about
price.
I've said this in a previouspodcast, agents saying, don't
bother.
Don't bring me that offer.
A colleague was telling me,okay, the condo market is not
great.
We know that.
Yeah, great.
Colleague was telling me she hada client that really liked this
(31:26):
unit and It was on the marketfor five days.
They went in 10 grand on herlist.
I would literally lay down andlet you sign that offer on my
back.
The listing agent startedyelling at her.
Wow, how could you do this?
We're brand new on the market.
They didn't even sign it back.
What are you doing?
And you know what?
She sold her client somethingelse.
That property will sit and sitand sit.
(31:46):
That is so incredibly misguided.
Now, some buyers are eitherbeing restrained by their agents
or restraining themselves.
And listen...
If there's a red hot propertyand it's underpriced, it's a
rarity, or it's a forever home,I use the example of Hogarth in
Riverdale.
$4 million list gets sevenoffers, so if it's 650,000 over,
(32:07):
sure, there are those.
But if you've got a 699 list andthere's one competing offer,
yeah, okay, you go in at 720,725.
The agent comes back and he'sbarking, well, you know, the
comp sold two years ago for 820.
And you're like, okay, listen,It's 2025.
I check my watch.
It's April.
(32:28):
We're not in that market.
Buyers are being restrained.
The agents are restraining them,and they're being realistic on
both sides.
Now, my advice for 2025.
Let me put this all together.
Be visual, but be honest.
You need more than just staging.
Speak to the functionality, thelifestyle, the area amenities,
and are you ready for this?
The boring things.
(32:50):
like how the house is updated.
We have a brand new furnace.
It's a$15,000 value.
We have a brand new airconditioner.
It's$7,500.
We don't rent our hot watertank.
All these windows are from 2022.
No one cares about that.
But you know what?
In this market, they do.
Because when the market'sabsolutely ripping, all that
matters are those throw pillows,the jar of sticks that David had
in his first condo.
(33:10):
That's absolutely all thatmatters.
In this market right now, thethings you need to stress, the
functionality, things like thedaycare.
No, I'm serious.
Things like the Freshco that's100 meters away.
There's an infinite number ofthings that you can stress with
a property and you only have1,000 characters on MLS for the
little write-up.
What I'm saying is it's not justabout the throw pillows anymore.
It's not just about staging, thefilters, the polish, the
(33:33):
Instagram reel, the YouTubevideo.
Talk to me about the$35,000 thatthe sellers put into this house
to dig up the basement floor andtake out the clay pipe, to
remove the cast iron stack, toput in a sump pump, all of the
unsexy things.
I think this is so incrediblyimportant.
And this is one of the thingsI'm talking to my sellers about.
I'm still staging it.
(33:53):
I'm still putting in newcountertops.
I'm still doing all thosewonderful things.
But let's convey to the buyerpool who's got a budget and
who's nervous, this thing is notgoing to be Tom Hanks' money
pit.
1986, Shelley Long.
I haven't seen that in a while.
Now, don't mistake engagementfor demand.
I mentioned this earlier.
The number of showings...
(34:13):
I don't want to say it doesn'tmatter anymore, but it's not
going to directly correlate likeit used to.
The number of requests for thehome inspection, the number of
requests for the statuscertificate.
A lot of agents aren't evenordering the status certificate
in advance of their listingsanymore because they expect the
condo to take three months tosell.
The status is stale dated after30 days.
These metrics that we used tohave, I don't think that we can
(34:34):
use engagement metrics as anysort of indicator of demand
anymore because you have to dowhat?
What's that thing you have to doas a listing agent?
Solicit feedback.
You have to call and ask.
Somebody books a showing, you'relike, they love it, right?
Look at the market out there.
It's red hot.
No, no, that was then.
This is now.
Pick up the phone, call them.
And you know what you do whenyou pick up the phone and you
(34:56):
call somebody who says thattheir client unfortunately isn't
interested?
You talk about the market.
You talk about what's out there.
I spoke to an agent today.
She called me for feedback.
When I showed her property, wegot to talking.
She's bringing out a property intwo weeks time that is
absolutely positively perfectfor my clients and she's going
to get me in a week earlier.
That's what we do.
(35:16):
We communicate.
Now, focus on the marketfundamentals, not on fantasies.
This goes back to price andexpectations.
So a lot of agents, when themarket was absolutely ripping,
they would do no researchwhatsoever.
Client would say, well, we'rereally looking to get 1.3.
And they'd be like, yeah, okay.
You know, let's put it at$9.99.
We've got our offer date andwe'll, you know, go down on it.
(35:38):
You can't do that anymore.
Is it worth 1.3?
Well, let me do my actual, whatis it, that thing, job and put
together a comparable price.
Market analysis.
Comparative market analysis.
Let me do my job.
Let me show you what I think.
And I was in a house a coupleweeks ago.
Seller wanted 1.6 million.
I valued it at 1.35.
(35:58):
I was honest.
There's probably 20 other agentsout there that have the
paperwork ready at 1.6.
But to what end?
Three price reductions later andeventually they'll sell it in
September.
That's not the way that I dobusiness.
I think you need to focus onthese fundamentals, not the
fantasies.
You need to go back to basics.
You need to look at the numbers,look at the data, and tell
(36:19):
people what their properties areactually worth.
So in summary, folks, who takespictures of their food and puts
it on Instagram?
No, I'm kidding.
But that really is the bestexample I can think of.
It's a microcosm for what'shappening in the real estate
market or what has happened overthe last little while.
It doesn't show you what'sactually going on in the
background.
And that silly story I toldabout what happens after the
(36:42):
photo of your salad.
What was the rest of your daylike?
What was the rest of your nightlike?
I hope it was a lot better thanJimmy that I described in the
introduction.
