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Who is your Okanagan Real Estate Agent?

Unfortunately, the glitz, glamour and lifestyle portrayed on a show like Million Dollar Listing or Selling Sunset is not the reality for most Okanagan Agents. According to Wowa.ca and Real Estate Magazine, the median salary of a real estate agent in the Okanagan is $46,621.00. Even more scary is 51.3% of real estate agents make 0 to 1 sales per year, with only 10% of the agents selling 10 or more homes per year.  

These statistics reinforce our belief in the Pareto principle (80/20 rule) that can be applied to almost anything. It seems especially true in professional careers (Teachers, Accountants, Engineers, Doctors, Real Estate Agents) where 20% of any profession is responsible for 80% of the market results and the remaining 80% in any profession fight over the 20% remaining market.

With results noted above, we see this play out in the Okanagan Real Estate market daily. Our experience is firsthand, as 80% of the Vernon Real Estate agents are doing 0-10 transactions and it shows with their struggle to be successful and/or provide value to their buyers and sellers on a consistent basis.

Behind the scenes it can sometimes be grim as unseasoned agents are putting themselves in direct conflict of interest with their clients and/or are so woefully inept they build frustration with all stakeholders and parties involved with them. 

Here are a few recent examples and challenges:

1. An Agent, from a Lower Mainland Brokerage, working with a buyer, has an accepted offer on one of our North Okanagan Listings and tells us this is their first transaction ever. Take note, although our Real Estate license is good to sell anywhere in BC, our rules are very specific about working outside a geographic or professional area of expertise. Our rules highly recommend that you refer your client to another professional agent in the area.  Additionally, the Broker for the office should be involved in training and assisting with an agent’s initial transactions, especially if they are 440Km out of territory and their area of expertise.  The shocking part we see time and time again, is that, in most cases these agents are from a national franchise brokerage with offices all over the world including the Okanagan, so a referral should be very simple but it’s just not being done. In this particular case, an out-of-town agent, out of their depth, then proceeded to ask us for guidance that put their on-going negotiated position with their client in a conflict of interest. All the while, providing our client and us transparency of their weakened negotiated position. Meaning from our client’s position of strength, they (the buyer) are now exposed to another $100,000+ in costs to their bottom line as the agent does not have enough expertise to negotiate an appropriate purchase price in the market, they are in. This not only ended up raising our client’s expectations as to what sale price should be expected for the property but led to disappointment for the buyers when the property did meet client expectations – because on top of it all- the offer was written sight unseen. And did not appraise at the value they put on it.
2. Sometimes the situation can be more benign, but the frequency of the questionable events, dare we say it, is increasing and is almost daily.  Dealing with agents that cannot read simple instructions for showing a home or the outlined instructions for presentation of offers reminds me of the patience our team must endure every day.  We have tried to remedy this continued lack of oversight by providing the same instructions in 3-4 different locations as well as use eye catching fonts so the agent cannot miss the information given by us. In fairness to agents, the overwhelm of information sources and details required for each deal is increasing. But at the end of the day, it is the agent’s responsibility to learn where to look. Ultimately, it is administratively time consuming and wearisome when there is a lack of responsibility. And although, we may want to chalk it up to the increase in social media and internet usage and the resulting decrease in people’s attention spans over time, we can’t make excuses when we are representing others. Even though there is ever increasing consumption of visual media such as watching videos, scrolling Facebook and Instagram and lowered requirements to not actually read anything longer than a twitter post, we can only hope that, reading comprehension, which appears to be a lost art with the newer generation, will be remedied in time or we may be all be doomed to continued heightened levels of frustration.
3. In this Red/White Hot market (see past posts), we see other signs of agent challenges. For example, agents telling us we are priced too low, and they do not want to show the home or write an offer on behalf of their client because it will be “too much work” for them as there may be competition and multiple offers. This apathetic stance certainly can’t bode well for clients. It has never been wise to pay more than one can afford but it is also unwise not to throw your hat in the ring offering what your pocketbook can bear and what your agent has assessed to be good value for the home.
4. Other incredulous situations include, out of town agents asking me to show their buyer not only my listing but others agent’s listings as well (with no referral fee offer and disregard for agency) because:

1. They are busy this weekend?
2. The drive is too far?
3. They are currently on vacation – ah hello?
4. They have a shift at Walmart?
5. Or my favorite…. a new shipment of Spanx came in and they don’t want to miss out on the weekend sale?

Our industry struggles from reputational issues like many other industries (Pareto principle at work). Who hasn’t heard a Lawyer joke?

Our industry, like most industries, does have a complaint process which goes through our board to ensure better customer service and experience, while ensuring compliance and projection of a professional image.  

But until our industry decides to do something to detect the negligent agents and brokerages take responsibility for ensuring standards of agent success  (most are ignorant to their shortcomings due to lack of experience and results), we will limp along and our buyers and sellers will be the ones who suffer.

No agent is “entitled to your business”, we must earn it.

The quick and easy solution for the general public and/or our industry, in our opinion, would be for consumers and the industry to demand their agent be able to show and demonstrate that in any 12 month period they have successfully closed 24 transactions (2 transactions/month) and then we can have peace of mind knowing we are at least dealing with the top 20% of our industry, those that have chosen for this to be their professional career.

https://www.homelight.com/blog/how-many-homes-does-a-realtor-sell-a-year/ (***US blog but relevant to our market)

https://wowa.ca/how-much-do-real-estate-agents-make