Barry Lebow

Barry Lebow, FRI, ASA, ABR, SRES, IFAS is an active Realtor and highly regarded real estate authority in Canada, now in his 57th year in the profession. Throughout his career, Barry has received numerous accolades from various real estate associations for his exceptional work in the industry. With three recognized appraisal designations, he was an active appraiser for three decades. Barry’s expertise extends to providing expert testimony in approximately 600 trials across North America. Currently, he serves as an active broker at Forest Hill Real Estate Inc. Central, in Toronto. For more information or to get in touch with Barry, visit barrylebow.com.

The post Don’t get sued: Legal risks in real estate practice appeared first on REM.

Most of us possess a driver’s licence to drive an automobile or small truck. Just having that license is not adequate for us to drive a big rig – an 18-wheeler or heavy equipment. One has to train to do so, to be certified by a regulatory authority. Please keep that in mind as I explore my concepts of why dual agency problems are not issues with the agents but rather a result of a lack of regulatory control.

There is no question that many a lawsuit has been tried in Canadian courts by either agents taking advantage of their role (and the clients) or the agents just not understanding what their role is.

Having a real estate license or registration should have more regulatory control. To come out of a real estate school and be let loose on the public is just ripe for recklessness.

A new agent could be involved in a complex commercial or land deal with no training. But they may also find themselves in a dual agency (multiple representation in Ontario) situation and in need of additional skills to complete the task professionally.

In Ontario, I have made proposals to both the regulator and provincial association and received no response.

Here is my outline about what I feel is the right process for dual agency and its future in residential real estate:

• No agent with less than two years of experience should be allowed to undertake dual agency.

• No agent who has done less than 10 deals (that is arbitrary) despite their years in the industry should be allowed to undertake dual agency.

• Any agent wishing to undertake dual agency must take (at least) a one-day, in-person course with an examination at the end.

• The course would be written by arbitrators and mediators who work in the real estate field; there are many lawyers and retired judges who would be excellent course writers.

• Unless an agent has the certification, they simply cannot be a dual agent.

• Mandatory re-certification could be an option every, say, three to five years or as regulations, laws, etc., evolve.

• An agent could advertise they are “certified in dual agency” once the proposed certifications are complete.

It is my contention that with reference to my opening comment about having a license to drive a car but no training to drive a big rig, the problems that exist with dual agency come down to one thing – there has been little to no adequate education across Canada in the process.

Even the study of our fiduciary role is glossed over.

I remember the early training we got when I started in this industry. Sellers would ask us if we had buyers for their house. Agents who worked in a particular area did. Why hire an agent who lacked potential buyers?

By creating a system where we either list for the seller or work with a buyer, we will find another problem: an erosion of our fees as if we are listers. Then, from a seller’s viewpoint, why not go with the lowest-priced agent?

If we are not seeking buyers, we are just offering a service. Why bother having an open house to sell a home when we cannot deal with the buyers?

Open houses will make little sense (yes, I know, it is for agents to pick up buyers and neighbours that want to sell, I have heard that before).

It is not dual agency that is the problem, it is the lack of education and training that is at fault, and it appears that regulators would rather just sweep it away instead of dealing with the reality of their own failings.

To regulators, I state, “Educate, not eradicate.”

Barry Lebow

Barry Lebow, FRI, ASA, ABR, SRES, IFAS is an active Realtor and highly regarded real estate authority in Canada, now in his 57th year in the profession. Throughout his career, Barry has received numerous accolades from various real estate associations for his exceptional work in the industry. With three recognized appraisal designations, he was an active appraiser for three decades. Barry’s expertise extends to providing expert testimony in approximately 600 trials across North America. Currently, he serves as an active broker at Forest Hill Real Estate Inc. Central, in Toronto. For more information or to get in touch with Barry, visit barrylebow.com.

The post Opinion: The case for dual agency appeared first on REM.

Essentially, exclusive listings for residential properties would be eliminated. This was the case by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) in the USA in 2020, and it appears that CREA is following their example. 

I recently made a comment on this on Facebook and received 193 replies, so I will dispense with “writing an article” and instead post many of the legitimate reasons why exclusive listings have been and will continue to be necessary. 

In no particular order, and I have condensed the comments. 

• Chronically ill sellers who want and need to restrict viewings; we are reminded of this past pandemic, the lockdowns and the fears of many who needed to sell but did not want a great deal of human contact 

• High-end personalities, celebrities, and the very wealthy do not want the public to see photographs of how they live, nor do they want a bunch of gawkers wandering through their homes. 