So in summary, folks, I think wecan agree the most important
part of the last half hour isthe question, why do people take
photos of food and put it onInstagram?
No, I'm kidding.
I would say this.
For buyers, for sellers, foragents, for buyers, it's okay to
(37:04):
want something beautiful.
Do not let Instagram aestheticsand social media blind you to
these smart opportunities outthere.
Do not let them dissuade youfrom the reality of what's
happening in the market and withindividual properties.
For the sellers, likes do notequal offers.
You need to look past the greatjob that you've done on the home
and the great job that youragent has done preparing it for
(37:24):
sale and focus on pricing rightand marketing honestly.
not just impressively.
And to the agents, stop tryingto win the algorithm.
Stop trying to battle the otherside.
It's not a fight.
If I extended my hand outward toyou like this, would you take it
and shake it?
That's actually something I saidto an agent the other day.
It takes two to make a deal.
(37:45):
And you have to remember, theentire purpose of listing real
estate is to sell it.
It is not to pick a fight withthe other side.
Being right and not getting thedeal done does not get you
anywhere.
And at the end of the day,you're really not working on the
best interests of your clientsif you're putting your ego ahead
of getting a deal done.
(38:05):
You need to educate yourclients.
You need to bridge the gapbetween expectation and reality.
Folks, thank you so much forwatching, as always, on YouTube.
Feel free to drop us a comment.
And honestly, I do want to hearfrom you on this.
Give me an example.
And we used to do a feature onToronto Realty Blog called More
MLS Musings, which was justridiculous photos in MLS.
If you are willing, if you havean example, email it to me.
(38:27):
I want to know what you think isgood marketing.
I want to know what you think isbad marketing.
Or drop it in the commentssection.
Please remember to like,comment, or subscribe wherever
you get your podcasts, whetherit's Spotify or Apple Music.
And we'll see you next time hereon The Last Honest Realtor.
Instagram is lying to you.
So is YouTube.
So is Facebook.
So is TikTok, which I'm not on,but I've heard of it.
Hello, everybody, and welcomeback to The Last Honest Realtor.
I'm your host, David Fleming.
In all seriousness, yes, I'mfamiliar with TikTok.
No, I will never be on it.
I know what Snapchat is becauseI have nieces.
But in a real estate context...
All of these social media appshave changed the way that we
(00:23):
look at real estate.
And it has certainly changedbuyer and seller expectations.
Now, for those of you that haveread my blog before, I'm going
to go back to the well here.
I don't understand people whotake pictures of food and post
on social media.
I don't know.
We all have our pet peeve.
And for whatever reason, this islike the hill I'm going to die
on.
Now, maybe it's me doth protesttoo much.
(00:45):
I don't have time to cook.
I eat too fast.
My wife will tell me that.
But for the love of God, peoplethat use the word plate as a
verb, you know where I'm goingwith this?
Oh, it's excellently plated.
I've never understood peoplethat take pictures of food and
put it on Instagram.
Now, this started years ago.
And I started years ago on myblog making fun of it.
(01:07):
You know, two girls out forlunch.
Becky, do not start that saladbefore I get a photo of it for
my gram.
I actually remember going outonce.
For Valentine's Day dinner withmy wife, we went to, I can't
remember the name of the steakrestaurant.
It was in Yorkville and I didn'tlike it.
The two girls next to us werestanding on their chairs to get
a great angle of their entreeswith their upgraded iPhones
(01:30):
because they probably buy thenewest one every single time it
comes out.
Look, that's not me.
But the point I want to makehere is that what you see with
that first photo of Becky'sdinner on Instagram, is this
perfected version of Becky'sevening.
What you don't see is that Beckythen goes out and gets trashed
(01:51):
at the club, stumbles home, andit could be Jimmy as well, okay?
I don't wanna make this justabout ladies.
Jimmy goes home, he gets trashedat the club.
Jimmy has a headache all night.
He's completely dehydrated.
He yaks a couple of times.
He sleeps in, through his alarm,misses his gym class, and
then...
He's late for his grandmother'sbirthday.
But it all started with thatincredible photo Jimmy took of
(02:14):
his pasta and put it onInstagram.
Folks, excuse the long lead-in,but that's how I feel about real
estate right now in the socialmedia age.
And again, I'm going to show myage here.
I'm 44, by the way.
But I was driving my daughter toschool this morning, and she
asked me randomly, Daddy, howdid the word cemetery come to
be?
And I explained to her, well...
(02:34):
You know, it probably came fromsome sort of different word in a
different language.
And she said, can you justGoogle it?
I wanted to explain to her thatI took Latin in high school and
so many words stem from Latin.
She said, just Google it.
That's the world that we livein.
And a more specific example forthose of you that are my age,
you might say something like,when I was a kid and I wanted to
know what the Eiffel Towerlooked like, I went to the
(02:55):
library.
I found a book.
And then I opened it, and Ilooked, and I saw it.
Now, just look it up on Google.
So what social media has done toreal estate, and there are so
many amazing things it has done,of course, but it has set this
expectation.
And today's podcast is probablygoing to be called, because I
love this idea, The Algorithm isLying to You.
(03:17):
This is Real Estate in the Ageof Misinformation.
And the algorithm itself,funnily enough, it's not a word,
how, Sigma?
It has an algorithm to tell youwhat the house is worth.
And I've told people over andover, House Sigma can't tell if
you have a house on MarkhamStreet that happens to be on the
east side of the street, well,it backs onto the houses on
Bathurst.
It doesn't know that.
That gets a huge downtick.
Does it know that it's next toan old hydro house?
(03:39):
Does it know it's across thestreet from social housing?
The algorithm, it's lying toyou.
But so too are all these socialmedia apps that seek to perfect
what we see.
Every buyer wants value.
And every seller wants topdollar.
But in 2025, social media isquietly reshaping what both
sides think those terms mean.
