June 10, 2025 • 29 mins
In this episode of The Last Honest Realtor, David Fleming breaks down the listing tactics that are actively working against sellers in today’s Toronto real estate market. From irrational pricing to failed offer strategies and zero backup planning, agents and homeowners are making the same costly mistakes - over and over.
This is a slow bleed, made worse by sellers refusing to adapt and agents too afraid to push back. With inventory at a record high and sales at historic lows, this episode cuts through the noise and gets to the heart of what’s really going wrong.
In This Episode:
- How one seller walked away from a $1.095M offer—for $5,000
- Why overpricing is the first and most fatal mistake sellers make
- How outdated offer-date strategies are failing in 90% of cases
- Why most agents are complicit—or completely out of their depth
- The real absorption rate collapse behind Toronto’s stalled market
- What listing agents must start doing differently (or risk irrelevance)
- Why cooperating agents aren’t adversaries—and how ignoring them kills deals
Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro: Sellers cutting off their nose to spite their face
01:50 – A live case: losing a deal over $5K
05:15 – TRREB stats: lowest May sales since 2020, record inventory
08:40 – The overpricing problem
11:55 – When agents say yes to prices that make no sense
15:10 – Offer dates are dead—here’s why
18:35 – What a real plan A/B/C should look like
21:30 – How not working with offers kills momentum
24:00 – Feigned leverage and adversarial agents
26:30 – The cost of ignoring market data and good advice
Subscribe, comment, and share this episode with someone who still thinks the market “feels strong.”
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
You're a seller of real estate in the city of
Toronto and you've decided tocut off your nose to spite your
face.
Hi everybody and welcome back tothe Last Honest Realtor podcast.
I'm your host, David Fleming.
Thank you for joining me heretoday as we talk about, well,
among other things, listingmistakes, seller mistakes.
And yes, that is a real exampleof what's happening right now in
(00:21):
the market where some sellersare just making the wrong
decision because, well, they'restubborn.
They've put their foot in theground.
Darn it, they're not going tomove it.
Now, I'm going to tell you astory that is live and in
progress as we film this.
Let's just call the protagonistin this, Tara.
Yes, this is Tara, who works onthe Toronto Realty Group team
(00:41):
with me.
She represented a buyer in anoffer situation last night where
a seller did, in fact, cut offtheir nose to spite their face,
and I have to question why.
What is the endgame?
Now, this seller had listed hishome for$1,299,000, and it sat
on the market for three weeks.
The seller then dropped theprice to$979,000.
(01:03):
with an offer date.
I always do this.
For those of you listening, youcan't see, I'm tapping my head
like I have an idea.
Every time we talk aboutridiculous ideas, we always go,
huh?
And tap our heads like this.
So the seller says, well, I'm at1299 and it's not working, so
why don't I...
Lower the price and set abidding war in motion.
Guys, I've done entire podcastson the psychology of pricing,
(01:25):
the origin of underpricing.
Suffice it to say, in a red-hotmarket, sure, you can list low,
hold back, and yes, you will, infact, not limit your upside.
You will get offers.
You can push that price.
But for the love of God, folks,in this market right now, when
you're at 1299, who thinks youcan drop to 979, 989, set a
(01:45):
bidding war in action?
Well, this seller did, and guesswhat?
Tara brought an offer, and shewas the only offer.
So this house, we think, isworth 115 to 12.
What does it say about the factthat Tara had the only offer at
979 list?
It doesn't say it's worth 979 orless, and some people watching
this are going to tell me that'sexactly what it is.
(02:06):
It says that the buyer pooldoesn't want to play the game.
Now Tara did.
She brought an offer, and theseller signed it back.
But where the seller gotstubborn...
was that the seller said, I want1.1.
Now, that seller came way downoff of 1299.
So we're getting somewhere.
And as I said, I value thishouse at 115 to 12.
So we're doing well.
(02:29):
The problem was the sellerdidn't have 1.1.
The seller had$1,095,000 in hishands.
And he let it expire.
And that was that.
For$5,000, now you can saythat's the hill you're going to
die on, but for$5,000, thatseller walked away.
I don't understand the move.
(02:50):
It's not about the money at thatpoint, it's about being stubborn
and it's about being right.
And folks, tell me that I'm notworking hard to get the last
$5,000 from my seller, but incertain situations, if you've
got that offer sitting in frontof you, You've got to reach out,
grab a pen, and sign it.
Now, a couple of things to goover before we get into the
listing mistakes that people aremaking in this market.
(03:12):
The Bank of Canada justannounced they're holding the
interest rate steady at 2.75%.
I think we had all somewhatpriced that in.
It's disappointing for those ofus that have a mortgage or two
or three, but I do also thinkthis signals that we're going to
get another cut in the month ofJuly.
Now, we have the statistics fromthe month of May.
I want to lead with this.
(03:32):
Sales are at 6,244.
That is the lowest of any monthof May outside of the 2020
pandemic, which doesn't count.
Now, the previous low was lastyear, 2024, and it was 7,000.
So we are down about 15% fromjust last year.
Now, the high, just so you know,2016, we saw 12,790 sales.
(03:54):
2021, we saw just shy of 12,000.
We're now tracking at 6,000.
We're down about 50% from peaksales.
And as I continue to say onToronto Realty Blog and in more
or less all of these podcasts, Ibelieve we are going to see sub
60,000 sales this year, whichwill, again, be the lowest of
all time.
Now, new listings in the monthof May.
(04:15):
They were at 21,000.
It's only the second time in Maywe've ever seen over 20,000 new
listings.
Now, it's not in any way, shape,or form close to the record of
25,837 set in 2017.
But when we get to activelistings, this is the crazy
part.
There were over 30,000 activelistings in the month of May.
There have never been30,000-plus active listings in
(04:38):
any month ever.
In fact, the previous record was27,386, which was set when?
Oh, yeah, last month in April.
So 27,000 active listings.
I might have said new listings,but I meant active listings.
27,000 active listings.
We've seen that number fourtimes since 2002.
That's how long I've beentracking the data for.
Of course, pre-2002, the citywas half the size, so why bother
(05:00):
looking at that data?
30,000.
That's a serious number.
Now, the absorption rate.
This is the sales to newlistings ratio.
28.6% last month.
The previous low in the month ofMay...
37.7 last year so folks the datais showing us extreme weakness
(05:22):
the price is down four percentyear over year four percent now
that's a lot in absolute valueobviously if you've got a home
that's worth two million dollarsyeah okay well it's 80 grand is
that right doing my math rightso the point is guys that prices
would could should be absolutelycratering if this was another
(05:42):
product or service in anotherindustry where you see an
absorption rate that low.
And don't even get me started onthe condo market where the
absorption rate, are you readyfor this?
In the 416 is 24.2%.
And then the 905 is 23.3%.
So point being, if this was anyother product in any other
industry, you would see pricescratering.
(06:02):
The fact that we're only down 4%year over year, we're actually
up month over month, but we'reonly down 4% year over year, to
me speaks to, well, theresiliency of the Toronto real
estate market, among otherthings, but nothing's selling.
And by nothing, I mean 6,244sales.
