June 2019

Issue #360

June 2019

TREB president Garry Bhaura’s inspiring journey Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 42218523 - Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to 2255B Queen St. E., #1178, Toronto ON M4E 1G3

Page 10

In conversation with TREB EO John DiMichele Page 3

Calgary’s Pat Hare: A remarkable achievement Page 12

Waterloo’s five-generation real estate firm Page 22

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REM JUNE 2019 3

In conversation with John DiMichele Toronto Real Estate Board CEO John DiMichele talks about building a new MLS system, how TREB gets along with CREA and OREA and reflections on the Competition Tribunal order.

By Jim Adair

W

hen Toronto Real Estate Board CEO John DiMichele was working as a manager for Royal LePage in the late 1990s, the board had about 17,000 members.

“Now, our numbers are staggering,” says DiMichele. “There are over 54,000 members, and if you bring in our partner boards, there are close to 58,000 users of our MLS system.”

Critics say there isn’t nearly enough business to go around for that many members, but the GTA residential sales numbers only tell part of the story. DiMichele says TREB members are now listing homes from as far away as Windsor in the west, to Cornwall in the east, to Thunder Bay in the north.

Those sales are not reflected in the statistics. Nor do the activities of Realtors working in the rental, commercial or business brokerage markets.

DiMichele, who has been

“When someone says you are an economic engine, you take it seriously. And there’s a responsibility with that,” he says. “Just look at the way our statistics are consumed. We take that responsibility seriously to make sure they’re accurate and meaningful.” His role now includes pushing governments with various advocacy initiatives, stickhandling legal issues and dealing with the news media, among other things.

But he says the mission of the board can best be summed up as “members first”, and to that end, TREB is “working on a new approach to MLS. We will be going out with an RFP (request for proposal) to consider a reimagined MLS environment, bringing in technologies that are burgeoning and in some cases mature. Things like artificial intelligence, predictive technologies and primarily my focus has been blockchain, just to prepare for the future. So, over the

lessly, noting that TREB recently worked with the Oakville board to better integrate some missing data in the TREB system. But he said a provincial MLS system would need to address local nuances. For example, those selling primarily recreational properties would have different needs than Realtors in mostly rural areas or those selling in the urban areas.

The sheer size of Canada’s largest real estate board has long created some tensions with the provincial and federal real estate associations, but DiMichele says that for the most part, all three levels work well together.

“Obviously we are a unique challenge for everyone – 54,000 members out of 120,000 (CREA’s membership). It’s a big number.”

TREB supported a motion at last year’s CREA AGM that enables associations to become direct members of CREA, which in Ontario means they could

“Maybe we will disrupt MLS – in a positive way that will be efficient and effective and orderly.”

CEO at TREB for almost five years, began working at the board in 2002 as chief information officer. Prior to that he managed offices in Oakville, Burlington and Toronto and served on committees at the Oakville and Toronto boards, as well as at CREA. “I have always carried that entrepreneurial spirit, even now,” he says.

While the EO position used to be primarily an administrative role, now DiMichele is in charge of an organization that has a huge impact on the economy.

next 12 or 18 months we hope to be putting something together that will be future-facing and who knows, something that could be scalable, something that will allow people to operate in their own communities…and empower our members and the brokerages.

“Maybe we will disrupt MLS – in a positive way that will be efficient and effective and orderly,” he says.

DiMichele says work is still needed to come up with better solutions so Realtors in different boards can do transactions seam-

bypass the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA). With real estate boards and associations amalgamating in many provinces, DiMichele says, “Perhaps there are some associations that don’t want to be part of the amalgamation and maybe they won’t want to work with a separate organization and want to be direct members. I think it sets up the future.”

TREB’s voting representation at the OREA AGM was recently increased from 33 per cent to 49 per cent. “It just makes it fairer.

We had 70 per cent of the mem-

John DiMichele

bership but only 33 per cent of the vote,” says DiMichele.

But he says all three levels of organized real estate “are moving in the right direction and we have a great working relationship. Obviously, like any family, you might have quiet differences of opinion but you work through them…their missions are not unlike ours. At the end of the day you step up and do the right thing.

“I believe in the three levels, and so does the Board of Directors,” says DiMichele. But he says, “We have to consider that there will be an evolution at some point. Don’t know what that means but as time wears on, everybody evolves.”

He points out that CREA supported TREB during the legal battle over a Competition Tribunal decision that the board, by not including sold and other data in its virtual office website (VOW) feed, had engaged in anti-competitive acts. TREB complied with the Competition

Tribunal’s decision last August after the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear TREB’s appeal.

Asked if he thought the long fight was worth it, DiMichele says, “I don’t know if you’ve been watching what’s happening in the media, but privacy has been a huge issue there and now we are seeing people like Facebook – organizations that once promoted open and unrestricted access – saying now it’s privacy first.

“I think it was the right fight, to get the issue before the media and the government with respect to privacy. I believe it was not just a fight for members, it was something consumers were telling us they were very sensitive about.

So, has it changed anything? I would suggest it has. I hope they (the Competition Bureau) were right and we see the innovation they were talking about.”

But he adds that he’s still “not sure that it’s a good thing to have a pending sold out there (online) REM that hasn’t closed yet.”

4 REM JUNE 2019

Multiple Listings

■ ■ ■

2% Realty, which has offices in four provinces as well as in Australia and New Zealand, recently opened three new Canadian offices.

Ramin Kouladji is the owner of the new 2% Realty office in Simcoe County, Ont. Kouladji is an entrepreneur who has run several businesses over 20+ years in commercial real estate, business brokering and in the insurance industry, the company says.

In Powell River, B.C., the new franchise owner is Sunny Dawn.

“After 25 years in this remarkable

Redfin launched its second Canadian office in the Vancouver area recently with a team of full-

service agents at a one-per-cent listing fee. Brooks Findlay is the managing broker. Redfin agents will serve homebuyers and sellers throughout the region from Delta extending up through the Whistler ski area.

“We’ve been encouraged by a few early sales in Toronto and have reason to believe we can start just as strong in Vancouver,” says Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. “As a Seattle-based company, we already have a presence in the region. Given how expensive housing still is here, even after all the changes in the market, we hope that tech-savvy Vancouver homebuyers and sellers will be drawn to our combination of great service and low prices.”

Redfin.ca currently displays homes for sale in British Columbia via CREA’s Distribution Facility (DDF). The company says in the coming months it will add more

Chris Wiltshire

Ramin Kouladji

Sunny Dawn

Shawn Indenbosch

Brooks Findlay

Lily Lam

Stanley Lam

Matthew Chiu

Edmond Fu

Don Fuller

Teri Davidson

Diane Poulton

Dan Scarrow

Tom Garvey

By Jim Adair, REM Editor

Do you have news to share with Canada’s real estate community?

Let REM know about it! Email: jim@remonline.com

C

hris Wiltshire recently opened Century 21 Rivers’ Edge in Prescott, Ont. He says he expects to hire two sales reps immediately and hopes to have five by the end of the year.

He’s had his real estate license since 2016. “I’ve been a business owner in the past and I like being in the driver’s seat,” he says. “I want to grow my business. I want to have a fun office, but also one with a reputation of getting properties sold.”

business, I can say that parts of the 2% concept had been rolling around in my mind for many years.

I am happy that someone has ‘put it on paper’,” she says.

Shawn Indenbosch opened an office in Lethbridge, Alta. “A friend of mine spoke often of 2% Realty and it made sense to me.

The brand simply stands out,” he says.

■ ■ ■

listing and home sale data from the local MLS and other sources.

■ ■ ■

Royal LePage Westside broker/ owner Michael Bertrand and managing broker Barbara BellOlsen recently welcomed five new salespeople to their Vancouver office.

Lily Lam has sold more than 450 properties valued at over $1 billion during the last 30 years.

Originally from Hong Kong, Lam started her real estate career in Vancouver in 1984 and flourished.

In 1992, she was headhunted to manage a team, leading more than 200 sales executives in the first real estate agency in Beijing, China.

With her fluency in Cantonese, Mandarin, Chiuchownese and English, she achieved phenomenal success throughout Asia, the company says. She returned to Vancouver in 1996 and re-established herself as a top producer.

Stanley Lam, Lily’s son, became the third highest-producing Realtor in his brokerage in his third year as a real estate agent. He now specializes in new developments, residential and commercial real estate, property management and luxury Westside homes.

Matthew Chiu purchased his first home in 2016 and was intrigued by the real estate market.

Continued on page 6

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6 REM JUNE 2019

Peerage acquires Sotheby’s International Realty

Continued from page 4

His diverse and well-rounded background in economics, market trends and lifestyle management gave him a solid foundation to kick-start his career as a real estate agent, the company says. In 2018, he was in the top 10 per cent of all Realtors in Greater Vancouver.

Edmond Fu was born in Hong Kong and moved to Canada in 1994 when he was 10-years-old.

He says he joined Royal LePage Westside because Bell-Olsen is well regarded by industry veterans.

Donald M. Fuller is returning to residential real estate in Vancouver, where he was licensed from 1993 until 2006. For the last several years he has been managing international real estate investments.

By Mario Toneguzzi

L

uxury real estate brand Sotheby’s International Realty Canada has been sold by a subsidiary of Dundee Corporation to Toronto-based Peerage Realty Partners Inc. No financial details were disclosed and the deal was scheduled to close May 17.

Sotheby’s will be run independently, but Peerage executive Don Kottick will become its new president and CEO. Kottick is an industry veteran who has previously been a director at CREA, president of the Real Estate Institute of Canada and a director of the Toronto Real Estate Board.

Sotheby’s 540 Realtors in 32 offices across the country – transacting an estimated $5 billion in annual sales – will be given the opportunity to stay with the brokerage, says Kottick, who replaces Brad Henderson as Sotheby’s top executive. Henderson is moving on from the company.

“We have always loved the Sotheby’s brand. It’s a brand that we’ve always coveted. It’s probably the most sought-after brand anywhere in the world and I think it’s because of its rich heritage. The fact that it is truly international…

The brand is recognized. It’s one of the most talked about brands, especially in real estate,” says Kottick.

“We have been watching the organization. When we got wind that the Dundee Corporation was looking to change their strategy, we immediately opened up negoti-

Cover photo: ELIJAH SHARK

ations with them and went after them because we just love the brand. We love the professionalism of the agents in their network.

I’ve personally worked with a number of the managers that work within the organization and they’ve got a very strong management team. By all kinds of indicators, it was the perfect alignment with where we are going strategically.”

Sotheby’s is the sole franchise in Canada for the auction house’s international realty brand, which has 990 offices in 72 countries around the world.

“We see a lot of opportunity for growth. In the next five years, we plan on doubling the volume of business that is generated through the company. There are definitely avenues for growth,” Kottick says.

“Just through basically looking at new markets. Probably attracting other top-quality performers to the organization and looking at internal means to help our agents grow their business. And I should also mention looking at new avenues, whether it’s pre-construction or different avenues to generate revenue within the organization.”

In a news release, Gavin Swartzman, CEO of Peerage Realty Partners, said Sotheby’s has been on the company’s wish-list for a very long time.

“The addition of an international luxury brand has been a key part of our growth strategy for many years. The addition of

Don Kottick

Sotheby’s International Realty Canada to the Peerage family will be an important strategic milestone for us. We continue to fulfil our mission to be the preeminent luxury real estate brokerage organization, partnering with the best people in our industry, together with iconic luxury brands, in the resale and pre-construction sales markets,” said Swartzman.

In January, Peerage acquired Denver-based boutique brokerage Madison & Companies Properties, part of a buying spree the company has planned in the U.S., for which it has allocated $250 million.

Peerage Realty was formed in 2007 by Private Equity Firm Peerage Capital; the first brands it acquired were luxury-focused Chestnut Park Realty and condo pre-sales specialists Baker Real Estate in Toronto. In 2016 it added British Columbia’s Fifth Avenue Real Estate and in 2017 added mid-market brand StreetCity Realty. REM

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Questions or comments? info@remonline.com

■ ■ ■

Teri Davidson and Diane Poulton, former brokers/owners of Associate Realty in Brantford, Ont., have joined Century 21 Professional Group along with 10 salespeople. They operated Associate Realty for 17 years.

Davidson is a 40-plus year member of the Brantford Regional Real Estate Association, while Poulton is a 28-year member.

■ ■ ■

Macdonald Real Estate Group of Vancouver, the parent company of Macdonald Realty, Macdonald Commercial, Macdonald Property Management and Platinum Project Marketing, recently announced a new program for people looking to get into the real estate business: Macdonald Prelicensing.

“We offer a fresh approach to pre-licensing courses that will help students successfully pass the B.C. Real Estate Licensing exam,” says

2255B Queen Street East, Suite #1178 Toronto, ON M4E 1G3

Phone: 416.425.3504 www.remonline.com REM is published 12 times a year. It is an independently owned and operated company and is not affiliated with any real estate association, board or company. REM is distributed across Canada by leading real estate boards and by direct delivery in selected areas. For subscription information, email distribution@remonline.com. Entire contents copyright 2019 REM. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. The opinions expressed in REM are not necessarily those of the publisher.

REALTOR® and REALTORS® are trademarks controlled in Canada by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and identify licensed real estate practitioners who are members of CREA. MLS® and Multiple Listing Service® are trademarks owned by CREA and identify the services rendered by members of CREA. REM complies fully with the CREA’s Trademark Policy (section 5.3.2.6.1).

ISSN 1201-1223

company president Dan Scarrow.

“With over 75 years in the real estate industry, we know how good preparation leads to good results, and we’re here to make sure the next generation of real estate agents are well-trained, ready to pass their exam and confident about starting their real estate careers.”

The course has been developed by head instructor Tom Garvey, a managing broker with more than 17 years of experience in the real estate industry including the last four with Macdonald Realty.

“Our students will benefit greatly from the small in-class experience, which allows for tailored support and attention,” says Garvey. “What makes Macdonald Pre-licensing different is the opportunity to learn the materials in an active real estate setting and attend regular sales meetings to really understand the ins and outs of the current market and regulatory conditions that we face.”

■ ■ ■

The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) has frozen the bank accounts of Reio Realty Ltd. in Niagara Falls, Ont. “A RECO inspection revealed irregularities in the finances of Reio Realty Ltd., and the matter is being investigated further,” says RECO in a public advisory.

“Additional action may be taken and information will be made available through RECO’s website.”

Co-operating brokerages for trades in which Reio Realty holds the deposit and/or are owed commissions by Reio Realty, should contact Jeremy Meuris (416) 207-4841; toll free 1-800-2456910, ext. 4841; Email insurance@reco.on.ca REM

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10 REM JUNE 2019

Garry Bhaura’s keys to success

TREB’s 2018/19 president came to Canada as a 20-year-old in search of opportunity. He found it in an accomplished career in real estate. By Susan Doran

G

urcharan (Garry) Bhaura’s busy term as president of the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) is drawing to an end and there’s something he’s really looking forward to once it’s over.

“Relaxing,” he says.

Representing the largest organized real estate organization in the world apparently doesn’t leave much room for that, especially given the current local challenges around government regulation of the marketplace and housing affordability and supply.

“There’s a lot going on behind the curtain,” says Bhaura, laughing. “Never a dull moment.”

He knew going in that heading up TREB would mean he’d have limited time for his family and his brokerage, Century 21 President Realty in Brampton, Ont. “I told them I needed a year to represent the membership, that I have the opportunity to do something for others and better the industry,” he says. “My team and family have been wonderful and supportive.”

His term as 2018/2019 TREB president finishes at the end of June. In the meantime, he’s preparing for Realtor Quest, Canada’s largest real estate conference and trade show, being held May 29 and 30 at the Toronto Congress Centre. With its networking and educational opportunities, Bhaura expects that hosting it will be a highlight of his year as president.

Born in India, he’s the first South Asian president in TREB’s almost 100-year history. At age 20, he arrived alone in Canada in search of opportunity with a B.A. under his belt. Once here, a diploma in microcomputer business applications and

electronics soon followed. So did an unintentional name change.

His given name is Gurcharan, but one of his teachers had trouble pronouncing it and dubbed him Garry, which stuck.

Although he says he never looked back after moving here, it’s clear he must have. He recalls “tough times and odd jobs,” including driving a taxi for awhile. But when he got into real estate he realized he’d found his calling. He’s been in the business almost 20 years now, the last half of those as broker of record for Century 21 President Realty.

When he was working as a topproducing agent, Bhaura told his broker that he had no intention of leaving... unless he opened his own brokerage one day.

Those words turned out to be prophetic. And this time Bhaura really didn’t look back.

“I am wired to have my own business,” he says. “Being an entrepreneur is in my family background. Business is a priority in my family.”

Even his former broker was pleased.

“He came to my grand opening and blessed me,” says Bhaura.

“There’s a saying in Punjabi, ‘When the student is growing, the teacher is proud.’”

Bhaura has built Century 21 President Realty from scratch into one of the franchise’s top 30 offices in Canada, and while doing so he’s made a name for himself as an authentic leader.