Now, this episode isn't blamingTikTok or YouTube.
(04:00):
It's about understanding howthis curated content is setting
the wrong expectations for whathomes should look like, how
deals should unfold, and what agood experience feels like.
Now, I mentioned this idea ofgoing to the library and taking
out a book to see what theEiffel Tower looks like.
If you wanna draw this back in areal estate context, because now
we just quickly go on one of ourmany apps, Once upon a time, you
(04:23):
would walk into ye olde localbrokerage and say, what listings
do you have for sale?
So say you don't like listingagents or buyer's agents or real
estate in general.
You can't imagine what it waslike in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s,
actually trying to buy realestate.
There was no cooperation.
Every brokerage had their ownlistings, and that's why
storefronts would put picturesof houses in the window.
That is why.
(04:44):
There's a little nugget you cantell your friends about when
you're taking photos of yoursalad.
But the point is, once you gotpast that first photo, you know
what there was more of?
Other photos, Polaroidsspecifically.
Imagine your real estate agentcame over to your home, they
knocked on your door, they satdown in your living room, and
they opened up a binder ofPolaroids to show you a house.
(05:04):
This house just came up, andthen they showed you Polaroids.
Well, of course, you can'timagine that.
Now, literally from your phone,you have everything at your
disposal.
And that is what we're trying totalk about today, how that has
changed.
Now, change for the good, butwith it comes a different
perspective.
Now, there is pressure toperform, and there is an unreal
(05:24):
expectation loop.
Every house nowadays seems likeit came out of architectural
digest.
Now, again, if I go back, theorigin of staging, for example,
I got into the business in 2004.
Staging was something that maybe5% of agents were doing.
And I wrote a blog about thisearly on in my career, I think
06, 07, where I talked about twohouses, one that was staged and
(05:46):
one that wasn't.
Two agents in my office werelaughing.
They got multiple offers.
They sold this house for a crazyprice.
It was probably like$400,000.
And they were like, huh, well,they staged it.
Just the word itself.
You're like, wait, what doesthat mean?
People didn't used to stagehouses and now they do.
So nowadays, and this is fastforward 21 years, every house
seems staged.
And even the bad staging isstill better than what it looked
(06:09):
like 21 years ago.
So I have this idea that buyerswill not accept anything less
than perfection.
I've seen it out there.
I've worked with some of thesebuyers who look at photos and
they go, I don't know why,because it's not staged.
because it's not with along-angle lens, wide-angle
lens.
It doesn't have the right colorin the photos.
We have set this expectation tobe so unrealistic that buyers
(06:32):
simply cannot look at anythingthat is not perfect.
Now, I've often mused that in ared-hot market, buyers, they've
got their top 10 list, butthey'll settle for seven, seven
out of 10 things, maybe eightout of 10 things.
In a cool market, buyers want 12out of 10 things.
Buyers want beyond perfection.
Now, some properties in ared-hot market look perfect.
(06:53):
too good.
So there's a question, can thisactually backfire?
Imagine that a listing comes outand it's at$9.99 and you've got
a one-two budget.
And you look at this and you go,there's no way I can afford
this.
This is going to go way over.
You don't see it.
I'm just saying, yes, we shouldstill stage.
Yes, we should still do all theright things.
(07:14):
But there is this idea that inthis pursuit of perfection, when
you make it so unrealistic,you're almost making it
unattainable in the eyes or theminds of the buyers.
Now, every real estate sale hasto feel like a win, even if it
means waiting too long oroverpaying.
And I have often mused that realestate in Toronto has become a
sport.
(07:36):
It's got winners and losers.
At least that's what I tell mydaughter.
We don't keep score in gymclass.
Well, you should, honey, becausethe real world has winners and
losers.
No, seriously, real estate haswinners and losers.
Real estate has become a sport.
Real estate has become anaddiction.
Every Torontonian wants todiscuss real estate.
Now, how Sigma and other appshave made people fans of real
(07:56):
estate?
Yeah.
In fact, I have a Hours andhours every single week just
looking at real estate,favoriting things, making lists.
It's become a sport.
It's become a hobby.
Now, years ago, we used to jokeabout the mother-daughter duo
that would go to open houses toget design ideas.
(08:16):
They're not really in themarket.
They would come in.
They're like, listen, we're notreally looking to buy.
We just want to peruse.
Oh, this is great wallpaper.
Where'd they get this?
I mean, that was then.
Now, I have clients that come tome and they want to start a
search and they send me a linkto a Google Drive.
And it has 30 photos of kitchensthey like.
It has MLS numbers inspreadsheets.
(08:36):
This is what House Sigma hasdone, House Sigma and other apps
and MLS and Realm and all thewonderful things.
And while it's amazing becauseit's really empowered the
consumer, again, it's set thisunrealistic expectation.
Now, I mentioned that HouseSigma has made people fans of
real estate.
So too has social media.
And that is both good and bad.
So I sold a house earlier thisyear.
(08:59):
I did not sell it to them in2021.
but they paid a huge amount andthey took a huge loss.
A real estate agent put this outon social media and said
something like, I can'tremember, some euphemism like,
you know, go get your soapbecause these sellers took a
bath, like something ridiculouslike that, and then said, here's
what they paid, here's what theysold for, here's their land
(09:20):
transfer tax, their real estatefees, and then highlighted their
loss.
I think that is so incrediblytacky and I think it's rude.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I write on Toronto Realty Blog,as I've been doing since 2007,
and I will talk about wins,losses, bad business practices,
bad photos.
But I have always adhered towhat I perceive are still the
(09:41):
rules.
You do not give out addresses.
It's that simple.
And when I put things in myblog, I will black out the
address.
I'll black out the intersection.
And this person didn't do that.
And I filed a complaint.
with Ricoh because I thought itwas really tacky.
