Time for the age-old debate: quantity versus quality!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not\u00a0always<\/em> quality, you see.<\/p>\n At the risk of sounding glutonous, when it comes to\u00a0food<\/em>, there are times when I simply need to lead with quantity!\u00a0 I can\u2019t handle new-age,\u00a0fancy<\/em> food that takes a sunflower seed, places it in a \u201cdollop\u201d of jam,\u201dpositions it on a cracker, \u201cinfuses\u201d it with goat cheese,\u201d and \u201cfinishes\u201d it with a single leaf of basil.<\/p>\n Just give me a\u00a0shwarma<\/em>.<\/p>\n So when it comes to today\u2019s blog post, I\u2019m having trouble balancing the absurd amount of pet peeves that I\u2019ve experienced this fall with the overall significance, impact, or\u00a0quality<\/em> therein.<\/p>\n I think I\u2019m just going to crack my knuckles and start typing!<\/p>\n As Jay Peterman told Elaine in a Seinfeld episode once, \u201cNot knowing where you\u2019re going is a great way to get to a place you\u2019ve never been\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2026or something like that\u2026<\/p>\n \u2013<\/p>\n Understanding what<\/em>?<\/p>\n Well, anything and everything!<\/p>\n All too often this fall, I ran into both buyer agents and listing agents who simply didn\u2019t know how to do their job.<\/p>\n In some cases, this worked to our advantage.\u00a0 Obviously, if you\u2019re negotiating with a novice, you can come out well ahead!<\/p>\n But in other cases, it made the process nightmareish.<\/p>\n I sold a home conditional on a satisfactory home inspection, and after the inspection was completed, the buyer agent said the buyers would move forward and firm up the deal if we agreed to fix a broken soffit on the roof.<\/p>\n No problem, right?<\/p>\n Except, the agent had no idea how to\u00a0paper<\/em> this.\u00a0 He waived the condition in an amendment while including the following:<\/p>\n The Sellers hereby agree to fix the damaged soffit and provide notice of completion, in a good workmanlike order prior to the Closing Date of December 31st, 2025.\u00a0 Seller shall provide a contractor\u2019s invoice no later than December 1st, 2025.\u00a0 If the work is not completed to the satisfaction of the Buyers, this offer shall be null and void and the deposit returned to the Buyers in full, without deduction.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Do you see the problem with this?<\/p>\n I mean, we\u2019re using a cannon to shoot a mosquito here, right?\u00a0 We have a $300 repair, and we\u2019re jeopardizing a $1.5 Million purchase.<\/p>\n But that isn\u2019t the problem.<\/p>\n The problem is that this isn\u2019t a\u00a0clause<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s a condition<\/em>.<\/p>\n If the sellers accepted this Amendment from the buyers, then they would\u00a0still <\/em>have a conditional sale.<\/p>\n The sellers would not be able to obtain bridge financing on their new home, as the lenders would see this as a\u00a0conditional <\/em>sale.<\/p>\n I had to explain this to the buyer agent multiple times, in multiple different ways, before he sent a proper Amendment.<\/p>\n The best part is: once we repaired the roof and sent a copy of the invoice, the buyer\u2019s agent had his buyers sign a Notice of Fulfillment\u00a0<\/em>and send it to me.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no condition to fulfill, however.<\/p>\n I had to explain this as well\u2026<\/p>\n \u2013<\/p>\n A picture paints a thousand words.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s let this picture do the talking:<\/p>\n There is absolutely, positively, undeniably, no legal obligation for the buyers to acknowledge and sign a disclosure that the seller is\u00a0friends<\/em> with the listing agent.<\/p>\n What do they teach over there at Humber College?<\/p>\n Are they teaching these \u201cstudents\u201d anything at all?<\/p>\n This is good for a laugh, but it underscores what we\u2019re dealing with out there on a day-to-day basis\u2026<\/p>\n \u2013<\/p>\n Just to be clear, I do\u00a0not<\/em> expect any sympathy from the TRB readers on this one, let alone the general public.\u00a0 Every job comes with challenges, and I\u2019m not suggesting we should \u201cfeel bad\u201d for buyer agents who have to deal with the following.