So why is nothing selling?
This is what I want to talkabout today.
I look...
(06:24):
at listings.
I look at listing agents and Ilook at sellers and I see the
same mistakes being made overand over.
So the first mistake that peopleare making very simply is that
sellers are overpricing.
Now I wanna tell you a story.
I was called in to do a listingpresentation for a property in
the city.
I'm not gonna give it awaybecause it's currently on the
(06:44):
market with another agent.
Now, I met the lovely couple,they were fantastic.
They were looking to retire andthey told me that they needed to
get a certain price.
So I evaluated their house atabout$1.4 million on a good day.
And I could tell by theirreaction they weren't vibing it.
And I said, listen, not my firstrodeo.
(07:07):
I can tell by the look on yourface that you want 1.5.
And the wife looked at me andshe shook her head.
And she said, no.
I thought, oh, thank God,because this is a 1.35 to 1.4
house.
But then that's when she said,we want 1.6.
Suffice it to say, we did notconnect on this.
They listed this property for$1,299,000 with an offer date.
(07:29):
They got zero offers.
Now, it doesn't mean it's worth$1,299,000 or less.
As I've said, it means that alot of buyers don't want to play
the game.
They got zero offers.
They raised the price to$1,648,800.
And it's sitting on the market.
That's what sellers are doingright now.
They're overpricing.
(07:49):
And Matthew, who works on myteam, he made an offer.
on a house on Hamilton.
I'll give you the address,right?
Because there's five or sixhouses for sale on that street.
Now, they're not all the same,but the point is, he looked at a
house which, again, was listedhigh, and then it was reduced
with an offer date, and thenthat didn't work, and then it
was listed high again, and hewent in there, and he made an
(08:11):
offer, and the seller signed itback at list.
They're on their third listing.
They signed it back at List.
So I do read the comments onYouTube and I'm cognizant to the
fact that a lot of people watchthese and they really don't
(08:32):
understand, and I'm sorry I'mgonna take a shot, but don't
really understand the innerworkings of not just the real
estate market, but what we doand how we do it.
A comment a couple weeks agothat said, you have no vested
interest in the seller's successbecause your commission doesn't
change and went on this sort ofrant about realtors and how they
don't like them and saying thatyou aren't willing to wait as
(08:55):
long as it takes to get theprice the seller wants.
So I understand the thinking inthat, don't get me wrong.
I understand the bias that youbelieve that I might have.
But what you're missing is thatthere's an inverse relationship
between the time on the marketand the price you're going to
get, because it's based onleverage.
So if you say, David, you shouldwait as long as it takes.
(09:16):
If you're saying six years, Iunderstand.
In that case, with inflation andwith market movement, the seller
will get their price.
But if you're saying to me, thatafter 45 days I'm telling them
they need to reduce the priceand you're saying you're a bad
agent because you won't wait aslong as it takes, you're missing
the point.
The longer it sits, the morepeople are going to chip away at
the price.
(09:36):
The longer it sits, the lessleverage that you have as a
seller and as a listing agent.
So brings me to my next point.
Agents are complicit in this.
So the second listing mistake Iwould simply say is that real
estate agents are just saying,yep, okay, let's do it.
So tell me that I'm a bad guy.
because I won't take thatlisting for a million 648 where
(09:57):
the seller wants a million sixand I think it's a million four.
But at the same time, wouldn't Ibe a bad guy if I just was a yes
man and I said to the seller,okay, absolutely, let's do it.
So yes, I read the comments andyes, I understand the bias and
some people are like, you justwant the listing as low as
possible so you can get it soldand you can go buy caviar on
your yacht, whatever it is thatyou wanna say.
(10:18):
No, the point is that if I meetsomebody And I say to them, hey,
listen, we're in a really toughcondo market.
Now, I understand that your unitat the peak in February of 2022
sold for 600,000, but the lastcomp is 520.
We need to be at 499.
David, you're chasing the marketdown.
No, I've got a listing at 499.
(10:39):
I had four showings in twomonths.
We dropped it to 479.
We've had zero showings.
That's where the condo marketis.
My job is to educate the seller.
My job is to be realistic.
And if it costs me the listing,then so be it.
I am not in the business oflisting properties for prices at
which they will never sellbecause I don't believe that
that is helping the seller.
(11:01):
But that's me.
And there's 72,000 agentslicensed and agents out right
now are taking any listing.
Now there's an old saying inreal estate, list to last.
That's what the veterans say.
You have to have listings to besuccessful.
Buyers are great, but hey,listen, listings always sell.
The market that we're in rightnow, I don't think that's the
(11:22):
key anymore.
I got a friend who's got 30condo listings.
What's happening there?
That's a completely differentbusiness model.
You're a completely differentperson in this market compared
to previous market cycles.
So again, take it with a grainof salt if you want, but my
point is that I don't believeI'm doing the seller a favor
(11:43):
when they say that they wannalist their condo above the last
comp of 520 In a market that hasdeclined, they want to list at
$549,900, and they'renegotiating with me.
David, we know that the comp inFebruary of 2022 sold for
$600,000.
We're not chasing that.
I mean, that's such a strawmanargument, right?
Oh, you're not chasing theall-time high?
Okay.
(12:04):
But we're going to list at$549,000, and I'm saying you
need to be at$499,000.
The last one sold for$520,000.
There's two other units in thebuilding.
Your identical model, right,with parking or without, back
that out or a locker or a view,your identical model is
competing.
And they're at a more attractiveprice.
And you want to list at 549.
So I put my foot down.
(12:26):
I say, guys, listen,unfortunately, we're not
connecting on this.
And if they want to list withsomebody else, then that's fine.
But that's me.
And it's not because I'm justtrying to get listings that'll
sell.
I'm trying to educate theseller.
And I'll do everything I can.
I'm a stats nerd.
I'm a huge nerd.
And it's really hard to seethat, right?
Look at this guy.
Yeah, total nerd.
I love statistics.
(12:47):
And when I put it out there,play it out, I lay it out for
y'all to play it out, whateverthe expression is, and somebody
looks at it and they say, yeah,listen, we don't care.
Here's what we're doing.
We're not connecting.
There's an agent for everybody,and that's the reality of it.
But a lot of folks out therearen't doing that, and I
continuously see listings thatcome out at absolutely
ridiculous prices or ridiculousstrategies.
(13:09):
So that brings me to my nextpoint, the mistakes that people
are making, offer dates.
Now, we've done previouspodcasts, as I mentioned, on the
origin of offer dates.
We've done previous podcasts onthe psychology of pricing.
But the reality is the offerdates are not working.
And so if I could go back now toMay and June of 2024, I had a
listing coming out.
(13:30):
I knew it was going to be aproblem.
The market had peaked somewherearound early May.
I remember I had clients thatwhen they sold and they got some
absolutely outrageous price.
And I said...
We will look back on this nightas the market peak.
And the seller was like, oh, no,really?
Why?
I was like, because of the priceyou just got.
I wasn't wrong.
That was the market peak of 2024across the board for everybody
(13:52):
because of my one sale.
Now, that was on the east side.
The east side, the whole thingwent on sale in May and June of
last year.
