Why so many choices, why not keep it simple?

You are right; it is not easy to save thousands of dollars in real estate fees! Who wants to save money on commission anyway, it is useless. Maybe you should just get over with and pay the 5% + HST to Royal Lepage/C21/ REMAX and move on or you could get smarter and read the following and educate yourself in how to get out of the Bondage and pay yourself for a change. If you think that your property will sell, then the property will sell the same weather it is listed with them or with me, but you will kick yourself when the lawyer hands you a check thousands less than the selling price knowing that you could have had thousands more in your jeans with John Gagnon the Trusted Discount Broker!

From the Competition Bureau: As a result of an agreement recently ratified by members of the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), Canadians (the smarts one) will have the ability to choose which services they want from a real estate agent (John Gagnon) when selling their home, and to pay only ($195 & up) for those selected services. At the same time, the consent agreement between the Competition Bureau and CREA will ensure that real estate agents have the flexibility to provide innovative service and pricing options to customers. The agreement will be filed with the Competition Tribunal and effective immediately. (Like now, it old news)

Now you have it! If you want to save thousands of dollars you have to decide and choose!
Back to $195.00 to shop till you drop!

Or read on some more...If you choose a Traditional 5% Commission Agent example REMAX above the Crowd, what does he really offer you other than promises and empty your bank account when the house sells? Locally I have seen on the MLS® Board System a lots of 5% listings that have very few pictures, it is bad enough that there is a fine if you don’t have at least 1 picture within 2 days of posting the listing. Can you imagine with me for 1 picture I only charge $195.00 instead of 5%. Plus I don’t see too many Virtual Tours or Feature Sheets for lots properties advertised on MLS.ca listings. They like to charge you the big bucks but don’t like to spend much in marketing. With me you can get all those features without breaking the bank. I notice lots of listing General Descriptions that are usually just a couple lines in most cases. I can do the same posting for $195.00 really you don`t have to pay them 5% for that!

I know some who don’t advertise open houses ever because don’t like to do them they say it is a waste of time, while others rarely do them and if they do, they make sure to bring all competing listings available for sale in the neighbourhood to share them with visitors at your open house to try to sell them the competition or gain some brownie points to pick up new prospects and listings. In most of my packages you can have unlimited open houses all advertised on MLS.ca, REALTOR.ca and I am sure you will not try to sell your neighbour’s house when you hold your own open house. How about that, did you know that about open houses and your friendly REALTORS®? Let’s face it Agents only make money by selling houses, not necessarily yours but maybe the one that is price a little better than yours up the road. Did you think he was going to miss out on that commission just because he is doing an open house for you? The fact is that you are making it easier for him to sell the competition because he gets to influence the Buyers first trough your open house where the good deals are. Sellers have to be more realistic about that since this is the nature of the beast sort of speaks.

On the Board there are over 350 Members at the time I am writing this (there may be less at the end of the year since it has been a brutal years for most), never the less they all charge a lot more than I do to list, where are their listings on the Real Estate Today Paper you only see about 20%, but you can be sure see John’s ad every time the paper comes out? I have a package for less than $1000 that guaranteed regular advertisement in the local REAL Estate Today publication. People complain to me that some are not following up, not giving them timely feed back if any and not returning their calls promptly enough. But they sure don’t mind calling to get the price reduced. With me, you are allowed to get your own feedback directly from Buyers and REALTORS® without having to wait for an Agent who does not care. We could go on and on...

You wonder why people are still willing to pay 5% for this kind of real estate services. I think sometime people are dumb likes bags of hammers! I believe that many listing Agents don’t want you to know that on MLS.ca and REALTOR.ca you can have up to 30 pictures, a Brochure/Feature Sheet and a Virtual/Video Tour designed the promote your property plus up to 1000 characters to describe your property professionally in the General Description of the Listing. I think for 5% you should be getting all these features plus more especially since you can get it from me for less than a thousand dollars.

This is why I have many listings packages, you can actually shop till you drop and choose the one that best suit your need and budget. Don`t expect to save thousands and not shop around, you need to do your homework’s. Some people have a ½ million dollars property they may have to spend more to promote it to the max, while other have a $150,000 property; they may not have to spend as much to sell quickly. This is the new covenant; it makes sense to me, where in the old covenant everybody pays basically the same 5%. Praise the LORD, Grace is better than the Law! For those who don`t understand this, it means that there are far more blessings for you in the New Testament (Grace) than in the Old Testament (The Law).

Thank the LORD that you don’t have to deal with those guys anymore since you now have the option to deal with someone like me. Take your blessings and choose the package that is right for you. Some people will want to do open houses, others won`t. Some people will want a yard and open house signs others won`t because they don’t want the neighbours to know what they are up to. We offer large post signs, regular signs and no signs for those who have their own for sale by owner signs plus soon will come up with cheap disposable signs like the propertyguys. (Do I need to say that they are a waste of money those guys, see my testimonials from people who have wasted over a thousand with them and have to come to me then being broke looking for help selling)

Some Sellers will want 10 pictures others 20 and some 30. Some will want more features sheets and virtual tours other perhaps won`t be able to afford them. Some will be able to fill all the required forms on their own to save money other won’t want to bother and pay me to do it for them. Others will not mind to come to the office to do their listing and pick up the signs and others will want me to go to their houses to do it all for them. Some will pay me to train and coach them in various areas such as showing the house properly, how to effectively do open houses and negotiate offers for top dollars on their own plus how to deal and negotiate with a selling Agent. Others will think they know it all and fly on their own without it.

Lots of Sellers don`t mind handling the calls and inquiries themselves while other Sellers will not want their personal information on line and will pay me extra to intercept the Buyer`s calls first then release their contact information, other will pay me to go a step further and have me qualified the Buyers first and some will pay me more money to have me schedule the showings for them. Others will pay me to show the house instead of them, others will want me to do the offer for their Buyers and pay for that up front or after the fact, others will want me to negotiate for them, it all depends on people wants and needs and pocket book.

Basically the more you can do yourself in the process of selling your house the more you will save but regardless of your skills level you still need a Register Broker/REALTOR® to walk you through the process and do the MLS® and REALTOR.ca marketing for you but whatever you do, you not have to list with them and pay 5%.

Let’s face it, thousands and thousands of your dollars are at stake here and we are not talking peanuts, so you need to pay attention and do your homework especially if you want to sell the property directly to the Buyer rather than a REALTOR® doing for you, it is as simple as that! The choice is clear you need to decide if you want save thousands or not since there is nothing in between. When the house sells the question will be, how much did it cost you to get the job done? The fair market value of your house does not go up just because you have to pay a 5% commission and taxes! The Buyers don’t care how much commission you are paying, they just care how much you are asking for the property and if they don’t like the asking price they will move on down the road!

Enjoy my site, there is lots of interesting stuff on it and you will not find another one like this. In my view and experience, Real Estate Agents are a lot like when you go to the groceries store and you look at a bunch of apples on the display, they all look alike and you wonder which one is the best. Then a lady just pulls up right beside you and start squeezing them. It is the same thing with REALTORS® you have to squeeze them to find the best for your money!

Do yourself a favour; call me at 613-966-7555 or 613-242-4642 and Start Packing!