• Divorce and legal actions where they want no pictures and very secretive exposure. 

• Seniors and hoarders. An agent takes an exclusive and takes weeks to get it cleared, cleaned and restored before offering it on MLS. It is prudent to take an exclusive in this situation and advertise it “as is” or “to be renovated to your taste,” amongst other actions. 

• Senior residents who did not speak English and clients who did not want their mom out on the streets during showings. They wanted control of their situation. 

• Hoarders who were ashamed about how they lived and refused to be on MLS. 

• People with pets who can run out or be scared. 

• People with valuable collections from art to coins. They want buyers vetted and not open to the public. 

• Assignment sales where developers have stated, “assignments cannot be listed on MLS.” 

• People who have been traumatized by stalkers and are fearful. 

• One had a client with over 100 legal firearms in the house and refused to be on MLS. 

• Farms – the sellers did not want their neighbours to know about their business and life change. 

And more…

Bottom line, many wrote, “this is for the sellers to decide, and they can opt-in to an exclusive over MLS for a myriad of reasons which is their prerogative. No one should restrict a seller’s right to be less open and more in control of their situation.” 

And my take is that there are laws in Canada about restrictive trade practices, and this smacks of that. 

CREA, think twice. We are not NAR, and American laws are not always welcome in Canada. I see a great deal of pushback from the membership, and I expect most resistance to start with the upper echelon of realtors in Canada who deal with the super-rich.

Barry Lebow

Barry Lebow, FRI, ASA, ABR, SRES, IFAS is an active Realtor and highly regarded real estate authority in Canada, now in his 57th year in the profession. Throughout his career, Barry has received numerous accolades from various real estate associations for his exceptional work in the industry. With three recognized appraisal designations, he was an active appraiser for three decades. Barry’s expertise extends to providing expert testimony in approximately 600 trials across North America. Currently, he serves as an active broker at Forest Hill Real Estate Inc. Central, in Toronto. For more information or to get in touch with Barry, visit barrylebow.com.

The post Opinion: The public needs exclusive listings appeared first on REM.

You use this tool when there are no other options available. You use it sometimes when you are desperate and you use it sometimes for convenience. It’s also something that most sellers may not consider, but it could turn out to be a savvy investment for them. In this video, I go over all the pros and cons of the vendor take-back mortgage and why you need to understand how it works.

Barry Lebow

Barry Lebow, FRI, ASA, ABR, SRES, IFAS is an active Realtor and highly regarded real estate authority in Canada, now in his 57th year in the profession. Throughout his career, Barry has received numerous accolades from various real estate associations for his exceptional work in the industry. With three recognized appraisal designations, he was an active appraiser for three decades. Barry’s expertise extends to providing expert testimony in approximately 600 trials across North America. Currently, he serves as an active broker at Forest Hill Real Estate Inc. Central, in Toronto. For more information or to get in touch with Barry, visit barrylebow.com.

The post What you need to know about the vendor take-back mortgage appeared first on REM.

Real estate professionals who are skilled in properly pricing a home and negotiating a sale get no respect in the current market, he says, when it seems everyone is pricing homes well below market value to create multiple offers.

He asks, “What is happening in these insane times as real estate prices continue to escalate and more and more people decide to become Realtors? What will the next three to five years bring?”

Barry Lebow

Barry Lebow, FRI, ASA, ABR, SRES, IFAS is an active Realtor and highly regarded real estate authority in Canada, now in his 57th year in the profession. Throughout his career, Barry has received numerous accolades from various real estate associations for his exceptional work in the industry. With three recognized appraisal designations, he was an active appraiser for three decades. Barry’s expertise extends to providing expert testimony in approximately 600 trials across North America. Currently, he serves as an active broker at Forest Hill Real Estate Inc. Central, in Toronto. For more information or to get in touch with Barry, visit barrylebow.com.

The post Barry Lebow on part-timers and no respect for real estate skills appeared first on REM.

Based on cases that I have dealt with over the years, here are some recommendations on how not to get sued by doing a proper job when buying or listing.

One that I believe should be primary: Always go into MLS, search the address of the property you are going to list or sell and go back to see all listings as far back as your system permits. Look for the major criteria – lot size is a big one – easements if noted, broker’s comments. Maybe it had UFFI, a marijuana grow-op, non-zoning compliance and more that your seller today is not disclosing.