And so what I did for theclients that I knew it was going
to be tricky was I put togethera shared Excel spreadsheet in
Google.
Google Drive, whatever it'scalled, Microsoft Drive,
whatever.
And I tracked every singlelisting that came out that had
(14:15):
an offer date, success or fail.
Now, I've mentioned this inprevious podcasts because it's
such a great story, but a monthout from our listing, offer
dates were working around 30 to40% of the time.
Now, that doesn't sound verygood.
Offer dates, they should beworking all the time.
Take a property at 1.3, list itat 999, have an offer fight, get
20 offers, we'll pop popcorn inthe office, we'll sit around.
(14:36):
That was not happening.
The next week, offer dates wereworking 25, 30% of the time.
The next week, offer dates wereworking 20, 25% of the time.
And by the time we listed, theprevious week's data showed me
that offer dates were workingabout 15 to 20% of the time.
And our offer date did not work.
But I prepared the clients forit.
(14:58):
So set the seller's expectationsaccordingly.
And again, listing agents arefailing to do this.
Now, some agents...
In the city of Toronto, I do twodeals a year.
I heard a statistic.
It was a friend of mine.
I won't name his name.
He said that 80% of agentshaven't done a deal in the last
12 months or haven't beencredited with one.
Some people work on teams.
Some people do leases,pre-construction, off-market
(15:19):
deals, the excuses that agentsmake.
But point is, there's a lot offolks that just aren't in the
market.
And like, guys, cat out of thebag, but like, My brokerage
isn't different than any otherbrokerage.
There are agents, and yeah, someof them are 70, and they used to
be really active, and then someof them are newer, but there are
agents that don't do a lot ofbusiness, and they don't
understand the market.
And so when you're setting anoffer date, and you have
(15:41):
absolutely no idea what'shappening in the market, you're
not setting the seller'sexpectation.
Now, let me give you an example.
I have a listing coming out nextweek on the east side where
everything is for sale, and Ihave prepared the sellers
accordingly.
I have told them that, yes, wewill take this house of theirs,
we will set the price well belowfair market value, and we will
(16:03):
set an offer date.
However, our chances of beingsuccessful with a sale on the
offer date are around 20%.
Now, some people are going tosay, why would you be so
negative?
Come on, put it out in theuniverse.
Guys, it's not about that.
It's about statistics.
It's about results.
I've spent the last monthlooking at every single property
that's come out in and aroundthis price point, say from$899
(16:23):
to$1399 with an offer date, andfewer than 10% are selling on
offer nights.
10%.
For every 10 houses that have anoffer date, nine of them are
being relisted.
Now, some of them shouldn't haveoffer dates.
I always say, in a red-hotmarket...
(16:44):
the c's and some of the d's willsell on offer nights but in the
market we're in right now onlythe a's are selling in offer
nights so why are people listinghouses that aren't that good
houses that don't have thedemand houses that might have 15
showings an entire week why arethey listed low with an offer
dates because we don't have anybetter ideas so again it's about
(17:06):
setting expectations and that issomething that i am doing
consistently with my sellers butthese offer dates are not
working so then Let me go intothe next point.
People don't have a backup plan.
Speaks to the caliber of agentout there.
And I don't want to hammer onother agents because, I don't
know, it's very uncouth.
(17:26):
It's not unprofessional.
It's at the very most basiclevel, realistic and honest.
But if you're an agent out thereand you've got this proverbial
east side listing whereeverything's for sale, and
you're doing two to four deals ayear, or hell, even if you're
doing six to 10, you don't havea good enough understanding of
what's happening in the marketto plan accordingly.
So your idea is, hey, we'll takethis house, we'll set the price
(17:49):
low, we'll set an offer date,and we'll sell it.
It's not gonna work.
We have the data.
So what's your backup plan?
All 10 fingers in my mouth as Ibite all my nails.
That's the backup plan.
And you can hear it.
You can hear it.
You book a showing on one ofthese.
They call you the day after.
Hey, so we didn't sell lastnight.
Are your clients stillinterested?
(18:10):
Well, maybe, or they've boughtsomewhere else or no.
And then you go, what are youguys doing?
They go, well, you know, we'regonna do something.
I kid you not, these are theconversations that we're having.
These folks don't have a backupplan.
So here's my backup plan.
Here's my plan B.
My plan B is to, from thebeginning, enact a plan A, B,
(18:33):
and C, which is to say our planA is to sell on the offer night.
Our plan B is after the failedoffer night, to see who calls us
and try to sell the property toone of these agents that didn't
want to be involved in a biddingwar, didn't want to get involved
on an offer night, try to sellit to one of them before plan C,
(18:55):
we relist.
So take the proverbial$1.3million house that you've listed
for$9.99.
And on offer night, you getzero, one or two offers, doesn't
really matter.
Your offer date is on Monday.
On Tuesday morning, you donothing.
You leave it and people willcall you.
Now, 80% of the calls you getare from other real estate
agents saying, hey, did you guyssell?
Because I'm prepping a listingand it's really frustrating.
(19:18):
But the other 20% are fromagents that say, hey, yeah, my
clients saw it and yeah, theylike it.
I just, they weren't reallyjazzed about, you know, going to
an offer night.
And you say, hey, this is thered carpet.
I'm rolling it out for you.
Here's the olive branch that I'mextending.
And you work with that agent.
You try to get the propertysold.
That is your plan B.
Your plan C is by Thursday orFriday, you have to relist.
(19:40):
You put that back out for$1,299,000.
Don't put it out for$1,349,000,quote, building in the
negotiating cushion for your 1-3house because no one's going to
see it.
Bite the bullet.
Put it out at$1,299,000.
And hopefully somebody looks atit and they like it.
Maybe they do come in lower.
Maybe you get$1,290,000.
Maybe you get$1,280,000.
But for a 1-3 house, that's anestimate.
(20:03):
Real estate has no fixed value.
I've said this before.
One three is the same as one twoeight is the same as one three
two.
So put yourself in a position tobe successful.
That's my backup plan.
My backup plan is to have had aplan A, B, and C in advance and
people absolutely are not doingthat.
I saw a house that was listedfor 2.5 million.
(20:23):
It was on the market for 17days.
They terminated.
Do you know what they did withit?
They listed it for$1,999 with anoffer date.
What's the thinking there?
People are gonna flock to it.
Oh,$1,999, this is a steal.
I'd better go get my checkbook,drink some Red Bull and get
(20:47):
amped up for a bidding war.
It doesn't work like that.
I say this every week in thispodcast and on Toronto Realty
blog.
A doctor doesn't prescribe aplacebo and then say, that's a
placebo.
It doesn't work like that.
If you know that someone wants2.5 and you price it at 1.99
with an offer date after you'vebeen at 2.5, what do you think
(21:07):
is going to happen?
That was someone's actual plan.
So they'll get zero offers at1.99.
It doesn't mean it's not worth2.2, 2.3, 2.4, or even 2.5.
It just means buyers don't wantto play the game.
Now, my next point, what listingmistakes sellers and listing
(21:27):
agents are making.
They're not working with whatthey have.