Inman News stated: “Bhaura maintains excellent retention rates in a highly competitive marketplace due to the culture and esprit de corps resident in his brokerage.”

Due to his success and philanthropy, Bhaura is currently a nominee for the RBC’s Top 25

Canadian Immigrant Awards. He says that in all things, business included, he does his best then “leaves the rest,” trusting that things will end positively.

It’s hard to believe he’s that laid back though, given his many achievements.

For starters there’s the workplace he’s created for his 150 agents – a state-of-the-art, openconcept ‘dream office’ brimming with amenities and natural light (because it’s been proven to boost productivity).

“I put my agents’ interests in front of everything. I provide better tools, better services and leadership. I am not profitable if they aren’t... I believe in communication and relationships, instead of just marketing.”

When recruiting, he looks for agents who are professional, honest, open minded, technologically savvy and entrepreneurial.

“I can groom many things, but you can’t teach entrepreneurial spirit,” he says.

A proponent of education (“the most important weapon we can have”), community service, volunteerism and organized real estate, Bhaura has held leadership positions at numerous non-profits as well as on the TREB board.

“I believe your time is the most important asset you can give,” he says. “When you give back, good things come to you too.”

Like Forrest Gump, Bhaura seems to have an endless supply of these personal mottos. Others include: “Learn, engage and network to grow;” “Your network is your net worth;” and “Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

The last seems particularly

Gurcharan (Garry) Bhaura (Photo: Elijah Shark)

fitting in his role as president of TREB, which involves a great deal of travel, advocacy and engagement with Realtors, all levels of government, policy makers, industry leaders and stakeholders.

He says he believes the future of organized real estate is bright and that the Greater Toronto Area – despite concerns about housing supply and affordability – is on the right track with plenty of demand and “moderate growth in prices and sales.”

Among the biggest issues impacting Realtors as he sees it are “government interference and regulation.” This has led to such measures as the mortgage stress test on federally regulated

lenders, he says, which has made it more difficult to obtain a mortgage, consequently slowing sales and “sidelining” many people from entering the market.

“It’s time for the stress test to be re-visited by the government,” says Bhaura, adding that this is a key TREB initiative. “I believe they are listening.”

Having pushed for positive change as president, he’s pleased to have received feedback from some members commending TREB on connecting more with its membership.

Those will be fond memories this summer, when he finally gets a chance to put his feet up. REM

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12 REM JUNE 2019

Calgary office has been No. 1 for 20 years Behind the staggering success story is owner Pat Hare, who has guided Re/Max Real Estate (Central)’s journey during the period of unprecedented achievement. By Mario Toneguzzi

I

magine a National Hockey League team winning the Stanley Cup for 20 consecutive years.

It’s a feat that’s hard to contemplate. Some would say it’s impossible.

But in the world of real estate, one Calgary brokerage has achieved something of a similar scale. It has been a shining light in the industry even throughout the up and down cycles of the market.

Re/Max Real Estate (Central) recently was named the top-producing single Re/Max office in the world in 2018 for the 20th straight year. The Calgary office picked up the award at the annual Re/Max R4 Convention in Las Vegas.

Central won six awards at the R4

Convention – top office in Canada and top office in the world for transactions; top office in Canada and top office in the world for dollar volume; and largest single office in Canada and largest single office in the world.

The number of transactions Central facilitated last year was 4,179. In 2017, its Realtors were involved in 5,046 transactions.

Central’s total sales volume for 2017 was $2.765 billion. In 2018, it was $2.297 billion.

Central won the top-producing award in 1997 the first time, lost it in 1998 and won it again in 1999 and for every year since then.

Behind the staggering success story is owner Pat Hare, who has guided the brokerage’s journey dur-

Court order shuts down illegal use of TREB data

T

he Federal Court of Canada has issued an order against the operators of Mongohouse.com for unauthorized access and use of the Toronto Real Estate Board’s (TREB) MLS data, including granting a permanent injunction.

TREB says the court has affirmed TREB’s right to protect its proprietary and copyright information and stop any unlawful attempts to sell or monetize TREB MLS data.

“TREB members have invested significantly over many years to develop the TREB MLS system.

Putting an end to unauthorized uses protects the integrity of the MLS and is ultimately good for the home buying and selling public,” says TREB president Gurcharan (Garry) Bhaura.

TREB says it has been working with members “to ensure that home buyers and sellers have access to important real estate data on their brokers’ password-protect-

ing that period of unprecedented achievement.

“I take personal satisfaction in making sure the buyer or the seller gets the best deal possible. There’s nothing better than having a buyer and you take them out there and you get them the best deal they can afford. To be a really good Realtor you have to know the market,” says Hare, who owns the business with his wife Denise.

How has the brokerage managed its incredible success story during the past 20 years?

“We always say it’s the Realtors, number one. We motivate the Realtors and help them be successful. Then we always say we have a great support staff and always have. Then we go to the ed VOWs (virtual office websites), without compromising consumers’ privacy rights and/or private information.”

“The operators of Mongohouse.com have acknowledged that they were not authorized to access the TREB MLS system and that their actions were wrong in doing so. They have co-operated with TREB to thwart further such abuses of the TREB MLS system and its contents,” says TREB CEO John DiMichele.

The board says it “will continue to develop and offer innovative new services to support Realtors as they grow their businesses online.”

REM

O B I T U A RY: Ned Rhodes

N

ed Rhodes, retired broker/ owner of Coldwell Banker Rhodes & Company in Ottawa, died on April 30 in his 82nd year.

“Many of you will remember Ned as a dedicated professional and caring individual who was committed to giving back to his community,” said Coldwell Banker Canada president Andy Puthon in a letter to company brokers. “Throughout his extraordinary career, Ned built

on a legacy that began when his family business was founded in 1940. To learn about the groundbreaking innovations that were a hallmark of Ned’s professional journey, we invite you to read an inspiring profile story (https://tinyurl.com/y4enyatx) that appeared in REM Magazine on his company’s 75th anniversary.

“Ned was an innovator who truly left his mark on our industry,” said Puthon “His legacy will con-

tinue long after his passing and he will be missed by all who k n e w him.”

In lieu of flowers, Ned Rhodes the family suggests donating to Hospice Care Ottawa. REM

management team and say our managers are the best out there…And we work all together as a team,” says Hare.

“It’s an atmosphere of hard work, working together and bettering your career.”

Hare is fully committed to helping Realtors improve their skills and over the years he’s introduced many training programs and initiatives geared towards that.

There has also been an emphasis on one-on-one training for his salespeople.

The 65-year-old Hare was born in Tillsonburg, Ont. He obtained his Bachelor of Commerce degree in accounting from the University of Ottawa. During his second year of university, he went to Algonquin College as well, taking the Ontario real estate course.

When he graduated from university in 1977, he spent two years travelling throughout Europe.

A friend from his university days, Paul Mair, suggested Hare move to Calgary, which he did in 1979 to begin his real estate career.

“I started at his company, which was called Westmoreland Real Estate. We were a small organization downtown,” says Hare, who was a partner with the company.

Hare, Mair and two others cofounded Re/Max Real Estate (Central) in 1984 with 35 Realtors. Today the office has grown, under Hare’s guidance, to more than 280 agents.

“I probably read enough books about real estate during my commerce course. I just knew that real estate was the future and if you bought and sold properties you’d probably make some money over the lifetime of your career,” says Hare.

The Calgary market is wellknown for its up and down cycles tied to the health of the oilpatch.

When oil prices are depressed, the economy is hurting and that affects the residential real estate market.

That’s been painfully evident in the past few years. When oil prices collapsed in the last half of 2014, it triggered recessions in Calgary in both 2015 and 2016, leading to thousands of job losses.

Pat Hare

While the economy turned in a positive direction in 2017, the effects of those recession years continue to linger. Economic growth is slow and cautious with many challenges still out there. The impact of that has been felt on the residential real estate market as it continues to be sluggish, dealing with decreased demand.

Despite those tough economic times, Central has managed to maintain its foothold on the annual Re/Max awards.

“I think we were a little surprised this year,” says Hare.

What does Hare look for in building his team? What qualities does he look for in a Realtor?

“Motivation. Work ethic.

What field they’re coming out of.

Why they’re becoming a Realtor.

Then we work around that.

There’s a saying we always use, ‘To be a Realtor, you have to be a little different’. Every Realtor is a little different. I don’t expect one Realtor to be the same (as another). And every Realtor identifies with a different section of the population,” says Hare. “We love that because we can hit all aspects of the market.”

He says, “The Calgary market has been soft for the last couple of years but we needed that. You can’t have a market that continues to go up and up and up. We needed a softening in price to make it affordable for first-time buyers to get into the market. I see this year as a levelling year… Calgary’s the future of real estate in Canada because of its affordability and its population growth.” REM

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14 REM JUNE 2019

Edmonton sales rep doesn’t want to sell this house

By Mario Toneguzzi

H

ere’s a different twist.

A real estate salesperson is actually hoping not to sell a listing he has in the Edmonton real estate market.

Instead, Ken Morrison of Re/Max Excellence is helping an elderly couple in their 80s – Eric and Jean Bishop – keep their home from being foreclosed by the bank and the court by setting up a Go Fund Me campaign. Early in May it had raised $15,000 in 28 days with a goal to raise $325,000.

In January, Morrison was given the foreclosure property to sell in the community of Fulton Place, but he found out that the Bishops had lived in the home since 1967.

The home was the original homestead of the area, where a dairy farm was built around 1905.

The Bishops’ predicament developed after there was a disruption with their direct withdrawal monthly mortgage payment in 2017 due to technical issues. That led them to be $40,000 to $50,000 in arrears, but they didn’t have the money to pay.

“This foreclosure has deeply affected myself and my wife

THE GUEST COLUMN

By Bill Johnston

I

have been a lawyer and a Realtor for more than 30 years. It is readily apparent that both of these professions share the same challenges today. A few years ago, Gail Cohen, who at the time was editor of Canadian Lawyer magazine, wrote a column outlining the key issues facing the legal community. Here are the points she made: 1. It is a time of upheaval.

Richelle as well as other Realtors and friends I’ve shared this story with,” says Morrison. “It has touched many hearts and I just can’t sit back and do nothing,” he says.

“After meeting with the homeowner Eric Bishop, I could see the passion and love he and his wife Jean have for the home. He has told me stories of the area, showed

These sweet people should be allowed to remain in their home as long as they please and I would like to help that happen by raising enough to buy the home and give the Bishops free title. At that point they can stay, sell or do what they wish with the home on their terms, not the bank/courts,” writes Morrison on the Go Fund Me site.

“This story has touched many hearts and I can’t just sit back and do nothing.” me a mural he painted of the original dairy farm that’s proudly displayed across the wall of the sitting room.”

Morrison says the Bishops don’t deserve to be thrown out of their home.

“I would like to raise $325,000, which is what the bank is asking for the home to stop this nonsense.

Morrison says the court order was signed last June and the Bishops had six months to make things right.

“We listed the property but I didn’t really push it. It wasn’t a house that I was really excited to sell,” he says.

“We decided to start a Go Fund Me and we’re going to try and buy

the house for them and give it back to them. I set the Go Fund Me at $325,000 because that was the list price. Whatever I get is going to them. In the meantime, we found out that the arrears is between $40,000 and $50,000. So, my goal right now is to raise that and just get it out of foreclosure… I can continue to try and raise more.

Ultimately I’d like to give them the house. I think they deserve it. I think they deserve to leave that home by choice and not by force.”

The Bishops got into the situation when years ago they took out another mortgage on the home after they had initially paid it off.

They needed money for home repairs and maintenance.

“I’ve been doing this for 19 years and I’ve said this on the news and I’ve said it elsewhere, this is the only house I’ve ever not wanted to sell,” says Morrison.

“Everybody’s been supportive.”

The home was officially listed for sale on the market on March 12.

“It’s been a lovely old house. It’s been a home for our children and our grandchildren too,” said Jean

Ken Morrison

Eric and Jean Bishop

Bishop in a television interview with Global News. “I always felt secure that we always paid the mortgage.”

“The money has always been there for them (the bank) to take and if they didn’t take it we don’t know why they didn’t take it,” said Eric Bishop on the television interview. REM

Realtors and lawyers: Shared futures 2. What worked in the past cannot be relied upon to work in the future (which is tough to swallow for those addicted to tradition).

3. Lawyers do not embrace change.

4. Global firms are coming to Canada and are absorbing some of Canada’s oldest and most esteemed firms.

5. Technology is levelling the playing field for smaller firms, many of which are using technology in innovative ways.

6. There is a large group of aging lawyers, with a huge number of young lawyers getting called to the bar.

7. In order to survive, lawyers are offering alternative fee arrangements, often motivated by client

push-back against traditional fee arrangements. In fact, some firms are offering their services for free in order to gain new clients. This notuncommon practice is referred to as “suicide pricing” for obvious reasons.

8. Lawyers are starting to “unbundle” services, allowing clients to choose a few items from the full menu instead of forcing them to buy the whole package.

9. A study by the Canadian Bar Association found that a lot of potential clients don’t use lawyers because lawyers refuse to package services in ways the clients want.

10. Despite the above, very few firms are developing novel products and services.

11. “Let’s do it the way we’ve always done it, just do it better” is

not the answer.

12. There are a lot of young, innovative lawyers looking for new and interesting ways to serve their clients, thereby growing their businesses.

Change “lawyer” to “Realtor” and all of the above points apply.

In June 2013, the Canadian Bar Association published a 44page report entitled CBA Legal Futures Initiative: The Future of Legal Services in Canada. All Realtors who strive for excellence and plan to have lengthy careers should read it. CREA tried the same thing a few years ago, but most of the recommendations made by the Futures Task Force were rejected by the CREA Board and the delegates at the AGM. They may have assumed that if

they ignored change it wouldn’t happen.

It is time for Realtors to reach out to law societies in their respective provinces to discuss the challenges faced by both professions, and the possible solutions for those challenges. We have a lot to learn from each other. Remember too that virtually all lawyers are involved in real estate, as conveyancing practitioners, litigators, estate planners or consumers of residential and/or commercial real estate.

Bill Johnston is manager of Bosley’s Merton office and legal counsel for the firm. He is a past-president of the Toronto Real Estate Board and currently is a director of the Real Estate Council of Ontario. REM

Megan Bell • David Blishen • Nikola Bucalo • Marina Carl Susanita De Diego • Katherine Elsinga • Deb Honch Connie Huibers • Laura Knack • Dean Lapointe • Wendy Liddle • Paul Martin • Michele McGuire • Nathan Morrissette Lindsay Olver • Brett Parker • Charlene Randle-Clayton Sherri Singler • Tom Taggart • Megan Bell • David Blishen Nikola Bucalo • Marina Carl • Susanita De Diego • Katherine Elsinga • Deb Honch • Connie Huibers • Laura Knack • Dean Lapointe • Wendy Liddle • Paul Martin • Michele McGuire Nathan Morrissette • Lindsay Olver • Brett Parker • Charlene Randle-Clayton • Sherri Singler • Tom Taggart • Megan Bell David Blishen • Nikola Bucalo • Marina Carl • Susanita De Diego • Katherine Elsinga • Deb Honch • Connie Huibers Laura Knack • Dean Lapointe • Wendy Liddle • Paul Martin Michele McGuire • Nathan Morrissette • Lindsay Olver Brett Coldwell Parker • Charlene BankerRandle-Clayton • Sherri Singler Tom Taggart • Megan Bell • David Blishen • Nikola salutes the dedicated Bucaloindustry Marina Carl • Susanita De Diego • Katherine Elsinga volunteers Deb Honch • Connie Huibers • Laura Knack in our network.

Dean Lapointe • Wendy Liddle • Paul Martin • Michele McGuire Nathan Morrissette • Lindsay Olver Brett Parker • Charlene Randle-Clayton • Sherri Singler Tom Taggart • Megan Bell David Blishen • Nikola Bucalo • Marina Carl • Susanita De Diego • Katherine Elsinga • Deb Honch • Connie Huibers Laura Knack • Dean Lapointe • Wendy Liddle • Paul Martin Michele McGuire • Nathan Morrissette • Lindsay Olver Brett Parker • Charlene Randle-Clayton • Sherri Singler Tom Taggart • Megan Bell • David Blishen • Nikola Bucalo Marina Carl • Susanita De Diego • Katherine Elsinga Deb Honch • Connie Huibers • Laura Knack • Dean Lapointe Wendy Liddle • Paul Martin • Michele McGuire • Nathan Morrissette • Lindsay Olver • Brett Parker • Charlene Randle-Clayton • Sherri Singler • Tom Taggart • Megan Bell David Blishen • Nikola Bucalo • Marina Carl • Susanita De Diego • Katherine Elsinga • Deb Honch • Connie Huibers Laura Knack • Dean Lapointe • Wendy Liddle • Paul Martin Michele McGuire • Nathan Morrissette • Lindsay Olver Sean Morrison Brett Parker • Charlene Randle-Clayton • Sherri Singler Coldwell Banker Momentum Realty Tom Taggart • Megan Bell • David Blishen • Nikola Bucalo President Elect, OREA Marina Carl • Susanita De Diego • Katherine Elsinga • Deb Honch • Connie Huibers

INSPIRE. EMPOWER. TRANSFORM.