If you are in litigation and there were conflicting previous listings, then why did you not check? If someone can find the former listings to hold against you, then you should have found them as well.

Flood plains are a major issue and have resulted in too many cases where agents have been sued for not disclosing. Depending on where you are in Canada, did you go into the website for the local conservation authority or did you look at flood plain maps? I currently have three cases where the agents did not verify these facts and told the buyers that they could build. One involves a multi-million-dollar commercial complex that can never go forward.

Termites are a big deal in some cities. You should know the termite areas. Toronto is one of the most infested of Canadian cities but there are termites in Southern Alberta and on the West Coast as well.

In Toronto, a prudent agent calls the leading termite pest control firms to see if they have a record of treating the house. Recently when I checked on a new listing of mine, I was informed that the attached house next door was treated. That led to a termite inspection of my listing and now, treatment. When acting as the buying agent in a known termite area, a simple clause that the seller to the best of their knowledge did not know about termites nor have treatments is mandatory. In two cases, the agents never inserted such a clause and guess what was found after closing? Yes, termites.

Zoning: If your client tells you it is a legal duplex or whatever, do you just take their word? No, you go physically to the municipality, you log the time you arrived, who you spoke to and what they reported to you. I can attest to this. You can phone in to some municipalities but I have found too many wrong answers from city clerks who just want to shrug us off. Take the time and physically go. In older sections of larger cities, I do not trust my clients when they say they have onsite parking. I always go to city hall to verify and while there, I ask about building permits.

The law is clear, if the information is in the public domain and anyone could have easily accessed it, then why didn’t you?

Always Google, then Bing, then Yahoo (yes, all three) every civic address that you are working on – always! Surprises do pop up, especially if that property was a crime scene or had a fire or other damage.

There are many more acts of a lack of diligence but these are the dominant cases of late. Too many of the cases that I write expert reports about would never have happened if the agents had exercised diligence, checked facts and asked the right questions. You cannot take a seller’s word for anything. Court cases (Krawchuk v Sherbak) have determined that in Canada.

Be careful, be cautious, be diligent and never be sued!

Barry Lebow

Barry Lebow, FRI, ASA, ABR, SRES, IFAS is an active Realtor and highly regarded real estate authority in Canada, now in his 57th year in the profession. Throughout his career, Barry has received numerous accolades from various real estate associations for his exceptional work in the industry. With three recognized appraisal designations, he was an active appraiser for three decades. Barry’s expertise extends to providing expert testimony in approximately 600 trials across North America. Currently, he serves as an active broker at Forest Hill Real Estate Inc. Central, in Toronto. For more information or to get in touch with Barry, visit barrylebow.com.

The post Mistakes that land salespeople in litigation appeared first on REM.

I once worked with family members who had a lifetime quarrel with each other because one of them received a little red wagon for their birthday while the other did not. The little red wagon started as a source of contention and grudge-holding between them that festered and grew well into their relationship as adult siblings.

One day, I got a phone call from an heir to a commercial property inquiring about the market value of a building that had been in the family for six decades. This might not sound very complicated, but the intricate web of family emotions and disagreements became very elaborate when I learned that the heir shared ownership of the building with two other cousins. All three were estranged from one another, all disgruntled with each other and in no uncertain terms were they speaking to each other. The only thing the three senior cousins could agree on was that they wanted to sell the property.

It originally belonged to three brothers who had been very close. Two of them were business partners while the third was a silent investor. They had grown their business together to acquire their own freestanding factory back in the 1960s.

The three first cousins who had inherited the factory, each an heir of the three brothers, had not spoken directly to each other in many years. They just did not like each other. After getting involved I could piece together snippets of childhood misgivings and grudges, and ultimately, the far-too-familiar theme of the little red wagon and deep-festering jealousy.

I met with the cousins and, despite their animosity towards each other, I found them to be lovely people that I enjoyed talking to. This issue should have resulted in an easy, peaceful outcome but they were closed to the concept that their cousins could be nice people as well.

In addition to family strife, there were outside complications including a long-standing tenant and some contamination in the soil. The property was not that easy to sell but I did find a strong buyer who was going to pay top dollar. The issue was getting the cousins to agree. We came to a standstill because when one signed, then the other two automatically wanted to reject it.

I decided to deal with the angriest and most difficult of the three. Unless we got into the topic of his family, we got along very well. If I mentioned the family, he went into a rant.

