Red Flags To Look Out For In An Agent | The Golfi Real Estate Show - Niagara Edition (Jan. 30)

On this week's Niagara edition of The Golfi Real Estate Show, Rob Golfi, Phil Golfi and iHeart radio host Tim Dennis talk about why Realtor.ca has changed their mind on putting tax information up on their site, how tough it is to get out of contracts, red flags to look out for in an agent, and do you fix it or sell it as is?

DON’T FORGET TO FOLLOW US FOR DAILY UPDATES AND SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL! :


Instagram: http://instagram.com/GolfiTeam

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobGolfi

Twitter: http://twitter.com/RobGolfi

Website: http://robgolfi.com


-----


The Golfi Team RE/MAX serves Hamilton, Halton, Niagara, and surrounding regions (See List of Service Areas below). Check out the Golfi TV YouTube Channel Videos.  You will find videos related to the Real Estate Industry including new home listings. You will find industry tips and fun community features as well.  Call 905-575-7700 for all your Real Estate Needs!


Thank you for watching. Please like, comment, and subscribe! And remember, Golfi Gets It Sold!

Transcript

Good morning, Niagara. This is Rob Golfi with the golf team. Welcome to the Golfi real estate show. Niagara edition with host Tim Dennis. Good morning. Welcome to a well, a good looking weekend. I mean, it's kind of wintery we're in the middle at the end of January, actually. Yeah. Oh, we got lots to cover over the course of the next hour.

So stick with us. Rob's got some great information, some great advice for anybody who's looking at buying or selling a home right now. And actually I want to start off with a subject. We talked about a couple of weeks ago, and because of us talking about this, there may actually be some changes being made because you had a question.

On your website about why realtor.ca doesn't put tax information on their listing. And we discussed that, but apparently now that may be changed. Yes. So we inquired about that and it is frustrating because people do make their decision on how much the taxes are on the house. Cause that, that, you know, gives them an idea, you know, the affordability of them with their mortgage and their taxes and all their utilities.

And for some reason with the Hamilton and Niagara, and I think the Branford board, um, and it, and we use realtors use a system called matrix and it's just for realtors to use. Uh, so what happened was we on matrix we can see are the taxes on. But, but when you went onto realtor.ca the taxes weren't there.

And so we had a question from a guy named Frank and he said, well, why aren't the taxes there? And that was a great question. So we looked into, so we call it realtor.ca we call and nobody was really giving us an answer. So we, we, we, you know, again, then we called another time and then we dug deeper and they said, well, uh, your real estate board just didn't program.

Like, didn't click off like. Just have just had to do a two minute thing on their system and then we will be able to have the taxes on there and I go, are you kidding me? So you mean like, that's it, it's just, you know, so we called, um, uh, the Hamilton and Niagara board and they're in the process of working.

On, uh, having the taxes being available to see when you're looking at listings on the, uh, on, on realtor.ca. So that's going to be happening, I think this coming week and we're watching it. And, uh, when you see that it's because, you know, we, uh, we're, you know, we're aggressive. We want to make sure that, uh, the consumers out there can see exactly, uh, what the taxes are.

So we're actually excited to see when that hits. That can be, that can make or break a deal depending on where you're at and how much the taxes are. You may think, Oh, this is a great deal on a house, but going forward, I can't afford the taxes. Or you could find a house where I can't believe the taxes are that low when you might put in a little bit more money.

So this is important info. It is, it is very important. And for instance, I'll give you a really good example. There was a property one time, and it was a little bit dated, but it was a big house in a, in a, in a modest neighborhood. So it was probably one of the bigger houses in the taxes. Uh, Tim I'm telling you it was over 10,000.

It was just, uh, it was, it was a lot of money for, for taxes on this house. And, um, and I'm like, Whoa, like, I mean, this is going to be tough to sell and it was dated at the same time and people would look at it, but then after they would find out what the taxes were, they just. Ran away from it. They just said no way, like it needs renovations and it also with the taxes.

So I, I told this person, listen, you're going to have to go to impact and fight the taxes on this. Cause you're not going to sell this house. And if you sell it, I go, the next guy that's going to buy it. Um, he's like, he's going to get a good deal on it and he's going to fight the taxes and then he'll be right in line with the neighborhood, with the, uh, with, with.

The taxes for the square footage of the property. So you, so when it comes to, you know, your property taxes, if you feel they're too high, Go to impact and fight it they'll make you a deal. Like, I mean, they may cut off maybe two, 500, uh, offer the taxes for, um, you know, upcoming taxes that are coming out every year.

