Mortgage 101 – how to find a good realtor | November 2022 Part 5

In this episode of Mortgage 101 with Clinton Wilkins and Todd Veinotte, as heard on CityNews 95.7 and CityNews 101.1, the guys talk about how to find a good realtor! Find out what realtors do for you, if you should sell a home yourself, if you should use the listing agent when buying, and how are Nova Scotian realtors.

Mortgage 101 with Clinton Wilkins & Todd Veinotte: How to find a good realtor

Don’t feel like watching the video? Check out the transcript below.

Transcript:

Wrapping up Financial Literacy Month and Mortgage 101 Season 4!

Todd Veinotte: [00:00:00:02] Listen, thank you so much for tuning in and listening. This is a bit of an auspicious occasion because it’s the last episode of the fourth season of us doing Mortgage 101. And that’s to me is that significant? We’ve done a lot of these things.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:00:14:03] Yeah, we’ve certainly done a lot of these. And you know, at the end of November now when you’re hearing our show and you know, it is still a financial literacy month, so we’re really going to still talk about what financial literacy means to us and how you can keep financial literacy going through the holidays and into the new year. And, you know, I think we’re going to talk a lot about what we talked about all year, and I think we’re going to do a little bit of recap. And we have guest.

Todd Veinotte: [00:00:38:23] A we have a guest with a guest coming on as well.

Todd Veinotte: [00:00:41:02] James Dwyer. He’s been on my radio talk show on a regular basis.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:00:44:00] And we’ve had him also on Mortgage 101.

Todd Veinotte: [00:00:45:24] On Mortgage 101 and very insightful. He knows the market very well.

Stay tuned for special guest, James Dwyer!

Clinton Wilkins: [00:00:49:17] He’s a realtor here in Halifax with Engel and Volkers. And we’re going to get his perspective of what’s going on here in the market in Halifax. As we all know, in Ontario, things have been very soft, Todd. You know, we’re getting reports, obviously from professionals in Ontario, and we’ve obviously reported that on the news and on our show.

So I’m curious to hear what James has to say about Nova Scotia and really what’s going on here in Halifax. We’ll hear we’ll hear from him a little bit later in our show as well.

Todd Veinotte: [00:01:15:15] I’m often curious. There’s so many there’s so many brokers or big companies out there, whatever, you just mentioned one in particular. There’s some real staples, EXIT.

I’ve heard that it’s not necessarily got anything to do with that it’s about the realtor themselves, the personality. That’s really what matters.

How to find a good realtor

Clinton Wilkins: [00:01:34:25] I think there’s nuance differences between different, you know, real estate brokerages. Some maybe offer more services, some offer less. The offering is very similar, I think, across the board. I think when you’re buying or selling a home, at least from my perspective, from the mortgage industry, you spend, you know, let’s say 5 hours with me maximum, right?

I think sometimes you spend 40 hours or more with a realtor. So I think it’s really about the personality fit. And I think it’s also about someone that you think is going to be looking after your best interest. It’s the biggest purchase of your life. You want to have someone who’s an expert. And I usually recommend, you know, a couple of names when I’m giving a referral.

I think someone who lives and works in the area that you’re looking to buy, I think that’s valuable. I think it needs to be a good fit and someone that you think is going to work for you.

Todd Veinotte: [00:02:23:06] For you, it’s not just an automatic, “Here’s this one.”

Clinton Wilkins: [00:02:25:15] “Here’s the one, they’re the best.”

Todd Veinotte: [00:02:27:17] You have a number of people and you make that fit work.

Real estate professionals are really in the relationship

Clinton Wilkins: [00:02:31:24] We deal with different realtors every day. Todd, as you can imagine, obviously, we kind of have our go to people that we do more transactions with because it’s a relationship business, just like there’s certain lawyers that we do business with every day, certain lenders that we do business with every day. So, you know, I think this certainly is a relationship business.

And I think when you’re buying a home, I think having a really great realtor on your side makes a huge, huge difference. I think back in the day, some consumers would want to use the listing agent when they’re buying a home because they think they could maybe get a bit of a deal. But the listing agent is really giving the loyalty to their first client, which is the seller.

And in Nova Scotia, if you were to use the listing agent to buy the home, you would then not have any brokerage representation. You would actually come in, you know, just as a customer, and you would have to make all the decisions and give all the direction yourself. And you can’t lean on them for advice because they are giving advice to their client, which is the seller.

Todd Veinotte: [00:03:33:26] Yeah, concerning people selling their own properties. This is kind of in vogue for a while. It never really catches on, on a big scale and, and I can only assume the reason why it doesn’t is because then I’m not dissuading anybody from doing it.

Selling a home yourself?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:03:48:20] Are you talking about like for sale by owner?

