Using Comfree in this market

The main problem is that other agents will not show your house or deal with you either for spite or for the simple reason you are a clueless civilian and not a licensed agent. In the end it may take much longer to sell and you may get less for it. It is a crap shoot, maybe someone will show up with out an agent and buy it right away maybe not.
There is a lot to know about being an re agent, rules and laws etc. When you sell privately it is assumed you know those rules...

I don't see it as a problem. A realtor isn't buying your house, you can show it yourself.
If the house is in a good location and desirable, the buying public will come knocking.
When it comes to laws, regulations, let the lawyer handle it.

Personally I'd recommend using an agent who will do it for 1 or 1.5%. They will probably offer enough benefit and expertise to justify the cost. Some will even do staging at that price point. A small missed step can cost you tens of thousands in such a big transaction.

cdndeal wrote: ↑ Another problem with comfree is even if you were to offer a buyers agent commission, when a real estate agent looks at the new listings every day on their platform, it doesn't show the new comfree listings.
Your comfree listing will only be discovered by users searching on either comfree's website or realtor.ca. (This wouldn't be real estate agents)

This isn't true. At all. If a RE agent browses the new listings each day, and a comfree listing is posted, they'll be able to see it.

As to the OP, offering buyer's commission on a comfree listing is a must. The buyers' agents won't care who is selling the property, only if they get paid if they bring their clients. You just have to be aware that selling is a process with all the forms and rules. If you know how to protect yourself, by all means go comfree.
But if you're not sure how the RE market works, try looking for a RE agent that will help you through the process. Many charge as low as 1% and offer great service. Of course, you'd have to beware of shady RE agents on the market. As with all professionals, some may be inexperienced and may make selling your property more complicated than if you were to sell it via comfree.

When they say it's not on their local board that is CODE for "i like to sell to other RE agents because i have a lasting relationship with them and next time i will buy from them too..."(instead of some cheap smuck who's never sold a house before and thinks they know everything better.) Agents know about fsbo listings, it's their job to know what's for sale in their district.

COMCRUISE wrote: ↑ The main problem is that other agents will not show your house or deal with you either for spite or for the simple reason you are a clueless civilian and not a licensed agent.

End this thread here.

cdndeal wrote: ↑I obtained my real estate license to buy my rental properties.
My study habits included: -smoking pot, -moving from my home during this time and not studying, -taking a trip to Jamaica and smoking more pot and coming back home to write my final exam.
My marks were 87%, 96% and 76%. Just squeaked by on the last exam because I came back from Jamaica a little faded to say the least.
Might I add, I was always a solid C student in high school and college.

You obtained a provisional registration, not a license and still had several courses to go.

cdndeal wrote: ↑Another problem with comfree is even if you were to offer a buyers agent commission, when a real estate agent looks at the new listings every day on their platform, it doesn't show the new comfree listings.
Your comfree listing will only be discovered by users searching on either comfree's website or realtor.ca.

With your access to the O-M board you seem completely unaware that realtor.ca is made up solely of real estate brokerage generated MLS listings which means that if it appears on realtor.ca it shows up on the board MLS System from which it was generated and also by any Realtor searching connect. So that is why

cdndeal wrote: ↑ I had access to the Oakville/Milton board (OMDREB) which also showed listings in Hamilton & Burlington and new Comfree listings didn't show up. Maybe on TREB they show up i'm not sure. Agents don't browse new listings on realtor.ca. They have their own platform.

there is absolutely no reason a Realtor would browse realtor.ca when we generate realtor.ca whn connect is our portal. And, obviously not all Comfree sellers opt for MLS exposure just like every exclusive listing taken by a Realtor/brokerage and fsbo provider doesn't show up on the MLS.

I do agree 100% with you that the education since it was changed 9 years ago is too easy. Thankfully, it appears out next go round will actually raise the standards on who is allowed in.

You'll get no argument from me that the bar allowed any and everyone in and many in this industry aren't well versed enough to be in it.

It seems you were even offering yourself up as proof.

Comfree seems to offer an MLS listing with all packages. They also send a licensed agent to your house to discuss pricing strategy and take pro photos. If you are offering standard commission to buyers agent, I'm sure agents won't care. Also, they are obligated professionally to show any and all homes to their buyers regardless of the commission they will make. So a scummy agent could ignore your house, but if their buyer finds it themselves on MLS website and reports them, they could get in big trouble.

I'm all for private sales in theory but my experience as a seller it didn't work out well. I've bought privately though and it went smooth.

As a seller I find it resulted in a ton of calls from low dog agents looking for a listing and they waste your time with "Is it still available, why aren't you working with a broker". They actually read it off a script. And potential buyers tend to be tire kickers, low ballers, etc. This was during a more balanced market. I think it would probably work fine in a hot market like we had in March and April though you may lose the competitive tension of a bidding war like we saw in that market.

As a buyer...I tend to see many private sales listed at over market prices. Like the seller is trying to scrape every dime from the deal. I don't have a problem with that if the price works out in both the buyer and sellers favour once commission saved is factored in. But all the savings shouldn't be in favour of the seller.

Now with adding a 2.5% buyers commission into the mix to get RE agents interested..you aren't far off from the flat fee listing agents which get you on MLS and I'd hazard some better exposure and gets you away from what I mentioned in the "seller" areas.

So I've preferred that - a full listing but with a flat fee structure to bring the seller agent commission down. A middle of the road approach.

Bullseye wrote: ↑ Comfree seems to offer an MLS listing with all packages. They also send a licensed agent to your house to discuss pricing strategy and take pro photos. If you are offering standard commission to buyers agent, I'm sure agents won't care. Also, they are obligated professionally to show any and all homes to their buyers regardless of the commission they will make. So a scummy agent could ignore your house, but if their buyer finds it themselves on MLS website and reports them, they could get in big trouble.

They may be obligated but most of them don't. It's some sort of realtor fraternity / sorority or whatever.

Bullseye wrote: ↑ Comfree seems to offer an MLS listing with all packages. They also send a licensed agent to your house to discuss pricing strategy and take pro photos. If you are offering standard commission to buyers agent, I'm sure agents won't care. Also, they are obligated professionally to show any and all homes to their buyers regardless of the commission they will make. So a scummy agent could ignore your house, but if their buyer finds it themselves on MLS website and reports them, they could get in big trouble.

If the potential buyer signed a Buyer's Rep agreement at a specified commission, the buyer would be on the hook for the difference if you list with zero or a lower percentage.

If I were selling I'd stay clear of realtors. They're useless bags of..... Maybe comfree if posting on Kijiji and facebook didn't work.

I wouldn't go that far ...

however, when I helped my sister-in-law purchase her first house a couple of years ago, the house was listed on ComFree, and we didn't use a buyers agent. We used some of the templates that ComFree provided, I compared to the forms I had from my own past purchase and we came to an agreement. Absolutely no issues, and pretty seamless process.

Last year my parents bought two rental houses without using a buyers agent either; actually worked as an advantage for them as they had the lowest offers but no buyers agent to pay 2.5%, and bought both houses.

hagbard wrote: ↑ If I were selling I'd stay clear of realtors. They're useless bags of..... Maybe comfree if posting on Kijiji and facebook didn't work.

Did you use a realtor to secure your current rental?

cartfan123 wrote: ↑ Did you use a realtor to secure your current rental?

I did. Was over 2000km away so it made sense. Actually rented from a former agent.