In Canada’s changing real estate landscape, many industry professionals devote their time and effort to roles in organized real estate. Coldwell Banker salutes the dedicated volunteers in our network for your commitment to help effect change.

Thank you for your leadership.

We honour Jill Oudil, CREA Director-at-Large and these Presidents, Past Presidents and Vice Presidents of local real estate organizations, as well as the many others across Canada who help to elevate the professionalism of our industry.

Tania Artenosi | Geoff Halford Coldwell Banker The Real Estate Centre Chris Dudeck Coldwell Banker Preferred Real Estate Jennifer Gilbert Coldwell Banker City Side Realty Rob Longo Coldwell Banker Southwest Realty Tina Mak | Jill Oudil Coldwell Banker Westburn Realty Stephen Oliver Coldwell Banker Momentum Realty Tanis Read Coldwell Banker Horizon Realty Earl Taylor Coldwell Banker at Success Realty Heather Ward Coldwell Banker All Points – Festival City Michelle Ziniuk Coldwell Banker Ronan Realty

Join the blue.

Coldwellbanker.ca/careers

©2019 Coldwell Banker LLC. All Rights Reserved. Each Office is Independently Owned and Operated. Coldwell Banker, the Coldwell Banker logo, Coldwell Banker Global Luxury and the Coldwell Banker Global Luxury logo are registered service marks owned by Coldwell Banker LLC. Each sales representative and broker is responsible for complying with any consumer disclosure laws or regulations.

16 REM JUNE 2019

Offer negotiation, Part 4: KISS

By Ross Wilson “Our life is frittered away by detail; simplify, simplify.”

– Henry David Thoreau

I

n the last column, I left off with you, as a listing agent, huddling with your seller client. Now, in the fourth of the series on offer negotiation, I offer some ideas about simplifying the process for your seller clients.

Rarely do clients immediately accept all the terms without question. However, at times, it’s merely their ego in play. They may just want to appear more confident and knowledgeable than they truly are.

Or it may just be posturing. Never assume your seller fully understands or is comfortable with the

procedure. Encourage them to ask questions; there are no dumb questions – only dumb answers. Bear in mind that selling a home is a rarity for them. KISS – keep it simple sweetheart.

At some point, one of the homeowners may offer tea or coffee or even an alcoholic beverage.

This may be an attempt to be a gracious host, but it’s more likely an indirect effort to delay the inevitable decision. Let them do so, but for obvious reasons, you should decline the alcohol.

Nevertheless, if they even hint they’d prefer to think about it overnight, encourage them to decide during the current meeting.

Not only will the buyers probably be waiting anxiously, given sufficient time and in the light of a new day, buyers can lose enthusiasm – or even withdraw their offer.

For best advantage as well as out of respect for the buyers, your seller should strike while the iron is hot.

Anyway, the offer probably technically expires that evening.

More often than not, your seller will reject the price. If you haven’t already gained acceptance of all other terms, try to narrow things down a little by asking if they approve of everything else about the offer. By so doing, you’re sending the message, consciously or subconsciously, that the offer is valuable enough to treat seriously. If they restate an earlier concern, of course, you must address it. Or if they’re disquieted about other lesser issues, you must deal with them too.

Tackle those before getting down to the bigger concerns. But if they declare that everything else is satisfactory, they’ll be hard pressed to raise those or any new objections again. Now you can focus on the main event – the price.

However, if any unresolved issue is significant, such as the closing date or a condition, it may be appropriate to encompass that issue into the discussion about price.

It’s important for your client to realize that just because the price is unsatisfactory, the offer should not

be summarily rejected. The buyer has clearly demonstrated their sincere intent to purchase their property (don’t refer to it as their home since that term can subliminally stimulate emotions that may only complicate matters), provided everyone can come to terms. And your sellers should return that respect by seriously entertaining their offer. After all, the buyers have affixed their signatures on the dotted line. All you have to do is negotiate the terms. In other words, it’s a starting point.

Emphasize this.

Unless unusual circumstances prevail where one of the parties is under duress, or the local market strongly favours one party, the most effective method of negotiating a successful sale is to keep it balanced. Without compromise, there’s normally no sale and neither party achieves their goal. To help your sellers maintain a calm demeanour, make sure they understand that it’s a process, like baking bread. All the ingredients must be

added in the correct proportions and appropriate steps followed to produce the final loaf. The offer is just the beginning of the negotiation process, with certain steps to be followed for the mutually intended result. Avoid any possibility of an adversarial attitude developing because such a negative stance could ultimately ruin the bread.

In the next of this series, I address an easily explainable menu of seller options when an offer is unacceptable.

Ross Wilson is a retired real estate broker with extensive experience as a brokerage owner, manager, trainer and mentor over a highly successful 44-year career. His book, The Happy Agent – Finding Harmony with a Thriving Realty Career and an Enriched Personal Life is available where print and e-books are sold, including the TREB, MREB, RAHB and OMDREB stores. For more details, visit Realty-Voice.com.

REM

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20 REM JUNE 2019

Letters to the Editor Can I stress this enough?

Some of you may have read my letter to the editor (April REM), regarding the stress (me out) test and CREAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advocacy efforts to change it. It received some commentary from across the country, including some directly to my email.

The opinions of the commenters ran roughly like this â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a third thought that the Liberals are idiots, a third thought that CREA are idiots and a third thought I am an idiot. There were no wrong answers. A small portion also thought that their clients are idiots, which may be true, but I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think it is really relevant.

To their credit, CREA contacted me the very same day by phone to outline their efforts to affect this policy (and others) and to outline the difficulties CREA has, in general, lobbying

the Feds. I can believe it. I urged the very engaged and erstwhile young woman on the phone to have CREA respond to my letter, outlining and merchandizing their efforts (even if as yet unsuccessful), because in a tough year, most of us mere members would take comfort in knowing that CREA had our backs, hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forgotten about the rank and file who fund them and were taking the lead.

Sadly, she felt that doing so would probably a) attract criticism â&#x20AC;&#x201C; which I can believe and b) jeopardize CREAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sensitive lobbying efforts, as negotiations with the federal bureaucracy might be derailed if CREA tried to advocate in the press and thereby ticked them off.

So, absent a response from CREA, it apparently falls to me to continue this one-sided discussion (a talent I am almost famous for). During our call, my caller enthusiastically outlined PAC

days on the Hill, and CREAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s focus on individual members in all federal ridings advocating with their various MPs, especially those Liberal MPs who sit in the caucus of the (currently) governing party. I pointed out that in Alberta, a major obstacle would be electing a member of the Liberal party to lobby. (Okay, so there are two or three, but that is hardly a healthy breeding population.)

But I then asked myself â&#x20AC;&#x201C; why should we bother? Our industry has been hosting cocktail receptions for politicians at all levels of government for decades â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and what do we actually have to show for it, except a large bar tab?

Maybe itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to accept the fact that we Realtors just arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t very good at doing this. How well did it work with the TREB vs Competition Bureau saga? Or the FINTRAC review, where CREA didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even make a submission that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m aware of, to the Senate

sub-committee (while lawyers and insurers and bankers surely did). And now, our less than impressive impact on the federal mindset regarding the mortgage qualification process. My caller seemed to indicate that CREA is dealing at the staff/bureaucracy, not the legislative level in their advocacy efforts on this issue â&#x20AC;&#x201C; which it seems to me is a lot like not being able to get past the receptionist.

Realtors live in a results-oriented environment every day of their careers: if we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get results, we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get paid, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that simple.

Even my Mom wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t keep giving me the listing if after years of trying, I simply couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get the farm sold. And sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s my mom.

So I think maybe itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to think about hiring professional help (no, not psychiatric, at least not yet). Honestly, isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t that our pitch to a FSBO prospect? If you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t sell your house, perhaps itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to consider a professional

who knows how to get it done, because I/we do this for a living.

There are many professional, registered lobbyists out there who are just itching to take a large chunk of CREAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advocacy budget and pound on doors on Parliament Hill on our behalf. I think that maybe itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to give one of them the â&#x20AC;&#x153;listingâ&#x20AC;? and get something â&#x20AC;&#x153;soldâ&#x20AC;?.

As third baseman Josh Donaldson (yes, while Alberta has few Liberals, it has many long-suffering Blue Jays fans) said, this isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the â&#x20AC;&#x153;letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s do our best leagueâ&#x20AC;?, this is the â&#x20AC;&#x153;letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s get it done leagueâ&#x20AC;?.

Personally, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d interview whoever SNC Lavalin employs. Love â&#x20AC;&#x2122;em or hate â&#x20AC;&#x2122;em, you have to admit they seem to know how to affect government policy.

David Lowe Real estate manager Sangudo, Alta.

REM

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22 REM JUNE 2019

Waterloo’s five-generation real estate firm Charles Isaac Fenwick Whitney was the first Whitney patriarch to come to Toronto from Nova Scotia in 1911 and lay the foundations of the family’s real estate heritage, Whitney & Company Realty. By Sohini Bhattacharya

W

hether you’re driving into or out of Waterloo, Ont. the one thing you’re guaranteed is sightings of massive red and white Whitney Commercial Real Estate Services’ signs with John Whitney’s name dotting both sides of the road at frequent intervals. Through her high school years, Ginger Whitney would often “hear from everyone about how many signs you see around town that have the big Whitney name. It’s pretty cool to see that impact,” she says.

Announcing leasing opportunities for small, middle and large retail and commercial properties, the Whitney footprint in this small town’s real estate landscape is unmissable.

Growing up as the fifth-generation Whitney, Ginger became aware of her family’s 100-year real estate lineage from a young age.

As she rode in the back seat of their family car, she’d often hear conversations between her father, John Whitney and her mother, Colleen, begin and end with real estate. But like most teenagers trying to figure out their next career step, Ginger wanted to “do my own thing and not what my parents did.” That is, until she went to university.

While getting her degree from Wilfred Laurier University in communication studies and geography, Ginger joined a co-op program through which she got the chance to work in Blackberry’s facilities department. It was then that she saw her father step into the Blackberry boardroom and deliver an inspiring presentation of his astute knowledge and understanding of various types of property.

By then, as CEO of Whitney & Company, John had been managing the real estate portfolio for Waterloo-based telecom giant Research in Motion – later known as Blackberry – for over 20 years. He was instrumental in moving the company from their first 5,000 to 11,000 to three million square feet.

It was then that Ginger decided to follow her father’s career

footsteps, which traced all the way back to 1911.

Charles Isaac Fenwick Whitney was the first Whitney patriarch to come to Toronto from Nova Scotia in 1911 and lay the foundations of the family’s real estate heritage. Before arriving in Toronto, he owned a dry goods business with his brother in Lunenburg for 23 years. In 1930, he moved to Kitchener and soon his son, George, joined the business as salesman on duty at a King Street office in Kitchener. John often wonders how his grandfather moved to Kitchener in the middle of a recession in the ’30s and built a successful business.

“And my only answer I can come up with is they persevered because that’s what I would do.”

From 1932 to 1938, George branched out, forming his own brokerage, George Whitney Ltd., dealing in local residential, commercial and industrial properties. “George became president of the Kitchener-Waterloo Real Estate Board (KWAR) and was the first Canadian member to serve on the Governing Council of the U.S. institute known as the Society of Industrial Realtors (SIR),” says his bio on the company’s website.

Named after his grandfather, Charles Richard Whitney ushered the third generation of Whitneys into real estate as president of KWAR and the Ontario Association of Real Estate Boards (now the Ontario Real Estate Association). And in 1975, John followed suit.

In the early days of his career, after selling a few homes it quickly became apparent to John that he wanted to carve out his niche working with the business community. Businesses made objective decisions when buying a property, rather than subjective ones “like, oh, I really liked the colour of that wall”, John says.

Although that may be an important selling point for a residential client, it’s not so much for a business looking to lease a 10,000+ square-foot retail space, he says.

As he walks past the corridors of the 3,500 square-foot office at the end of an industrial cul-de-sac in Bauer Place, Waterloo, John tracks his 40+ year career achievements through frame after frame of sold or leased commercial properties in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, ranging from 30,000 to 850,000 square feet.

“In my lifetime alone, there’s been a hundred million square feet of space that we’ve sold, leased or been involved with. It’s kinda cool,” he says.

John says the company competes against the best and the brightest in their business, and that’s what keeps his feet on the

Company president Jane Klugman, left, with John Whitney and Ginger Whitney.

John, Colleen and Ginger Whitney

ground. The company’s client roster has included Communitech (of which John was a founding member and chairman for 10 years), The Cora Group, Marsland Centre Limited, Greenhouse Juice & Co., Benton Medical Centre and Catalyst, to name just a few.

“You’re dealing with a lot of money. You’re dealing with a lot of opportunity.” He says you must make sure you are giving people the guidance they need. “I’m proud to say, we do have a good reputation and it’s all those years of working hard and providing the right answers that’s gotten us here,” he says.

In 2018, KWAR honoured the

company with the 80-year member award.

Today, Ginger is carrying the Whitney name into its fifth generation as the company’s broker and vice president, with mom Colleen as the head of its residential arm. As the company’s president, Jane Klugman is the only non-Whitney in the executive team – a position that’s been in the works for the past 30 years.

“Jane’s not family, but she is family,” says John.

Back in the ’80s when Klugman worked in the City of Kitchener’s economic development, she met John, who often visited their office. As director of business development, Klugman

worked with John selling substantial land in the Huron business park, the Lancaster Corporate Centre, the Bridgeport Business Park and one which they monikered the “pork chop” because it was small and a tough sell.

John’s ideas on how to sell “pork chop” resonated with Klugman’s team and in short order, it was sold. After successful stints at Communitech and Deloitte as vice president, and several nudges from John, she finally joined the Whitney business, bringing in years of corporate experience that only strengthened the company’s foothold.

Surrounded by three women at the helm of the company, John is often humbled by their expertise and intelligence and recognizes that only of late has the industry opened to more women being in leadership. And all three women agree when Colleen says, “John has very high standards and pushes us to learn, grow and expand. He won’t ever give me an easy answer. He’s never held my hands. He’s encouraged me to reach out, and beyond.”

Back at his desk, a red-andwhite poster next to a wall of Whitney family portraits reads, “Keep calm and Whitney on” – a way of life heralding the sixth generation. REM

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24 REM JUNE 2019

THE GUEST COLUMN

By Anthony Hitt

A

gents who do not focus on specialization will not survive.

In fact, agents who operate as generalists are the most vulnerable to being replaced – whether by technology, or more likely, another agent who has developed a specialty niche in the market for themselves.

Often agents let their businesses be guided solely on wherever and whenever the next opportunity comes from. As a result, many end up operating as real estate generalists, understanding a broad knowledge of the industry, its markets, clien-

Agents who don’t specialize won’t survive tele and property types. While this model worked in years past, it simply does not hold up in today’s market due to the changes in technology and home buying processes.

Tech-savvy buyers and sellers are conducting their own research and have information at their fingertips. With this change, in order to justify a commission, agents need to provide an added value to the home buying or selling experience.

This is where specialization becomes invaluable for agents. By becoming designated market experts within a specified client base and property type, agents can provide a depth of knowledge that makes them truly irreplaceable. While many say technology has the power to replace agents, this only applies to those who attempt to be everything to everyone. If an agent transforms

from a generalist to a specialist, technology becomes a tool and not a replacement to the industry.

Defining specialization: Specialization means to target, pursue and entrench into a niche market. For agents, this can come in the form of: • Becoming a neighbourhood guide • Owning a segment within a specific geographic market and becoming your clients’ go-to local resource • Becoming a property expert • Focusing on buying and selling specific property types such as ranches, cottages or ski homes • Owning a specific network of people Cater your business to a niche target audience and become their real estate expert, who understands their lifestyle,

needs and preferences.

Choosing the right specialization: Consumers value a specialist who holds a strong skill level and expertise within a certain niche. According to our research, here are the top four factors that homebuyers and sellers say impact their agent selection, in order: 1. Local expertise 2. Years of experience 3. Recommendations and referrals 4. Brokerage reputation Because local expertise is the top reason consumers choose an agent, a geographic specialty is the best place for most agents to start. Agents should choose an area with which they are knowledgeable and experienced. At the beginning of an agent’s career, it will be important to invest in hyper-local marketing within their selected market in

order to build awareness for their personal brand as a local expert.

Promoting your specialization: Agents should always seek new ways to grow their network.

Make a point to attend relevant events, for example, a city planning meeting or local festival if your specialty is within that neighbourhood.

Similarly, build mutually beneficial connections within your specialty through partnering with other local businesses that service the same target audience.