Now, I haven't heard back fromthat, but one thing I did hear
back from years ago, and thiswas, I think, in 2021, 2022, I
(10:02):
had clients that bought a houseand there were 22 offers on this
house.
So my clients got it.
So they're either the smartestpeople in the world because they
pegged the price or they're thedumbest people because they
outbid 21 other people.
It's the market.
And another real estate agentput the address up there, put
photos up there on Twitter andsaid, this is the dumbest thing
I've ever seen.
These people have buriedthemselves.
(10:23):
They'll never get their moneyout.
What a joke, blah, blah, andblah.
And I filed a complaint withRico.
And I basically said, listen, Ihave been playing by the rules
my entire career.
If you tell me that this isokay, great.
I'll play by those rules too.
And I did hear that that agentended up having to take a
course, right?
That's what happened.
And I saw the agent's responseand he or she was like, I'm
(10:44):
really into numbers.
And I was analyzing.
It's like, no, you weren't.
You were trying to get fans onsocial media.
And that's the point I'm tryingto make is that real estate has
become this sport and it'sbecome this thing that has fans.
And real estate agents, for goodor for bad, are trying to create
content and talk about it.
But Are you allowed to do that?
In these respects, no, obviouslynot, and it didn't really stop
(11:04):
those two particular agents fromdoing so.
Now, how do agents andbrokerages add to the noise with
their overly polished marketingthat masks flaws and inflates
confidence?
Well, I would say that AIenables people that cannot read,
write, speak, or spell to comeup with unbelievable listing
descriptions.
(11:26):
You know, there's a couple ofagents, and I'll just name
names.
Alex Broad, there.
People refer to Alex Brott aslike an adjective.
Oh, well, it's an Alex Brotttype listing, right?
Like a descriptor, right?
Or Fox Marin, for example,right?
Like, and there's all kinds ofthese agents like, you know,
Paul Johnson, right?
He always has these incrediblelistings, right?
(11:47):
His thing is unique urban homes.
Oh, wow.
Talking about these agents.
I'm getting really riled uphere.
Even holding my pen.
But, you know, Alex Brott issomebody that people always
refer to like the way that shewrites her listing description,
right?
And now you have AI that can doit for you.
And I remember an agent oncesaid to me, oh, you just wait
until AI, you can speak to itand say, write me a thousand
(12:08):
words in the narrative of DavidFleming's Toronto Realty blog.
And I was like, are you kidding?
That's something that canhappen?
So if you were to tell AI, writeme a description like Alex
Broad, write me a descriptionlike Paul Johnson, write me a
description like Ralph andCorey.
Well, what if it did that?
Now, I'm gonna go on recordsaying, and I have no basis, I
haven't studied it, I don'tthink AI is that good.
In fact, and this is a tangenthere, I once wrote a blog.
(12:32):
Gosh, I can't remember what itwas about.
Not important, but in my blogs,I write these introductions, and
this particular one happened tobe about Terminator.
Oh, that's what it was.
It was about Terminatorlistings, and I wrote this long
introduction about me and mybuddy, 1992.
We got a laser disc playerwatching Terminator 2, and so a
couple of the blog readers said,I asked AI to talk about
(12:53):
terminated listings in the realestate market and the movie
Terminator, and this is whatthey wrote.
And a bunch of readers postedit, and it was absolute nonsense
and jargon.
So excuse the tangent there.
I hope I didn't lose you.
My point is, I think in thecontext of real estate listings
and write-ups, there's anopportunity for some agents that
have absolutely no idea what toput on the listing to do a heck
(13:13):
of a lot better.
Now, how do agents andbrokerages add to the noise with
overly polished marketing thatmasks flaws and inflates
content?
The first thing I would thinkabout is AI writing for you.
Now, I'm a writer.
I love writing.
I started Toronto Realty Blog in2007.
Creative writing has always beena hobby of mine.
(13:34):
I'm a nerd.
During the pandemic, I literallywrote a 200-page book about
collecting sports cards.
Yeah, seriously.
So I love writing.
And I really am proud of thethings that we produce and we
put on MLS.
And I think there's a lot ofother real estate agents out
there.
For example, people will say,oh, I love the way Alex Brott
writes her MLS listings.
Or, you know, Fox Marin, forexample, or Paul Johnson.
(13:56):
There's lots of agents that do areally exceptional job.
But what if an agent that can'tread, write, or spell all of a
sudden used AI to do that forthem?
Now, I don't believe that AI canreally copy that voice.
I think that you can always kindof tell when it's AI generated.
But...
It's going to get better overtime.
And maybe the advantage thatsome of the agents that I just
(14:16):
mentioned or somebody like mewho's passionate about writing
have will fall by the wayside asAI gets better and you can just
say, hey, write me 600 wordsabout this house and this
location for my MLS listing.
So, you know, we talk about thepolished marketing that masks
flaws.
Another thing I would say isfilters as far as social media
goes, as far as these apps go.
And I'm thinking about, I don'tknow, when my niece takes a
(14:38):
picture of me and turns it intoa woman or when my daughter and
son are talking to me onFaceTime and all of a sudden,
now I'm a monkey and now I'm afish.
I don't actually know what thoseare, but I'm thinking about the
filters.
I'm thinking about how we couldchange the way that properties
look by polishing them tosomething that is so incredibly
unrealistic that what?
Disappoints buyers.
(15:00):
See where I'm going with this?
So I mentioned a few minutes agothat if you set the bar too
high, you might push peopleaway.
By the same token, if you setthe expectation and the
excitement so high, what happenswhen they get inside and it
doesn't meet it?
That is what we call the baitand switch.
Now, an example of this beforeAI, before filters, would be
(15:20):
simply taking a photo andstretching it.
You can do that in paint.
What about a wide angle lens?
And I would always say, if youlook at a fridge, you know what
a standard fridge looks like andthen an extra wide fridge?