And then as long as you stay on your toes and keep up on that and when you're selling your house, I mean, that, that, that is another. Added a value to the property because people saying, Hey, the taxes are fantastic on this house. Um, so you have to be, uh, you know, you gotta be, you gotta be on top of it. Now, when they, when, when builders and new subdivisions start out, you find the taxes seem to be a lot higher than these older houses have been, or, you know, like the houses that.

Built from the, you know, from the 1920s and up. And, uh, so that's where, that's where the city gets you. When, when you move into a new subdivision and you don't even know what the taxes are, you move in for a year and you still haven't been assessed for the taxes. And all of a sudden, now you'll two years of taxes.

So, so if you do move into a new house, Make sure you just start making the payments, you know, get an idea what it is because you don't want to have to start paying two years of taxes and one year then it could, it could make you fall behind and financially, you know, hurt your pocket book every month for the next a year or so at another internal question that comes up and I, and this I'm sure has come up with a lot of people recently because they're seeing the prices that people are getting for their homes and they're thinking, okay, I'm going to sell this place.

I'm going to downsize, or maybe I'm going to move to an apartment or whatever, but, um, they're thinking, okay, I can downsize and move to something smaller, but the question is, should you sell your home and get the most right now and then buy another one? Or should you buy the other one and then sell your home?

Is there a right answer? It depends on the market. And it depends on the confidence level that you have in your realtor. There's, there's two aspects of it. So right now we are in a, like, Uh, seller's market. Okay. You sell your house. You gotta be either. There's two ways to do it. If you're going to sell your house to then buy you better, get along closing, you will find the house, but now when you sell your house, you're probably gonna sell it for a good dollar, probably going to have multiple offers on it, and you're going to do very well.

So now when you're going on the buying end, you're going to probably be in multiple offers and, and buying your house, uh, against other people. So you're going to have to step up to the plate. And purchase that. So, so that's the one aspect where, you know, like people like to know, okay. Well, if I, if I, if, if I buy, if I buy first, then I don't really know what I'm going to get from my house.

Right. So, but if you sell first, am I going to get a house? Am I going to be homeless? That's the fear factor right there. Am I going to get the house that I want? And uh, if I, if I don't, um, I may be stuck with a house or be homeless and th that I'm not happy with. So here's the good rule. So if you're worried about finding a house by first, you're going to be in multiple offers.

But what happens is you're not going to be as competitive buying a house with the guy that needs to buy the house. And so you'll probably have a tendency of losing out because you know, you have a house to stay in. It's like, uh, it's like having your back against the wall, you got to fight a lion. You're going to go all out and go hard.

Right? Like, like if you're in, but what I'm saying is, so you've got a safety net and so you're not going to be as aggressive and working heartache find that house. But if you sell your house first, all of a sudden. The world opens up your eyes, open up even more the houses that you say, Hey, that's not a bad house right there.

Like you're, you're more nitpicky when you. Uh, having sold your house to buy another house. You're very, very nitpicky. And it seems that every house is not, not what you're looking for, but all of a sudden, when you have sold your house, Hey, that looks good. You know, you're, you're, you're more focused and it just seems, you're just more focused on it now in this market personally.

Um, I B it's a tough situation. Uh, you can go either way, but if you're going to sell first, get a very long closing. Get along closing, if you're going to buy first, uh, you just better be, you got to step up your game and, uh, and then you get then, and then you really don't know what you're going to get for your house.

So there there's two aspects of it, but it's really scary real in this day and age. I mean, if you, if you, um, uh, you buy a home first. Right. And you just don't, as you say, you don't know what you're going to get for a price for your place. And if you sell your home first, there aren't a ton of houses out there right now.

Cause you keep saying the inventory is low and what have you don't find something you like. So there's a lot of stress involved. Oh, there, there is. There is, I'll give you a perfect example. This happened years ago, maybe over 10 years ago. Um, and there was a house in Grimsby and that, so anyway, this, this, this family, this couple.

They, they had hired this agent and they said, and they saw this house in a neighborhood and it was, I think they bought it for 275,000. They looked at and say, this is perfect. 275,000. Their realtor said they didn't get three 50 for their house. So they said, perfect. I'll buy that for two 75. I'll finish the basement.

And I'll have some money left over from the sale of my house. So they went in from on that deal. Okay. So when they put their house up for sale with that agent, the agent said they get three 50. So they had, uh, listed for, I think three 50 or maybe just a little above three 50 and nothing was happening.

And, uh, so he, um, was getting a little bit worried because he bought from right. He's getting worried and he had a, you know, long enough closing. So he calls me. And says to me, uh, Rob, um, I want to talk to you and I go, okay. But I says, I really can't talk to you. I go, cause you're under contract. He says in my in line, and I just said to him, you're going to be very disappointed in your outcome, on your, on your, on your sale price of your home.

