Real Estate Blog
Web or broker?
In the last years, the World Wide Web has moved into the real estate industry in a big way, and various sites are offering sellers the chance to make greater profits by using the Internet.
The argument is simple, even simplistic: by not paying a commission, you're automatically putting that money in your pocket. But the idea just doesn't stand up: a buyer seeking a property for sale without a broker will expect a bargain. This is logical: since the seller isn't paying an intermediary, the asking price for the property should come down accordingly. And so, can the seller really talk about savings?
Cold cash
After all, who wouldn't want to avoid paying thousands of dollars in fees? But while some sites ask for only a small amount in fees, they provide absolutely no guarantee of a sale in return! This obviously isn't the case with a broker, since you don't pay a penny until the sale goes through.
For the buyer
While the option of acting alone may seem appealing to a seller, it's quite another thing for the buyer. Since it's the seller who's paying the broker's salary, the legal protections and professional services are completely free for the buyer. Why deprive oneself of this?
Numbers that talk
In any event, among the Québec sites that offer homes for sale, only Centris.ca, which is reserved for real estate professionals, featured as many as 48,659 at the time of this writing (January 2023).
To conclude, it is still real estate brokers who are most effective on the Web. If you want to be among the 238 people who sell their houses on any given day in Québec through a real estate agency (statistics from Centris.ca), turn to a sure bet: rely on your broker, a human being who is truly working for you – and who guarantees you results!