<\/p>\n But I\u00a0do<\/em>, however, have an issue with listing agents who put the minimum amount of effort necessary in everything that they do, and I\u00a0do<\/em> have a problem with listing agents who fail at just about every facet of the job, right down to something as seemingly insignificant as placing a lockbox at a property.<\/p>\n Imagine you\u2019re a seller in a tough condo market and you desperately need showings on your condo.<\/p>\n Imagine there are\u00a0five<\/em> units in your building competing with yours.<\/p>\n Imagine you\u00a0finally\u00a0<\/em>get a showing booked for your condo.<\/p>\n Now, imagine that the showing is cancelled because a buyer agent, who happens to be showing five other units that day, can\u2019t find your agent\u2019s lockbox.<\/p>\n Think it can\u2019t happen?<\/p>\n Imagine the showing\u00a0instructions<\/em> merely reading \u201cLockbox located at back of building, code 1234,\u201d but then arriving to find this:<\/p>\n Even\u00a0if<\/em> an agent ties a yellow ribbon to the box, it\u2019s still hard to find among literally\u00a0hundreds<\/em> of black lockboxes.<\/p>\n But instructions that offer ZERO way to identify the lockbox are just asking for hurried agents to move along.<\/p>\n You would be shocked to know how many plain black lockboxes were on that bar.<\/p>\n These listing agents are doing their seller-clients a serious disservice\u2026<\/p>\n \u2013<\/p>\n The way I see it, there are essentially two ways to set terms and conditions for an offer review:<\/p>\n a) Offers any time We understand (b), of course.\u00a0 It\u2019s what we call a \u201choldback on offers.\u201d\u00a0 Or simply an\u00a0offer date<\/em>.<\/p>\n We\u2019re very accustomed to seeing something like this in the listing:<\/p>\n \u201cOffers Graciously Reviewed On Monday, November 10th @ 6:00pm.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n But then there\u2019s something that falls in between (a) and (b).\u00a0 It\u2019s something we describe as a \u201csoft holdback.\u201d<\/p>\n It would look like this:<\/p>\n \u201cOffers Reviewed Any Time With Strict 48-Hours Irrevocable Please!\u201d<\/p>\n As I have written about on TRB several times, this is a situation where the listing agent doesn\u2019t want to set a firm \u201coffer date\u201d and signal to the market that the\u00a0expectation<\/em> is multiple offers, but the listing agent also wants to keep the door open to receiving more than one offer.<\/p>\n We understand this as, perhaps, option (c).<\/p>\n In the fall of 2025, I\u2019m seeing some ridiculous offer instructions, however.<\/p>\n This one is the absolute worst:<\/p>\n This is the dumbest thing I\u2019ve seen in a long time, and that\u2019s saying something, considering how many dumb things I see out there.<\/p>\n And this is\u00a0not<\/em> a language barrier.<\/p>\n This is an agent who has no clue what he or she is doing, and moreover, to way to explain it either.<\/p>\n \u2013<\/p>\n We touched on issues with\u00a0lockboxes<\/em> earlier, but here\u2019s a completely new one.<\/p>\n A picture paints a thousand words.<\/p>\n So rather than explain my pet peeve, I\u2019ll let this photo do it for me:<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t a joke.<\/p>\n It might look like one, but it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n While they\u00a0might\u00a0<\/em>be attempting to be helpful, there has to be a better way to get buyers into the condo\u2026<\/p>\n \u2013<\/p>\n This one is pretty open-ended, right?<\/p>\n I mean, if you could dream it up, it\u00a0probably\u00a0<\/em>happened, but let\u2019s not assume the worst.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s not assume at all.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at a text message that a colleague of mine received when negotiating on behalf of her buyer client:<\/p>\n That\u2019s wild.<\/p>\n Across the board, just absolutely wild.<\/p>\n First of all, this house is worth $975,000 on a\u00a0good<\/em> day.\u00a0 My colleague even told me, \u201cMy clients knew they might have been overpaying, but they loved the house.\u00a0 They were willing to stretch to $975,000.\u201d<\/p>\n But of course, the seller wants more than anything resembling fair market value.\u00a0 What else is new?<\/p>\n Secondly, the idea that a listing agent would suggest to a buyer agent that they should \u201cget family money donated to them\u201d is\u2026\u2026.well\u2026.what\u2019s the right word?<\/p>\n -Tacky Pick your poison.<\/p>\n Or, if you\u2019d like, offer a different word.