And that's all I said. And that's it. So a month later he calls me up, he canceled his, uh, agreement with his agent, calls me up and he just like, he just couldn't understand me cause I'm going to be disappointed. Like that's all I get is like, I'm going to be disappointed in the, in the outcome. So he calls me up and I said, uh, and I gave him the evaluation of 300,000 for his house.

And he said, I wouldn't have bought that out of their house for two 75. If I knew my house was only worth 300 and he goes, I just, I'm just doing a lateral move because they're going to use the extra money to finish the basement on the other house. And I said, well, I go to that. Sometimes mistakes. Some people hire the wrong people to give them the, uh, the, the advice.

And he, uh, he goes, well, I go, why don't you try selling, you know, privately and see if you can, you know, you know, save money and everything. So he tried that for a month. Nothing happened. So he calls me back up again. He goes, I want you to put my house up for sale. And he goes, will you put it up for sale for three 20?

And I go, yeah, no, I have no problem. I'll put it up for sale. We can try it and see, see if it changes the market or anything. So we put it for three 20, we had it for another month and we get an offer for 300,000 cash. They weren't budging one penny more than that. So the, so the seller goes well and I told him, I go, there you go.

I go, there's the number. Remember I told you, so they took the 300,000 cash and, uh, and, and they were very disappointed in the outcome. Just like I told them they were going to be, but they were more disappointed in the agent that they hired before me that put him into that other house. So hiring the right agent.

Oh, like it is key factor you got, and it's hard to tell. How do you tell, how do you tell, like it's part of your advertising? Rob is, is you, you talk about the fact that you'll, you'll let people out of the contract. If, you know, if for whatever reason, um, how tough is it with other agents to get out of contracts?

Can you get stuck? Oh, it is tough. It is tough. We get so many people calling us and they want to use our service. And, uh, and their agents won't let them out. And we say, sorry, we can't do anything for ya. And, uh, either you're going to have to ride out the wave and, and, and, and they can end up writing out a fantastic market.

In the meantime, when nothing is happening, their house is nothing's happening. Um, you know, we've got, uh, you know, we we've got a property in Niagara falls right now. Um, they had an agent for six months. Totally messed it up. Messed it up for them. Um, so we listed it, uh, within a week we got, uh, an offer over asking price on it and, uh, they were super thrilled.

We, we, you know, we, we had our stagers go through, we had, uh, our, our, uh, professional photography. We did, you know, all the drone shots and, and the 3d tour and everything. They couldn't believe it. They couldn't believe it. And they couldn't believe the amount of action they got on it. Uh, their previous agent was just using their, you know, their iPhone or whatever, their Android phone, uh, just to photograph, uh, the pictures and, and they're there when they called her agent, he wouldn't call back that quick and it's their client.

So can you imagine if a buyer was calling them, like, how's he supposed to, you know, sell this house? So it was just tough. Those contracts usually for, for people who don't know, or maybe getting into it for the first time and they're talking to an agent and they say, okay, I want you to sign, um, this deal with me, you're on the hook for how long, usual.

Usually in a market like we're in right now, uh, three to four months, usually three months, you should be able to sell that house. And if you're not selling a house in this market right now, you've got there's there's issues going on there. So you have to look at all those things, but in a balanced market, sometimes it takes six months.

If it's a buyer's market, you know, I, we usually this for six months because we don't know how the markets change from month to month, week to week. And, uh, so, uh, but in this market right now, Three months. If you can't get it sold three months, there's two, there's two reasons that it's either the realtor didn't do a good job or the pricing wasn't done.

Right? It's. So in this market, you shouldn't have to put a house on the market more than three. Rob Golfi.com is the website. That's Rob G O L F i.com. You're listening to the Golfi real estate show. Niagara edition, Robin, I'll take a quick break for a couple of messages, and then we'll come right back with part two of this week's program right after this.

Buying or selling a home. This is the place you go for all the answers. And it's the Golfi real estate show Niagara edition. And if you've never heard the program before, and you've seen a lot of Rob's advertising, you think? Yeah, but I want somebody who knows Niagara, you're a Niagara falls, native, you know you.

Yes. Yeah. I grew up in Niagara falls in Britannia Crescent. My parents still live there. Yeah. I'm always there. Yeah. Yep. So you know the area and, uh, that's what we're talking about. Uh, and this week we're talking about a bunch of things we're talking, we were talking about, you know, signing deals with real estate people in the, in the last segment.

But the big thing that's happening right now, obviously are our multiple offers. Right? You're getting just about everything has multiple offers. And, uh, I mean, what are, what should be going through your head and what should be going through your real estate agents head as you put your home up. And there are a whole bunch of offers coming in.