Agents should also align themselves with a brokerage that supports and speaks to their chosen specialty. For example, if an agent’s specialty is professional athletes or CEOs, he/she should align with a luxury broContinued on page 28

28 REM JUNE 2019

Read to succeed in real estate You don’t always need a convention or a course to become more knowledgeable in real estate. Sometimes you just need a book to teach you a few things. By Toby Welch

Y

ou don’t always need a convention or a course to become more knowledgeable in real estate. Sometimes you just need a book to teach you a few things. We asked some brokers and agents in the industry to share the book that taught them the most about succeeding in real estate.

Tyrone Steer, a sales representative with Royal LePage Porritt Real Estate in Toronto, was influenced by Silver Bullet Investing by Norair Yeretsian.

“This book showed me the power of investing in groups. It also gave an outline as to how to do this the right way,” says Steer.

“This book inspired me to find ways to help small investors who didn’t think that they could get into real estate investing. This allowed me to assist individuals who I would’ve not been able to help before. Real estate can be had in more ways than you can imagine if you harness the power of teamwork.”

Craig Berke, associate broker at 2% Realty Pro in Edmonton, shares his choice of an influential book: “The recent read that definitely impacted the way I live my life as a Realtor is High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard. After almost 30 years in the real estate industry, one would

think figuring out a structured life of balancing work, family and health would be long done. The reality of the real estate industry is that agents are easily influenced and driven by the inconsistencies, the need to keep reinventing oneself and the singular lofty rewards that occur. I reached sales of 8090 transactions a year, however, at the cost of health and social life.”

Berke continues, “The principles as outlined in this book are a great base for a high-producing agent to achieve some measured success in the balancing act of life.

Use daily the simple process of

We asked some brokers and agents to share the book that taught them the most about succeeding in real estate.

electronic reminders to stop what you are doing to have a drink of water, a healthy snack or to go for a walk. I set my stopwatch on the phone for six breaks throughout the day. Secondly, start your day earlier and spend immediate time on exercise and then mapping out your day. Stick to your day plan as best can and record everything.”

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter impacted Mark Neudorf, an agent with Re/Max North Country in Saskatoon. “It may be a bit overly optimistic but it will change the way that you both think and use money. Money is a tool and if it’s not working, it’s wasting,” says Kiyosaki.

Jenni Bast, a real estate salesperson with Century 21 Dome Realty in Regina, is currently crushing on Crushing It! How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence - And How You Can, Too by Gary Vaynerchuk.

“I have always been a fan of Gary Vee. Although he appears to come off vulgar, sometimes you just need that kick in the a$$ to get your butt in gear and motivated and I get that from him,” writes Bast in an email. “He is very transparent. He doesn’t put on a persona for the cameras or his audience. He is a straight shooter.

Agents who don’t specialize Continued from page 24

kerage.

Becoming an influencer: Engel & Völkers’ study of millennial HENRYs (High Earners Not Rich Yet) found the next generation of wealth is highly active on social media and increasingly looking to influencers when considering a buying decision. In fact, the most widely followed group of influencers, surprisingly, is not celebrities, but topic experts – personal trainers, makeup artists, nutritionists and yes, real estate agents. The goal for agents when

choosing and owning a specialty is to leverage the brand and expertise they’ve cultivated as the basis to become a “topic expert” influencer.

Agents can demonstrate expertise within their chosen niche in an authentic and entertaining way, while also building credibility.

For example, an agent who specializes in equestrian properties might use Instagram to post photos of themselves at a polo match. Whatever the specialty, it’s important to be authentic.

Social media is an effective way to show clients that you also “walk the walk.”

As technology becomes more sophisticated, an agent’s specialization becomes their unique value proposition and most important differentiator.

Carving out and owning a niche specialty is one of the most powerful ways to create a distinct agent brand.

Anthony Hitt is president and CEO, Engel & Völkers Americas.

REM

I try to use that same mentality in my business. I don’t ever want to come off as fake or too polished. I have had past clients use me as their agent because of my transparency or that I have made them feel comfortable because I have a more relaxed business approach. I guess I am down to earth – I just act myself all the time – whether in a personal setting or a business one. I want my clients to feel ‘at home’ with and around me.”

Bast shares the five main things she learned from Crushing It: • You never know what you’re going to put out that inspires someone important to reach out to you.

• Collaborations are the best way to grow a fan base quickly.

• Passion is your backup generator when all your other energy sources start to sputter.

• Create one big piece of pillar content that can be distributed into smaller bits of content.

• You need to constantly be in ‘do’ mode.

One of the best-selling books of all time sparked Sam McDadi, a sales representative at Sam McDadi Real Estate Brokerage in Mississauga, Ont. “The book that impacted me the most was one I read many years ago while attending university in the United States on a tennis scholarship. It was How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

Even though it has been many years removed, I still to this day pick up the book as a refresher/reminder as to how to treat people. I have recommended this book often to family and friends and have given a copy to my entire team.”

McDadi says, “This book is a reminder on how to treat and really care about people, which is really the essence of selling.

Ultimately, if your clients can like you and trust you and if they feel you have their best interest at heart, you will be well on your way to succeeding in your sales career. There are many principles

Craig Berke

Jenni Bast

Sam McDadi

in this book which if adhered to, will improve not only your sales career but, in my opinion, your life in general.”

Some of the highest selling books about working in real estate in recent years have included The Book of YES by Kevin Ward, Mastering the Art of Selling Real Estate by Tom Hopkins, The Millionaire Real Estate Agent: It’s Not About the Money… It’s About Being the Best You Can Be by Gary Keller, and Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

by Seth Godin. I challenge you to find a book that helps take your real estate career up another REM notch. Happy reading!

30 REM JUNE 2019

MR. LANDLORD

By Chris Seepe

J

ust about everyone believes that residential rental property owners pay the property tax as part of their operating costs.

It’s a universal misperception that politicians and municipalities exploit to the detriment of landlords.

Every tenant in every municipality in Ontario pays property tax as part of their rent. These property taxes are a “hidden” part of each tenant’s living expense obligation to their municipality, which provides them with education, police, fire, garbage collection, roads and more.

That means that many residential rental tenants, especially the vulnerable fixed-income and affordable-housing tenants, are paying taxes that are upwards of two times more than the owners of

Do residential tenants pay property tax? Of course they do. a single-family home or condo.

The misperception derives from the landlord’s obligation to collect and remit this tax on the tenant’s behalf, much like every retail outlet collects GST/HST on behalf of the consumer.

In Ontario, a rent reduction is allowed under section 131 of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) when the municipal property taxes for the residential complex have decreased by more than 2.49 per cent from one year to the next. But like many things, this does not apply to public housing.

To calculate the total rent reduction, subtract the current year’s lower property tax amount from the previous year’s higher tax amount and then divide the result into the previous year’s amount.

Then multiply that by 20 per cent (seven+ units, or 15 per cent for six or less). Multiply the tenant’s monthly rent by this percentage to determine the new reduced rent amount. For example, the 2018 property tax was $19,833.72 and $17,867.59 for 2019. Dividing the difference of $1,966.13 by

$19,833.72 = 9.91% x 20% = 1.98%. The tenant’s monthly rent of $1,115.50 x 1.98% = $22.12/month rent reduction.

It doesn’t matter what the property tax rate is. The RTA assumes that the average amount of property tax a landlord pays in a building with seven or more units is 20 per cent of the total rent revenue and 15 per cent for six or fewer units. However, the apartment building tax rate in many municipalities is often notably less than that. The rent reduction is applied almost immediately.

All municipalities then send out a letter (as required by the RTA) directly to every tenant in a building providing legal advice that they are entitled to a rent decrease, and that no permission is required from the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB).

A landlord can pass on an extraordinary increase, which occurs when the increase is greater than the current rent increase guideline plus 50 per cent of the same guideline. For example, this

year the guideline is 1.8 per cent so an extraordinary increase would be 1.8% + 0.9% (50% of 1.8%) = 2.7%. The landlord must then undertake a grueling and complex LTB application called a Rent Increase Above the Guideline (AGI). It takes an average six months to set an LTB hearing date after the application has been submitted, and another six months for the LTB to render its decision. The decision isn’t automatic like it is for tenants, despite the subject matter being exactly the same.

And, although the landlord paid the tenant’s property tax upfront, the landlord must give the tenant a minimum of 90 days’ advance written notice of the rent increase.

And the rent increase cannot occur until the next anniversary date of each tenant’s annual rent increase.

And the tenant has the right to challenge the AGI application at the LTB hearing.

The Municipal Housing Assessment Corporation (MPAC) reassesses a property’s value from

How one brokerage is enhancing real estate education

By Kevin Dunklee

A

s we transition in Ontario from OREA as the designated provider for real estate education, there is a lot of uncertainty for students. The Real Estate Council of Ontario has published sparse information about the new course of study and the only

thing that seems certain is that anyone in Ontario who seeks to register will be doing so under the cloud of this uncertainty.

Century 21 First Canadian is stepping up to the plate and helping students to enrich their education through the power of peer collaboration. On a weekly basis for the past eight months I have been facilitating study groups in our boardroom, where fellow real estate students come together to enrich our understanding of the course material. Students get a chance to learn from each other and from the agents in our office about the material they are studying, and what it is like to be in the environment of a major brokerage.

The sessions are not officially endorsed by OREA, nor do they

need to be since we are not claiming to be instructors – simply a brokerage offering its facilities and expertise to help students get more out of the program. This is not designed to be a substitute for class time with an instructor, but a complement to it on the basis of students helping students – and in setting it up I am very clear in disclosing that I am a facilitator and not an instructor.

The idea was born from my recent experience in higher education, where I learned the value of both mentorship and peer collaboration. In school we came together in groups to do projects and to drill each other for exams and assignments, helping each other learn the material and in the process learning more ourselves. I

have seen this from all sides – as a student, tutor, mentee and mentor – realizing that people are more likely to absorb education through human contact.

Our broker of record, Vito Campanale, has been strongly supportive from the beginning.

“Courses now being offered online do not provide the human element where students can ask questions and discuss various relevant issues,” Campanale said, noting that the results for students are already apparent. “The study groups have proven to help students get better marks and complete their course requirements.”

Century 21 First Canadian has always prided itself in providing Continued on page 46

time to time, most often when it changes ownership. MPAC doesn’t set the tax rate. It only establishes property value, on which the tax amount is determined. The municipality then sets the property tax rate for each building type. In the City of Oshawa, for example, the rate for single-family homes and condos is 1.41 per cent.

Oshawa taxes apartment buildings at 2.48 per cent (2018), almost double.

Based on research conducted in May 2017, all the municipalities of the Region of Durham were in the top 20 “worst offenders” of this tax policy. Oshawa appears to be the third highest in the province, next to Hamilton and Orangeville.

Clarington is No. 5, followed by Whitby, Ajax, Pickering and Scugog.

Some municipalities make no distinction between apartment buildings and single-family homes including Barrie, Markham, Vaughan (apartment building property taxes are lower than single-family homes there), Stouffville, Newmarket and Aurora.

It’s unlikely you’ll find any government documentation that explicitly states that residential rental tenants pay property taxes even though it’s common knowledge that every commercial tenant pays their prorated share of the commercial property tax via TMI – taxes, maintenance and insurance.

Do residential rental property tenants pay property tax? Of course they do. It’s built into the RTA. It’s just cleverly disguised to shield government from direct accountability to, and the ire of, residential tenants when property tax negatively impacts tenants.

Chris Seepe is a published writer and author, “landlording” course instructor, president of the Landlords Association of Durham, and a commercial real estate broker of record at Aztech Realty in Toronto, specializing in income-generating and multi-residential investment properties. (416) 525-1558 Email cseepe@aztechrealty.com; website: www.drlandlord.ca REM

34 REM JUNE 2019

Moncton Realtor Paul Burns honoured

by NBREA Paul Burns, a Realtor with Century 21 A&T Countryside Realty in Moncton, is the 2019 recipient of the Dave Hawkins Award. The award is given annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the real estate industry in New Brunswick.

Burns’ involvement in the real estate industry spans over 25 years.

He has served as president of the New Brunswick Real Estate Association and on several association committees. He also served as president and director with the Greater Moncton Realtors du Grande Moncton Board.

Burns also volunteers for several community groups. He cofounded Habitat for Humanity of Greater Moncton, was a hockey

he Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB) has appointed Nathalie Bégin as president of its 2019-2020 board of directors. Bégin has more than 30 years of real estate experience, including 20 years as a real estate broker.

She was a member of the board of directors of the Greater Montreal Real Estate Board (GMREB) since 2012 and was named president in 2018. She was co-president of the QPAREB’s transitional board of directors since its creation on Jan.

T

coach for 15 years and has served on several committees at his church since 1991. He is also treasurer of the Senior Information Centre for the Moncton area.

The award is named in memory of Dave Hawkins, a 35-year veteran of the real estate industry in New Brunswick. Hawkins was president of NBREA and the Fredericton Real Estate Board and served as chairman of the Atlantic Provinces Real Estate Council. He was also the first president of CREA from Atlantic Canada.

Saskatchewan Realtors honour Rich Jeanneau, Steven Bobiash, Dave Markus Rich Jeanneau was recently presented with an honorary life membership by the Association of Saskatchewan Realtors (ASR).

1, 2019, following the merger of the GMREB and the Quebec City and Laurentides real estate boards.

Bégin also sits on the Board of Directors of the Regroupement des gestionnaires et copropriétaires du Québec (RCGQ), a role she has held since 2016.

Anouk Vidal was appointed vice president of the board. She has more than 10 years of experience as a real estate broker. She was a member of the board of directors of the Chambre immobilière des Laurentides since 2011 and became president of the board in 2018.

Jeanneau, a senior salesperson/associate broker at Colliers International in Saskatoon, has served as a director and president of both the ASR and Saskatoon Region Association of Realtors (SRAR). He has also served on the Saskatchewan Real Estate Commission. “His contributions to government relations and his dedication to creating a single Realtor association in the province have made significant impacts in the industry,” says ASR. The ASR Distinguished Realtor Award presented by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. had two recipients. Steven Bobiash, sales associate with Re/Max Saskatoon North and past president of SRAR and Dave Markus, salesperson/associate broker at Platinum Realty Specialists in Regina and current president of the Association of Regina Realtors (ARR) were chosen because of their work as co-chairs of the Member Forward Working Group for a Single Realtor Association in Saskatchewan.

“Each of these recipients played a huge role in ensuring the future success of organized real estate in Saskatchewan, so it only made sense to recognize each of them at our final AGM,” says Bill REM Madder, CEO of ASR.

Until recently, she was also co-president of the QPAREB’s transitional board of directors. She also sits on the board of directors of the Collège de l’immobilier du Québec and has been a member of the OACIQ’s Discipline Committee since 2014.

The 2019-2020 QPAREB Board of Directors also includes: Ginette Beardsell of Montreal; Éric Bilodeau of Lanaudière; Martin Bilodeau of Montérégie; Sylvie Blouin of Montérégie; Robert Bouchard of Lanaudière; Serge Brousseau of Montreal; Bertrand Côté of Chaudière-Appalaches; Daniel Dagenais of Montreal; Michèle Fournier of CapitaleNationale; Fadi Kaouk of Montreal; Éric Léger of Laurentides; and Christiane St-Jean of ChaudièreAppalaches.

■ ■ ■

June 8 has been proclaimed as the Day of the Realtor by the province of Nova Scotia in recogni-

From left: Dwayne Hayes, 2014 Dave Hawkins Award recipient and NBREA education officer; Paul Burns; and Jason Stephen, president of CREA. From left: Steven Bobiash, Bev LePage of CMHC and Dave Markus

ASR president Teressa Mannle presents the honorary life membership to Rich Jeanneau.

tion of the contribution Realtors make to the economy. It’s estimated that home sales through the Nova Scotia Association of Realtors (NSAR) MLS system contributed more than $513 million to the provincial economy in 2018, says the association.

NSAR president Matt Honsberger says, “Realtors have a major impact on our provincial economy. We work hard to keep Nova Scotians here and attract new residents to our beautiful end of the country and appreciate the recognition from our provincial government.”

The proclamation states that Realtors are committed to improving the desirability of Nova Scotia as a place for people to live, work and grow; and that real estate transactions through the NSAR MLS system contribute millions of dollars to the economy of the province through spin-off benefits each year.

REM

Nathalie Bégin

Anouk Vidal

REM JUNE 2019 35

Marketing with videos

By Mark Brodsky

I

could toss statistics your way about how many businesses are using video and how many hours of video people are watching. However, if you’ve spent any time on Facebook, Instagram or even LinkedIn recently, you know how many businesses are using video. You’ve also probably seen videos from some of your competitors.

When I speak about email marketing or social media, I always highlight video as the one tool that Realtors should add to their marketing mix. It’s the most effective way of conveying personality and generating engagement. However, there’s often some pushback and I hear things like “I don’t like the way I look on camera,” or “I don’t like the way I sound.” Here’s some tough love: you need to get past this. Nobody likes how they look on camera.