When you see the extra widefridge and then in the
background, there's a coffee cupthat instead of being two inches
is like eight inches, you'relike, okay, they stretch that
photo.
But we see this all the time.
And then you walk into thehouse, you're like, wait a
(15:41):
minute, this room is half as bigas it looks on MLS.
You are setting yourself up forfailure.
And I see agents and sellersdoing this all the time.
Now, the other thing that Inoted here is The amount of
photos of stuff and things,kitchen, living, dining, throw
pillows, bedroom, bathroom, jarof willows.
(16:04):
There are so many photos on MLSthat are just of design.
Does that help or hinder?
My first condo, I staged itmyself because this was, I don't
know, 2010, I think.
And I went out and bought likethis glass jar of sticks or
willows or whatever.
And then in my new condo, I waslike, well, I might as well
bring this.
My first buddy that shows up, hegoes, yo, Dave, where'd you get
(16:26):
the jar of sticks?
But now it's everywhere.
And now there's photos of it.
So it's one thing to havestaging items and accessories.
And we do this with regularity.
That's what stagers do.
They put all of this polish inthere.
It's another thing entirely tohave dedicated photos on MLS of
a stack of books, dedicatedphotos of a set of throw
(16:49):
pillows.
And when we look at listings,and we have so many of these
photos, we start to lose sightof the fact that this is a
three-bedroom, two-bathroomsemi-detached on a 20 by 100
foot lot with one car laneparking.
We're looking at throw pillows.
Now, there are buyersunfortunately, that have seen
way too much.
And smart buyers enter themarket, but they've been
(17:11):
conditioned by months of thiswhat we call scrollable
perfection.
So again, think of the jar ofsticks.
Think of the throw pillows.
Think of the books.
All you see is perfection.
Their expectations areabsolutely through the roof.
Then what happens is nobodywants to do any work on a house.
So here's an example.
(17:31):
I have an off-market listing, orI should say I had.
We sold it.
It went to market and wentthrough the process.
But before we were going tomarket, a colleague of mine
said, oh, my clients would beinterested in that.
So I took my colleague through,and she took photos and sent
them to the buyers.
Now, these are photos on aniPhone, so they're not polished.
They're not through aphotographer's eye.
And these are photos of anunstaged house.
(17:52):
You know what the buyer said?
Doesn't look like it's for us.
Are you kidding?
This is exactly what you want.
The right beds, the right baths,the right street, the right
location.
It has parking.
It's all those things.
You know what I think?
I think they saw that the househas carpets.
Oh, God.
We can't change that.
Oh, no, wait.
You actually can.
(18:12):
Yeah, you know what you can do?
You can remove them and then putin hardwood.
But the buyers didn't want to dothat.
In fact, they didn't even wantto look at the house.
I was so passionate, I took myglasses off.
So this is what I mean by buyersbeing conditioned by scrollable
perfection.
They got these photos.
They weren't through the lens ofa photographer's camera.
And they weren't of a fullypolished, perfect place.
(18:34):
Not only that, they couldn't getpast broad loom.
They had to see carpet.
They probably would have settledfor a really crappy laminate
from Home Depot when this broadloom was actually four times as
much as said laminate.
Now, what do buyers expect?
They expect turnkey homes, theyexpect major deals, and they
expect frictionless service.
As I said, buyers want 12 out of10 things.
(18:56):
Their expectations are throughthe roof.
And now that we're starting tosee this market where, hey, wait
a minute, some properties aren'tselling on offer nights, some
things are falling through thecracks.
You know what you get?
You get my colleague I justtalked to who listed a property
for$1,150,000.
Four days in, she gets an offer.
She says to me, oh, it's bad.
I said, oh, it's bad.
(19:17):
$1,070,000?
She said, take off$100,000.
I said, you're joking.
She got an offer of$970,000 on a$1,150,000 listing that's been
on the market for four days.
I want to say congratulations tothat buyer for trying something,
but that's just stupidity.
There's deals out there.
Don't get me wrong.
(19:38):
But this unrealistic expectationis based on what?
Again, it's based on socialmedia.
The market's bad.
We're in a recession.
Donald Trump and tariffs.
So it cuts both ways.
It's not just about the way thatthese things look.
It's about this idea that, hey,maybe we could get a deal out
there.
Okay, you know what?
This property, it's at$115,000.
The comp was$118,000,$119,000.
(20:00):
And this property has no offerdate.
And instead of being like,that's really interesting.
Okay, I can get a deal.
I don't have to bid againstother people.
Maybe I get it for 112.
Oh, no, 970.
Now, what the market delivers,compromises, nuance, and
negotiation.
And within all that, you have tobe realistic.
(20:21):
It's in everything that I'vejust said.
It's in every podcast and everyblog I've written.
And a lot of people aren't beingrealistic.
Now, not just on the buy side,that person offering 970 on 115.
on the sell side too.
And there are so many stories ofsellers that are overpricing,
listing agents that go along forthe ride, that that is an
entirely different blog.
I have also written multipleblogs and podcasts and done
(20:43):
videos and spoken about theagents out there.
I was with Chris the othernight.
We were reviewing offers on alisting and we were talking
about the two agents and how badthey were at their jobs.
I'm sorry, that's so rude.
I get it, but just work with mehere.
My phone buzzes and it's myfriend Amy from another
brokerage.
And she texts me, you would notbelieve the agent I'm dealing
(21:06):
with tonight.
It's an epidemic, a pandemic.
Ooh, no one wants to go backthere.
And I'm serious.
All of these agents who gotlicensed in 2020, 2021, 2022,
the market was ripping.
They have absolutely no ideawhat they're doing now.
And more to the point, theydon't know how to communicate.
And we will go back to that in aminute.
Now on the seller side,Overconfident, overcurated, and
(21:26):
we have talked about this.