So this market is crazy that we're in. So you are getting multiple offers and sometimes some times there's an agent that pushes their client to go a little bit too high on. The multiple offer situation. And so if you've got to push the agent, which, you know, you gotta be careful, there's, there's, there's a way of pushing it in as way as, you know, taking care of your client.

And this is what's happening out there. So a lot of times, a lot of people are winning the bids, right? You can have 10 offers, 15 offers, and we've had as high as 40 offers, 50 offers on uncertain houses. With those offers on the house, the highest guy may come in like a hundred, 200,000 over asking it just, you just don't know.

So what happens is when that guy was like, so, so first of all, when you get multiple offers, we sort. The offers the ones with no conditions. And when with conditions, obviously the ones with no conditions are going to be the ones that we're seriously looking at. Now, if there's ones with conditions and they have a higher number, we'll ask that guy, Hey, listen, we may go with your offer, but you're going to have to take out your financing or a home inspection condition.

And you've you got, you got your, you got a shot at this and if they can't do it, then we go with the ones with no conditions. Now what happens, the ones with no conditions we have to wait for as, for a bank draft or a certified check for, uh, for the deposit on that. So if we accept an offer and it's 200,000 over asking and all of a sudden, okay, perfect.

Our sellers are happy. They sold big time. They may, you know, they saying, this is great. You guys are great. And then, uh, that, and then you tell the agent, listen, we need that deposit. First thing tomorrow morning, you need it within 24 hours. Right. And if let's say, if that deposit doesn't come the next day, we got no deal.

Right. We got no deals. So what happens, uh, now we're, we're going back to the other agents with our tail between our legs and say, Hey, that first offer was so well, too bad. You should've took mine. I told you, you know what I mean? Like that's kind of the attitude you get. Like it's like, well, so what we do now, a lot of the times we accept two offers on the same game.

So we accept the first offer. And the first offer, let's say it's 200,000 over asking. Fantastic. We accept the second offer. Now the second offer may be only 175 over asking, but it's still a great offer. So on the second offer, we add a condition in there. And the condition that we add in there is that we say, we accept this offer.

We accept the terms. We accept everything on this offer, but it's conditional upon being released from a prior agreement, a purchase and sale. So basically we've got our, our we're covered. And so we wait for the, the check, the check to come in, uh, from the first offer. And if it doesn't come in, if they don't bring it in, we go to the second guy, guess what?

It's your deal? It's yours. So we didn't lose anybody and we have two offers accepted, but one has to be terminated. So that's how you protect your, the seller from, uh, losing all those other offers. Like you may only get three offers or four offers on a house. And if that first guy, that top guy wins, but he doesn't bring a check-in.

We got no deal because that's part of the deal is having that bank draft certified check. As a real estate agent, do you always recommend to your clients that they take the CA the cash offers over people with, you know, with conditions? We do. It's just because of the fact it's a multiple offer situation.

Now, the best way to deal with multiple offer situations is deal with it. First thing in the morning, before noon, because you know why the guy that wins the offer, he still has five hours before the bank closes to get you a bank draft. Or, or wire transfer or whatever. Now, if he does, like, let's say you do the deal at nine o'clock at night.

He's there's no banks open at nine o'clock at night morning. He wakes up. Things could change. He wakes up, he goes, Oh my God, what did I do? And I listened to my age and he push me into this. I don't feel good about it. I I'm sick to my stomach. Let let's get that bank the same day that you do the offer. So my opinion, you get your offer done.

First thing in the morning, like late morning, the latest. By noon. And then you get, uh, and then you get the bank draft the same day. There's no overnight remorse feeling, you know? Uh, Oh my God, you know what I do would I am I'm I'm upset and this and that. So you don't get buyer's remorse the next day. So the best thing to do is get the, uh, bank drafts that are check the same day as you do the offer.

And you won't have buyer's remorse because it's happening. It's happening a few times this year when doing offers even last year. So we try to, we try to accept two offers, especially if they're both good offers. It gives a second guy chance as somebody with your, your kind of experience. Have you out of curiosity, have you ever had a multiple offer offer situation where somebody came in with an offer that even shocked you.

Right. Say your house was, you know, in the 400,000 range and somebody comes in at like six. Yeah. Uh, w we have, we have, and, and, and, and, and Tim, that could be even scary because the fact is, uh, we, we asked for a big deposit and we want it right away because the banks may not, uh, approve that. Uh, within appraisal and you have to be very careful because like, you know, you, you want to make sure they're financially secure.

You want to make sure you want to know more about who the buyers are now. Are they, are they older, younger? If they're a first time buyer, there could be an issue. There could be an issue on closing. So what happens is the seller now he's like, okay, well, you know, they bought their house. Now they're going to move on the same day as they sold there, you know, and it's not happening, then it's a chain reaction.