Now, I mentioned at the onset,Tara's got that offer,
$1,095,000.
Seller says, 1.1, it's the hellI'm going to die on, and it
falls apart.
Do you have any stories I havelike that?
So I'll tell you this story.
I have a condo buyer.
Yeah, imagine that.
Condo sales are at an all-timelow.
(21:48):
I have a condo buyer.
I go in and I make an offer.
Now, let's say it's$799,000.
We offered$700,000.
Okay, great, it's an offer.
They've been on the market for88 days.
What's the number one rule ofselling real estate when you
have an offer?
Keep it alive.
What did that agent do?
(22:08):
They said, we're not interested.
I don't care if you sign it backat a million dollars, you keep
it alive.
Now you might say, David, you dothe same thing.
No, I wouldn't.
My job is to sell real estate.
I don't care if you sign thatback at list, you sign it back,
you keep it alive.
That's the expression of realestate.
Keep it alive.
Give me something to work with.
Hey, I'm going to battle.
I need some ammunition here formy gun.
(22:29):
Give me a sign back.
I'm not going to let it die onmy operating table.
So this agent does absolutelynothing.
Okay, that's great.
We move on.
We go look at other stuff.
The agent calls me a week later.
He says, hey, listen, would yoube able to get us something
better?
I said, yeah, why?
I would have.
Had you signed it back at 790,maybe we would have come up to
710.
Had you signed it back at 780,maybe we would have come back at
(22:52):
720.
But you didn't do that.
He says, go and get me somethingbetter.
Just get me something better,okay?
Okay, fine.
So he's doing his job.
That's great.
Tell my client, hey, listen, Ithink they're ready to play
ball.
And like, look, we were thinkingwe could get this for 720, 730.
Maybe, maybe not.
I mean, cat out of the bag, it'sstill on the market.
(23:14):
So we go and we offer them$720,000.
And amazingly, again, the sellerdoesn't sign back.
The agent calls me and he'slike, look, I am so sorry.
I'm doing my job.
I'm doing everything I can.
He did it.
He went and got an offer.
But you're at$799,000.
You've been on the market for 88days.
You've got an offer.
You've got$720,000.
Sign the damn thing back.
(23:35):
And that's what's happening inthis market.
People are not working with whatthey have.
Brings me to my next point.
The listing mistakes we'reseeing out there is that sellers
are feigning leverage.
So I'm not saying that I'm justgoing to roll over as a listing
agent, but what I am saying isthat I know my place.
So I got an offer the other dayon a condo listing.
(23:56):
I've got a$1.1 million condolisting and the offer came in at
$1.25 million.
Totally workable.
It's not the number that wewant, but it's workable.
So the first thing I say to theagent after thank you is,
listen, I understand where thiscondo market is at.
I have a lot of condo listingsright now.
I'm happy to work with you.
Let's see what we can do.
(24:17):
That's what you've got to do.
But there are sellers out thereselling agents that are feigning
leverage.
I've got so many showings andyou don't know what other
properties are selling for.
The nonsense that's coming outof their mouths, it's
unbelievable.
Now that leads me into my nextpoint.
Not seeing your cooperatingagent as an ally.
(24:39):
They're not an adversary,they're an ally.
You're a listing agent, someonehas brought you an offer, that's
an ally.
Buy them a cup of coffee, buythem flowers, roll out the red
carpet.
It's not the time to befighting.
But I'm seeing listing agentsthat are so incredibly out of
touch.
It's like on those real estateTV shows where they always bark
into their phone on speakerphonewalking around.
(25:02):
I met my dentist client at thelocal cigar bar.
Like, it's nonsense, right?
But they're always sort ofyelling back and forth, and it's
just all these threats andeverything, and in the end, you
know, they flash the priceacross the screen, and, you
know, there's no contract that'snegotiated verbally on a phone
or a cigar bar.
There are a lot of agents that Ithink grew up watching that
nonsense, and they think that'show we do business.
(25:23):
So when someone brings you anoffer for$700,000 or$800,000 for
that property that's been on themarket for 88 days, now that was
overdue for price reduction.
When you're at$800,000, youreduce to what?
$774,900, maybe$749,900.
So my offer of$700,000 wasn'tterrible.
And the$720,000,$730,000 that wemight have paid is market value.
(25:43):
But that seller seemed like theywere yelling through the phone
at us.
The agent, as I said, I mean,second time around, he was nice
and everything.
But on the flip side of that isI'm seeing a lot of agents that
are barking at at the agent onthe other side.
So imagine you've got that condobuyer.
We can buy anything in the cityof Toronto.
We go and make an offer.
And that agent starts yelling atyou through their phone.
(26:04):
Great, thank you.
We will go and we will look atsomething else.
You have to understand themarket that you're in.
And I get it.
It's not a great position to bein.
I'm like any other agent outthere.
I'm proud.
You might say I've got an ego.
But my job is to work for theclient.
My seller clients want to sell.
They need to get their dealsdone.
I will put all of that aside.
(26:25):
And hey, when we get back to2022 conditions, every listing
agent can be as big a jerk asthey want and as cocky as they
want.
But right now, you've got to eatyour you-know-what sandwich and
ask for seconds.
And I'm not seeing listingagents do that.
I'm seeing them feigningleverage and not feigning
leverage like, hey, that's howwe negotiate.
You can talk about, you talk tosomebody else.
(26:46):
They might bring an offer.
You've got a couple secondshowings.
No, I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about an agentthat's acting like it's February
of 2022 when it's clearly not.
An agent's got a condo listingon the market for 121 days and
you bring them an offer andthey, what, yell at you, throw
comps at you, the nonsense.
(27:07):
MPAC says it's worth this.
Or there's this new Treb toolthat tells you apparently what
it's worth and agents arescreenshotting it and sending
it.
It's like, dude, you've got acondo sitting empty.
There are 14 listings in thatbuilding.
You also have it up for rent andyou can't find a renter.
Let's work in reality here.
So feigning leverage, combiningthat with not seeing your
cooperating agent as an ally,and combine that with my
(27:30):
previous point, not working withwhat you have.
Just this alone is a recipe fordisaster.
But you go back to the biggest,most egregious listing mistakes
people are making, theoverpricing.
The not understanding marketvalue.
Talk about what you need, whatyou want.
I fully understand it.
But when somebody's gettingready to retire and they say, we
need one six for this house sowe can buy what we want to.
(27:53):
If it's a one three five house,are you the listing agent that
says, it's worth one six, let'sdo it?
I don't think you're helpingthat person.
That's the point that I made atthe onset.
It's not to say I'm not workingfor them.
I'm gonna help them by tellingthem the truth.
So a year from now, and in thatsituation, I said to those
sellers, I said to the lady, Iam happy to work with you today,
(28:14):
six months from now, 18 monthsfrom now.
I just can't tell you that thishouse is worth what you want.
And in the end, they decided tolist it for a price that made
absolutely no sense with alisting agent that said, sure,
let's do it.
It's been on the market for sixweeks at two different prices.
That's the market that we're in.
The agents are complicit.
The offer date strategies aren'tworking.
(28:35):
They have no backup plan.
