In this day and age, information as we all know is everywhere and easily accessible. While most of what we see and read on the internet is correct and (mostly) truthful, much of opinion-based data can be subjective. Let’s consider homes that are listed for sale and use the public website Realtor.ca as an example, where we can easily access hundreds of properties every day from the comfort of our homes.

One of the problems I am seeing more often lately is that some of my Buyer clients are opting to forgo the realtor MLS search options via email in favour of searching passively (or aggressively) on their own through Realtor.ca (Please note: if you are one of my Buyer clients, this may not necessarily pertain to you as I do work with 10-12 Buyers at any given time). Once they do find something they’re interested in, they will shoot it over to me to ask for my thoughts and opinions. If I think it looks good and suits them, we will then take it further and arrange to view it together.

I must interject here to say this: for anyone who has sat down with me for a Buyer consultation over the past 5-7 years, you will know that a combined effort approach – between my Buyer clients and me, your Realtor – is of the utmost importance to me when it comes to deciding on homes to look at. There are various methods in discovering properties to view such as: the Realtor MLS, Realtor.ca, networking through agents, FSBO’s (‘For Sale By Owner’) and many, many more. I believe that it is not about a Realtor defending an antiquated position on who finds the property; rather, it is about being left behind in a fast-moving market where buyers are priced out of neighbourhoods and missing opportunities to purchase (and then possibly sell) under favourable conditions.

One of the services that I provide to my Buyer clients is a weekly email summary of all of the properties that have sold in the area(s) in which they are looking – some of which we may have seen, others we may have chosen to pass on. This helps to enrich a Buyer’s education by allowing them to get a feel for the ‘pulse’ of the market on a weekly basis, and to help them understand sold prices better. Over time, patterns emerge. I do not do this for every Buyer on a manual basis as it would be too difficult an undertaking. As such, some may miss out on the information, but they may also potentially miss the ‘hiccups’ the market has from time to time… Yes, this does actually happen!

I am not an intrusive Realtor. I have built a sound business on putting my clients’ needs first. I realize and appreciate that not everybody ‘moves’ at the same pace, and life situations can change (and change back) from time to time. For these reasons, I take a flexible approach to each and every Buyer client I work with. Some of my clients look at very specific properties or communities that we may spend up to 2 years or more in our search together.

Prices continue to increase and currently, there are no imminent signs of this changing. If you are one of the many Buyers who have experienced, or are currently dealing with the challenges of being priced out of the market, perhaps it is time to reevaluate how you search for your next home, and consider utilizing all of your resources in order to increase your odds of getting that new home. If you do prefer to search on your own, that’s okay – just realize and accept that certain opportunities might be missed from time to time.