(Photo credit: pallspera.com/Creative Commons)
With Canada’s hot housing market over the last few years, more real estate agents have entered the marketplace for a piece of the action.
In the country’s largest local real estate association, the Toronto Real Estate Board, they boast a membership of more than 40,000 people, which is a 29 per cent leap in membership from 2011, according to CBC News.
Typically when you buy a home, your first step is to secure a real estate agent who introduces you to different properties. Once you find a property you like, you bid on it and if you’re successful, the real estate agent would get a cut of the commission. The seller also has a real estate agent who helps them with the sales process and they also get a cut of sale.
But with some markets cooling, such as in Edmonton or Calgary, real estate agents may push their fees down in a bid to win additional clients, which could benefit homeowners. It never hurts to try and negotiate with your realtor, especially if your market has seen a slowdown within the last few months.
There other options that allow home sellers to pay less in commission fees. A new online platform, feeDuck, helps homeowners save money on commission fees. The service connects homeowners with real estate agents where agents are then involved in a real-time bidding for their business. Homeowners can use the service for free and realtors are charged an admin fee when they win an auction. The tool provides homeowners a chance for better profits from their sale, while it provides realtors a chance to directly connect with those looking to sell homes in their neighbourhood.
Another service, ComFree, offers a commission-free real estate network to help homeowners sell their homes. They offer a wide-range service, such as helping homeowners advertise their home sale, helping to photograph the property, offering valuable insight with property pricing or helping with the negotiations and paperwork of the sale, which homesellers can decide what aspects of the home sale they need help with.
If you feel comfortable tackling the sale process on your own, using a For Sale By Owner method lets you hold onto any commission fees. Websites such as ForSaleByOwner.ca and PropertyGuys.ca let owners list their properties on their databases for a set fee. But studies have shown that these properties take longer to sell, according to MoneySense magazine, so if you’re in a rush to cash in, this option may not be one that’s suitable for you.
If you’re house shopping, consider buying a newly built home since you could claim back some of its cost with a HST rebate. Rebate4U prioritizes providing our clients with the most professional and quality service in obtaining rebates for their new and renovated homes. We are proud to offer our clients the most personal and attentive service, and we make sure that all of our clients are 100% satisfied.