\u00a0 Just try to keep it clean\u2026<\/p>\n Suffice it to say, I\u2019ve never experienced a real estate agent, mid-negotiation, instructing me to ask my buyer-clients\u2019\u00a0parents<\/em> for more money.<\/p>\n This was absolutely classless.<\/p>\n However, the best was saved for last!<\/p>\n The listing agent suggested that she would help the buyers (who were being represented by another real estate agent) by providing them with a second mortgage.<\/p>\n And this was\u00a0mid-negotiation<\/em>!<\/p>\n This was so far offside, it basically put the players into another stadium altogether.<\/p>\n Just when I thought I\u2019d seen it all\u2026<\/p>\n \u2013<\/p>\n This is a tough market, through and through.<\/p>\n Once upon a time,\u00a0every\u00a0<\/em>freehold listing received multiple offers on the scheduled offer night, and the sale was almost guaranteed.<\/p>\n In today\u2019s market, the only guarantee out there is that it\u2019s going to be an absolute\u00a0grind<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cFailed offer nights\u201d are a common thing in this market, and in some price segments, it\u2019s more\u00a0probable<\/em> than\u00a0possible.<\/em><\/p>\n If you\u2019re listing a $1,200,000 house at $999,900 on the east side, I\u2019d say there\u2019s a 60% chance that your offer night is going to fail.\u00a0 Maybe more.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve all had this happen and it\u2019s not easy, but we always tell our seller-clients, \u201cTomorrow morning, the phone is going to ring.\u00a0 Agents with interested buyers aren\u2019t going to get their answers from the MLS listing, so they\u2019ll call us<\/em> to ask what\u2019s going on.\u00a0 And those calls will tell us who our potential buyers will be!\u201d<\/p>\n Sure, that used to be the case.<\/p>\n But in today\u2019s market, those calls are something different.\u00a0 Let me give you an example:<\/p>\n David: \u201cHello?\u201d<\/p>\n Becky: \u201cHi David, it\u2019s Becky Agent calling, um, I\u2019m calling about 123 Fake Street\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n David: (ears perk up, heart starts to race) \u201cOh, yeah?\u201d<\/p>\n Becky: \u201cYeah, did you guys get offers last night?\u201d<\/p>\n David: \u201cNo, we didn\u2019t.\u00a0 I\u2019m shocked\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Becky: \u201cWow, really?\u00a0 That\u2019s crazy!\u00a0 It\u2019s\u00a0such<\/em> a great house!\u201d<\/p>\n David: \u201cIt really is.\u201d<\/p>\n Becky: \u201cOh, wow, we\u2019ve been watching it, it\u2019s such an amazing house, we thought you\u2019d have a ton of interest on the offer night\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n David: \u201cYou mean \u2018we\u2019 like you and your buyer client?\u00a0 Do you have somebody interested?\u201d<\/p>\n Becky: \u201cNo, um, I\u2019m actually prepping a listing up the street, we\u2019re coming out on Thursday, and\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n Womp Womp.<\/p>\n Listen, I\u2019m all for being collegial, and I believe in relationships in this business.\u00a0 But I would never cold call an agent with whom I have zero relationship at 9:45am the day after the offer night to ask a question like this because I know what that agent is going through<\/em>.<\/p>\n But \u201cBecky\u201d usually launches into a description of her upcoming listing that I did\u00a0not<\/em> ask for, and fails spectacularly at reading the room.<\/p>\n Becky: \u201cOur listing is great, we have hardwood flooring, there\u2019s an upgraded stove, the mutual driveway is wide enough to fit a car down it\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Becky continues to describe her listing and then asks, \u201cDo you have any buyers for it?\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s like a homeless guy asking\u00a0another<\/em> homeless guy, \u201cHey, can you spare some change?\u201d<\/p>\n I tell Becky, \u201cNo, I don\u2019t,\u201d and then Becky continues to describe her property.<\/p>\n Look, I don\u2019t really mind the call that much, but the problem is:\u00a0I receive seven of these calls between 9:00am and 12:00pm the day after an unsuccessful offer night<\/em>.<\/p>\n I would never make that call.\u00a0 But that\u2019s just me.<\/p>\n \u2013<\/p>\n More, now than ever before, it takes\u00a0four\u00a0<\/em>parties to complete a transaction:<\/p>\n -Buyer If\u00a0any<\/em> of the four are not completely on board, then there\u2019s simply no chance to consummate a deal.