Thankfully, I had spent two semesters at the University of Toronto many years ago to become an arbitrator and mediator and that experience has always helped me tremendously with clients. I learned a lot and practiced what I was taught.

I sat with the angriest cousin and said, “I guess that you thrive on the anger and hate toward your cousins so much that you do not want to make this sale, as you need to wake up each morning with that anger festering.” He looked at me in a puzzled way. He was adamant that he wanted nothing to do with his cousins.

And this is what I told him: “This offer that I have before you immediately cuts all ties to your family on the day of closing. Once you sign and the deal is done you never have to see them again, your choice. But, emotionally, you cannot let go, you just need that anger. So, either you detest them and want to hang on to that emotion or you cut the cord now.”

That was what he needed to move forward. He was an educated man and thought it over and told me that I may be right. It would be best to move on, to cut all contact and he agreed that the price was good. He was to receive a fair amount of dollars before taxes.

The deal was done, it closed and from what I know he has never crossed paths with his cousins again.

This experience reinforced for me that family wars are not about the here and now and often they are a result of old wounds, some going back to childhood. An experienced professional Realtor finds the root of the problem and then sells the real estate. The role of a successful agent is to identify the desired outcome from clients who do not communicate well with each other.

My best piece of advice? A Realtor is not a family counsellor and while the task may include mediation, the goal is to find the most efficient path to helping everyone feel heard and get what they want without trying to fix a lifetime of family strife, family wars and a case of the little red wagon.

Barry Lebow

Barry Lebow, FRI, ASA, ABR, SRES, IFAS is an active Realtor and highly regarded real estate authority in Canada, now in his 57th year in the profession. Throughout his career, Barry has received numerous accolades from various real estate associations for his exceptional work in the industry. With three recognized appraisal designations, he was an active appraiser for three decades. Barry’s expertise extends to providing expert testimony in approximately 600 trials across North America. Currently, he serves as an active broker at Forest Hill Real Estate Inc. Central, in Toronto. For more information or to get in touch with Barry, visit barrylebow.com.

The post Family wars and the little red wagon appeared first on REM.

In this video, I interview Bob about misconceptions involving wills, including what will happen if you die without a will (no, the government doesn’t take it all). We talk about the dangers of using a “will kit” rather than getting legal advice when writing a will and cover how to choose an estate trustee – and what to do if you are named as an estate trustee. I learned several things about wills and estates that I didn’t know before.

Barry Lebow

Barry Lebow, FRI, ASA, ABR, SRES, IFAS is an active Realtor and highly regarded real estate authority in Canada, now in his 57th year in the profession. Throughout his career, Barry has received numerous accolades from various real estate associations for his exceptional work in the industry. With three recognized appraisal designations, he was an active appraiser for three decades. Barry’s expertise extends to providing expert testimony in approximately 600 trials across North America. Currently, he serves as an active broker at Forest Hill Real Estate Inc. Central, in Toronto. For more information or to get in touch with Barry, visit barrylebow.com.

The post Barry Lebow talks to Bob Aaron about wills and estates appeared first on REM.

Barry Lebow

Barry Lebow, FRI, ASA, ABR, SRES, IFAS is an active Realtor and highly regarded real estate authority in Canada, now in his 57th year in the profession. Throughout his career, Barry has received numerous accolades from various real estate associations for his exceptional work in the industry. With three recognized appraisal designations, he was an active appraiser for three decades. Barry’s expertise extends to providing expert testimony in approximately 600 trials across North America. Currently, he serves as an active broker at Forest Hill Real Estate Inc. Central, in Toronto. For more information or to get in touch with Barry, visit barrylebow.com.

The post Dealing with bullies and big egos appeared first on REM.

Watch this video for a crash course in 2021 real estate valuation.

Barry Lebow

Barry Lebow, FRI, ASA, ABR, SRES, IFAS is an active Realtor and highly regarded real estate authority in Canada, now in his 57th year in the profession. Throughout his career, Barry has received numerous accolades from various real estate associations for his exceptional work in the industry. With three recognized appraisal designations, he was an active appraiser for three decades. Barry’s expertise extends to providing expert testimony in approximately 600 trials across North America. Currently, he serves as an active broker at Forest Hill Real Estate Inc. Central, in Toronto. For more information or to get in touch with Barry, visit barrylebow.com.

The post Heretic appraisal pricing: Better real estate valuation appeared first on REM.