So you really, really gotta be very careful. You've got to know what the market's like. Yeah. There's so many, there's so many things when you're looking, can you get an offer that you have to look at? We have refused. An offer, uh, th the, the, the posit was low, but the, but the price was high. And we took, we took a lesser offer just because of the fact that, uh, the people that were buying it, couldn't put a bigger deposit down.

And we were kind of like, that was a red flag. We're going, wait a minute. Like anybody can walk away from, you know, $5,000. You know, if there's a swing in the, in the market with prices. And, uh, so we we're, we're very careful you, you, you have to know the market, you got to know everything and, uh, and it it's, it's, it's, it is stressful, uh, to it.

It's very stressful. Sometimes you see this high price and, uh, and then you're like, wow. And, and, you know, and. And you're like, Oh my God, you know, we're going to get this money. And, and, but gotta be very careful, very, very careful on what you, uh, pick as an offer. All right. We've talked about, you know, picking the right offer and that sometimes comes down to picking the right real estate agents and whatnot.

Yeah. Um, there are things that as, as agents that you can do that, that do hamper deals. Right. And I know there are some things that, that people should look for in their real estate agent to make sure they're not doing, let's talk about some of the, some of the things that some agents do that probably aren't in their client's best interest.

You know, why it's hard to find. Um, I'll, I'll tell ya. Um, there's a lot of things that people don't know about their realtors and, you know, they're, they're nice to them, but when they're dealing with other realtors, sometimes they can mess up a deal and I'll give you a perfect example. That actually happened to me when I, in my first, probably six months in the business, um, there was a house for sale agent.

Had it listed. I showed the property. And my clients wanted to put an offer in. So we go in with an offer and, uh, and I think we went in. With an offer of probably 5,000 less than the asking price. Tim, not, you know, not that far off, it was a decent offer. So we go in, so I get to the house. And in those days you actually went to the house and you presented, and you still do it today a little bit, not as much as it used to be, but you would go there and you present to the.

Seller with the H his agent, uh, in front of them. So I showed up and I was there probably about maybe 10 minutes early, 10, you know? And, uh, so I'm, I'm, I'm sitting outside by my card's nice, beautiful, damn. To sit in there. So the, so the homeowner comes up to me and says, Hey, Rob, you want to, you don't, you want to wait and see, you can sit inside with us and, you know, have some, a bottle of water.

And I said, are you, I go your shirt? Like, I, I, you know, he goes, ah, no problem. Just come on in. Don't worry about it. So I was a little bit hesitant to do it because it's not my client. So, um, I, so I went in having, you know, a lot of bottled water and everything. Just, you know, shooting the breeze, nothing to do with the contract, nothing to do.

The agent shows up. And she comes in and I'll tell ya she was furious. She was fierce. She was so furious that she messed that deal up. Messed it up. Yep, totally. And, uh, and I said, uh, I said, I said to her, and he, and he, even the seller realized the agent was kind of, totally off with what's going on and everything, just because of the fact she, like, she was like, she was, you should have seen how rude she was.

You should have seen how she was acting. It was just totally, you know, just way off and ma maybe I shouldn't have gone. I know maybe now I learned my lesson on that. I'm not going inside because you don't know. The characters are different people. Um, my first it's the first six months in the business, I'm just learning anyway.

Can you believe that we almost went to full price and that deal student still didn't come together and she blew that deal off. And then after she realized she, she messed the deal up. And the next day my clients kind of said, well, I don't think I want this house. And then nothing to do with, because of what happened there in the house.

When I got there, it was just because she was being so tough on the offer, the way she signed it back. So she was Tate lashing out, uh, her, her anger through the offer that my buyer says, well, what the heck is this? And ruined the deal. They actually ended up getting, this is this. They actually ended up getting less than what we actually weren't gonna, could have ended up with.

They ended up getting less and, uh, and I'll never forget the lesson that, so now I will never go in someone's house because the agent, uh, obviously wasn't happy about that. And she was very rude. She was rude in front of her client with me. She shouldn't have done that with, we never want to be w w we, that's not something you want to show.

Um, so bad. That's bad agent behavior. And you don't do that. Like I always tell my team, I said, listen, guys, be try to get along with other agents when you're doing a deal, be nice, do this because we're going to be doing deals all the time with agents. And we want to make sure we have a good reputation in dealing with, uh, with agents.

It's very, very important. Um, you know, it's to your client, right. Or people or potential clients. Don't. Don't just kind of let their messages and you sit in your voicemail or whatever you actually get back to them, right? Yes, it does. You know what I mean? Like, you'd be surprised in, in the, in the industry.

