Time for the age-old debate: quantity versus quality!
It’s not always quality, you see.
At the risk of sounding glutonous, when it comes to food, there are times when I simply need to lead with quantity! I can’t handle new-age, fancy food that takes a sunflower seed, places it in a “dollop” of jam,”positions it on a cracker, “infuses” it with goat cheese,” and “finishes” it with a single leaf of basil.
Just give me a shwarma.
So when it comes to today’s blog post, I’m having trouble balancing the absurd amount of pet peeves that I’ve experienced this fall with the overall significance, impact, or quality therein.
I think I’m just going to crack my knuckles and start typing!
As Jay Peterman told Elaine in a Seinfeld episode once, “Not knowing where you’re going is a great way to get to a place you’ve never been….”
…or something like that…
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Agents Not Understanding
Understanding what?
Well, anything and everything!
All too often this fall, I ran into both buyer agents and listing agents who simply didn’t know how to do their job.
In some cases, this worked to our advantage. Obviously, if you’re negotiating with a novice, you can come out well ahead!
But in other cases, it made the process nightmareish.
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.
No problem, right?
Except, the agent had no idea how to paper this. He waived the condition in an amendment while including the following:
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. Seller shall provide a contractor’s invoice no later than December 1st, 2025. 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.
Do you see the problem with this?
I mean, we’re using a cannon to shoot a mosquito here, right? We have a $300 repair, and we’re jeopardizing a $1.5 Million purchase.
But that isn’t the problem.
The problem is that this isn’t a clause. It’s a condition.
If the sellers accepted this Amendment from the buyers, then they would still have a conditional sale.
The sellers would not be able to obtain bridge financing on their new home, as the lenders would see this as a conditional sale.
I had to explain this to the buyer agent multiple times, in multiple different ways, before he sent a proper Amendment.
The best part is: once we repaired the roof and sent a copy of the invoice, the buyer’s agent had his buyers sign a Notice of Fulfillment and send it to me.
There’s no condition to fulfill, however.
I had to explain this as well…
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Agents Not Understanding V2.0
A picture paints a thousand words.
Let’s let this picture do the talking:
There is absolutely, positively, undeniably, no legal obligation for the buyers to acknowledge and sign a disclosure that the seller is friends with the listing agent.
What do they teach over there at Humber College?
Are they teaching these “students” anything at all?
This is good for a laugh, but it underscores what we’re dealing with out there on a day-to-day basis…
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Lockbox “Situations”
Just to be clear, I do not expect any sympathy from the TRB readers on this one, let alone the general public. Every job comes with challenges, and I’m not suggesting we should “feel bad” for buyer agents who have to deal with the following.
But I do, however, have an issue with listing agents who put the minimum amount of effort necessary in everything that they do, and I do 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.
Imagine you’re a seller in a tough condo market and you desperately need showings on your condo.
Imagine there are five units in your building competing with yours.
Imagine you finally get a showing booked for your condo.
Now, imagine that the showing is cancelled because a buyer agent, who happens to be showing five other units that day, can’t find your agent’s lockbox.
Think it can’t happen?
Imagine the showing instructions merely reading “Lockbox located at back of building, code 1234,” but then arriving to find this:
Even if an agent ties a yellow ribbon to the box, it’s still hard to find among literally hundreds of black lockboxes.
But instructions that offer ZERO way to identify the lockbox are just asking for hurried agents to move along.
You would be shocked to know how many plain black lockboxes were on that bar.
These listing agents are doing their seller-clients a serious disservice…
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Unclear Offer Instructions
The way I see it, there are essentially two ways to set terms and conditions for an offer review:
a) Offers any time
b) Offers reviewed on a particular date and time
We understand (b), of course. It’s what we call a “holdback on offers.” Or simply an offer date.
We’re very accustomed to seeing something like this in the listing:
“Offers Graciously Reviewed On Monday, November 10th @ 6:00pm.”
But then there’s something that falls in between (a) and (b). It’s something we describe as a “soft holdback.”
It would look like this:
“Offers Reviewed Any Time With Strict 48-Hours Irrevocable Please!”
As I have written about on TRB several times, this is a situation where the listing agent doesn’t want to set a firm “offer date” and signal to the market that the expectation is multiple offers, but the listing agent also wants to keep the door open to receiving more than one offer.
We understand this as, perhaps, option (c).
In the fall of 2025, I’m seeing some ridiculous offer instructions, however.
This one is the absolute worst:
This is the dumbest thing I’ve seen in a long time, and that’s saying something, considering how many dumb things I see out there.
And this is not a language barrier.
This is an agent who has no clue what he or she is doing, and moreover, to way to explain it either.
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Unclear Showing Instructions
We touched on issues with lockboxes earlier, but here’s a completely new one.
A picture paints a thousand words.
So rather than explain my pet peeve, I’ll let this photo do it for me:
This isn’t a joke.
It might look like one, but it’s not.
While they might be attempting to be helpful, there has to be a better way to get buyers into the condo…
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Blatant Conflicts Of Interest
This one is pretty open-ended, right?
I mean, if you could dream it up, it probably happened, but let’s not assume the worst.
Let’s not assume at all.