<\/p>\n When it comes to reasons why one of the four parties wouldn\u2019t be on board, there are many.<\/p>\n The problem on the side of the two agents is always ego or inexperience.\u00a0 Or\u00a0both<\/em>, if we\u2019re being honest.<\/p>\n The problem on the\u00a0seller\u2019s side is always price.\u00a0 The seller wants too much money, is working a different market (or universe\u2026), and has unrealistic expectations.<\/p>\n I hesitate to blame buyers in this market, since they\u2019re usually the ones who have the most level heads.\u00a0 Some buyers also have unrealistic expectations, ie. they turn up their nose at the market discount and price in another 10-15% which is completely out of whack, but on the whole, buyers are the most reasonable party to the transaction in this market.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a new \u201cfad,\u201d if you will, in this current market.<\/p>\n It\u2019s something so exceptionally condescending that I have trouble keeping my own emotions in check when I see it.<\/p>\n Imagine there\u2019s a property listed for sale, and the seller and listing agent have enacted the \u201cprice low, hold back offer\u201d strategy.<\/p>\n Now, imagine that the property receives three<\/em> offers on the scheduled offer date, and you receive this email from the listing agent:<\/p>\n You\u2019re probably wondering, \u201cJust\u00a0how<\/em> comparable are those \u2018comparable\u2019 properties?\u201d<\/p>\n Not comparable at all.<\/p>\n This<\/em> is one of my biggest pet peeves in our current market.<\/p>\n Listing agents will completely ignore current market conditions, disregard market value, and then send \u201ccomparable properties\u201d to buyer agents that are from 2024, or in different neighbourhoods, or are completely different properties.<\/p>\n In the case of the property noted above, it should come as no surprise that the following email was sent out around 11:00pm on the offer night:<\/p>\n No kidding.<\/p>\n Listen, I can deal with the seller not accepting any of the offers, and if the seller and\/or the listing agent want to price like it\u2019s 2022, then God Speed!<\/p>\n But don\u2019t send me \u201ccomparable listings.\u201d<\/p>\n Otherwise, I just might show up at your doorstep and tell you everything that\u00a0you<\/em> are doing wrong in your life\u2026<\/p>\n \u2013<\/p>\n Alright, folks, I think we\u2019ll end it here!<\/p>\n Like I said: I could probably go on for days, but at some point (if it hasn\u2019t already\u2026) it might just sound like a lot of\u00a0whining<\/em>.<\/p>\n These stories were intended to be fun, so I hope you got a chuckle out of them.\u00a0 Or two.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s hoping everybody enjoys Black Friday sales (responsibly, of course!) and three NFL football games on television on Thursday alone.\u00a0 I can almost guarantee the TV in my office will be on all day\u2026<\/p>\nAgents Not Understanding<\/h3>\n
\n
Agents Not Understanding V2.0<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/torontorealtyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/FriendOfAgent.png\")
<\/p>\nLockbox \u201cSituations\u201d<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/torontorealtyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/LockboxWallGreen.jpg\")
<\/p>\nUnclear Offer Instructions<\/h3>\n
b) Offers reviewed on a particular date and time<\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/torontorealtyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Offer-Instructions-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nUnclear Showing Instructions<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/torontorealtyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Showing-Latitutde-2-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBlatant Conflicts Of Interest<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/torontorealtyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MortgageConflict.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
-Classless
-Offensive
-Offside
-Uncouth
-Vulgar<\/p>\nThe \u201cDay After\u201d<\/h3>\n
\u201cHelp\u201d With Comparables<\/h3>\n
-Seller
-Buyer Agent
-Seller Agent<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/torontorealtyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/PetPeeves1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/torontorealtyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/PetPeeves2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n