The Markham Realtor Problem

We are trying to buy a house near Toronto. Now when I say near Toronto, since we aren't rich, that means, we are looking for a place where we can get downtown in less than 1.5 hours during rush hour in the morning. A place that is less than 1 million dollars. Sounds easy, nope.

We have been looking in several areas, Mississauga, Milton, Maple, but we like Markham. (wow that is a lot of Ms!) We started looking (again) a few months ago and we are serious this time, not just browsing, we are going to get a house if it kills us. Problem is, with Markham, it just might.

The standard in Markham, (luckily not anywhere else we have seen so far,) is that realtors will perform bait and switch tactics. They will price a house at, we'll say 800k. It will get a few bidders, start a bidding war hopefully and then they can say they sold it over asking. Problem is, (and this has happened 4 times in the last month to us,) if we are the only bidder, or if there are a few bidders that don't got about 100k above asking, they will reject all offers and close the sale only to open it a few days later for 60k - 80k more. Then they will sit on it for a bit and try their luck again.

This make no sense and it just evil. From a buyer's standpoint, we see a house barely in our price range, we go to all the trouble of a pre-inspection (because no one accepts conditional sales anymore), put in a bid, hear there are no other offers, get excited, then have the carpet grabbed from underneath when the realtor says, they changed their mind. Didn't even come back with a counter offer or anything like that. They just reject completely and close up shop for the day. The buyer is left scratching their heads wondering what went wrong.

From a seller perspective, they have a potential buyer but they piss them off, spit in their face, waste a week for everyone and then go to all the trouble and try again.

From what I understand about buying and selling, if you list a price on something, that is the minimum price that you are willing to part with it. Why is this not the case in Markham? Why are they above the barter system. Do they think the term "First one to say a price loses" so they just make up a number that has no real meaning? It is just wrong on so many levels. It is like going to a store, picking up some milk that is $3.99 and then when you get to the checkout, The cashier says "You need to pay more for it" and when you offer $4.50, they take the milk away from you and tell you to get out and try again in 3 days.

This needs to stop. This is immoral, unethical and just plain mean.

I am not one to say something needs to happen and not make an suggestion so here is mine. We want to stop this bait and switch tactic but don't want to punish people who legitimately change their minds about selling their house. Might I suggest a 3 month cooling period whereas if the realtor takes the house off the market, they cannot put the house back on the market for at least 3 months. If you changed your mind, this should not be an issue, but if you are trying to scam people, this will be a major headache. (at least I hope it will.) Also realtors themselves should be only allowed to do this at all twice a year. If they need to do that more than twice, then they are not very good at their job and should have to re-do their licence.

I understand the urge to get as much money as possible for a sale but only through legitimate, legal and ethical means. Doing otherwise is why people hate certain realtors and if it is not curbed, it will only get worse.

Working Hours

I've worked at several different companies and know many others that work in all sorts of businesses. They all have bosses and managers, some are good, some are bad, some are useless, some make your life easier, and some make it a nightmare.

No matter the manager, most companies (unless it is the government) they will give you more and more and more work until you throw up your hands and scream "NO MORE!". Then they will give you that exact amount of work forever.

Now, for those people that always feel swamped or overwhelmed, or about to burst, here is a few simple tricks that people told me that helped me keep my sanity.

1) Ask yourself, "Do I get paid to worry about this?" a lot of the time, people find other problems that hinder or prevent them from doing what they need to do. They figure someone needs to fix it so they take it upon themselves to do it. This gives them more work when in fact, someone else should have been doing it because that was THEIR job, they just don't know or are too lazy to do anything correctly. On the other side, people will outright give you more stuff that is not really your responsibility but since you don't say no, everyone assume you can and will do it. Don't kill yourself. Do what you can and email your boss the problem you came across and move on.

2) You don't have a time machine. Basically you have 6-8 hours of productive time each day to do work. Somehow, you have 10-15 hours of work to do each day. That math does not add up. You can't clone yourself, you don't have a time machine, you are not a magician. Don't let your boss think otherwise. If they give you too much work, they are bad managers, so you need to fix them by sitting with them briefly and say, "hey boss, you gave me X number of jobs to do that will take more time than I have so let me know the order of the tasks you want done and I will do it in that order. Keep in mind that the bottom ones will most likely not get done for a while." If they don't listen, don't care, or don't help, simply do the same thing with their manager. It will make them look bad, but since they are not helping you, they are trying to make you look bad so it is only fair.

3) Don't kill yourself for them. You work there, they pay you. You are give jobs, you do the jobs for as long as the work day lasts, then you stop and go home. If your work wants you to take your work home with you, they had better make it worth your while by giving you overtime pay, time off in lew, or a commission. If you aren't getting something back, have a conversation with your boss and see what can be done to compensate you for this extra time. If your boss is trying to keep this overtime "under the covers", that means that he does not want his boss to know that he is abusing his employees. Don't let this happen unless you are really okay with this situation. Talk to another boss (preferably one your boss does not get along with) and ask for their advice. Hopefully they will point you in the right direction.

I tried to keep this stuff generic but I hope this stuff helps. Remember, don't worry about the stuff you can't control. And if you aren't getting paid all that much. You should probably not be that stressed out at work.