For Sale by Owner Poses the Same Security Risks as Those Facing Realtors

Rachel in Real Estate Trends

The recent, tragic death of B.C. realtor Lindsay Buziak highlights the security risks that face those in the real estate industry.  My heart goes out to her family. As I was reading the ongoing coverage in the Globe and Mail, and other news sites, I noticed that other realtors had posted their own suggestions for methods of protecting themselves, but as I looked at RECO, TREB and VREB, I could not find anything relating to agent safety tips.  I certainly hope that this is part of their internal site offering, but it does make me wonder, what kind of access to resources do homeowners who are selling without an agent have?

This is top of mind for me as I recently heard through the grapevine that my neighbor is selling his home without benefit of a real estate agent.  He doesn’t think he needs one, he knows the approximate value of his house and he would rather advertise ‘word of mouth’ and see what he can get.  Both parties involved know that the price of the house can be approximately 5% lower to account for the lack of commissions and there is something liberating (for him) about not having to use an agent.

I decided to visit the property, just to get a sense of the deal, and I realized how vulnerable you are when you are letting people in to your home.  It occurred to me that one of the less touted, but highly valuable services that an agent will provide is dealing with the potential buyers so that you don’t have to.  When selling your house without an agent, you will have to arrange the showings and managing the parade of people through your door – it will be challenging not to leave clues about when you are alone, or when the house will be empty for long periods.   

For home buyers not using an agent, certainly take all the advice you can gather from realtors, and certainly do not show the house alone.  I certainly do not want to perpetuate negative female stereotypes, but I did notice that every single realtor who the media listed as being a victim of an assault or killed was female.  Ladies, please be careful out there.   

Rachel Loizos is an associate lawyer at Sotos LLP in Toronto. She practices in the area of real estate law.
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Comments

[William Stynes]

Rachel,

Thanks for the post. For sale by owners face the same issues as real estate agents. An agent can have open houses where anyone can come off the street with no prior screening. The same goes for an person selling privtely.

One tip for people selling by themselves is to have all the information about the property available online so that you can pre-screen the buyers. Then schedule all the visitors on a weekend during a set period and have a friend assist for those designated "Showing Hours". This helps to protect you and saves you lots of time! You only need to spend a few hours a week managing your home's sale. You can save 5% with only a minimal amount of effort!

William

[Alxander]

Thanks for the informative post.

[alexander]

Thanks for the informative post.

[yellow]

"For home buyers not using an agent, certainly take all the advice you can gather from realtors, and certainly do not show the house alone"

I highly recommend that FSBO people do not try to "gather" information from realtors since you are not paying for their services. That is very unethical. Realtors make a living being knowledgable in Real Esate and information is not free.

I wish people would stop being brainwashed into thinking realtors are scum. Many of you already have full time jobs and to sell a home on your own is basically taking on another full time job. If that weren't the case, then realtors wouldn't exist. Think about that for a second. Was this person who died qualified to arrange an open house, showings, and most importantly negotiate the transaction? Its sad that all of this could have been avoided had she used an sales rep. My thoughts and prayers are with her family.

[Rachel]

To 'yellow'; thank you for your comment, but the woman who was killed was actually a realtor and for that reason I can assume that she was qualified to show homes. I don't think that anyone here believes that realtors are ‘scum’, nor do we try to imply that by our content. You may be interested to know that Realosophy was founded by a realtor. I appreciate that expertise is valuable, and I am not suggesting that people should be abusing realtors for their time, but I disagree with your point. Information is often free. The recent advent of wiki’s, online journals, and blogs (among other, older, methods of spreading information) are proof that people are willing to share their expertise and realtors are no exception – everyone can benefit from this information sharing. Realosophy is founded on the principle that information should be shared and that consumers deserve open and free access where possible. In the long run it may be the case the clients choose to work with realtors that have a voice in the community and who openly discuss relevant issues - including tips for personal safety.