Sellers think their homes shouldperform because it looks like
the homes they see online.
But they don't see what we see,and they overstress the
positives, and they shoo awaythe negatives.
Now, picture the seller thattells you about a particular
feature, and your response is,hmm, cool.
But then they go on and on andon about it.
Now, on the flip side of that isyou point something out, oh,
(21:47):
hey, what about this?
They go, yeah, don't worry aboutthat.
That's the conversation thatwe're having.
So...
I visited a house not too longago, met with the sellers.
I thought it was not quite asgood as they thought it was.
We didn't quite agree on theprice.
And then we went down to thebasement, and the floor was
(22:07):
like, how do I say this, sinkinginto the core of the earth.
And they were like, ah, it's nota big deal.
We'll throw a rug over it.
This is a Victorian home.
This is built in like 1890, andthere's about a 12-inch gap
between the baseboard and wherethe slab has fallen into.
And they're like, we'll throw arug over it.
So I can't unsee that.
I would need to disclose that,which we disagreed on.
(22:29):
Oh, in an unrelated story, I'mnot the listing agent for that.
But Victorian home sinking intothe core of the earth on a long
enough time horizon will bemolten lava.
And they just shoot it away.
Dropped my pen again.
So this is what I mean.
You're overstressing thepositives and you're just
shooing away the negatives.
It's tunnel vision, if you will.
(22:50):
Now, beautiful staging doesn'tguarantee strong offers.
It depends on the volume in themarket.
So if you've got a great houseand you've staged to perfection,
you've got that one buyer forit.
But what if there are 30 otherhouses that are beautiful and
staged to perfection and youstill have that one buyer?
It's simple numbers.
It's supply and demand.
And while I will be the firstperson to talk about all the
(23:10):
wonderful things that we do toget a property ready for sale,
you still have to monitor thenumbers.
And I'm a data nerd.
So there are a lot of listingswhere, and I know in advance, we
might have an issue.
This is one of the things I'mgonna talk about later, setting
your clients up for success byactually telling them what's
happening.
A lot of listings where I willshare a Google Excel sheet and I
will continue to update with allof the sales in the area so that
(23:32):
the sellers understand what'shappening.
It's simply about volume.
Now, once upon a time, stagingalone brought in buyers and
offers, but what if the entireindustry stepped up its game?
For example, I'll be the firstperson to talk about all the
wonderful things we do and howwe stage, but not all staging is
the same.
You've seen bad staging.
It's sparse.
It's minimalist.
There's no accessories.
(23:53):
The frames of the pictures don'tmatch.
The color schemes are off.
The couch doesn't fit the space.
But I'll do you one better.
What if every single property isstaged to perfection by the same
stager and it's all A plus, butyou only have one buyer?
It's just about numbers.
And the point I'm making hereis, and I will make shortly, is
that I will, when I identifywhat could be a soft market and
(24:14):
problem listing, prepare mysellers by putting together a
Google sheet that tracks all ofthe properties that are
competing and what's selling andwhat's not so that they
understand what's happening inthe market.
Take every property, stage it tothe nines, make it absolutely
perfect, and that's wonderful.
But if there aren't the samenumber of buyers for the number
of properties, it's just simplemath.
It's simple supply and demand.
(24:34):
Now, let's talk about how socialmedia-fueled pricing fantasies
are setting sellers up forfailure.
Now, you know that saying you'refive times more likely to
provide a negative review thanif you have a positive
experience?
Yes.
So then, when it comes to realestate, I would say you're far
more likely to hear about thatincredible house that got 20
(24:55):
offers and sold for 140% a listthan the 15 houses that got zero
offers on their scheduled offernight.
And I'm the nerd that tracksthat.
I see how many houses out thereare failing on offer nights, but
the sellers see what they wannasee.
They will all talk about thatone property that did
exceptionally well and they'llget that tunnel vision and
they'll forget about everythingelse.
(25:15):
Now there is a disparity problemin the market.
Buyers think that homes areoverpriced because they don't
feel like what they saw online.
And here's where we talk abouteither overstaging or we talk
about that bait and switch.
What you present out there onsocial media has to reflect what
the buyer's going to see whenthey walk inside.
And so whether it's usingsuperlatives on social media or
(25:37):
in your MLS description, orwhether it's just filtering the
heck out of this, it has torepresent the property when the
buyer walks in.
That's what I mean by the baitand switch.
You do not want it to look toogood.
Filters, editing tricks, wideangle lenses, you're setting
buyers up for disappointment.
Now, sellers, they think they'reunderappreciated because these
(25:59):
likes aren't translating intooffers.
And to that, I would say blameagents for not being honest and
open from the onset.
So as I mentioned, I will have aphone call with my clients
before I list.
Weeks in advance, I might puttogether a shared Google sheet
with every property that'scoming out.
And so say I list on a Tuesday.
Folks, let's talk on Mondaynight.
We'll set expectations.
(26:20):
We're coming out on Tuesday.
First day of the listing, I'dlike to see four to five
showings booked.
Second day listing, it's usuallya pretty big day.
I'd like to see six to eightshowings booked.
Now the next day we'll seeanother five to six.
Things will taper off before theweekend.
I'll get back to you about thenumber of people through the
open house.
Set the expectationsaccordingly.
And then if on that first dayyou have zero showings and on
the second day you have two,well, you can explain that
(26:43):
you're performing below average.
And what I would say to thatwith a caveat is that once upon
a time you could rely on thenumber of showings as a
representation of the number ofoffers.
And I wrote a blog on this.
I think it was in 2021.
I took a bunch of listings wehad with the number of showings
and the number of requests forthe home inspection for houses,
the status certificate forcondos, and then looked at the
(27:06):
percentage.
We had 80 showings.
We had eight offers.
Okay, great.
We can work with that, right?
10%.
That's a good number.