You also have to remember that you’ll never achieve perfection. I spoke recently at Property.ca Realty in Toronto, run by real estate broker and TV star of Property Virgins and Buy Herself, Sandra Rinomato. She says that you should aim for 70 per cent.

The wind may be blowing your hair, you may stumble across a word or two, but if you can get it 70 per cent right, consider that a success. You will definitely get better as time goes on.

One hurdle is not knowing where to start and not knowing what questions to ask because there are a range of options for creating and editing video – from a total DIY video to hiring a company that will film and edit the videos for you, delivering a completely finished product.

I spoke with Kate Jonker, owner of Kosmic CreativeKosmic Creative, a Toronto-based video and web design company, for some advice on how to get started.

For those on a budget or looking to DIY, she says, “The most important aspect to be clear about

is the key message you want to get across in your video.” Videos for Facebook or email should be under two minutes and for Instagram, you have a maximum of 60 seconds, so the message needs to focused.

If you don’t have a camera, don’t worry. “Most new smartphones have a decent enough camera that will do the trick but be sure to test your footage first to confirm it’s crisp. The typical HD standard is 1080p and at that quality, your video will present really nicely on YouTube, phones, tablets and laptops.” Another thing Kate

Video is the one tool that Realtors should add to their marketing mix suggests you consider is stabilization. A selfie stick can work or a tripod, but something that cuts down on camera movement will keep you looking professional.

If you’re looking to up your game, there are many digital cameras that you can buy for under $500, but you get what you pay for.

Kate says renting is always an option – some companies will give you a weekend rate and you can rent a good camera for $150 or less, a fraction of what it would cost you to buy it, and you can try different options to see what suits you.

As for sound, if you’re sitting at your desk or a computer in front of a wall, you can use a headphone that has a mic. In terms of lowbudget audio, it will be pretty clear.

“A great option is a lapel mic that clips on to your shirt. You can get a solid mic, which plugs into your smartphone such as a RODE SmartLav+, for around $100,” says Kate.

The next step is editing.

“If you’re a Mac user, iMovie, Lightworks and DaVinci Resolve are free tools that offer basic editing capability and allow you to use effects that, together, will make your video look somewhat professional. You can add transitions between clips, colour correct your videos, add captions and you can also combine background music with your footage to tell a story,” says Kate.

Windows 10 has a built-in video editor. Lightworks, DaVinci Resolve and HitFilm Express are also available. There are many step-by-step tutorials available online.

Hiring a professional “takes on the stress of making a production.

You have enough on your plate as it is, so working with a videographer allows you an opportunity to enjoy the process. Put simply, after teaming up with an experienced filmmaker, the quality of your video will be exponentially higher in a shorter amount of time,” says Kate. “The idea is for your piece of marketing magic to be crafted behind the scenes while you continue doing your job.”

A good video company acts as a storyteller – they can help put a script together that really speaks to your audience. When it comes to editing, they also have experience in colour correction, brightness, contrast, saturation and clarity of clips. They’re used to optimizing footage and, without experience, you – as a beginner – can sometimes make it worse or the video could fall short of its potential.

Once your videos are completed, you can share them in your email marketing and your social media. Once you see the level of engagement you’re driving, you’ll be encouraged to make more.

Mark Brodsky has been helping Realtors with email marketing and social media since January 2008.

He’s a regular speaker at real estate boards in and around the GTA and understands the challenges Realtors have standing out in a competitive marketplace. Website: (www.mbdigitalcommunications.com) Email: (mark@mbdigitalcommunications. com). REM

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36 REM JUNE 2019

A house that every tourist wants to see

More than two decades after the publication of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, visitors continue to flock to this city in Georgia to visit places mentioned in John Berendt’s book. Story and photos by Diane Slawych both of which are well represented here. Other rooms contain Audubon engravings, ivory tusks and shells from Cabbage Island, the owner’s shark fishing retreat.

“That’s cookie,” says our guide Alex, as a black cat walks in through the front door. “He has the whole place to himself.”

The Mercer Williams house, a popular tourist attraction in Savannah, Georgia, belonged to the central character in the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

T

he rose-coloured twostorey mansion, together with its sunken garden and large carriage house, takes up an entire city block. The Mercer Williams house, which sits across from leafy Monterey Square, is often touted as a must-see attraction while in Savannah, Georgia.

This was the home of art dealer and restorationist Jim Williams, the central character in John Berendt’s hugely popular 1994 book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. On the New York Times best-seller list for more than 200 weeks, the book was later adapted for the screen and directed by Clint Eastwood, all of which helped boost tourism to the city.

Williams was one of Savannah’s earliest and most dedicated restorationists. He began restoring houses in 1955 at the age 24 and over the next 30 years restored more than 50 houses in Savannah and the Lowcountry.

But his “crown jewel” was the home at 429 Bull Street, in Savannah’s beautiful Historic District. The house had been vacant for about 10 years

before he bought it in 1969 for $55,000. He then spent two years restoring the mansion that became his home. “I wanted this house the first time I saw it,” Williams is quoted as saying in the brochure promoting the house.

But his well-ordered life quickly turned upside down in the early morning hours of May 2, 1981, when Williams shot and killed his 21-year-old, part-time employee, Danny Hansford, inside his beloved mansion.

Claiming it was an act of selfdefence, Williams sat through not one but four trials before eventually being acquitted.

However, victory was short lived. Less than a year later, he died at the age of 59.

The home is now owned

by Williams’ sister Dorothy Kingery, who has opened it up to the public. The guided tour of the house glosses over the circumstances surrounding the murder and subsequent trials, focusing instead on Williams’ impressive art collection.

Two of his major interests were 18th- and 19th-century English and American portraits and Chinese export porcelain,

When we arrive at the bust of King Edward VII near the mahogany stair rail carved by shipbuilders from Maine, we’re instructed to look up. The sight was a total surprise – a beautiful (and original) stained glass dome. How many homes have that?

Over the years, the mansion had welcomed many dignitaries and visitors from around the world including Margaret Thatcher, Jacquelyn Kennedy Onassis, Ladybird Johnson and Colin Powell.

On a side table in a front room, there are photographs of Williams in happier times, as well as photos of Clint Eastwood and Kevin Spacey taken during filming of the movie, which was shot partly in the house. The guide explained that, for the film, copies were made of all the artwork while the originals were temporarily put in storage.

The house was designed by New York architect John S. Norris for General Hugh W. Mercer, the great grandfather of Johnny Mercer (the singer/ songwriter who penned Moon River and many other famous songs). Construction began in 1860 and was interrupted by the Civil War. When the war ended, General Mercer sold the unfinished structure to John R. Wilder, who completed it in 1868. Contrary to popular belief, no Mercer ever lived in

For sale in the carriage house gift shop are copies of the Bird Girl statue, which appears on the cover of the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

the house that bears their name.

including Berendt’s book.

According to the brochure for the home, “Norris added Renaissance Revival elements to his standard mix of Greek and Italiante. The house and carriage house are constructed of deep rose coloured bricks called Philadelphia Reds, which were brought to Savannah aboard barges towed by sailing vessels.”

Another familiar item here are copies of the memorable Bird Girl statue, which appears on the book’s cover. The original was located at Savannah’s historic Bonaventure Cemetery. The statue became such a popular stop for tourists that concerns for its safety and preservation prompted a move to the Telfair Museums’ Jepson Center for the Arts.

Using a symmetrical interior design, Norris combined 15-foot ceilings with floor-length windows and anchored the first floor plan with a 60-foot entrance hall that retains its original ceramic tile made in England at Stoke-on-Trent.

For many years, Williams operated his antique shop from the carriage house, which today serves as the gift shop selling original works by southern artists, and books on Savannah,

For visitors interested in learning more about Williams’ many home restorations, have a look at More Than Mercer House: Savannah’s Jim Williams and his Southern Houses, a book of essays written by Williams about his most important restorations including more than 27 pages of photos and illustrations on the Mercer House. REM

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38 REM JUNE 2019

How small boards can be leaders

By Trevor Koot

I

was fortunate to have an article published in REM recently (Let’s be our own disruptors); and even more fortunate to receive positive feedback and some challenging comments.

The intent of the article was to inspire those who hold leadership positions in the organized real estate arena to think creatively and not be constrained by the “way we’ve always done it” attitude. The intent was not to provide an answer to that challenge.

With that though, I was asked for a solution. What was my “creative thinking”?

When I began my role as EO at the Kamloops and District Real Estate Association (KADREA), something happened that set the stage for our little organization to

do what was thought to be impractical and, in the process, had me eating my words. Initially preaching that KADREA was too small to be a leader in the profession and lacking the resources to create new technology, I was proven entirely wrong.

When I began my tenure, I was repeatedly asked the question, “Where are buyers coming from?”

Having an incredible amount of data at my fingertips, yet being unable to answer the question, created the need for a solution that, I have to think, has been contemplated before. Maybe somebody has done it.

In May 2018 we introduced the buyer postal code (zip code) field in the data entry that KADREA Realtors provide when they enter sales data into the MLS. Shortly after we turned it red (made it mandatory). Then we began the work of building the app.

Buyer Path provides Realtors the ability to see, at a glance, where buyers are coming from based on filters such as price, date range, location and property type.

So, the example I give to illustrate the power of the application is: if a Realtor is listing an apartment condominium at $500,000, they can visit Buyer Path and determine exactly where buyers have originated for that type of property over the past six months and then target all of their digital marketing to that specific area. We can see trends, with the few months of data we have, that show buyers originating from different areas of the world at different times of the year for particular areas and property types.

Though it’s proving to be a powerful tool for our Realtors, it was realized as a result of a question from external stakeholders.

Everything we do, we ask the question, “How does this positively impact the Realtor brand?” We are creating a process to share this information as a “snapshot” to municipalities, tourism groups, economic development authorities and others. All this static information will be branded with the Realtor mark to show that, as a community stakeholder, we continue to add value.

I have been extremely proud to show off Buyer Path to EOs and directors across the country (including presenting at CREA’s Technical Peer Group and, more recently, to the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors), but the platform, in and of itself, is not anything profound.

When I demonstrate the app to someone with any level of technological savoir faire, they are unimpressed with the complexity of the application. However, no matter the individual’s coding competency, if they understand a Realtor advantage when they see one, their eyes (quite literally) light up.

My motivation to promote the app is not to get buy-in for the app itself. It’s to share the story of how a small organization can think differently to provide another resource for our Realtors, while continuing to create an environment for their success and the elevation of the brand.

When presenting the app to a group recently, I was approached after by a young, vibrant leader in organized real estate. He informed

me that this won’t work in his board because the way they process sales won’t accommodate the collection of buyer postal codes. He also reminded me of how hard it is to get Realtors to change their ways.

Admittedly, I was disappointed, but I also understood because we are becoming victims of our own environment. If the first reaction is going to continue to be reflective of “the way it has always been”, change will be slow and the challenge for success will be greater.

By collecting, collating and leveraging just six characters of data, we have been able to put another proverbial arrow in the quiver of our Realtors. Going back to the original challenge for leaders in organized real estate to think differently, I’ll ask, what “six characters” are out there that could create the same result for your members?

Trevor Koot is the executive officer of the Kootenay Real Estate Board and the Kamloops and District Real Estate Association. REM

Spring squirrels (in the attic)

By Dan St. Yves

A

s I watched out my living room window a few weeks ago, I noticed a couple of hares in my yard. For the record, being in Alberta they are indeed hares, not rabbits.

Whatever they were considered was immaterial, as the more pressing matter suddenly became an unexpected boxing match between the two well-matched furballs. Each were up on their hind legs, trading excited blows.

However, those jabs turned out to be but a prelude to something considerably more intimate - nature at work on my lawn, hares as frisky

as rabbits – and all of this not even on late-night cable!

Well, it is the circle of life after all, replenishing the stock so to speak. Who knew that just a few weeks later, another fur-bearing procreator would be busy out of sight, but not that far away from also invading the presumed quiet enjoyment of my property.

It started with a rustling sound one night, which I dismissed as what my tummy does all the time, ahead of requiring some sort of input – be that healthy or not, given the time of day and proximity to options.

The thing that was odd about this tummy rumbling was that it was coming from above my head, and was strong enough to drop some ceiling dust down.

I made a mental note to check that dust issue out later, but as soon as I made some noise, the rustling stopped. But not for long. Soon enough, there was ample evidence

that something was up in our attic.

I needed to investigate.

Putting a ladder up to our second storey and then further past, upwards to the attic access, was considerably higher than I was typically comfortable with considering my acute fear of heights, but I needed to know what was going on up there.

Once I had ascended the ladder that really shouldn’t have been as shaky as it seemed to be (maybe that was just my knees...) I opened the access and pointed my flashlight in – which set off a flurry of activity that took everyone involved by the exact same amount of surprise.

The nesting squirrels scrambled briefly, before the protective male or the oh-no-you-don’t mama bolted towards the roof opening that my face was perched in. Not for much longer as it turned out, as the shakiness I had experienced earlier was exchanged

for immediate self–preservation, which in this case turned out to be pushing the ladder away from the side of the building.

Into thin air.

It’s a damn good thing that I’m the Olympic-level procrastinator that I am, or otherwise the creaky maple tree beside the house would have been cut down a week or two before this unforeseen escapade. I was saved from catapulting into my neighbour’s guest bathroom by that tree and was able to shimmy down to safety.

I obviously needed a plan now that I knew what I was up against.

Borrowing my daughter’s catcher baseball mask and adding a winter topcoat and gloves from the basement storage unit, I positioned the ladder one more time, along with a mostly strung old tennis racket at the ready. As I looked in again, Spartacus had anticipated my return and charged once again hellbent for leather and maybe even

the taste of human flesh. Again, even armed and protected as I was, the ladder went backwards with considerable speed, again into my maple tree.

Pondering options, I wondered if could smoke them out like a beehive, or if squirrels might snicker at such a sad attempt at eviction.

Clearly I needed some professional help. I mean, how many times can you keel backwards into a tree before your luck runs out?

I opted instead to call an exterminator, and within a few days the squirrels were safely relocated.

Given the time of year, be careful when you peek into spaces where you might not be expecting to find a few new friends!

Humour columnist and author Dan St. Yves was licensed with Royal LePage Kelowna for 11 years. Check out his website at www.nonsenseandstuff.com, or contact him at danst.yves@hotmail.com. REM

REM JUNE 2019 39

How flexible working is changing the property landscape The following is paid, promotional content.

The world of business workplaces is going through a revolution – a flexible workspace revolution.

Employee expectations and increasingly advanced technologies are the main catalysts – more employees than ever are demanding agile working options and new technologies are broadening the horizons for how they can operate flexibly.

Conference calls on your mobile, meetings through the cloud and powerful internet connections reaching the most remote locations. It all adds up to higher expectations regarding how flexible businesses should be. But it’s not all about the employee; a flexible working model usually results in higher levels of productivity and employee satisfaction.

A seismic shift Gone are the days of grey, cold offices with unreliable internet and bad coffee. The flexible workspace revolution has opened the door to much more vibrant, creative, and ultimately, productive, working environments.

IWG, the multinational flexible serviced offices provider with a portfolio of brands including Regus, recently conducted a survey of 15,000 professionals in 80 countries. The outcome? Most respondents said they already view flexible working as “the new normal.”

How it affects the property sector Through their employees’ shifting and developing preferences, business leaders throughout the world are starting to recognise the benefits of developing a flexible workspace policy.

Research from IWG’s survey shows that 83 per cent of workers across the globe would not be interested in a job if it didn’t offer flexible working. Over half (54 per cent) said that the option to choose their place of work, ie, working remotely, is more important than working for a prestigious company.

Almost a third (28 per cent) of the people surveyed even said

they value being able to choose their work location over being given more annual leave.

By matching these preferences, business leaders can retain the top talent and ensure their staff are happy and productive.

But to fully accommodate employee demands, businesses need support from property owners and developers.

As it seems offering flexible workspace is now imperative in order to attract and retain talent, this gives the property sector as a whole – including landlords, developers and brokers – a great opportunity to get involved in the flexible workspace trend.

How to join the flexible workspace revolution For some businesses, it’s not as simple as saying ‘yes’ to joining the new way of working. From the survey, 60 per cent of respondents said that changing workplace culture is a tough hurdle to overcome to successfully implement a new workspace policy.

This is especially true of companies with a longstanding, nonflexible working approach. The impact of flexible working on a company’s overall culture also makes it a challenge to implement, with 41 per cent of respondents saying this was a concern for them.

With a range of office formats, as well as growing mobile, virtual office, and workplace recovery businesses, Regus is the world’s largest provider of flexible workspaces.

Customers include successful entrepreneurs, individuals and multi-billion-dollar corporations. To find out more, visit regus.ca

The real benefit of the workspace revolution for landlords and workspace providers comes from supporting businesses that are either on the fence or struggling to make the necessary changes.

Offer property and workspace already fit for the revolution or enable making the shift less arduous and you’ll likely attract and retain more tenants.

