Everyone loves their house, but no one is prepared to admit the truth, yet, there are some charming homes with confessions from many real estate agents. From princely penthouses to not-so-posh potholes, and an army of real estate agents is out attempting to make a mint. This is a bare-knuckle industry with no referees on the sidelines, as everyone is a self-proclaimed celebrity in real estate and tries to depict a million-dollar property in the market. Everyone will act as if you know everything, and everyone will want to sell you a house. 

In Toronto, real estate agent’ existence is a daily Darwinian fight for survival, as you well know. The truth is, it is difficult to determine exactly how many real estate agents are actively working in the province, but in Toronto alone there are over 70,000 real estate agents registered with the Toronto Real Estate Board, and roughly 1 in 59 Toronto workers are real estate agents, and in 2021 there were approximately 116,000 home sales. These real estate agents are out, they’re desperate, and they’re trying to figure out how they’re going to make money today. 

Are you a shark? Unfortunately, sometimes those sharks are feeding on you and they fight for the same prey, and the real estate can get very aggressive. But remember this shark fight is the nature of the real estate business. When you’re a real estate agent, you bare your teeth, deals and contracts are made and lost in seconds, real estate agents admits that the hustle can begin as soon as you press the search button on your computer. We can take photos from all over the world, we can just create a listing page or what sometimes people will do is they will keep up listings that have been on the market for three years, even though they sold it two years ago, but they’ve never taken it down so after. 

Then there’s the listings lingo prepare to become fluent there are so many misleading words and real estate advertising being the most creative business when it says cosy what does it mean? Deciphering the code awaiting your touch; you’re going to have to put in a lot of effort here; TLC refers to the handyman. Partial view means you have a partial view of the water because you’re looking at it through a building. 

A real estate agent showed us a property, it has three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, and breathtaking views of the city, therefore, a view indicates that a property has a partial view of the water. However, all of this lingo can be a bit confusing, but understanding each term is critical for those on the house hunting journey in real estate market. 

The biggest ethical issue that we see in the real estate market is dishonesty if somebody was hurt or killed there, if there were bedbugs, do they have to tell me this stuff, yes. Now there are a lot of agents who will say oh well I didn’t know. So if you say hey you never told me that the apartment was infested with bedbugs, they will say oh well I didn’t know. 

Believe it or not this has happened to one agent that he had registered an offer with the brokerage on someone else’s listing and the sellers never knew about it, because the listing agent had a buyer in his pocket and did not want to see this agent’s offer so you may never even hear about the highest bid on your place. 

But for every bad agent there are just as many bad clients, some sellers just refuse to stage their home, it is frustrating that sellers who simply don’t want to do what it takes to sell their home, but some will do everything from emphasised music and interior design when getting a property ready to spruce up. 

It’s awkward to go into someone’s home and say it stinks, but you have to say yes. When there are six pieces of furniture plus a bed and you have to sell the space, you have to sell the size, why you don’t want to remove half of that things out. 

Another agent claims that a client has overpriced his condo by $30,000. In this instance, if no one is visiting your house and others in the area are selling, it’s time to lower the price. 

Price, the million-dollar word, which takes us back to my all years working in real estate, I have never heard so many horror tales about people fleeing the city, people refusing to accept market realities, the plight of renters, condo owners, and the spread of COVID, in the real estate market as I have in 2021.