Next property, we had 40showings.
We had four offers.
Hey, it's 10% again.
Let's find that pattern.
All that is out the window rightnow.
And that's what I mean when itcomes to these sellers.
The likes aren't translatinginto the offers.
So they get the showings, butthe agent doesn't follow up for
(27:29):
feedback.
They have people through theopen house, but you're not
really conveying to them that,hey, Mr.
Seller, we did have 40 peoplecome through the open house, but
every single one of these peoplewere young.
They were frustrated.
They think the market's terribleand they all own condos and they
talk about how they'reunderwater and they can't afford
your house.
This is what is missing.
It's not just a numbers gameanymore.
(27:51):
So let's now tie this alltogether.
Let's talk about what's actuallyselling and why.
And of course, we're looking atproperties that are perfect.
We're looking through the eyesof a buyer that seeks
perfection.
Some of them are, some of themaren't.
But what is actually selling andwhy?
I come back to the agents.
I know I've made this pointbefore, and I know that a lot of
(28:13):
people don't see the value in anagent, or they think a property
sells itself, but I am tellingyou right now, the A properties,
they're probably gonna sellregardless, maybe for more,
maybe for less, but the Bsaren't moving, and the Cs and Ds
have absolutely no chance.
And I've mentioned multipletimes in this podcast and
through the last couple of blogsthat I've written, the agents.
(28:33):
It is the agents, the peoplethat absolutely do not know how
to communicate, do not know howto sell real estate.
Now, one of the very importantthings when I talk about
communicating is communicatingwith your own clients, setting
realistic expectations off thehop, and not just going along
for the ride.
So you have a property that'sworth a million dollars.
The seller says, I want to listfor a million too.
(28:54):
Are you taking that listing?
I'm not.
I don't have a magic wand.
So there are a lot of agents outthere that are just taking any
listing.
They're not doing theiranalysis.
They're hoping the market sellsit.
Blind faith?
I don't know.
But that's not a listing thatshould be on the market, and
it's going to continue to sit.
And it eventually becomes what?
A statistic.
(29:15):
Now, substance and strategy isstill going to outperform
showmanship.
We stage all of our listings.
We have properties where wespend weeks upgrading them.
We have a property right nowwhere we're putting new
countertops in the kitchen todaybecause the counters are 20
years old.
It's a great house.
It's a great location.
But again, the buyers, oh, Idon't know.
I like the house.
But look at those laminatecountertops.
(29:36):
So we know what needs to bedone, but it's not just that.
The substance and strategy ismore important than the
showmanship.
So we have the knowledge, and wehave the context, and we have
the wherewithal.
The seller, of course, has thebudget and the trust in us to
replace countertops, put in anew sink, paint the kitchen
cabinets, re-sand the floors.
But at the end of the day, theart of the deal and knowing how
to talk to people is what isgoing to actually get a deal
(29:59):
done.
Agents are blowing deals left,right, and center right now.
Now, experienced agents areretraining clients to trust
facts over filters.
We can do all the amazing thingsto the property, but we've got
to be realistic on price.
We can have a weekend openhouse, but we have to understand
that it's not going to be wellattended.
Or a better example is, to beperfectly honest, if I had a
(30:23):
condo listing on the 40th floorof building XYZ and the seller
was like, hey, open houses areallowed in the building.
We should do one.
I'm going to be honest and say,why?
I can be honest.
And I feel like a lot of agentsout there can't be.
And look, I've been in this for21 years.
I'm blessed.
I have a really loyal clientele.
They trust me.
I feel for the agents out therethat feel like I can't stand up
(30:45):
to this client.
I can't tell them what's reallyhappening.
They need the deal.
But they're not going to get thedeal in the end because they
can't be honest enough with theseller.
Now, buyer agents who know howto work and guide buyers are
probably going to seek outlisting agents that know how to
work and guide sellers.
It's a perfect fit.
(31:05):
So if I've got a buyer and I'mlooking at a house or three
houses, I'm going to look at whothe agent is.
There are so many agents outthere that are unrealistic about
price.
I've said this in a previouspodcast, agents saying, don't
bother.
Don't bring me that offer.
A colleague was telling me,okay, the condo market is not
great.
We know that.
Yeah, great.
Colleague was telling me she hada client that really liked this
(31:26):
unit and It was on the marketfor five days.
They went in 10 grand on herlist.
I would literally lay down andlet you sign that offer on my
back.
The listing agent startedyelling at her.
Wow, how could you do this?
We're brand new on the market.
They didn't even sign it back.
What are you doing?
And you know what?
She sold her client somethingelse.
That property will sit and sitand sit.
(31:46):
That is so incredibly misguided.
Now, some buyers are eitherbeing restrained by their agents
or restraining themselves.
And listen...
If there's a red hot propertyand it's underpriced, it's a
rarity, or it's a forever home,I use the example of Hogarth in
Riverdale.
$4 million list gets sevenoffers, so if it's 650,000 over,
(32:07):
sure, there are those.
But if you've got a 699 list andthere's one competing offer,
yeah, okay, you go in at 720,725.
The agent comes back and he'sbarking, well, you know, the
comp sold two years ago for 820.
And you're like, okay, listen,It's 2025.
I check my watch.
It's April.
(32:28):
We're not in that market.
Buyers are being restrained.
The agents are restraining them,and they're being realistic on
both sides.
Now, my advice for 2025.
Let me put this all together.
Be visual, but be honest.
You need more than just staging.
Speak to the functionality, thelifestyle, the area amenities,
and are you ready for this?
The boring things.
(32:50):
like how the house is updated.
We have a brand new furnace.
It's a$15,000 value.
We have a brand new airconditioner.
It's$7,500.
We don't rent our hot watertank.
All these windows are from 2022.
No one cares about that.
But you know what?
In this market, they do.