There’s already been an increase in property developers and owners wanting to enter the sector to capitalise on this wider business and cultural shift.

Considering more than a third (38 per cent) of global businesses have introduced a flexible workspace policy over the past four years, there’s clearly lots more growth to come.

Flexible workspace providers like IWG are at the forefront of helping businesses make this cultural shift, but the property sector has a major role to play as well.

To learn more about how you can benefit from the flexible working revolution, visit regus.ca or call +1 844 241 5515.

40 REM JUNE 2019

Good Works T

he Western Hockey League and Re/Max of Western Canada announced that over $460,000 was raised through two seasons of the Re/Max Presents: WHL Suits Up with Don Cherry to Promote Organ Donation campaign.

From Jan. 19 to March 9, the WHL’s 17 Canadian member clubs played host to themed game nights, complete with a variety of promotions for fans in attendance.

“No force in Canada is stronger than Canadians who love hockey, so when the Western Hockey League joined forces with The Kidney Foundation of Canada and Re/Max of Western Canada to promote organ donation, you knew something great was going to happen,” says Don Cherry in a news release. “In two years, together, they raised nearly half a million dollars and brought organ donation front and centre in people’s minds. Last year there was a rise of

transplants in Canada by 2.6 per cent, in the west that percentage was 13.3 per cent. All involved should be very proud.”

Fans had the opportunity to bid on the limited-edition jerseys, with proceeds going to local chapters of The Kidney Foundation of Canada. In addition to game-worn uniforms, fans were given the chance to bid on a Don Cherryautographed jersey in each participating WHL market.

■ ■ ■

Canadian Realty One Group family members took part in their first One Day event on May 1, a company-wide celebration of its anniversary when offices and agents around the world go into their communities to volunteer and give back. Fourteen years ago, CEO Kuba Jewgieniew founded the real estate franchisor in Las Vegas and began the annual tradition of community service in lieu

of parties or celebrations.

“This is such an important day for our organization as the tradition of helping others instead of celebrating our own successes is at the core of who we are as Realty One Group,” says Shami Sandhu, president and regional director for Realty One group of Western Canada. The Edmonton office was closed for the day as the entire office volunteered at Edmonton’s Food Bank, spending the morning packing hampers for those in need.

■ ■ ■

The 8th Annual Easter Seals Dancing with the Stars event took place in Barrie, Ont. recently, raising $77,000 for the cause. Theresa Kerr, manager of Century 21 B.J. Roth Realty, took part in the competition. She was paired with a professional dancer and did her own fundraising.

“This was such an incredible event to be a part of. I am thrilled to say that I beat my fundraising goal and raised a total of $10,050,” says Kerr. “Although I will not be quitting my job to become a professional dancer, it was great to learn how to dance.”

■ ■ ■

Colourful baskets filled with chocolates, candies and stuffed

Century 21 Atria Realty, Century 21 Millennium, Century 21 B.J. Roth Realty and Century 21 Dreams participated in the Easter Seals Telethon in Toronto on April 7. The telethon raised more than $4 million and Century 21 companies were recognized for their $313,000 contribution to Easter Seals Ontario.

Everyone at the Realty One Group Insider office in Edmonton volunteered at the Edmonton Food Bank.

The Kidney Foundation of Canada teamed up with the WHL, Re/Max of Western Canada and Don Cherry to bring awareness to the organ donation campaign.

toys are sure to make even a sick child smile. With that in mind, volunteers from Sutton - Premier Realty in Surrey, B.C. recently assembled and delivered 30 Easter baskets to the Surrey Memorial Hospital. The treats were given out to patients on the pediatric ward and their siblings at Ronald McDonald House.

“It’s amazing how many people I know who have personally benefitted from the great services Ronald McDonald House provides to families,” says Realtor Rob Christensen. “It was a very rewarding feeling to shop for the candy and put together the Easter baskets.”

■ ■ ■

Four Calgary real estate professionals recently raised $16,652 to make a difference for local women and children affected by family violence. Marta Raczkowska of Royal LePage Solutions and Wayne Nelson, Chris Pitman and Dave Shulz of Royal LePage Benchmark teamed up to host a Night in Morocco fundraising event.

Their 150 guests were treated to a traditional Moroccan meal catered by the University of Calgary and tea service and décor provided by the local Moroccan community. A belly dancing performance had many inspired to

give the moves a try, while silent and live auctions contributed to the fundraising.

Next, the group plans to organize a Walk to Lake Louise from June 3 to 8.

■ ■ ■

Royal LePage Turner Realty in Gander, NL hosted a performance of The Vagina Monologues recently, raising $5,000 for the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation. The funds were directed to Cara Transition House, an organization providing shelter and security to women and their children who are fleeing family violence.

Organizer and sales rep Michele Dove says, “We couldn’t have asked for a better response from Gander and surrounding areas. We also received a lovely thank you from Ann Marie Connors, executive director at Cara House, expressing her heartfelt appreciation. We’re thoroughly inspired to continue to do all we can to support the brave women and children they serve.”

■ ■ ■

For the second consecutive year, Realtors and staff from Royal LePage Kamloops Realty and Royal LePage Westwin Realty in Continued on page 41

Theresa Kerr dances to raise funds for Easter Seals (Photo: Ian G. McIntosh Photography)

From right: Gary Sangha, Omar Samadi, Ronn Diaz, Teresa Tsang, Rob Christensen, Ron Torres, Hardeep Sidhu and Kelvin Neufeld of Sutton – Premier Realty.

Royal LePage RCR Realty sales rep Trish Condo (left) and Jennifer Sheppard, administrative assistant with the brokerage, present funds raised at Rock ’n Roll Bingo for Shelter.

Night in Morocco fundraising event organizers, from left: Wayne Nelson, Dave Shulz, Chris Pitman and Marta Raczkowska.

REM JUNE 2019 41

Real estate is more than listings and sales

By Liz Spooner

I

used to think when I started in real estate that it was all about contacting my sphere of influence to grow my business, like I had seen from other successful Realtors.

Let’s face it, once you get started and you have tapped into your family and friends, worked at open houses, put out the benches, bus signs, mail drops and billboards, what is there left to do? I should be successful by now, right?

The referrals should start coming in after a few years and the growth of my business should increase, right? I could not have been more wrong.

It’s not just about marketing your face and name in your community. You need to do, you need to be, you need to give, you need to forget about the “sale” to be successful.

You need to invest in your community without any expecta-

Good Works Continued from page 40

Kamloops, B.C. joined forces in support of their local YMCA Women’s Shelter for a “Day of Caring”.

The shelter desperately needed a garden storage shed and managing broker Audrey Shaw was confident the Realtors were up to the task. Funds were raised to purchase the supplies and over the course of two shifts the shed was completed.

During the construction, other volunteers from the office were gardening, painting and cleaning the shelter grounds.

■ ■ ■

Sixteen students from Western Canada will be awarded a Re/Max 2019 Quest for Excellence bursary valued at $1,000 during their school commencement ceremonies. The annual program encourages graduating students from British Columbia, Alberta,

tions. “Service Above Self” is the motto of my Rotary Club and Rotarians worldwide and those are powerful words. How can you expect to ask if you don’t give?

Powerful words. Service…doing things in your community…. above self…without any expectations in return.

When you sign up to be a part of your community without expectations, something happens.

Become a generous philanthropist, a professional volunteer.

Yes, the rewards of giving surpass what money can buy. The rewards of giving will be worth more to you than you know. Giving back to your community through volunteer groups, non-profit organizations, charity or other means does so much to help those in need and contribute to the common good.

This is the road to success in your community. Pay it forward and feel good, because you can make a difference. I have had the pleasure to work with the Elgin

Street Mission, my Rotary Sunrisers Club, Soup Sisters, Maison McCulloch Hospice, Salvation Army, a social Facebook group Widows Moving Forward, Coats and Coffee, Nutrition for the Mission… The avenues are endless. Volunteering will not only enhance your drive to be a successful leader in your community, but it will also set an example for others.

You’ll grow as a salesperson but also as a compassionate individual making a difference where you live. Why not become a volunteer and pay it forward today?

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Liz Spooner-Young is a full-time Realtor at Re/Max Crown Realty (1989) Inc. Brokerage and a member of Cross Canada Referrals for Greater Sudbury. Born and raised in Sudbury, Ont. she enjoys giving back to her community through many volunteer organizations. Liz is married to Jim Young with a blended family of five adult children, five grandchildren and five grand dogs and cats.

REM

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Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon and Northwest Territories to submit an essay detailing the contributions they have made to their communities. The bursary winners have all demonstrated exceptional motivation, leadership and communication skills.

“The Quest for Excellence program gives us an opportunity to acknowledge amazing young leaders throughout Western Canada,” says Elton Ash, regional executive vice president.

■ ■ ■

Trish Condo of Royal LePage RCR Realty in Bolton, Ont. raised $1,275 at her Rock ’n Roll Bingo for Shelter fundraising event recently, held in support of the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation and local women’s shelter Family Transition Place.

Rock ’n Roll Bingo is a music trivia game based on the TV game show Name That Tune.

Players have to identify song

clips playing during the evening on Bingo cards made up of the names of the songs.

■ ■ ■

Paula Langille of Royal LePage Atlantic in Halifax raised $2,670 at a fundraising dance in support of the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation.

“I couldn’t have asked for a more fantastic group of people to have gathered in support of our local shelters,” says Langille. “As a mother to three girls, I want the women seeking safety to know that we are here for them and that we are raising money to allow shelters to concentrate on providing the life-changing and life-saving work they do without constantly worrying about funding.”

Funds raised at the Dance for Shelter will be directed by the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation to both Alice House in Halifax and the Cape Breton Transition House. REM

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42 REM JUNE 2019

How to stand out from the competition

By Catherine Willems

“K

now a good real estate agent?” Pose this question to just about anyone you meet and chances are they will have a friend, aunt, brother, second cousin or neighbour in the business…or they know someone that knows someone. You get the picture.

You’re competing with a lot of other agents for those coveted listings and buyers. So how do you stand out in such a crowded marketplace?

It all starts with your brand.

I’ve been in marketing my entire career, so it’s no surprise I would go here. But whether you call it branding or something else, the concept of doing or saying things to appeal to a specific audience to persuade them to like you or buy your product or service has

been around forever. Simple things like the way we dress or style our hair, form part of our personal brand.

What is branding and why is it so important? When we think of branding, the first thing that comes to mind is a logo. But a brand is more than just a logo. Your brand is all about how you present yourself in the marketplace. It is how you want to be perceived by your clients. It embodies your personality, your promise, your focus.

Beyond a logo, your brand includes elements such as a colour palette, typography and image style. But it doesn’t stop there. It is also about your voice – the words you use when you write a blog or post on social media. It’s the personality and tone that comes through everything you do. And yes, it can even include the way you dress and style your hair.

Branding is the foundation for everything you do. And it drives your marketing. Without branding, your marketing efforts are wasted. Think of branding as the foundation of a house and marketing as the rest – the walls, the doors, the windows and roof.

Without a solid foundation, your house falls apart.

How do you develop a brand?

Besides reflecting who you are, your brand must appeal to your target audience. The first step in developing your brand is identifying your ideal customer.

Once you know your target audience, your brand look, tone and message can all be designed to appeal to this audience.

In developing your brand, ask yourself the following questions: 1. What makes me different (from my competition)?

2. What do I stand for?

3. What do I stand against?

4. What gives me inspiration?

5. What is my promise (to my clients)?

Your answers should be supported by or reflected in all of your branding from your logo to your messaging.

Remember this though, just as your brand should appeal to your target audience it must also be authentic to you. If your brand doesn’t reflect who you are, people will see through it. It will work against you rather than for you.

Marketing your brand: Once you have your brand developed, you must use it consistently throughout your marketing – from business cards and signage to social media posts.

If you use an external agency to develop it, they should provide you with a Brand Guide that outlines the do’s and don’ts for your logo, proper use of colours and typography, how to use your tag line (if you have one) and other rules and directions for applying your brand.

This type of guidance is important because a consistent presentation of your brand helps to build trust. And trust is critical in real estate.

It’s fairly easy to get the visual parts of your brand consistent.

Where it can get tricky is in the voice – how you communicate.

One way to help with this is to develop a content strategy.

A content strategy sets the direction for your communication style and includes things like: • Your audience – what challenges and pain points you should be addressing in your content • Your messaging – what key messages should be communicated

throughout your content; why people should work with you • Your voice – what personality should be conveyed in your writing and how it should be expressed. For example, if you want to appear approachable you might use a more casual tone. You might use humour or keep things professional.

By presenting a consistent message and style in everything you do, eventually you become recognizable. It won’t happen instantly, but if you commit to your brand and use it effectively, you will stand out from your competition.

Self-described geek, artist and fledgling hockey goalie, Catherine Willems has been in marketing for over 25 years and focused on digital since it became a thing. Since starting her own business in 2009, she’s helped over 100 clients across two continents achieve online marketing success. As the owner of Realty Marketing, she has faced the same entrepreneurial struggles as many of you and can pass on her learnings to give you back your late nights and weekends. https://calendly.com/realtymarketing Phone 416-994-2332. REM

U.S. referrals firm enters Canadian market

By Myles Shane

S

an Francisco-based ReferralExchange, a source of referrals and lead-gen management to more than 25,000 real estate agents in the United States, has expanded to Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto.

Scott Olsen, CEO of RefferalExchange, says he’s ecstatic the company is entering the Canadian market. “By combining our matching algorithms with a seasoned and licensed outreach team, we have connected agents and clients around the United States.

We’ve been asked by many agents to bring our service to Canada. We know it will be a real benefit to consumers searching for a trusted agent.”

Lisa Fettner, VP of marketing, explained why Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver were the

cities selected. “We wanted to start in heavily populated areas where we had access to a wide variety of top-performing agents to connect to who met our qualifications. All of these markets have seen record prices and sales in recent years. We’ll continue to expand as the need – and availability of agents and clients – arises.”

ReferralExchange says it matches over 200,000 leads a year and completes over three million calls. By devoting time and care to each individual inquiry, it says it presents agents with verified prospects. Founded in 2005, ReferralExchange has built an invite-only network of over 25,000 Realtors.

What makes ReferralExchange stand out from the other companies online that

offer similar services? Fettner says, “ReferralExchange is truly dedicated to creating great real estate experiences between real estate professionals and customers. No other service offers a complete lead-to-close service, powered by data science and white glove customer service.

We only match clients with the two to five best agents who fit their specific needs, based on a variety of factors including price fit, location, special needs. For example, we want to match a first-time buyer with agents who specialize in first-time buyers in the area the client is interested in.”

If the lead results in a sale, ReferralExchange gets a 25-percent referral fee upon closing.

The company is also about to launch a new service. “We will

soon be presenting our agent-toagent and lead-management services. This is an especially important resource given the new dual-agency laws in British Columbia,” says Fettner.

“Agents will be able to refer clients to another agent who fits the client’s specific needs to handle the other side of the transaction – or for any other situation where they can’t service the client – for example, if they’re moving to a new city or province. ReferralExchange can contact and live-transfer third-party leads back to agents.”

The company’s first referred sale took place in Mississauga, Ont. Every agent at the network has been selected for their skill level and experience, the com-

pany says. Consumers look for a referral at TopAgentsRanked.ca.

“We encourage clients to interview several agents and we provide them with great options to choose from. Buying or selling a home is a huge transaction and it’s important to find the right agent. People sometimes submit requests to multiple sites so it’s important to reach them quickly.

“For the agent, we verify the consumer’s information is correct and then contact them to get more information about their specific needs prior to matching them to agents.”

Agents looking to be part of ReferralExchange’s Canadian network should email canada@referralexchange.com to apply. REM

Individual success and achievement are primarily based on one’s sense of self-worth. The picture that you have of yourself on the inside determines how you act and react on the outside. From EXIT’s earliest days, Steve taught everyone the power of affirming in the present tense, reinforcing who they are and who they want to become. Over time, he created an app called Prompter!™ to guide users in their daily affirmation habit. Prompter!™ is available in the App Store and Google Play and today has thousands of regular users of all ages and walks of life.

A portion of every transaction fee received by EXIT Realty Corp.

International is pledged to charity and that figure to-date is $4 million. Early on, our charity of choice was Habitat for Humanity because the organization’s philosophy of providing a hand up rather than a handout fit with ours, and we wanted our associates to experience building a house with others.

As we grew, we wanted to touch more communities more often, so we expanded our charitable initiative and dubbed it the Spirit of EXIT Dollar-for-Dollar Matching Program. Through this program, EXIT offices and associates can raise money for local, approved, registered charities and apply to EXIT’s head office to have those funds matched from the company’s pledged pool of funds.

Not only does this give us a bigger giving bang for our buck, but it gives everyone the opportunity to participate. The Spirit of EXIT

People want to be part of something better. They want to feel like they belong. People want to feel like they’re being heard and that their individuality is honored, that they have the opportunity to contribute and to earn a living which will not only finance their lifestyle today and tomorrow but also their dreams. In short, people want to matter.