And all this combined with thestatistics that I gave you at
the onset tell us all we need toknow about this market.
Inventory is at an all-timehigh, 30,000 plus active
listings.
Sales are at an all-time low,6,244 sales in the month of
June, which is the lowestoutside of any non-pandemic
(28:58):
June.
And I point to this.
I point to listing mistakes,which are so easy to identify
and then the question would be,why are we making them?
So folks, that is it for thisweek.
Thank you as always for watchingand or listening.
If you're watching on YouTube,feel free to drop me a comment
in the section below.
I always enjoy reading those.
And if you are listeningwherever you get your music,
(29:20):
Spotify, Apple Music, feel freeto like, comment, or subscribe.
We'll see you here next time onThe Last Honest Realtor.
You're a seller of real estate in the city of
Toronto and you've decided tocut off your nose to spite your
face.
Hi everybody and welcome back tothe Last Honest Realtor podcast.
I'm your host, David Fleming.
Thank you for joining me heretoday as we talk about, well,
among other things, listingmistakes, seller mistakes.
And yes, that is a real exampleof what's happening right now in
(00:21):
the market where some sellersare just making the wrong
decision because, well, they'restubborn.
They've put their foot in theground.
Darn it, they're not going tomove it.
Now, I'm going to tell you astory that is live and in
progress as we film this.
Let's just call the protagonistin this, Tara.
Yes, this is Tara, who works onthe Toronto Realty Group team
(00:41):
with me.
She represented a buyer in anoffer situation last night where
a seller did, in fact, cut offtheir nose to spite their face,
and I have to question why.
What is the endgame?
Now, this seller had listed hishome for$1,299,000, and it sat
on the market for three weeks.
The seller then dropped theprice to$979,000.
(01:03):
with an offer date.
I always do this.
For those of you listening, youcan't see, I'm tapping my head
like I have an idea.
Every time we talk aboutridiculous ideas, we always go,
huh?
And tap our heads like this.
So the seller says, well, I'm at1299 and it's not working, so
why don't I...
Lower the price and set abidding war in motion.
Guys, I've done entire podcastson the psychology of pricing,
(01:25):
the origin of underpricing.
Suffice it to say, in a red-hotmarket, sure, you can list low,
hold back, and yes, you will, infact, not limit your upside.
You will get offers.
You can push that price.
But for the love of God, folks,in this market right now, when
you're at 1299, who thinks youcan drop to 979, 989, set a
(01:45):
bidding war in action?
Well, this seller did, and guesswhat?
Tara brought an offer, and shewas the only offer.
So this house, we think, isworth 115 to 12.
What does it say about the factthat Tara had the only offer at
979 list?
It doesn't say it's worth 979 orless, and some people watching
this are going to tell me that'sexactly what it is.
(02:06):
It says that the buyer pooldoesn't want to play the game.
Now Tara did.
She brought an offer, and theseller signed it back.
But where the seller gotstubborn...
was that the seller said, I want1.1.
Now, that seller came way downoff of 1299.
So we're getting somewhere.
And as I said, I value thishouse at 115 to 12.
So we're doing well.
(02:29):
The problem was the sellerdidn't have 1.1.
The seller had$1,095,000 in hishands.
And he let it expire.
And that was that.
For$5,000, now you can saythat's the hill you're going to
die on, but for$5,000, thatseller walked away.
I don't understand the move.
(02:50):
It's not about the money at thatpoint, it's about being stubborn
and it's about being right.
And folks, tell me that I'm notworking hard to get the last
$5,000 from my seller, but incertain situations, if you've
got that offer sitting in frontof you, You've got to reach out,
grab a pen, and sign it.
Now, a couple of things to goover before we get into the
listing mistakes that people aremaking in this market.
(03:12):
The Bank of Canada justannounced they're holding the
interest rate steady at 2.75%.
I think we had all somewhatpriced that in.
It's disappointing for those ofus that have a mortgage or two
or three, but I do also thinkthis signals that we're going to
get another cut in the month ofJuly.
Now, we have the statistics fromthe month of May.
I want to lead with this.
(03:32):
Sales are at 6,244.
That is the lowest of any monthof May outside of the 2020
pandemic, which doesn't count.
Now, the previous low was lastyear, 2024, and it was 7,000.
So we are down about 15% fromjust last year.
Now, the high, just so you know,2016, we saw 12,790 sales.
(03:54):
2021, we saw just shy of 12,000.
We're now tracking at 6,000.
We're down about 50% from peaksales.
And as I continue to say onToronto Realty Blog and in more
or less all of these podcasts, Ibelieve we are going to see sub
60,000 sales this year, whichwill, again, be the lowest of
all time.
Now, new listings in the monthof May.
(04:15):
They were at 21,000.
It's only the second time in Maywe've ever seen over 20,000 new
listings.
Now, it's not in any way, shape,or form close to the record of
25,837 set in 2017.
But when we get to activelistings, this is the crazy
part.
There were over 30,000 activelistings in the month of May.
There have never been30,000-plus active listings in
(04:38):
any month ever.
In fact, the previous record was27,386, which was set when?
Oh, yeah, last month in April.
So 27,000 active listings.
I might have said new listings,but I meant active listings.
27,000 active listings.
We've seen that number fourtimes since 2002.
That's how long I've beentracking the data for.
Of course, pre-2002, the citywas half the size, so why bother
(05:00):
looking at that data?
30,000.
That's a serious number.
Now, the absorption rate.
This is the sales to newlistings ratio.
28.6% last month.
The previous low in the month ofMay...
37.7 last year so folks the datais showing us extreme weakness
(05:22):
the price is down four percentyear over year four percent now
that's a lot in absolute valueobviously if you've got a home
that's worth two million dollarsyeah okay well it's 80 grand is
that right doing my math rightso the point is guys that prices
would could should be absolutelycratering if this was another
(05:42):
product or service in anotherindustry where you see an
absorption rate that low.
And don't even get me started onthe condo market where the
absorption rate, are you readyfor this?
In the 416 is 24.2%.
And then the 905 is 23.3%.
So point being, if this was anyother product in any other
industry, you would see pricescratering.
(06:02):
The fact that we're only down 4%year over year, we're actually
up month over month, but we'reonly down 4% year over year, to
me speaks to, well, theresiliency of the Toronto real
estate market, among otherthings, but nothing's selling.
And by nothing, I mean 6,244sales.
So why is nothing selling?
This is what I want to talkabout today.
I look...
(06:24):
at listings.
I look at listing agents and Ilook at sellers and I see the
same mistakes being made overand over.
So the first mistake that peopleare making very simply is that
sellers are overpricing.
Now I wanna tell you a story.
I was called in to do a listingpresentation for a property in
the city.
I'm not gonna give it awaybecause it's currently on the
(06:44):
market with another agent.
Now, I met the lovely couple,they were fantastic.
They were looking to retire andthey told me that they needed to
get a certain price.
So I evaluated their house atabout$1.4 million on a good day.
And I could tell by theirreaction they weren't vibing it.
And I said, listen, not my firstrodeo.
(07:07):
I can tell by the look on yourface that you want 1.5.