I mean, we never talked bad about other agents to people. Like, you know, if somebody, somebody questions us. Hey, so, um, unless they're like, you know, a close friend that you grew up with and say, yeah, Hey, what's, so-and-so like, Oh, LAN you know, it's like, you know, But you don't, you don't, uh, you know, talk about other agents say, Hey, they do things differently than I do.

And, uh, you know, um, you know, whatever, but we never, never, um, try to put down any agents because it's not good for the industry. It's not it's, it's just not good. So, um, I it's, it's terrible, but, um, and, and then, and, and same thing, agents are pushy. They're too pushy and you don't want to push the agent. You gotta be very, very, you know, uh, very calm and very, you know, the clients, salespeople, right?

Nobody likes people when they get pushy and, and, and with real estate, when you're talking about this kind of money, Obviously it's more and more important. You don't want people pushing you. There's a fine line. I, I I'm that way, Tim. I don't push anybody into anything. I've probably over my career because I wasn't aggressively pushy with the client.

Um, I probably, I didn't get a couple of deals. Like I didn't, you know, probably they didn't go with me. They went with somebody else, but I, I just feel good. And the one thing I can do, Tim, I can walk into any mall, any restaurant and sit there and I can face anybody that I've dealt with in my life. And I don't have to run and hide.

I can actually, we go there even, even at times where we have over listed houses that are overpriced. And we didn't sell, I can still shake the guy's hand and say, Hey, you know, how's it going? Hey, you know what I mean? Like, like I, and that's what I feel good about. Like, and that's my style. Like, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna push people into something that they're not going to be happy about.

And, uh, and that's what we offer are, are a guarantee that if you're not happy, we'll, we'll, we'll cancel it anytime for you. You can listen to this show and you're at your leisure or any previous shows in this, uh, in this whole series they're on Spotify and iTunes and Google podcast, et cetera, et cetera, just, you know, look for the golf Golfi real estate show on your favorite podcast platform.

And it's that easy in a lot of this could come in very handy when you're selling or buying. Right now, we'll be back with more of the Golfi real estate show Niagara edition with Rob Golfi right after this. You've got the Golfi real estate show Niagara edition with Rob Golfi of Rob Golfi.com or Remax escarpment, the golf team.

I'm Tim, Dennis, Scott eliteness through all of this, getting some information to you. If you're in the business, uh, you know, all of this, but if you're in the market, you need Rob Golfi to help you through all of this now. A question that comes up a lot. Um, and I've been through this, selling a home, thinking about selling a home and you get into this disagreement with your, your spouse or whatever.

Do we fix it up? We spend money to sell it, or do we sell it as is, and maybe ask for a little less money, gotta be one of the number one questions people ask it is you have to be very, very careful because a lot of times people. Um, you know, I actually, we had this one house that was in the, uh, the rural area and the whole house needed to be, uh, updated.

And like, it's almost at a point where it's almost needs to be tear down, but it's, but it won't be torn down. So, um, so the guy says to me, he goes, Rob, should I maybe paint it and freshen it up a bit? I said, look, Everything is dated in this house, but I said it in a nicer way, you know, I just said, you know, I would just leave it the way it is.

I go, um, just because somebody is going to come in here and probably do something totally different than what you have. And, uh, I, and, and, and it's not worth spending $5,000. It was a big house, very big house, $5,000 or whatever to paint it. And I, I said, it's just, people are going to look at it and they'll make a decision, whether they're going to rip this out and do that.

Now, if it's a fixer upper and not a fixed, I'm going to not use the words fixed separate. If everything's dated in the house, it's not worth doing it. It isn't it. You know what I mean? Like if it's one of those houses that the kitchen is, you know, it still has the 1940s or thirties kitchen or, or 1950s, sixties, kitchen still has a, the bathroom or 1970s tile.

Like everything, everything is dated. Um, I wouldn't do anything, anything sometimes they'll say, Hey, Rob, if I, you know, if you know, change the carpet over here, it, it won't give you any more money. It's just theirs because the whole house is dated. And it's and it, it just, there's no sense. Cause it's, somebody may end up saying, well, too bad.

They put new carpet. Cause we're just going to rip it out anyway. So, but there are things, so it depends on, on the neighborhood. It depends on the house style and depends on the year the house was built. So like, you know, if you got these houses that were built in the, uh, you know, the late eighties, which they were.

These houses. They've probably already gone through one renovation now. Now they could be going on their second renovation. Like the, you know what I mean? So these houses are probably 30, 35 years old now. And, uh, so those houses there, it just depends if the house is still the same as was in 1988. No, I wouldn't, I wouldn't do it, maybe, you know, but if the house does have an updated kitchen and it's got updated flooring, it's got this, but the bathroom isn't updated.