If someone were to set about creating a real estate company founded on this fundamental principle, they would first invent a unique business model which fosters an atmosphere of mentorship and offers unlimited income potential. They would then work to strengthen each individual in the organization from the inside out, providing them with the tools and opportunity to learn and grow, not only as real estate professionals but as parents, spouses, friends, and neighbors. And that’s precisely the company EXIT Realty’s Founder and Chairman, Steve Morris, created.

EXIT Realty is a company built on human potential. Steve looked at the problems in the real estate industry and asked, “How can I change that?” and the EXIT Formula was born. But the EXIT Formula of single-level residual income is so much more than a business model. Recruiting and retaining top talent is critical to the profitability of any real estate company, but the true measure of its success lies in its ability to provide an environment where people, regardless of their role, can thrive personally as well as professionally.

strengthens our culture by bringing our associates and the community together for a common good. The more vested our associates are in the company, the more they are willing to take the risks necessary to achieve their dreams.

As a real estate industry leader, EXIT offers innovative technology, leading-edge real estate skills training, an unparalleled culture, and an unrivaled financial model; every pillar of our success was developed first and foremost with the human being in mind. Along with our Founder and Chairman, Steve Morris, our 18-member executive team has 459 combined years of real estate experience and has been with EXIT for an average of more than 15 years. We are a stable, privately held company. We do not answer to shareholders nor to the whims of a here-today-gone-tomorrow figurehead.

Real estate has always been and will continue to be a people business. The hype today may be all about disruption, but EXIT was a disrupter long before that word was in vogue. Regardless of what the media or the competition is focused on, at EXIT Realty, we are focused on people, then, now and always.

Experience EXIT for yourself. Visit exitrealty.com/exit for more information.

“...A UNIQUE BUSINESS MODEL WHICH FOSTERS AN ATMOSPHERE OF MENTORSHIP AND OFFERS UNLIMITED INCOME POTENTIAL.”

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44 REM JUNE 2019

ShowingTime opens first Canadian office

By Mario Toneguzzi

C

h i c a g o - b a s e d ShowingTime, a showing management and market stats technology provider, has opened an office in Toronto to support its burgeoning growth in Canada.

The company says more than 50,000 real estate agents across Canada now use ShowingTime products and services, including the almost 5,000 agents at Right At Home Realty in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada’s largest independently owned and operated real estate brokerage. Right At Home’s 10 offices went live in April with the ShowingTime Appointment Centre and its Live Connect offering.

“The demand from our growing client base throughout Canada has never been greater, and our new office will help us support our product lines to meet that

demand,” says Michael Lane, president of ShowingTime.

“In a nutshell, we provide technology and services that facilitate real estate showings. Our clients subscribe to software or a live showing centre that we host, which is a group of about 300 individuals who answer showing appointment calls 24/7/365,” says Lane. “Realtors tend to be pretty busy with clients or in their car going from meeting to meeting and they can’t easily pick up the phone at any given time to do the work that’s necessary to confirm an appointment…. The efficiency of handling that request is really critical.”

ShowingTime was established in 1999. The company first entered the Canadian market with a Realtors’ association as a client in the Kitchener-Waterloo area about four or five years ago. Now,

ShowingTime is being used by 20 to 30 real estate boards throughout Canada.

“We’re supporting about 50,000 agents throughout Canada through our relationships with Realtor associations, brokers or individual agent subscriptions,” says Lane. “Canada has been our most rapidly growing area of clients.

“We felt it was time to have a team there because it’s so important when people call in for help to have somebody that knows the nuances of the market that we’re serving,” says Lane. “Real estate is a local business and they feel better if they feel that the team handling their needs is within the same area that they are.”

Besides Right At Home, ShowingTime customers include two MLS systems that have multiple boards as members, Ontario

Regional Technology and Information Systems (ORTIS) and the Ontario Collective. The Ottawa Real Estate Board is also a client.

John Lusink, president and broker of record of Right At Home Realty, says the company selected ShowingTime for its focus on technology and all-inone approach to handling showing management and agent/client communications.

“We were using multiple vendors to help us schedule showings, deliver messages and communicate with our agent teams” until they partnered with ShowingTime, he says.

“ShowingTime has been making inroads in the Canadian market, setting up their service with some independent brokerages but also some MLS boards . . . We decided to investigate and lo and behold,

they were at the same time interested in establishing a Canadian presence because this is a company that had people located in four or five different areas in the U.S. but no Canadian presence. At the end of the day, we came to an agreement to merge our call centre with their firm and we have now switched our entire company over to their service.”

Lusink says the company gives Right At Home “industry-leading software and applications for the agents…. They also have all kinds of statistical tools and other programs that our salespeople are really excited about.”

ShowingTime has more than 1.2 million active listings subscribed to its services. Its products are used in more than 250 MLSs, representing nearly one million real estate professionals across the U.S. and Canada. REM

Referrals and conflict of interest

By Jeff Stern

T

here is a wide array of professional services home buyers and sellers use during the buying and selling processes.

Lenders and lawyers are the ones people are most familiar with.

There are also home inspectors, insurance brokers and home stagers, to name a few.

Historically, real estate brokerages have been the central link in this chain, but only one link.

Lawyers, inspectors and other professional services have had to be sought by the clients themselves.

Some people want to change that.

There is interest in providing an all-inclusive real estate brokerage fee. Essentially, the brokerage hired to represent you in your sale or purchase would also pay for your legal fees and inspection fees in this bun-

dle of services. Virtual tours, home staging, inspection and legal fees… get it all for a single listing fee. No “hidden extras”. What a great deal!

All-in-one, bundled services sounds convenient, I know. And, to a degree, it is. I’ll be first in line to say advocating for clients and helping ease them through the big convoluted process is a good idea.

Here’s the problem. I smell opportunity for conflict of interest.

We all question the motives of anyone who recommends anyone else, don’t we? If a blogger recommends a particular webcam or device on Amazon, we wonder if it’s an affiliate link meant to give them a commission. Nothing wrong with making a cut, but let’s not pretend that’s not a motivating factor.

Banks sell life insurance, which I strongly recommend to my clients to NOT purchase (through the bank). Know why? It costs more and you get less.

It tends to be higher priced than private insurance bought through an arms-length insurance agent (you know, so banks can boost their profits) and is offered right there as an up-sell when you’re “already”

getting something done. It’s so easy and convenient, but it pales in comparison to that of an independent insurance policy.

The bank is in it to make money, not to safeguard your future.

The result can be insurance that only covers whatever is outstanding on the mortgage at the time and in the event of death or injury. You pay, pay, pay premiums for years (premiums that only increase with each passing term, by the way) and your actual pay-out coverage goes down, down, down, as your mortgage balance goes down.

The bank gets theirs, and you, well, whatever. That’s not their problem. It’s your problem.

And it’s exactly that kind of commonly found self-interest that frightens me about real estate brokerages adding this sort of in-house professional bundle of services.

As consumers, we should always approach recommendations with a healthy dose of skepticism, factoring in the motives of those who are “trying to help us”.

As service providers, we should make every effort to make sure our motives are clean and pure when

helping our clients. This applies to so many things, but for the purpose of this article, let’s apply it to our recommendations.

Clients need professional help.

In more ways than one. They’re going to ask you for recommendations.

Who will you recommend and why? Will you refer based on who pays you a fee? Will you refer based on who you networked with in a business group or at the latest Christmas party? Or will you base it on who has credentials and an excellent reputation?

I don’t know if we can ever be completely altruistic, but we can sure try. It’s exactly all this selfmotivated, conflict of interest stuff that has me being extra cautious about recommending people. It’s why I carefully screen those professionals who I do recommend, teach people how to screen their own professionals (when hiring lawyers, home inspectors and lenders, for example) and it’s also why I make sure to provide at least three names of professionals if I provide any at all.

None, by the way, pay me a

referral, or reciprocate in any way.

Heck, they may not even know that I recommend them at all!

Because monetary and social reciprocity is not the reason I recommend them to my clients. I refer my clients to them because I believe they will do the very best job for my clients, and it’s my clients’ interests I’m looking out for.

If you take away any one thing from all of this, I hope it’s this: If you’re sitting across the desk from any professional who’s recommending any other professional, I think this blanket-statement advice will serve you well: Get multiple recommendations, then vet, vet, vet.

Jeff Stern, a 27-year real estate veteran with Re/Max Performance Realty in Winnipeg, received the 2017 CMHC/MREA Distinguished Realtor Award. He is an instructor for the Provincial Real Estate Licensing program. He writes stimulating and enlightening articles on his blog at www.jeffstern.com. The opinions expressed are those of Jeff Stern and not the Manitoba Real Estate Association. REM

REM JUNE 2019 45

GETTING BACK TO BASICS: As technology changes the real estate business, remember your roots The following is paid, promotional content.

By Christopher Alexander It’s a golden age for consumers, with information at their fingertips and convenience being the ultimate hot commodity. The retail, finance and travel industries have been forever changed, with access to products and services just a simple swipe, scroll and screen-tap away. The real estate industry is not far off, with homebuyers and sellers gaining increased access to online property listings, sold data, digital transactions, agent profiles and broker ratings. Technology is an enabler, empowering consumers to educate themselves on the real estate transaction.

What a great time to be in this business, and agents who wish to stay relevant with con-

sumers and competitive against their rivals must adopt technology in their business, much like they have in life outside the office.

Discounting the importance of technology could prove fatal for the real estate professional, but I’m here to argue that perhaps the bigger mistake lies in neglecting what attracted most of us to this field in the first place— the human experience.

As real estate agents, we make dreams come true. Our objective, beyond a signed contract, is to provide attentive service, accurate information and the best advice in what is the most significant transaction most of us will ever make in our lifetime—a home. Successful agents are constantly asking themselves: how can I better serve my clients? Technology is part of the answer, but it’s certainly not the whole story.

As the use of real estate technology and digitization reach an alltime high, it’s more important now than ever for agents to get back to basics. Real estate success is built on high-touch, emotional relationships between agents and consumers, which we cannot forget.

This begs the question: will technology ever replace the human touch? The short answer is, only if you let it.

There are a number of new companies coming on stream,

tempting consumers with their low-cost, do-it-yourself approach to buying and selling a home.

The onus is on the real estate professional to prove his or her true worth.

Technology should be a complement to the human experience. Agents will be continually challenged to strike a balance between old-school and newschool business practices in order to achieve growth. The reality is, the majority of commissions will still come from mining a database, not the single-digit conversions from the internet.

Here are some ways agents can up their game in today’s connected real estate landscape.

Online reputation management matters. Consumers trust online reviews just as much as they do personal recommendations. Good news… right?

Clearly there’s power in having digital clout and highlighting your online rating, but it must be groomed and managed on a regular basis. Encourage your clients to rate your services online. If a less-than-positive review surfaces, address it as soon as possible. The goal is to address the original concern, and to show others that you care about your clients.

Forge meaningful, transparent relationships—online and offline. It can be challenging for buyers and sellers to navigate the

real estate transaction and weed out misinformation online. This is where the real estate agent relationship can never be truly replaced. Prospects may find initial information online, but will come to you as a trusted, dependable advisor during the buying and selling process. Additionally, be forthcoming—yet optimistic—about the complexities of the home-buying processes, contracts, appraisals, etc. Your candor educates the client all while showcasing your credibility.

Don’t forget about personalization. The home buying and selling process increasingly demands technology, but more than this, it requires a customized touch. We must remember to tailor our approach to resonate with each individual client; while one may request a digitally advanced process, another may wish for hard paper copies of everything. The key to success is listening and responding in the way the clients prefers.

Sometimes you need to put the phone down. Technology has optimized the way we do business, and many of us have adapted well. Maybe you text a client versus call them if you have a brief update. That being said, don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty. Tried-and-true best practices are not to be ignored.

Meaningful outreach by way of brick and mortar, face-to-face

conversations and open houses might have more of an impact than you may think.

In order to thrive among the ever-growing number of real estate disruptors, real estate professionals need to uphold the high standards that bring real value to the consumer. This is particularly critical in this era of online fake news, speculation around a housing crisis, rising housing prices and changing government regulations. Today’s homebuyers and sellers need REALTORS® who are at the top of their game and dedicated to their real estate career—because Canadians who are making the biggest financial decision of their lifetime deserve that level of attention.

Christopher Alexander is Executive Vice President and Regional Director of RE/MAX INTEGRA, Ontario-Atlantic Region. Christopher started his career as a Sales Representative at RE/MAX Professionals Inc. in 2010. He then joined the Regional Office as a Franchise Sales Consultant in 2014. Christopher rose through the ranks and is a third-generation RE/MAX leader, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, RE/MAX INTEGRA Co-founder and Chairman Frank Polzler, and his mother, RE/MAX INTEGRA, North America CEO Pamela Alexander.

About RE/MAX INTEGRA and RE/MAX INTEGRA, Ontario-Atlantic Canada RE/MAX INTEGRA, founded in 1980, is a privately held company by Canadian entrepreneurs. With regional headquarters in Toronto, Boston, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Zug, and Vienna, RE/MAX INTEGRA represents nearly a third of all RE/MAX Sales Associates worldwide. The company was founded on the premise of providing outstanding service and support both at the regional level and to the end consumer. The Ontario-Atlantic Canada region has surpassed 10,000 quality Associates; The US regions — New England and the Midwest (including the following states: Minnesota, Wisconsin and Indiana) – account for more than 6,500 Associates with over 2,600 and 3,800 Associates respectively; and the European region leads with more than 16,000 Associates. For more information about RE/MAX INTEGRA, visit www.remaxintegra.com

46 REM JUNE 2019

RECO’s report card on MCE courses

By Joe Richer

H

ave you ever wondered how successful companies manage to attain greatness? Author Jim Collins studied over 1,400 established firms for his book, Good to Great, and he discovered the secret isn’t money, technology or even fear of failure, but rather steadfast discipline, or “a down-to-earth, pragmatic, committed-to-excellence process – a framework kept each company, its leaders and its people on track for the long haul.”

In other words, organizations must continually commit themselves to the task of improvement.

The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) expects salespeople and brokers to upgrade their skills and knowledge through continuing education: completing RECO’s Mandatory Continuing Education (MCE) courses and exploring additional professional development opportunities.

RECO holds itself to similar expectations of continual improvement. That’s why last year, following a competitive RFP process, RECO worked with consulting firm CamProf Inc. to launch a formal and rigorous review of all aspects of the MCE program.

Overall, 2018 was a very good year for the MCE program. RECO introduced four new elective courses, and its work received some

important recognition. RECO’s Advertising Compliance MCE elective was awarded the Brandon Hall Group’s Bronze in the “2018 Best Advance in Compliance Training” category, while the Real Estate Fraud section of the 2017 Update Course, and the Waterfront Properties course received Platinum and Gold Hermes Creative Awards, respectively.

It was an honour for my colleagues to receive these awards, but the real test of the MCE program is its overall perception by RECO’s registrants. That’s why every MCE course includes a feedback survey.

RECO received 19,463 survey responses from registrants last year, and the results were extremely positive: • 97 per cent indicated the content was relevant to their individual real estate practice • 96 per cent indicated the activities gave them the opportunity to apply their knowledge of the topics • 96 per cent indicated the content was interesting and easy to follow • 97 per cent indicated the course was easy to navigate and understand • 91 per cent liked the pace of the course • 96 per cent enjoyed the flexibility of learning online at their own convenience and pace.

My colleagues and I were pleased with these results, but we decided the program could benefit from an outside evaluation.

Since most of RECO’s registrants had completed the MCE cycle, RECO launched a review that

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included a specific examination of the technology platform and the possibility of adding new features and functionality, the relevancy and presentation of course content, the learner experience and course delivery methods, including the feasibility of classroom options as well as social and micro learning. CamProf sought registrant feedback through surveys and focus groups.

All RECO registrants who had taken the MCE program were asked to participate in a special CamProf survey a year ago. These results were also positive: 78 per cent of our registrants believed they were better informed about regulatory requirements after they took a course, and satisfaction with the content, delivery and applicability of our courses was 70 per cent or higher, depending upon the course.

The CamProf survey data informed RECO staff that twothirds of respondents completed additional or supplementary professional development elsewhere – mostly through brokerages and local boards. RECO has always encouraged registrants to take a proactive approach to professional development, so this was very encouraging.

Real estate salespeople and brokers are eager to learn, but they want to learn on their own terms; for instance, 87 per cent said they want to complete the MCE program on their chosen device and many registrants mentioned in the

How one brokerage...

Continued from page 30

superior training programs for new sales representatives as well as support and mentorship for all salespeople we employ. The study group program is a great enhancement because it allows opportunities for students to meet new and experienced agents around our office to gain more confidence about pursuing a career in real estate.

“The Century 21 study group helped me to prepare for my real estate exams,” said Mark V., one of the students who has participated in the study sessions from the beginning and is now working on

focus groups that RECO could do a better job of delivering the information.