And the wife looked at me andshe shook her head.
And she said, no.
I thought, oh, thank God,because this is a 1.35 to 1.4
house.
But then that's when she said,we want 1.6.
Suffice it to say, we did notconnect on this.
They listed this property for$1,299,000 with an offer date.
(07:29):
They got zero offers.
Now, it doesn't mean it's worth$1,299,000 or less.
As I've said, it means that alot of buyers don't want to play
the game.
They got zero offers.
They raised the price to$1,648,800.
And it's sitting on the market.
That's what sellers are doingright now.
They're overpricing.
(07:49):
And Matthew, who works on myteam, he made an offer.
on a house on Hamilton.
I'll give you the address,right?
Because there's five or sixhouses for sale on that street.
Now, they're not all the same,but the point is, he looked at a
house which, again, was listedhigh, and then it was reduced
with an offer date, and thenthat didn't work, and then it
was listed high again, and hewent in there, and he made an
(08:11):
offer, and the seller signed itback at list.
They're on their third listing.
They signed it back at List.
So I do read the comments onYouTube and I'm cognizant to the
fact that a lot of people watchthese and they really don't
(08:32):
understand, and I'm sorry I'mgonna take a shot, but don't
really understand the innerworkings of not just the real
estate market, but what we doand how we do it.
A comment a couple weeks agothat said, you have no vested
interest in the seller's successbecause your commission doesn't
change and went on this sort ofrant about realtors and how they
don't like them and saying thatyou aren't willing to wait as
(08:55):
long as it takes to get theprice the seller wants.
So I understand the thinking inthat, don't get me wrong.
I understand the bias that youbelieve that I might have.
But what you're missing is thatthere's an inverse relationship
between the time on the marketand the price you're going to
get, because it's based onleverage.
So if you say, David, you shouldwait as long as it takes.
(09:16):
If you're saying six years, Iunderstand.
In that case, with inflation andwith market movement, the seller
will get their price.
But if you're saying to me, thatafter 45 days I'm telling them
they need to reduce the priceand you're saying you're a bad
agent because you won't wait aslong as it takes, you're missing
the point.
The longer it sits, the morepeople are going to chip away at
the price.
(09:36):
The longer it sits, the lessleverage that you have as a
seller and as a listing agent.
So brings me to my next point.
Agents are complicit in this.
So the second listing mistake Iwould simply say is that real
estate agents are just saying,yep, okay, let's do it.
So tell me that I'm a bad guy.
because I won't take thatlisting for a million 648 where
(09:57):
the seller wants a million sixand I think it's a million four.
But at the same time, wouldn't Ibe a bad guy if I just was a yes
man and I said to the seller,okay, absolutely, let's do it.
So yes, I read the comments andyes, I understand the bias and
some people are like, you justwant the listing as low as
possible so you can get it soldand you can go buy caviar on
your yacht, whatever it is thatyou wanna say.
(10:18):
No, the point is that if I meetsomebody And I say to them, hey,
listen, we're in a really toughcondo market.
Now, I understand that your unitat the peak in February of 2022
sold for 600,000, but the lastcomp is 520.
We need to be at 499.
David, you're chasing the marketdown.
No, I've got a listing at 499.
(10:39):
I had four showings in twomonths.
We dropped it to 479.
We've had zero showings.
That's where the condo marketis.
My job is to educate the seller.
My job is to be realistic.
And if it costs me the listing,then so be it.
I am not in the business oflisting properties for prices at
which they will never sellbecause I don't believe that
that is helping the seller.
(11:01):
But that's me.
And there's 72,000 agentslicensed and agents out right
now are taking any listing.
Now there's an old saying inreal estate, list to last.
That's what the veterans say.
You have to have listings to besuccessful.
Buyers are great, but hey,listen, listings always sell.
The market that we're in rightnow, I don't think that's the
(11:22):
key anymore.
I got a friend who's got 30condo listings.
What's happening there?
That's a completely differentbusiness model.
You're a completely differentperson in this market compared
to previous market cycles.
So again, take it with a grainof salt if you want, but my
point is that I don't believeI'm doing the seller a favor
(11:43):
when they say that they wannalist their condo above the last
comp of 520 In a market that hasdeclined, they want to list at
$549,900, and they'renegotiating with me.
David, we know that the comp inFebruary of 2022 sold for
$600,000.
We're not chasing that.
I mean, that's such a strawmanargument, right?
Oh, you're not chasing theall-time high?
Okay.
(12:04):
But we're going to list at$549,000, and I'm saying you
need to be at$499,000.
The last one sold for$520,000.
There's two other units in thebuilding.
Your identical model, right,with parking or without, back
that out or a locker or a view,your identical model is
competing.
And they're at a more attractiveprice.
And you want to list at 549.
So I put my foot down.
(12:26):
I say, guys, listen,unfortunately, we're not
connecting on this.
And if they want to list withsomebody else, then that's fine.
But that's me.
And it's not because I'm justtrying to get listings that'll
sell.
I'm trying to educate theseller.
And I'll do everything I can.
I'm a stats nerd.
I'm a huge nerd.
And it's really hard to seethat, right?
Look at this guy.
Yeah, total nerd.
I love statistics.
(12:47):
And when I put it out there,play it out, I lay it out for
y'all to play it out, whateverthe expression is, and somebody
looks at it and they say, yeah,listen, we don't care.
Here's what we're doing.
We're not connecting.
There's an agent for everybody,and that's the reality of it.
But a lot of folks out therearen't doing that, and I
continuously see listings thatcome out at absolutely
ridiculous prices or ridiculousstrategies.
(13:09):
So that brings me to my nextpoint, the mistakes that people
are making, offer dates.
Now, we've done previouspodcasts, as I mentioned, on the
origin of offer dates.
We've done previous podcasts onthe psychology of pricing.
But the reality is the offerdates are not working.
And so if I could go back now toMay and June of 2024, I had a
listing coming out.
(13:30):
I knew it was going to be aproblem.
The market had peaked somewherearound early May.
I remember I had clients thatwhen they sold and they got some
absolutely outrageous price.
And I said...
We will look back on this nightas the market peak.
And the seller was like, oh, no,really?
Why?
I was like, because of the priceyou just got.
I wasn't wrong.
That was the market peak of 2024across the board for everybody
(13:52):
because of my one sale.
Now, that was on the east side.
The east side, the whole thingwent on sale in May and June of
last year.
And so what I did for theclients that I knew it was going
to be tricky was I put togethera shared Excel spreadsheet in
Google.
Google Drive, whatever it'scalled, Microsoft Drive,
whatever.
And I tracked every singlelisting that came out that had
(14:15):
an offer date, success or fail.
Now, I've mentioned this inprevious podcasts because it's
such a great story, but a monthout from our listing, offer
dates were working around 30 to40% of the time.
Now, that doesn't sound verygood.
Offer dates, they should beworking all the time.
Take a property at 1.3, list itat 999, have an offer fight, get
20 offers, we'll pop popcorn inthe office, we'll sit around.
(14:36):
That was not happening.
The next week, offer dates wereworking 25, 30% of the time.