Yes. I would update the bathroom. I would do that because everything else is pretty good. So, and it would make the difference of like a complete house that somebody can move into. Um, otherwise they're going to look at it and say, ah, you know, Oh, I got to do the bathroom now. You know, moving in is painting the butt, all that kind of stuff.

So, something like that. Yes, I would do it, but there's a lot of times we tell people not to the market we're in right now. You don't have to. It's I'm telling you it's a sellers market. You save money. You get, if you dump $5,000 into that, into your house, to think that you're going to get more money, you're going to get more money anyway.

So why, why waste $5,000? So you're throwing 30,000 into a new kitchen. Are you going to get 30,000 extra dollars when you sell it? No, not, not, not. If the rest of the house is pretty well, mostly, um, is, is dated because maybe somebody would have said, you know what? I wish they didn't update the kitchen. And maybe we do a torn out a wall to do something different with the kitchen.

So you have to be very, very careful of what stage you are in your house. And then like, like I'll walk in and I'll say, you know what? Don't do it. No, no, no. Let's say Rob, I'll do this. I'll do this. Don't don't do it. Cause you're gonna you're you're just throwing money away because, because you're going to, we're going to get you a good money for your house.

So don't worry about that thing as simple as just, okay. We're just going to freshen it up with a coat of paint sometimes. Yes. Depending on the color of the paint inside the house is if you got red or green paint, you got to, you got to, I would probably do some changes with that. You ever walked into a house as an agent and said, Have you changed anything here in 50 years?

Have you ever walked into one of those? Yeah, I have. I, there was a house I'll tell ya. Uh, we, I walked in and they've probably. Lived there for probably I'd say 40, 50 years. And they haven't changed one thing. And, um, the husband was a heavy smoker. Oh, like, do you know how hard it is to that? Nicotine off the walls and the ceiling and everywhere.

It was tough. And so they, I, the, the, the people that bought it. They had to, like, they started scrubbing it. It was almost easier to rip down all the, all the plaster construction, the plaster walls and just put new drywall because just like it was literally, they were, they started it and it was just dripping down the nicotine ne we're talking 50.

Years of nicotine, just, just that, you know, he smoked in the house and it was just like, you move a picture and you see, you can see that the picture where it was, you know? And, um, Oh yeah, it, um, so those houses, it, you know, there's no set, you can't paint over it. It's just going to bleed through and then you don't want them to, um, but you have to, you know, people look at that and, and some people will take the challenge.

Of, uh, removing the nicotine and they'll end up having a nice house, but it does, that does reflect a little bit of the, uh, of the price. And if you're in a balanced market, you have to be very careful. But if you're in a sellers market, you're good to go because, cause there's nothing out there and there's a lot more buyers than there are sellers out there.

But, but if you're in a balanced market or you're in a buyer's market, yeah. You're going to have a tough time. So, uh, I mean we haven't, we haven't had a really buyers market. In a long time, but you know, we don't know that could shift any time. It could be next year. It could be later this year. It could be, it could be next month.

We don't know. So homes coming on the market because I mean, we've talked about almost since this show began, we've talked about a low inventory. Um, but we've now passed new year's we're into a new year. It's 2021. And. Uh, although the lockdown restrictions and whatnot are much the same as they were prior to new year's, but are you seeing more people, uh, thrown their homes up there to see what's going on?

They they're starting to, but they're going so fast. It's not enough yet. It's not enough. And you know, it's like, it's like somebody, you know, like there's somebody that says, they think, Oh, I'll probably get more money than me and all, I have a pool and stuff like that. And they're waiting for, you know, maybe may to put their house up for sale, but that market may be gone.

It. I mean, it may, we might go to like, to a balanced market where it's, you know what I mean right now? Yeah. Since we spoke last, are the prices still going up? What's happening in the market right now? They're still going up. They're still going up. I had, you're not gonna believe this in Niagara on a Lake.

I've got a waterfront property there for sale, uh, on fire lane and, uh, fire lane, 11 eight. And, uh, we had an agent from Toronto Richmond Hill. Come and show his clients in Niagara, on the Lake, a house. Now Tim, that's a 90 minute drive. Yep. And from, from Richmond, Richmond Hill, like, so think about this.

They're taking their clients 90 minutes down to the four Oh six or whatever, four Oh three to the Queenie down to the Niagara 90 minutes spend maybe a couple hours in. It's Niagara and a Lake and then 90 minutes back. And I asked him, so how was traffic? Wasn't been good? He goes, he said, he goes, you're not going to believe this.

Even the HOV lane was busy. He goes, I'm like, I go, I go, nobody's really paying attention to this shutdown, but I can't believe agents where they're coming from. I just can't believe it. And they're coming from all over and, uh, 90 minutes away, I just, so, I mean, they don't know the market down, down in Margaret Lake.

