O.K. There are actually many "TRUTHS" but we will only deal with the 5 most common at this time.

1-A BROKERAGE'S SIZE HAS NO BEARING ON THEIR LEVEL OF SERVICE.

I have had prospective Sellers say "wouldn't a large Brokerage get me more showings?. When I hear this comment, I know that it has been fed to them by a competing Sales Representative. This is an "assumptive" comment, that is to say, it leads the listener to "assume" that something is correct without any proof. The "assumption" goes like this: "A larger Brokerage means more of their Sales Reps will show my house, which means I will have more showings than if I list with a smaller Brokerage." That is, if I may boldly say so, a hunk of crud. Let me explain: When you list your house for sale on the Multiple Listing Service representing your community, it is freely available to ALL LICENSED SALES REPRESENTATIVES IN ONTARIO. So, if a Sales Rep. from a Brokerage 100km away from your area views the listing and has a Buyer, He/She can either set up a viewing OR refer the Buyer to a Sales Rep. that is a bit closer. So, in fact, ANY SALES REP. WITH A QUALIFIED BUYER CAN SHOW YOUR HOME OR PROPERTY WHETHER THEY ARE WITH YOUR BROKER OR ANY OTHER. I have represented Buyers for properties as far from our Alliston office as Peterborough (as a favour). I have had Buyers for my area listings from just as far. They were represented by Sales Representatives from other Brokerages. we all work together.

2-PERSONAL AND WEBSITES DON'T GUARANTEE A FASTER SALE.

"LIST YOUR PROPERTY WITH ME AND I WILL PUT IT ON MY WEBSITE! I GET (HOWEVER MANY) HITS PER DAY! 

Yea, yea. Big deal. Let's look at how websites work. The Sales Rep. or Brokerage has to advertise the website. It isn't cheap. Whenever someone visits the site, including visits to edit or maintain the site, it counts as a "hit". If a Brokerage has, say, 100 Sales Reps. spread out over two offices and they each visit their company site once a day to retrieve e-mails, etc, it counts as many "hits". So, in truth, many of the "hits" are not actually from qualified Buyers or Sellers but are a result of daily maintanence. Now, keep in mind the MOST IMPORTANT FACT OF ALL. IT'S THIS: BROKERAGES CANNOT ADVERTISE COMPETING BROKERAGE LISTINGS WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE SELLER!!!If you list your home with a Broker that has a popular site, your home or property may be viewable on the Brokerage and your Sales Rep.'s site BUT not on those of competing Brokerages or Sales Reps. Therefore, if a Buyer is using Brokerage "A" website to search for properties for sale and your property is listed with Brokerage "B", the Buyer will not see your property on Brokerage "A's" site! THE POWER OF THE MULTIPLE LISTING SERVICE IS THAT ALL PROPERTIES LISTED WITHIN CANADA ON ANY REGIONAL MLS SERVICE IS VIEWABLE THROUGH THE PUBLIC AND INDUSTRY WWW.REALTOR.CA ©(WEBSITE. THIS WEBSITE IS MAINTAINED BY THE CANADIAN REAL ESTATE ASSOCIATION. Ignore claims of "HOT" websites. They do more to sell the Sales Rep's service than they do to sell your property.

3-THE SIGN ON THE LAWN DOES NOT MEAN A FASTER SALE.

I CAN'T BELIEVE WE SHOULD HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS ONE BUT I HAVE HEARD THE ODD PERSON SAY "LIST WITH.... THEY HAVE LOTS OF SIGNS IN THE AREA".

I want you to tell me the last time you based a home-buying decision solely on the colour or shape of the "FOR SALE" sign on the front lawn. The Brokerage has no bearing on the speediness of the sale. The time required to sell your property depends on: 1-Price compared to similar homes in the area. 2-Condition compared to similar homes in the area. 3-General Market activity in the area. There are other points but the aforementioned ones are all critical and inter-related. Would you pay more than the Market price for a home because a Sales Rep. told you to? I don't think so. Would anyone else pay more for your home than the Market price indicated they should? I don't think so. If your property is priced for the current Market activity and it is in good condition AND there is a marketing plan in place, (MLS exposure, local advertising, etc.) it will likely sell within a fairly definable period of time regardless of which Brokerage you have listed with. Keep in mind that ALL Sales Reps. with a qualified Buyer may show your property. SO, IF ALL BROKERAGES PROVIDE ESSENTIALLY THE SAME SERVICES, SHOULDN'T YOU LIST YOUR PROPERTY WITH ONE THAT WILL PROVIDE THSERVICES FOR LESS?*

4-NO SALES REPRESENTATIVE CAN GUARANTEE SELLING YOUR HOME FOR "MORE".