This is valuable feedback. My colleagues and I sincerely thank everyone – registrants and key stakeholders – who shared their thoughts on the MCE program.

Joseph Richer is registrar of the Real Estate Council of Ontario. He is in charge of the administration and enforcement of all rules that govern real estate professionals in Ontario.

You can find more tips at reco.on.ca, follow on Twitter @RECOhelps or on YouTube. REM

RECO will initiate a series of actions over the next three years to take its MCE program from good to great. These include: • Investigating the best options for providing in-person offerings, or virtual classrooms for registrants who wish to learn that way. This means drilling down by getting additional thoughts, opinions and ideas from registrants on specific MCE topics such as classroom learning, and then further refining that feedback through focus group discussions • Enhancing the MCE program platform and improving the learner experience by making course materials easier to access through tablets, iPads and other devices, leveraging more system functionality to provide additional features such as an MCE reminder setting controlled by the registrant and looking at social learning platforms and collaborative opportunities – allowing the learner to have more control over the experience • Defining and communicating the MCE program’s purpose of enhancing regulatory compliance and consumer protection, building a foundation for professionalism and spotlighting industry issues • Connecting the registration and learning cycles so registrants can easily access the courses they have completed as a reference in order to reinforce learning and to make the process more straightforward • Looking at opportunities to make MCE course content even more relevant and understandable to registrants by including more case studies and best practices when they are useful • Providing registrants with more opportunities to share their thoughts and ideas on their learning needs; this could include building a ratings system into course evaluations, so registrants could inform RECO and fellow registrants about the difficulty or overall usefulness of a course. the fourth course in the pre-registration segment. “I was able to absorb information more efficiently working within a group. Each group member has different qualities and ideas to offer.” Mark also notes that being in a group can help with having the confidence to perform well on the exams. “It also helped ease my anxiety before the big test, because we would tackle practice exams together.”

Regardless of what changes take place in the delivery of education, that principle of the power of human interaction will remain the same. We will continue to offer these opportunities for students to come together and share ideas,

since what we do know about the new program is that there will be a strong online component.

Whatever becomes of real estate education in Ontario, we will continue to offer these opportunities for students in London to study and succeed together.

Kevin Dunklee is the operational manager at Century 21 First Canadian Corp., Brokerage in London, Ont. His main background is in the field of accounting and he is currently enrolled in the OREA preregistration segment of the licensing course. He can be contacted at accounting.first@century21.ca or REM 519-673-3390

REM JUNE 2019 47

THE LEBOW REPORT

By Barry Lebow

M

y extensive library of real estate books dates from around 1962 and I continue to buy new ones as they are published or gifted to me. I read them all and think, “I have read this all before but with different wording.” Most real estate books are just recycled thoughts that have already been published.

Selling luxury homes Sorry, most real estate books are more about the author wanting to be an author. Few really stand out but there are some great milestone books in real estate.

At the fall NAR Expo in Boston I picked up Selling Luxury Homes by Jack Cotton, a Sotheby’s broker from Cape Cod. I could not put it down. There are just so few books on the selling of upscale homes and Jack may have written the ultimate guide to being a top Realtor in that field.

What I liked about his approach – he is real. He has written a reference book that can guide a Realtor into the luxury field but I found that his book is a guide for any aspect of real estate sales as he

works as a quality professional.

That status holds with any price point.

I found this to be a practical, step-by-step approach, based on his rich experience. I loved the part where he defines the various strata of the wealthy, which I had never really considered before. He explains how to work with each group from the barely millionaires and wanna-be’s, to the super rich.

He explains how to bring value to the table, to maintain one’s fees and to gain a referral business from the highest sources.

As someone who wrote and teaches a seminar, Appraising the Luxury Property For Listing Purpose, I will be incorporating

Why put money into a house I’m selling?

By Christine Rae, MCSP

W

hy would I want to put money into a house that I am selling?

This is the most frequently asked question that professional stagers field. On the surface you can certainly understand why the question is raised repeatedly. There are many reasons to support the process of staging a property prior to bringing it to the public for review. Let’s look at a few of them.

Who is buying? The buyer will determine if the house will sell, when it will sell and for what price.

A great staging professional is knowledgeable about which demographic is most likely to purchase the property and will make recommendations with that in mind.

The largest property buying demographic today is millennials.

The younger members of this tribe may still favour renting, but once they hit their 30s and begin to settle down they want their version of a great house.

What they want is move-in ready. Why? Pressing student debt is already a worry. They scrape together as much as possible for the down payment and simply don’t have extra cashflow to invest in “fixing-up” things. The other factor to consider is this group of people does not want to be DIY weekend warriors; they want to have fun on the weekends! Also, many don’t have the skills to do the work and they are not interested in learning how to do it.

They want it to look and feel like a new home from the outset.

Research shows they want the feel of new so much that most of them are willing to pay more money to get it. If you choose to bring a property onto the market “as-is” you risk being on the market longer than you want or getting offers for less than you expect.

Staging is the only service for selling property that has measurable value. Whether the market is hot, cold or indifferent, staging is a powerful marketing tool that

should never be discounted because of the outlay of money. If your client wants to maximize their ROI, why would they not do for their house what they would do if they were selling anything else, such as a car? Wouldn’t they clean, fix and polish it to make it feel new?

The largest investment most people make is real estate. When selling, they want the most money possible in the shortest time for no effort and no money. But 97 per cent of prospective buyers look on the internet first, which means you need amazing photos to capture interest and get on the buyers’ must-see list. Your competition is new homes – your listing must look and feel like one too.

Failure to do so will have a millennial moving on.

Christine Rae, MCSP, is president of CSP International Staging Academy and the author of SOLD and Home Staging for Dummies. www.StagingTraining.com REM

parts of his content into my training sessions. His charts and grids about pricing are first rate. The downloads that come with the book are invaluable.

I did not review this book because I was asked to, I have done so because I believe that this is one of the best real estate books that I have read in recent years and a rare treat. The luxury market does not have abundant literature.

Check out Jack Cotton’s webpage and order this book. I noted that Amazon offers a Kindle version as well at a very reasonable price. In the end I read it, then I went back into it with pen and paper and made notes that I can apply in my own practice, which is far from working with the very rich. He gives sage advice for any professional Realtor.

I give this book a four star rating.

Barry Lebow, FRI, MasterASA, ABR, SRES, is one of Canada’s most recognized real estate authorities. Now in his 51st year of professional real estate, he has been honoured by many real estate associations for his work in the profession.

He is the founder of the Accredited Senior Agent designation program. A teacher, trainer, educator, he is a consistent award winning broker at Re/Max Ultimate Realty in Toronto.

Email barry@lebow.ca REM

Ontario eliminates double registrations

T

he rights of real estate salespeople and brokers in Ontario to transact short-term rental accommodations have been affirmed. The Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) started lobbying for change when it learned that TICO had begun a campaign forcing real estate brokerages who were arranging short-term rentals to register as travel agents.

“By virtue of being registered to trade in real estate, registrants are permitted to trade in limited types of short-term accommodation rentals on behalf of consumers, with cottages, condo apartments, homes, cabin establishments, chalets and vacation homes being among the common examples,” says the bulletin.

“For a real estate registrant to remain compliant with the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act, 2002 (REBBA), when facilitating short-term accommodation

rentals, the transaction must be conducted through a registered real estate brokerage. Providing any travel services beyond shortterm accommodation rentals, however, requires registration with the Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO).”

“Forcing real estate brokerages who are transacting shortterm rental properties to register as travel agents is a needless piece of red tape that would cost Realtors thousands of dollars, compels them to take courses, pass exams and make substantial deposits with no discernable benefit to consumers,” says OREA CEO Tim Hudak.

“OREA would like to commend Minister Bill Walker, TICO CEO Richard Smart as well as RECO CEO Michael Beard and Registrar Joe Richer for their quick action in coming up with a short-term solution to the double registration problem once we brought it to their attention.” REM

48 REM JUNE 2019

Leveraging your licensed assistant Licensed assistants could be the difference between a job done and a client for life.

By Kathleen Black

Y

our licensed assistant is potentially one of the most powerful leveraging tools you will ever encounter as a team leader, and equally one of the least common. Their title is licensed assistant or licensed client care, but their role can change the way teams do business. Licensed assistants could be the difference between a job done and a client for life.

There are lots of questions surrounding the role and some confusion as to how they are effectively leveraged.

Before creating a role of licensed assistant for your team, there are a few key things to consider. The first is a personality profile; DISC is your ultimate guide in hiring. The DISC theory of psychologist William Moulton Marston centres on four different personality traits, which are dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness.

Generalizing, team leaders are DC personalities – calculating and strong-willed. Agents can benefit from most combinations of the letters. For example, DIs are the agents who are nailing the negotiations, they’re talkative and domineering. The agents with an uncanny knack for finding the right house early in the game are SC. They are

accommodating and analytical.

When you look for the licensed assistant though, you want SI. They are the people who get Christmas cards with a picture of the family from a client they met with eight years ago. And they love it, genuinely. They are lively, talkative and social while being gentle, accommodating and softhearted. You know an SI and you call them, “The nicest person you’ve ever met.” Getting that personality type is more important than their past experience.

Everyone can point to a time when they called a customer care line and the person on the line did not care about them as a customer.

They were not an SI. Another important thing to consider is the division of tasks in the team. Yes, technically a licensed assistant is an assistant, but do you want them to also carry the role of administrative assistant, reordering the paper and answering general emails? Maybe that is what your team needs and that is the best division of work, but it’s important to know the role the licensed assistant will play.

Leveraging the role can easily get to the point where they aren’t answering emails anymore, because they’re always on the road.

On the other hand, looking at the role as “licensed” means they are taking on some of the tasks that are generally handled by agents.

This is a good thing. Look at it this way: agents are there for things that make money, licensed assistants are there for everything else.

Agent: Three hours at a home inspection means three hours not making money. Licensed assistant: Three hours at a home inspection means three hours of rapport building. If that sounds like a nightmare, you aren’t an SI and therefore not meant to be a licensed assistant. Leverage.

Crucial to the success of the role of a licensed assistant is that it is not a stepping stone. You don’t

because years later, they are still getting invited. Those people are still one of the team’s clients. You have to pay your licensed assistant fairly. Their worth to the team will be evident and it should be accurately reflected by a dollar value.

A common misconception is that incorporating the licensed assistant when an agent has already made contact is nearly impossible or will be too awkward.

Crucial to the success of the role of a licensed assistant is that it is not a stepping stone. take on someone new who wants to be a top-selling agent and tell them if they tick all of the boxes they will get out of the role to be able to sell. No. Licensed assistants aren’t punished agents. Licensed assistants are people who know their strengths and the value they present to the team and the client by simply being who they are.

Though not something you might consider, your licensed assistant could come to you one day and ask for a budget for Tupperware parties,

This is not true. You just need to be upfront about it. There are plenty of roles across numerous professions that have people wearing different hats.

An easy example is a nurse and a surgeon. Neither is better than the other, they just have different roles in accomplishing the same task – making you well. The surgeon isn’t there to change your dressings after surgery, but she didn’t not do her job. The nurse didn’t transplant a valve in your heart,

but he didn’t not do his job. It’s the same balance in real estate. Your agent lives and breathes the market; they will buy or sell the house, because that is their focus. Your licensed assistant will sit down with the client for coffee and talk with them about how their search is going, or about lowering the price on the house if it isn’t selling.

Both of the roles have held up their side to see a successful result – a house was bought or sold and the client is happy.

Licensed assistants are a powerful leveraging tool and could be what your team needs to take the business to the next step. Be aware of the role you expect the licensed assistant to hold, the value you are ready to place on them and an understanding that they are on the same level as agents, just in a different capacity.

My firm created a program specializing in the training and incorporating of unlicensed and licensed assistants to growing successful teams, because it takes a team to reach the fullest potential.

All teams require a unique strategy.

For some an unlicensed assistant is the best first hire, but not for everyone.

Kathleen Black is one of North America’s leading Real Estate Team Coaches, delivering her proven success techniques to Agents and Teams across North America. www.ittakeREM sa.team

Broker/owner pleads guilty to theft and fraud charges

A

nne Squires, former broker/owner of Exit Realty on the Rock in St. John’s, N.L. plead guilty to charges of theft, fraud, forgery and breach of trust.

She was accused of stealing from Exit Realty on the Rock’s trust account and of defrauding commission advance company AccessEasyFunds. She allegedly used forged sales agreements to get money from the company.

Squires’ lawyer and the prosecutor are working on a plea deal and trying to come to an agreement about the amount of money involved, reports The Telegram. The matter comes back before the court in June and if an agreement has been reached, a sentencing date will be set, the newspaper reports. If there has been no agreement, a two-week trial would take place starting Sept. 30, relating only to how much money was involved.

The offences took place from 2014 to 2016. When the brokerage’s license was suspended on Feb. 4, 2016, it had 66 Realtors listed on realtor.ca, working from offices in St. John’s and Glovertown. REM

Congratulations, Geoff and Regan Archambault Winners of the Canadian REALTORS Care® Award 2019 Proudly Presented by REALTOR.ca Geoff and Regan Archambault recently took home the Canadian REALTORS Care® Award 2019 in recognition of their outstanding contributions to their community of Winnipeg.

The Archambaults are renowned in Winnipeg as generous donors, effective board leaders and community builders.

CREA is proud of Geoff and Regan’s accomplishments and the REALTOR® community’s generous spirit. Visit REALTORSCare.ca to learn more.

Thanks to our 2019 award sponsors:

REALTOR®. Member of The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and more.

50 REM JUNE 2019

For sale: one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greenest homes

By Diane Slawych

I

MARKETPLACE

tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been featured on CTV television as one of Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most environmentally sustainable homes and toured by school groups as a model of green building technology. Now this â&#x20AC;&#x153;one-of-a-kindâ&#x20AC;? earth sheltered home in southwestern Ontario, which allows occupants the option to live on or off the grid, is for sale. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the Rolls Royce of green homes,â&#x20AC;? says listing agent Rebecca Johnson of Sutton Team Realty in Brantford. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s built to the highest LEED platinum standards.â&#x20AC;? (The LEED certification program is an industry-recognized system for evaluating the design and construction of sustainable buildings.)

The 2,700-square-foot home is near Princeton, Ont., southwest of Toronto and is listed for $999,000, slightly less than it cost to construct.

The environmentalist owners, one of whom is the former coordinator and professor of energy management at Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology in Almonte, Ont., had the home built in 2008/2009 for about $1 million, but now theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re moving east and have to sell.

Designed by Guelph bioarchitect David McAuley, the home, which has a green roof, is earth sheltered on the north side for minimal heating and cooling all year round, while the south side features four-pane windows, skylights and a solarium that runs the entire length of the home for

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the Rolls Royce of green homes,â&#x20AC;? says listing agent Rebecca Johnson.

A spiral staircase leads to a loft, which could serve as an office or reading room.

The home is on two acres surrounded by indigenous vegetation.

plenty of natural light.

An on-grid MicroFIT 10kW Solar Tracker backfeeds the grid and provides income of about $1,100 a month or $14,000 a year (with about 12 years left on the Hydro One contract). Separate solar systems that power the house store energy and heat the water.

Other features include an efficient bio-mass pellet (corn) stove that can inexpensively heat the entire home in colder months

(thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also a propane furnace); a well that provides clean drinking water; two wind turbines â&#x20AC;&#x201C; one for the house and the other for the grid; non VOC paints and FSC certified building products. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Most people, when they look at alternative living and being off the grid, they shy away and figure itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s complicated,â&#x20AC;? says Johnson. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With this one, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a keypad in the living room and with the flick of a switch, you can be off the grid

or on the grid like anybody else.â&#x20AC;?

The home, which is on two acres surrounded by indigenous vegetation, has three large bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms (one with a whirlpool tub), an unfinished basement, lots of storage space, an open-concept main living area finished with polished/etched concrete floors with in-floor heating and a spiral staircase to a loft, which could serve as an office or reading room. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also an above-ground pool, a double detached garage and a 1,000square-foot workshop that would suit a hobbyist or car enthusiast.

Johnson says the home would be ideal for someone who is forward thinking, wants a private piece of land and appreciates the additional income. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It could work for someone with a home office, and thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s access to the highway

NATIONAL REAL ESTATE IN NFORMATION LIISTING SE ERVICE E . COM WWW. REILS.COM / 416-214-4875

for commuting. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s between Highway 401 and Highway 403, with easy access to Toronto, Brantford and Woodstock.â&#x20AC;?

Princeton, with a population of about 500, is a community in Blandford-Blenheim, which is part of Oxford County and close to stores, restaurants and an LCBO. Johnson says people have been curious about the home since it was listed on April 3. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Since they built it, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve become more aware as a society about green livingâ&#x20AC;? and some millennial groups have tagged it on social media.

How long it remains on the market is anyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s guess. But the answer may indicate the level of genuine interest among potential buyers to live in an environmentally friendly, low carbon footprint REM eco-home.

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