Todd Veinotte: [00:03:51:17] Whatever it is, You know, we’ve seen some of these pop up, or even people just buy a sign and put it on the front lawn and say, “I’m going to save all that money.” There’s got to be a reason why it doesn’t happen more often. And I’m assuming because these things don’t go well sometimes.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:04:04:16] I’ll tell you why people use a realtor, I think, one, they sell faster with a realtor, I think they sell for a higher price with the realtor. The realtor is providing more protection. And, you know, a lot of private sales don’t work out, Todd.

Todd Veinotte: [00:04:16:26] But what do you mean, protection? Explain what you mean by that.

Realtors give you more protection when buying and selling

Clinton Wilkins: [00:04:20:17] Well, let just think. If you’re selling a home, you have to bring strangers into your home. You’re they’re not vetted. You have no idea who these people are. Right?

And I think with a realtor, typically there’s two realtors working together to facilitate the transaction. So there’s a lot more layers of protection within the transaction.

Todd Veinotte: [00:04:35:17] Yeah.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:04:36:16] And if something goes wrong, hopefully it doesn’t, but if something does go wrong, you have professionals there to help work it out. You’re then separated from the seller.

It’s a big financial transaction. It can become very tangled when things go wrong. Personally, I would never not use a realtor.

Todd Veinotte: [00:04:54:15] Yeah, I find it interesting because I’ve sold a lot of homes and you and you never meet.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:04:59:04] I have to.

Todd Veinotte: [00:05:00:21] Yeah, I understand, but it’s interesting that you don’t meet this often or almost never meet the sellers.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:05:07:22] Very rarely.

Todd Veinotte: [00:05:08:13] But it kind of like you said, it takes that personal touch out of that, which is a good thing because you don’t become invested in an emotional way with these people at all.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:05:19:15] Exactly. Just think if you’re hammering them and you re going to negotiate and whatever, if you have that connection, that becomes more challenging. Right?

Todd Veinotte: [00:05:26:06] Or they bring their kid in and the kids, oh, I love this room and you’re showing them and suddenly you’d like them and you’re going to give them a better deal.

Get your own real estate agent representation

Clinton Wilkins: [00:05:32:18] Well, I don’t know if that really happens. I think sometimes they lean on if you really love the house, well, you can pay full price or you can pay a little bit more. Maybe there’s a little bit less negotiation.

So I always, always recommend you have your own representation. And I think for your own representation, for someone who’s going to be a good fit for you, I think the fit is so, so, so important.

Todd Veinotte: [00:05:53:06] I guess what I’m what I’m getting at is that realtors often, like in a lot of professions, you probably get a lot of, “Oh, you make all this money” and whatever. But the reality is, is that these jobs are there to protect you.

And as you’ve said a thousand, thousand times, the biggest purchase of your life, that can make or break your financial future, right?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:06:19:02] I think that’s really, they’re there to protect you as a client. And when you use a realtor as a buyer, you don’t pay them. It’s a seller who pays both sides.

So I think having your own representation certainly does have a value. And I can’t stress enough that you really need to find someone that you’re going to mesh well with.

Are Nova Scotian realtors good?

Todd Veinotte: [00:06:39:13] Do you think we have a good blend right now of realtors in the province?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:06:43:10] I think it’s like the 90-10 rule or the 80-10 rule. It doesn’t matter what type of business you’re in. You know, there’s a certain percentage that are doing the bulk of the transactions. Right? And I think, you know, having someone who has experience, who obviously has a value, especially when you’re really looking for that protection. And I think it’s a very tough time to be a realtor right now.

You know, even when it was really, really busy, Todd, they sometimes had to make 20 offers to get one successful transaction. And it’s just so uber competitive. You know I, for me, I would never envy them. I don’t think they have an easy job

I think some consumers think they just go and they unlock the door. They make an agreement and you’re done. No, in some ways they are kind of acting like a little mini lawyer by making these financial, you know, agreements that are binding and they’re giving advice, they’re arranging inspections, they’re dealing with mortgage financing, like with us.

And it’s a very complex role. And I think it is very, very challenging. And my hat really goes off to successful realtors because it’s a tough gig.

Todd Veinotte: [00:07:55:14] And at times they have to tell people bad news, right? You’re the bad guy.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:07:59:14] Very, very often. And I think in my role, oftentimes, I’m the happiness maker. So I love what I do. Obviously, I love mortgage lending. We’ve been doing this for four seasons. And there’s always something new to talk about, which I think is exciting.

And the one thing about mortgage lending is I get to see my clients, I think a lot more. Usually realtors are very transactional. You know, you do one transaction, unless you’re buying and selling all the time, You don’t see the realtor again.

Todd Veinotte: [00:08:22:10] Yeah, exactly.

If you have any questions, get in touch with us at Clinton Wilkins Mortgage Team! You can call us at (902) 482-2770 or contact us here.