This BOGUS claim was so common that it is now ILLEGAL to advertise such claims. You just can't say "I'll get more" or "I'll sell it faster" because there is no way to prove the claims. Consider this... if you were out looking to buy a property and a Sales Rep making such a claim offered to show you one of their listings, would you feel comfortable putting in an offer on the property knowing full well that the Sales Rep also made the "I'll sell it for more" claim to thet Seller? Will you be paying proper market price? A reputable Sales Rep will perform a proper Market Valuation for the property, review it with you and list it at an agreed upon price. The property will sell for it's value in the market.

P.S., Recently, I read an ad where a Sales Rep claimed credit for selling a property that had not sold within the previous 2 years under another Brokerage. Sounds impressive, right? What the Sales Rep did not mention that the first listing price was about $150,000 more than the last listing price and that the property actually sold for EVEN LESS than the suggested last listing price AND THAT THE BUYER WAS REPRESENTED BY YET ANOTHER REP FROM ANOTHER BROKER. So, tell me, who or what sold the property? It was the revised price. It was simply priced way too high the first time around and the revised price was also about $20,000 higher than the sale price.

5-STATISTICS DON'T ALWAYS TELL THE FULL STORY.

There is an axiom in the Advertising industry. "If you can't fascinate them with facts, baffle them with Bullsh...".  Here's a commonly used statistical claim and possible interpretations.

Claim: "WE HAVE A BIGGER MARKET SHARE THAN THEM". O.K. sounds impressive. Now, how many listings are there per Sales Rep in the brokerage? What is the size of the Brokerage in relation to the total number of Sales Reps in the same area? LET'S SAY THAT BROKER "A" HAS 20 SALES REPS AND 30 TRANSACTIONS (BUYER OR SELLER ENDS). LET'S SAY BROKER "B" HAS 12 SALES REPS AND 20 TRANSACTIONS. LET'S SAY BROKER "C" HAS 40 SALES REPS AND 40 TRANSACTIONS. THEREFORE, WE HAVE 3 BROKERAGES WITH A COMBINED 72 SALES REPS AND 90 TRANSACTIONS OR 1.25 TRANSACTIONS PER SALES REP IN THE SAME MARKET FOR A SPECIFIC PERIOD OF TIME.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING, IT COULD BE SAID THAT:

BROKER "B" HAS A BIGGER MARKET SHARE PER SALES REP THAN THE OTHERS (1.66 PER SALES REP)

BROKER "A" HAS NEARLY TWICE THE TRANSACTIONS THAN BROKER "C", BASED ON TRANSACTIONS PER SALES REP (1.5 TRANSACTIONS PER SALES REP. FROM BROKER "A"COMPARED TO 1 PER SALES REP FROM BROKER "C".)

BROKER "C" HAS THE LARGEST MARKET SHARE BASED ON TOTAL TRANSACTIONS. (25% MORE THAN BROKER "A" AND TWICE THOSE OF BROKER "B".)

SO, WHO IS THE BEST? ALL OF THE ABOVE BROKERAGES ARE LIKELY EQUALLY GOOD. THE POINT I WISH TO MAKE IS THAT BASING YOUR DECISION TO LIST WITH ANY BROKERAGE SOLELY ON STATISTICS IS SIMPLY NOT A GOOD BUSINESS DECISION.

HAVE ANY REAL ESTATE RELATED QUESTIONS? E-MAIL THEM TO ME AT PBARBATI@TREBNET.COM . PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT E-MAIL ME ANY QUESTIONS RELATED TO CURRENT NEGOTIATIONS YOU MAY BE UNDERGOING AS I CANNOT AND WILL NOT INTERFERE. DO NOT POSE QUESTIONS ABOUT SPECIFIC INDIVIDUALS. I WILL NOT RESPOND.

*Here's the legal fine print. This site is not intended to solicit current listings. Any claims of Commission Savings are based on our MLS fee of 3.75% plus gst compared to comparable services offered at 5% plus gst. Commissions are not fixed and are negotiable. That means that there is no such thing as a "Standard Industry Commission". Don't let anyone tell you there is.