Toronto Real Estate Report

Home Safe Home

I'm happy to be back in Toronto, after a wonderful family vacation in Jamaica.  We stayed at an all inclusive in Montego Bay, it's like living in the land of excess for a week. All you can eat buffet, all you can drink, lots of sun and endless activites are available.  Nothing to complain about.

Well there was one thing..... We had arranged a day trip with a relative of a friend here in Toronto.  He hooked us up with his cousin "Donaven".  My husband (Jim) called him, arranged the date and time to meet, and the details of what we wanted to see. So when the day arrived Jim went out to meet him outside the gates of the resort.  When he came back to get us, he said he seemed like a nice guy, but how were we to be sure this was the right guy? He said his name was Donaven.

We followed & "Donaven" quickly ushered us into his car and went speeding down the road.  There I was in the back seat with my 2 children, feeling a bit uneasy.  We started to question him, what was the name of the relative who had set this up, he replied "Richard", sorry wrong answer.  We asked him where had we arranged for him to take us today, he replied "an island tour", sorry wrong answer.  We asked him to confirm his cell number and what he did for a living, once again all the wrong answers.  We had been scooped into this strangers car, pretending to be someone else, it was "Fake Donaven".

Fortunately he turned the car around and took us back to the hotel, instead of robbing us and dumping us by the side of the road!!!

That's why I'm happy to be back in Toronto, safe and sound.  Did you know that Toronto is considered one of the safest cities in North America?  Check out this link to view how we compare to selected cities: Crime Rates

Turns out parts of Jamaica, including Montego Bay, has some of the most dangerous place in the Caribbean, outside of Haiti - Jamaica Safety Warning

We chose Jamaica because we love the food, the music, the people and we had a great time.  However, when travelling anywhere you have to be careful, tourists are easy targets, as we quickly found out.

Toronto - HOME SAFE HOME  

Hire Customer Service

When you have a fantastic customer experience you tell other people about it.  I think it's because it's so rare or generally lacking in the service industry that you take notice when a company exceeds your expectations.  Hire a Realtor that provides exceptional service, communicates with your effectively and in a timely manner, goes the extra mile to ensure your real estate transaction runs smoothly and worry-free for you.

The Four Seasons Hotels are known for their exceptional service, but that doesn't mean they don't make mistakes.  They just have a really great way of making up for their mistakes with gifts such as  free tickets, bottles of champagne and so on, so the guest is actually thankful the mistake was made in the first place!  That's Four Seasons Service.  The founder wrote a book about it, great read: Four Seasons

I just had an exceptional customer service experience that I thought I would share.  I have a new laptop computer with Windows 7.  The installation disks I have for my HP printer are not compatible with the new Windows format.  So I sent an email to their online support and asked for links to the proper downloads so that I could hook up the printer.  I'm no techie, so this could have been challenging.

They responded quickly, I was sent the links and easily set up the printer.  But that's not where the story ends.  They sent a follow up email to ensure they had answered my question and the issue was resolved.  I was so stunned by the follow up, that I actually sent a reply thanking them for the follow up and letting them know it had been resolved.  Here is there reply:

Thank you for writing back to HP Total Care.

 

I appreciate the time taken by you in writing back to us.  You are heartily welcome; I am glad that the issue is resolved.

 

Helga, I must admit that the issue would not have been resolved without your efforts. We can only provide technical resolutions from our side. But it is you who implemented the resolution to perfection. It feels good and boosts our confidence working with such users.

 

It is our responsibility to assist our esteemed customers like you in the best possible way. We appreciate your support and cooperation. If you require any further assistance please reply with the results.

 

That's excellent customer service. 

RECO Gone Wild!

RECO is the short version of the "Real Estate Council of Ontario".  According to their website it's purpose is as follows: The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) is a self-managed, not-for-profit corporation, responsible for administering the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act, 2002(REBBA 2002) and associated regulations on behalf of the provincial government and protecting the public interest through a fair, safe and informed marketplace. RECO

Sometimes I think Realtors need to be protected from them.

The Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) publishes an informative newsletter to keep Realtors informed of current issues in the industry.  It also includes RECO decisions related to disciplinary hearings.  A recent report has me quite disturbed.

This is how the story goes: Once upon a time a Salesperson was referred to a Seller who asked him to view his home and discuss selling it.  The Salesperson looked at the property and advised the Seller it was worth about $100,000.  A week later the Seller contacted him and offered the listing to him but the Seller insisted that the property be listed at $229,000.

Unfortunately, since the Salesperson wasn't that busy and was excited to get a listing, he agreed to take the listing at the Sellers price.  Of course it didn't sell during the listing period, and in fact no one ever even showed the property during the listing period.

This is where the story gets scary.  The unscrupulous Seller uses the listing details to sell the property, without the salesperson, for $220,000 and a mortgage is registered based on this value.  Low and behold the property goes into foreclosure, where it is determined that the home is worth less than $65,000.

The company that held the mortgage submits a complaint to RECO against the listing agent, based on the fact that the MLS printout was used to obtain the mortgage.  You've got to be kidding me!

Doesn't a mortgage company require an appraisal?  Since when does an MLS listing constitute formal appraised value?  The mortgage company fails to administer proper due diligence, loses money and it's the real estate salesperson's fault for taking an over priced listing?

RECO determined the salesperson breached the rules for Ethical Behaviour, Misrepresentation or Falsification, Competence & Unprofessional Conduct and fined the salesperson $7000!!!

Who wins? The fraudulent Seller walks away with the mortgage money.

What about all the salespeople that under price listings to attract multiple offers? This is misrepresentation at it's finest, but it goes on every day. 

This RECO decision is outrageous and clearly demonstrates a governing body that is way off balance.  It should be protecting the public interest, not unscrupulous sellers and incompetent mortgage companies.

Looking for Criminals

I tell my clients that I'm looking for Terrorists and people launderingmoney when I ask them to provide me with some form of identification to complete the FINTRAC form.  I find it a bit awkward when I'm asking a 75 year old retired school secretary, but those are the rules!  As it turns out, she no longer has a drivers license so we had to dig up a passport.

Then it occurred to me, where a passport is difficult to fake, a drivers license is relatively easy.  I know, I have teenagers.  So if someone with illegal intentions provides me with a fake drivers license, how should I know? If fake ID passes at the liquor store and bars, it' likely to fool me as well.

I dutifully gather the information and complete the paperwork, but is this really going to help us locate criminals that are buying and selling homes to "wash" their money or set up terrorist cells?

I also find it amusing that a clause that seems to be included with offers these days indicates that the
"Seller represents and warrants that during the time the current Seller has owned the property, the use of the property has not been for the growth or manufacture of any illegal substances" ie it hasn't been a Grow House for marijuana or a meth lab.

Would they tell you if it was?

There are bad guys out there.  I signed up to sell houses, not hunt down criminals, otherwise I would have joined the RCMP...........

Garage Sales

I don't really like garage sales.  A ton of effort for little reward, haggling over whether they will pay a dollar for a $50 item, I would rather give it away to charity.

But that is exactly why I went through the grueling process Saturday morning, to participate in the Yard Sale for the Cure and to raise money for breast cancer research.  Lots of stuff was brought into the office over the week, we sorted it, priced it and set it up in the garage due to the threat of rain in the forecast.  We are fortunate to have amazing office staff who helped me get it all organized on Friday, thank you Ashton and Bianca!

I was at Starbucks by 6:45 am Saturday morning to pick up the cartons of coffee for the volunteers and to Cobbs bakery for a few sweet treats.  My first volunteer, Elaine Sambugaro arrived at the office at 7 am to set up the table at the front of the office, and was soon joined by Maureen Moore and Ashton.  The sales started to roll in, we were in business by 8 am.

Gary Crowder showed up and mastered the popcorn machine, Sarah Underhill and Ramy Ibrahim took their places for the second shift and together we raised close to $300.  We closed up shop at noon, and Ramy took boxes of left over stuff up to our Yonge St. office, that was continuing their sale until 2 p.m.

We still have a few boxes in the garage of stuff we couldn't sell, so I guess I will donate it to charity after all.