We've talked about that before that, you know, if you've got a Toronto agent looking at homes and Niagara, they're not really going to know the intricacies of this, this. Whole region. They're not going to know the difference between Niagara on the Lake and Niagara falls. It was funny. We just hired an agent that lives in Welland and, uh, and, uh, she moved to Welland.

Uh, I'm not sure maybe four or five years ago. She came from, uh, uh, out of town from Toronto. Now she be, this is before she became a realtor. She, uh, the realtor show, uh, uh, sold her a house in, uh, in Welland and, uh, And I said to, I said to her, I go, would you buy, like, were you happy when you moved into that neighborhood?

And she said, no, she goes, I, I regretted buying this house after she moved in, just because of the fact, um, we thought our agent knew the neighborhood and it was, it wasn't the right neighborhood for us. And it's, it's sad. And we find a lot of people that have bought houses, uh, from, from their agent that came from, uh, the GTA that didn't know, uh, there, that area re uh, would never use, uh, an out of town agent again, or ever use that agent again to, um, uh, to sell, sell, or buy a house again, because, because it wasn't the right neighborhood for them.

They didn't know it. And they shouldn't have driven down wherever they were coming from to go into a territory that they're not familiar with. It's like, you know, it's like going to a different country and say, Hey, this is a great area move here and, uh, into this neighborhood. And, uh, and meanwhile, it could be a crime neighborhood or it can be you, you just don't know.

And. So you gotta be very careful, uh, especially, uh, if, if you have a, if you're going out of town to buy a house, use the use somebody that lives in lives and works in, uh, in that area. And, and we have, we have agents that live and work in well in St. Catherine's Niagara falls, Fort Erie, everywhere. Right.

Yeah. And if you're living in Toronto and looking down here, I mean, here's something that might help you a little bit, because I would assume that a lot of the people who are coming down here and looking at Niagara on the Lake or, or Fonthill, or someplace they're looking at pretty, you know, nicely, nicely priced homes, let's put it that way and you actually have, um, a luxury site.

Uh, that just aims at those homes and those buyers, right? Yes. So we just launched our, uh, it's called Golfi luxury.com. And if you go to Golfi luxury.com, um, it is our luxury site and we are actually one of three. Agents or teams in Ontario that has a link to them worldwide, um, uh, luxury homes. So on the site, uh, you can, uh, it's the easiest site to navigate.

Um, you click on it and let's say, if you're looking for houses in Niagara, you click Niagara and it shows you all the different communities in Niagara and, and Toronto, and also in the Hamilton Wentworth area. So for instance, Um, and, and it gives you all the luxury homes that are in that, in that area. Now we also in, in, and if you wanted to mess around and just, you know, see what other luxury homes are doing in different markets, you can, uh, at the top of the page, you'll see, it says worldwide properties, you click on there and you can actually.

Uh, look at, uh, homes like it could be in Paris, it could be in Italy, it could be in Las Vegas. It could be Miami beach, Los Angeles, anywhere in the world, it'll have the luxury properties and it's, it's actually pretty cool to act, you know? I mean, we're always. Always intrigued about how the rich and famous live and looking at their properties and, and seeing what they have.

And it's actually a great way to get, uh, some great, great ideas. Just go on my website and hit worldwide properties at the top of the page, and then you'll and, and click on, you know, price points in different areas or whatever. And you'll be able to find a beautiful luxury homes all around the world that you can actually look at, or if you're, or if you're in the market, it looking at it.

But we are getting, we're starting to get a lot of traction on it. Um, because we know, uh, luxury homes have become more popular now, uh, more people are, are, are, are, are buying houses that they can actually enjoy more. They want more room because you know, they're at home more. I mean, they want the pools, the tennis courts, the basketball courts, they want, you know, even bowling alleys in these houses, you'd be surprised.

Yeah. Yeah. If you're not in that. Tax bracket. And you still have questions about buying or selling your home here in Niagara? Uh, you can go to Rob Golfi.com. The website is Rob G O L F i.com. You can call them at nine Oh five six four one. Zero three zero eight and ask questions at any time, 24 seven and Emma.

No one of those questions may show up on this program very soon because we get lots of questions that we try and answer here on the golf real estate show. So, yeah. Thank you, Robert. So, uh, we will, uh, we'll do this all again next week. Maybe we'll have some more questions from people online, but we'll also talk about what's happening in the Niagara market.

And again, if you listen to this program and you like what you hear and you want to hear some of the other shows, just search out the Golfi real estate show on your platform, you can find it anywhere on iTunes or Google podcast or Spotify. Rob we'll talk next week. Thank you. Have a great weekend. That's it for this week's Golfi real estate show Niagara edition.