The next week, offer dates wereworking 20, 25% of the time.
And by the time we listed, theprevious week's data showed me
that offer dates were workingabout 15 to 20% of the time.
And our offer date did not work.
But I prepared the clients forit.
(14:58):
So set the seller's expectationsaccordingly.
And again, listing agents arefailing to do this.
Now, some agents...
In the city of Toronto, I do twodeals a year.
I heard a statistic.
It was a friend of mine.
I won't name his name.
He said that 80% of agentshaven't done a deal in the last
12 months or haven't beencredited with one.
Some people work on teams.
Some people do leases,pre-construction, off-market
(15:19):
deals, the excuses that agentsmake.
But point is, there's a lot offolks that just aren't in the
market.
And like, guys, cat out of thebag, but like, My brokerage
isn't different than any otherbrokerage.
There are agents, and yeah, someof them are 70, and they used to
be really active, and then someof them are newer, but there are
agents that don't do a lot ofbusiness, and they don't
understand the market.
And so when you're setting anoffer date, and you have
(15:41):
absolutely no idea what'shappening in the market, you're
not setting the seller'sexpectation.
Now, let me give you an example.
I have a listing coming out nextweek on the east side where
everything is for sale, and Ihave prepared the sellers
accordingly.
I have told them that, yes, wewill take this house of theirs,
we will set the price well belowfair market value, and we will
(16:03):
set an offer date.
However, our chances of beingsuccessful with a sale on the
offer date are around 20%.
Now, some people are going tosay, why would you be so
negative?
Come on, put it out in theuniverse.
Guys, it's not about that.
It's about statistics.
It's about results.
I've spent the last monthlooking at every single property
that's come out in and aroundthis price point, say from$899
(16:23):
to$1399 with an offer date, andfewer than 10% are selling on
offer nights.
10%.
For every 10 houses that have anoffer date, nine of them are
being relisted.
Now, some of them shouldn't haveoffer dates.
I always say, in a red-hotmarket...
(16:44):
the c's and some of the d's willsell on offer nights but in the
market we're in right now onlythe a's are selling in offer
nights so why are people listinghouses that aren't that good
houses that don't have thedemand houses that might have 15
showings an entire week why arethey listed low with an offer
dates because we don't have anybetter ideas so again it's about
(17:06):
setting expectations and that issomething that i am doing
consistently with my sellers butthese offer dates are not
working so then Let me go intothe next point.
People don't have a backup plan.
Speaks to the caliber of agentout there.
And I don't want to hammer onother agents because, I don't
know, it's very uncouth.
(17:26):
It's not unprofessional.
It's at the very most basiclevel, realistic and honest.
But if you're an agent out thereand you've got this proverbial
east side listing whereeverything's for sale, and
you're doing two to four deals ayear, or hell, even if you're
doing six to 10, you don't havea good enough understanding of
what's happening in the marketto plan accordingly.
So your idea is, hey, we'll takethis house, we'll set the price
(17:49):
low, we'll set an offer date,and we'll sell it.
It's not gonna work.
We have the data.
So what's your backup plan?
All 10 fingers in my mouth as Ibite all my nails.
That's the backup plan.
And you can hear it.
You can hear it.
You book a showing on one ofthese.
They call you the day after.
Hey, so we didn't sell lastnight.
Are your clients stillinterested?
(18:10):
Well, maybe, or they've boughtsomewhere else or no.
And then you go, what are youguys doing?
They go, well, you know, we'regonna do something.
I kid you not, these are theconversations that we're having.
These folks don't have a backupplan.
So here's my backup plan.
Here's my plan B.
My plan B is to, from thebeginning, enact a plan A, B,
(18:33):
and C, which is to say our planA is to sell on the offer night.
Our plan B is after the failedoffer night, to see who calls us
and try to sell the property toone of these agents that didn't
want to be involved in a biddingwar, didn't want to get involved
on an offer night, try to sellit to one of them before plan C,
(18:55):
we relist.
So take the proverbial$1.3million house that you've listed
for$9.99.
And on offer night, you getzero, one or two offers, doesn't
really matter.
Your offer date is on Monday.
On Tuesday morning, you donothing.
You leave it and people willcall you.
Now, 80% of the calls you getare from other real estate
agents saying, hey, did you guyssell?
Because I'm prepping a listingand it's really frustrating.
(19:18):
But the other 20% are fromagents that say, hey, yeah, my
clients saw it and yeah, theylike it.
I just, they weren't reallyjazzed about, you know, going to
an offer night.
And you say, hey, this is thered carpet.
I'm rolling it out for you.
Here's the olive branch that I'mextending.
And you work with that agent.
You try to get the propertysold.
That is your plan B.
Your plan C is by Thursday orFriday, you have to relist.
(19:40):
You put that back out for$1,299,000.
Don't put it out for$1,349,000,quote, building in the
negotiating cushion for your 1-3house because no one's going to
see it.
Bite the bullet.
Put it out at$1,299,000.
And hopefully somebody looks atit and they like it.
Maybe they do come in lower.
Maybe you get$1,290,000.
Maybe you get$1,280,000.
But for a 1-3 house, that's anestimate.
(20:03):
Real estate has no fixed value.
I've said this before.
One three is the same as one twoeight is the same as one three
two.
So put yourself in a position tobe successful.
That's my backup plan.
My backup plan is to have had aplan A, B, and C in advance and
people absolutely are not doingthat.
I saw a house that was listedfor 2.5 million.
(20:23):
It was on the market for 17days.
They terminated.
Do you know what they did withit?
They listed it for$1,999 with anoffer date.
What's the thinking there?
People are gonna flock to it.
Oh,$1,999, this is a steal.
I'd better go get my checkbook,drink some Red Bull and get
(20:47):
amped up for a bidding war.
It doesn't work like that.
I say this every week in thispodcast and on Toronto Realty
blog.
A doctor doesn't prescribe aplacebo and then say, that's a
placebo.
It doesn't work like that.
If you know that someone wants2.5 and you price it at 1.99
with an offer date after you'vebeen at 2.5, what do you think
(21:07):
is going to happen?
That was someone's actual plan.
So they'll get zero offers at1.99.
It doesn't mean it's not worth2.2, 2.3, 2.4, or even 2.5.
It just means buyers don't wantto play the game.
Now, my next point, what listingmistakes sellers and listing
(21:27):
agents are making.
They're not working with whatthey have.
Now, I mentioned at the onset,Tara's got that offer,
$1,095,000.
Seller says, 1.1, it's the hellI'm going to die on, and it
falls apart.
Do you have any stories I havelike that?
So I'll tell you this story.
I have a condo buyer.
Yeah, imagine that.
Condo sales are at an all-timelow.
(21:48):
I have a condo buyer.
I go in and I make an offer.
Now, let's say it's$799,000.
We offered$700,000.
Okay, great, it's an offer.
They've been on the market for88 days.
What's the number one rule ofselling real estate when you
have an offer?
Keep it alive.
What did that agent do?
(22:08):
They said, we're not interested.
I don't care if you sign it backat a million dollars, you keep
it alive.
Now you might say, David, you dothe same thing.
