The public’s perception of agents and the truth about agents can be vastly different, says REALTOR® Kaleb Streeter.
Public perception today seems to be that REALTORS® are wildly successful, making money hand over fist right now. People are interpreting the current high listing prices as real estate agents making a lot of easy cash.
“The reality is that list prices are only this high because there are so few homes for sale,” says Streeter. “When you have that few homes, it takes all the current buyers on the market and it forces them to bid on the same properties.”
If, for example, there are ten offers on a house, two things happen, he explains. One, that house gets sold for a large amount over asking because there were so many offers on the table. Two, that means nine agents aren’t getting business and nine families who are not getting a house.
“When the public perceives a high sales price as ‘Wow, REALTORS® are making a killing right now. It’s a good time to be a real estate agent,’ in fact, that’s only 10% true. Only one in ten has been successful. It’s hard to retire off one listing,” he says.
The perception may be that real estate agents are severely underworked, overpaid and making a killing, but the reality is that many agents gave up their licenses last year in Orillia. Some are giving up because of this market; others have been forced into early retirement.
Streeter also worries about the entire market of buyers who have been ostracized because of pricing. “When you see a house listed for $599K and you know it’s going to sell for $800K or more, you get people thinking it’s the REALTORS® who are greedy. But it’s the buyers who actually choose the price. REALTORS® write the offers but they don’t pick the price; they also don’t have control over how many offers there are going to be or what somebody may be willing to pay for a place.”
This super-competitive market, which started in June 2020, is tough on them too.
“We’re hopeful it turns and that this is just a blip on the radar,” says Streeter. “We don’t want it this way either. We’d be doing a lot more business—and more comfortable business—if things weren’t out of control like this.”
It’s not uncommon for REALTORS® to receive threatening calls, for staff to be intimidated or brought to tears. What used to be a rare or occasional occurrence has unfortunately become more commonplace since the start of the pandemic. The problem is a little bit situational, definitely reflective of this unique moment in time. There’s a lot of distrust.
Some feel like they have a really good handle on how real estate works and are challenged by the current conditions. They may have already bought and sold four or five times in their lives. “But the truth is that the market changes by the month,” says Streeter. “And unless you’ve bought and sold in the last 30 days, your relevance decreases big time. That doesn’t only apply to clients; that also applies to your REALTOR®.”
Buyers often accuse sellers of being greedy, but are they? If a seller lists their home for $899K and a buyer comes along with an offer for $1.2M with no conditions—and the seller isn’t signing anything back for more money—that’s just the price they’re getting. There’s nothing nefarious in the mix.
To search hundreds of homes locally, check out the Streeter Team's listings or call 705-323-9212.