Because when the market'sabsolutely ripping, all that
matters are those throw pillows,the jar of sticks that David had
in his first condo.
(33:10):
That's absolutely all thatmatters.
In this market right now, thethings you need to stress, the
functionality, things like thedaycare.
No, I'm serious.
Things like the Freshco that's100 meters away.
There's an infinite number ofthings that you can stress with
a property and you only have1,000 characters on MLS for the
little write-up.
What I'm saying is it's not justabout the throw pillows anymore.
It's not just about staging, thefilters, the polish, the
(33:33):
Instagram reel, the YouTubevideo.
Talk to me about the$35,000 thatthe sellers put into this house
to dig up the basement floor andtake out the clay pipe, to
remove the cast iron stack, toput in a sump pump, all of the
unsexy things.
I think this is so incrediblyimportant.
And this is one of the thingsI'm talking to my sellers about.
I'm still staging it.
(33:53):
I'm still putting in newcountertops.
I'm still doing all thosewonderful things.
But let's convey to the buyerpool who's got a budget and
who's nervous, this thing is notgoing to be Tom Hanks' money
pit.
1986, Shelley Long.
I haven't seen that in a while.
Now, don't mistake engagementfor demand.
I mentioned this earlier.
The number of showings...
(34:13):
I don't want to say it doesn'tmatter anymore, but it's not
going to directly correlate likeit used to.
The number of requests for thehome inspection, the number of
requests for the statuscertificate.
A lot of agents aren't evenordering the status certificate
in advance of their listingsanymore because they expect the
condo to take three months tosell.
The status is stale dated after30 days.
These metrics that we used tohave, I don't think that we can
(34:34):
use engagement metrics as anysort of indicator of demand
anymore because you have to dowhat?
What's that thing you have to doas a listing agent?
Solicit feedback.
You have to call and ask.
Somebody books a showing, you'relike, they love it, right?
Look at the market out there.
It's red hot.
No, no, that was then.
This is now.
Pick up the phone, call them.
And you know what you do whenyou pick up the phone and you
(34:56):
call somebody who says thattheir client unfortunately isn't
interested?
You talk about the market.
You talk about what's out there.
I spoke to an agent today.
She called me for feedback.
When I showed her property, wegot to talking.
She's bringing out a property intwo weeks time that is
absolutely positively perfectfor my clients and she's going
to get me in a week earlier.
That's what we do.
(35:16):
We communicate.
Now, focus on the marketfundamentals, not on fantasies.
This goes back to price andexpectations.
So a lot of agents, when themarket was absolutely ripping,
they would do no researchwhatsoever.
Client would say, well, we'rereally looking to get 1.3.
And they'd be like, yeah, okay.
You know, let's put it at$9.99.
We've got our offer date andwe'll, you know, go down on it.
(35:38):
You can't do that anymore.
Is it worth 1.3?
Well, let me do my actual, whatis it, that thing, job and put
together a comparable price.
Market analysis.
Comparative market analysis.
Let me do my job.
Let me show you what I think.
And I was in a house a coupleweeks ago.
Seller wanted 1.6 million.
I valued it at 1.35.
(35:58):
I was honest.
There's probably 20 other agentsout there that have the
paperwork ready at 1.6.
But to what end?
Three price reductions later andeventually they'll sell it in
September.
That's not the way that I dobusiness.
I think you need to focus onthese fundamentals, not the
fantasies.
You need to go back to basics.
You need to look at the numbers,look at the data, and tell
(36:19):
people what their properties areactually worth.
So in summary, folks, who takespictures of their food and puts
it on Instagram?
No, I'm kidding.
But that really is the bestexample I can think of.
It's a microcosm for what'shappening in the real estate
market or what has happened overthe last little while.
It doesn't show you what'sactually going on in the
background.
And that silly story I toldabout what happens after the
(36:42):
photo of your salad.
What was the rest of your daylike?
What was the rest of your nightlike?
I hope it was a lot better thanJimmy that I described in the
introduction.
So in summary, folks, I think wecan agree the most important
part of the last half hour isthe question, why do people take
photos of food and put it onInstagram?
No, I'm kidding.
I would say this.
For buyers, for sellers, foragents, for buyers, it's okay to
(37:04):
want something beautiful.
Do not let Instagram aestheticsand social media blind you to
these smart opportunities outthere.
Do not let them dissuade youfrom the reality of what's
happening in the market and withindividual properties.
For the sellers, likes do notequal offers.
You need to look past the greatjob that you've done on the home
and the great job that youragent has done preparing it for
(37:24):
sale and focus on pricing rightand marketing honestly.
not just impressively.
And to the agents, stop tryingto win the algorithm.
Stop trying to battle the otherside.
It's not a fight.
If I extended my hand outward toyou like this, would you take it
and shake it?
That's actually something I saidto an agent the other day.
It takes two to make a deal.
(37:45):
And you have to remember, theentire purpose of listing real
estate is to sell it.
It is not to pick a fight withthe other side.
Being right and not getting thedeal done does not get you
anywhere.
And at the end of the day,you're really not working on the
best interests of your clientsif you're putting your ego ahead
of getting a deal done.
(38:05):
You need to educate yourclients.
You need to bridge the gapbetween expectation and reality.
Folks, thank you so much forwatching, as always, on YouTube.
Feel free to drop us a comment.
And honestly, I do want to hearfrom you on this.
Give me an example.
And we used to do a feature onToronto Realty Blog called More
MLS Musings, which was justridiculous photos in MLS.
If you are willing, if you havean example, email it to me.
(38:27):
I want to know what you think isgood marketing.
I want to know what you think isbad marketing.
Or drop it in the commentssection.
Please remember to like,comment, or subscribe wherever
you get your podcasts, whetherit's Spotify or Apple Music.
And we'll see you next time hereon The Last Honest Realtor.
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