No, I wouldn't.
My job is to sell real estate.
I don't care if you sign thatback at list, you sign it back,
you keep it alive.
That's the expression of realestate.
Keep it alive.
Give me something to work with.
Hey, I'm going to battle.
I need some ammunition here formy gun.
(22:29):
Give me a sign back.
I'm not going to let it die onmy operating table.
So this agent does absolutelynothing.
Okay, that's great.
We move on.
We go look at other stuff.
The agent calls me a week later.
He says, hey, listen, would yoube able to get us something
better?
I said, yeah, why?
I would have.
Had you signed it back at 790,maybe we would have come up to
710.
Had you signed it back at 780,maybe we would have come back at
(22:52):
720.
But you didn't do that.
He says, go and get me somethingbetter.
Just get me something better,okay?
Okay, fine.
So he's doing his job.
That's great.
Tell my client, hey, listen, Ithink they're ready to play
ball.
And like, look, we were thinkingwe could get this for 720, 730.
Maybe, maybe not.
I mean, cat out of the bag, it'sstill on the market.
(23:14):
So we go and we offer them$720,000.
And amazingly, again, the sellerdoesn't sign back.
The agent calls me and he'slike, look, I am so sorry.
I'm doing my job.
I'm doing everything I can.
He did it.
He went and got an offer.
But you're at$799,000.
You've been on the market for 88days.
You've got an offer.
You've got$720,000.
Sign the damn thing back.
(23:35):
And that's what's happening inthis market.
People are not working with whatthey have.
Brings me to my next point.
The listing mistakes we'reseeing out there is that sellers
are feigning leverage.
So I'm not saying that I'm justgoing to roll over as a listing
agent, but what I am saying isthat I know my place.
So I got an offer the other dayon a condo listing.
(23:56):
I've got a$1.1 million condolisting and the offer came in at
$1.25 million.
Totally workable.
It's not the number that wewant, but it's workable.
So the first thing I say to theagent after thank you is,
listen, I understand where thiscondo market is at.
I have a lot of condo listingsright now.
I'm happy to work with you.
Let's see what we can do.
(24:17):
That's what you've got to do.
But there are sellers out thereselling agents that are feigning
leverage.
I've got so many showings andyou don't know what other
properties are selling for.
The nonsense that's coming outof their mouths, it's
unbelievable.
Now that leads me into my nextpoint.
Not seeing your cooperatingagent as an ally.
(24:39):
They're not an adversary,they're an ally.
You're a listing agent, someonehas brought you an offer, that's
an ally.
Buy them a cup of coffee, buythem flowers, roll out the red
carpet.
It's not the time to befighting.
But I'm seeing listing agentsthat are so incredibly out of
touch.
It's like on those real estateTV shows where they always bark
into their phone on speakerphonewalking around.
(25:02):
I met my dentist client at thelocal cigar bar.
Like, it's nonsense, right?
But they're always sort ofyelling back and forth, and it's
just all these threats andeverything, and in the end, you
know, they flash the priceacross the screen, and, you
know, there's no contract that'snegotiated verbally on a phone
or a cigar bar.
There are a lot of agents that Ithink grew up watching that
nonsense, and they think that'show we do business.
(25:23):
So when someone brings you anoffer for$700,000 or$800,000 for
that property that's been on themarket for 88 days, now that was
overdue for price reduction.
When you're at$800,000, youreduce to what?
$774,900, maybe$749,900.
So my offer of$700,000 wasn'tterrible.
And the$720,000,$730,000 that wemight have paid is market value.
(25:43):
But that seller seemed like theywere yelling through the phone
at us.
The agent, as I said, I mean,second time around, he was nice
and everything.
But on the flip side of that isI'm seeing a lot of agents that
are barking at at the agent onthe other side.
So imagine you've got that condobuyer.
We can buy anything in the cityof Toronto.
We go and make an offer.
And that agent starts yelling atyou through their phone.
(26:04):
Great, thank you.
We will go and we will look atsomething else.
You have to understand themarket that you're in.
And I get it.
It's not a great position to bein.
I'm like any other agent outthere.
I'm proud.
You might say I've got an ego.
But my job is to work for theclient.
My seller clients want to sell.
They need to get their dealsdone.
I will put all of that aside.
(26:25):
And hey, when we get back to2022 conditions, every listing
agent can be as big a jerk asthey want and as cocky as they
want.
But right now, you've got to eatyour you-know-what sandwich and
ask for seconds.
And I'm not seeing listingagents do that.
I'm seeing them feigningleverage and not feigning
leverage like, hey, that's howwe negotiate.
You can talk about, you talk tosomebody else.
(26:46):
They might bring an offer.
You've got a couple secondshowings.
No, I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about an agentthat's acting like it's February
of 2022 when it's clearly not.
An agent's got a condo listingon the market for 121 days and
you bring them an offer andthey, what, yell at you, throw
comps at you, the nonsense.
(27:07):
MPAC says it's worth this.
Or there's this new Treb toolthat tells you apparently what
it's worth and agents arescreenshotting it and sending
it.
It's like, dude, you've got acondo sitting empty.
There are 14 listings in thatbuilding.
You also have it up for rent andyou can't find a renter.
Let's work in reality here.
So feigning leverage, combiningthat with not seeing your
cooperating agent as an ally,and combine that with my
(27:30):
previous point, not working withwhat you have.
Just this alone is a recipe fordisaster.
But you go back to the biggest,most egregious listing mistakes
people are making, theoverpricing.
The not understanding marketvalue.
Talk about what you need, whatyou want.
I fully understand it.
But when somebody's gettingready to retire and they say, we
need one six for this house sowe can buy what we want to.
(27:53):
If it's a one three five house,are you the listing agent that
says, it's worth one six, let'sdo it?
I don't think you're helpingthat person.
That's the point that I made atthe onset.
It's not to say I'm not workingfor them.
I'm gonna help them by tellingthem the truth.
So a year from now, and in thatsituation, I said to those
sellers, I said to the lady, Iam happy to work with you today,
(28:14):
six months from now, 18 monthsfrom now.
I just can't tell you that thishouse is worth what you want.
And in the end, they decided tolist it for a price that made
absolutely no sense with alisting agent that said, sure,
let's do it.
It's been on the market for sixweeks at two different prices.
That's the market that we're in.
The agents are complicit.
The offer date strategies aren'tworking.
(28:35):
They have no backup plan.
And all this combined with thestatistics that I gave you at
the onset tell us all we need toknow about this market.
Inventory is at an all-timehigh, 30,000 plus active
listings.
Sales are at an all-time low,6,244 sales in the month of
June, which is the lowestoutside of any non-pandemic
(28:58):
June.
And I point to this.
I point to listing mistakes,which are so easy to identify
and then the question would be,why are we making them?
So folks, that is it for thisweek.
Thank you as always for watchingand or listening.
If you're watching on YouTube,feel free to drop me a comment
in the section below.
I always enjoy reading those.
And if you are listeningwherever you get your music,
(29:20):
Spotify, Apple Music, feel freeto like, comment, or subscribe.
We'll see you here next time onThe Last Honest Realtor.
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