Let’s look at a text message that a colleague of mine received when negotiating on behalf of her buyer client:
That’s wild.
Across the board, just absolutely wild.
First of all, this house is worth $975,000 on a good day. My colleague even told me, “My clients knew they might have been overpaying, but they loved the house. They were willing to stretch to $975,000.”
But of course, the seller wants more than anything resembling fair market value. What else is new?
Secondly, the idea that a listing agent would suggest to a buyer agent that they should “get family money donated to them” is…….well….what’s the right word?
-Tacky
-Classless
-Offensive
-Offside
-Uncouth
-Vulgar
Pick your poison.
Or, if you’d like, offer a different word. Just try to keep it clean…
Suffice it to say, I’ve never experienced a real estate agent, mid-negotiation, instructing me to ask my buyer-clients’ parents for more money.
This was absolutely classless.
However, the best was saved for last!
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.
And this was mid-negotiation!
This was so far offside, it basically put the players into another stadium altogether.
Just when I thought I’d seen it all…
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The “Day After”
This is a tough market, through and through.
Once upon a time, every freehold listing received multiple offers on the scheduled offer night, and the sale was almost guaranteed.
In today’s market, the only guarantee out there is that it’s going to be an absolute grind.
“Failed offer nights” are a common thing in this market, and in some price segments, it’s more probable than possible.
If you’re listing a $1,200,000 house at $999,900 on the east side, I’d say there’s a 60% chance that your offer night is going to fail. Maybe more.
We’ve all had this happen and it’s not easy, but we always tell our seller-clients, “Tomorrow morning, the phone is going to ring. Agents with interested buyers aren’t going to get their answers from the MLS listing, so they’ll call us to ask what’s going on. And those calls will tell us who our potential buyers will be!”
Sure, that used to be the case.
But in today’s market, those calls are something different. Let me give you an example:
David: “Hello?”
Becky: “Hi David, it’s Becky Agent calling, um, I’m calling about 123 Fake Street…”
David: (ears perk up, heart starts to race) “Oh, yeah?”
Becky: “Yeah, did you guys get offers last night?”
David: “No, we didn’t. I’m shocked…”
Becky: “Wow, really? That’s crazy! It’s such a great house!”
David: “It really is.”
Becky: “Oh, wow, we’ve been watching it, it’s such an amazing house, we thought you’d have a ton of interest on the offer night…”
David: “You mean ‘we’ like you and your buyer client? Do you have somebody interested?”
Becky: “No, um, I’m actually prepping a listing up the street, we’re coming out on Thursday, and….”
Womp Womp.
Listen, I’m all for being collegial, and I believe in relationships in this business. 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.
But “Becky” usually launches into a description of her upcoming listing that I did not ask for, and fails spectacularly at reading the room.
Becky: “Our listing is great, we have hardwood flooring, there’s an upgraded stove, the mutual driveway is wide enough to fit a car down it…”
Becky continues to describe her listing and then asks, “Do you have any buyers for it?”
That’s like a homeless guy asking another homeless guy, “Hey, can you spare some change?”
I tell Becky, “No, I don’t,” and then Becky continues to describe her property.
Look, I don’t really mind the call that much, but the problem is: I receive seven of these calls between 9:00am and 12:00pm the day after an unsuccessful offer night.
I would never make that call. But that’s just me.
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“Help” With Comparables
More, now than ever before, it takes four parties to complete a transaction:
-Buyer
-Seller
-Buyer Agent
-Seller Agent
If any of the four are not completely on board, then there’s simply no chance to consummate a deal.
When it comes to reasons why one of the four parties wouldn’t be on board, there are many.
The problem on the side of the two agents is always ego or inexperience. Or both, if we’re being honest.
The problem on the seller’s side is always price. The seller wants too much money, is working a different market (or universe…), and has unrealistic expectations.
I hesitate to blame buyers in this market, since they’re usually the ones who have the most level heads. 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.
There’s a new “fad,” if you will, in this current market.
It’s something so exceptionally condescending that I have trouble keeping my own emotions in check when I see it.
Imagine there’s a property listed for sale, and the seller and listing agent have enacted the “price low, hold back offer” strategy.
Now, imagine that the property receives three offers on the scheduled offer date, and you receive this email from the listing agent:
You’re probably wondering, “Just how comparable are those ‘comparable’ properties?”
Not comparable at all.
This is one of my biggest pet peeves in our current market.
Listing agents will completely ignore current market conditions, disregard market value, and then send “comparable properties” to buyer agents that are from 2024, or in different neighbourhoods, or are completely different properties.
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:
No kidding.
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’s 2022, then God Speed!
But don’t send me “comparable listings.”
Otherwise, I just might show up at your doorstep and tell you everything that you are doing wrong in your life…
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Alright, folks, I think we’ll end it here!
Like I said: I could probably go on for days, but at some point (if it hasn’t already…) it might just sound like a lot of whining.
These stories were intended to be fun, so I hope you got a chuckle out of them. Or two.
Here’s hoping everybody enjoys Black Friday sales (responsibly, of course!) and three NFL football games on television on Thursday alone. I can almost guarantee the TV in my office will be on all day…