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CBC MARKETPLACE: YOUR HOME » REAL ESTATE
Betting the House: Inside the
real estate biz
Broadcast: December 4, 2005
The biggest gamble you’ll ever make could well be
buying or selling a house – especially if you’re
trying to make a deal in a hot real estate market.
Buying a house can be an emotional
roller coaster where time and a limited budget are
the buyer's worst enemies. |
In any case, whether you’re looking
to buy or sell a home, the process can be stress-filled
and emotional, with the high stakes you might
find at the gambling table. In the middle of it all are
the real estate agents, taking their cut whenever they
make a deal.
Welcome to Canada’s real estate market, where sales
are soaring, prices are higher than ever and competition
is intense. If you’re game for a match, we have some
stories some agents don’t
often share.
Marketplace's "Betting the House" takes
you behind the scenes to show you the ups and downs of
working with an agent, and how carefully
orchestrated the open
house can
be.
| Estimated increase in Canadian home prices
in the past decade: 50 per cent. |
We go behind the
closed doors of the bidding
war and present tips that
might help you to cut your real estate costs.
We follows house-hunters as they navigate
the twists and turns of today's hot market - where houses are
listed one day and gone the next. It's an emotional roller
coaster where time and a limited budget are a buyer's two
worst enemies.
Getting into the Game
These days, getting into the game of
buying a house invariably begins online, at a website
for the Multiple Listings Service. If a house is for sale,
you'll probably see it on mls.ca.
The Multiple Listing Service
website is a database of properties for sale across
the country. |
“There are a lot of homes for
sale. To try to cull that down to the ones that you’re
really interested in can be really hard,” says
Caius Tenche, who’s
looking to buy a home in Toronto. “Before the MLS
website was around, I can’t imagine how it was done.”
But even with a searchable database,
it’s still hard
to find that needle in a haystack – the perfect home
for you.
It’s hard to tell which houses are the really
good deals – the write-ups that accompany some entries
can make a shed sound like a palace.
The more you look, the more you’ll come across some
recurring themes – it’s almost like there’s
a secret code (“Charming fixer-upper!” “Gardner’s
paradise!” “Oversized lot!” “Steps
to everything!”).
But sometimes the secret code used
to spice up a house listing is more exaggeration than fact – house
hunters have to quickly learn how to decipher it and read
between the lines.
| Examples |
| “lots of potential” |
... may mean lots of problems. |
| “priced to sell” |
... may be used to make an overpriced house merely
seem more affordable. |
| “up-and-coming neighbourhood” |
... may mean a rougher
part of town. |
| “handyman's special” |
... could mean you’re in for a lot of repairs |
"It’s amazing, the descriptions
that agents put on there,” says Caius, who’s
has been frustrated by a
few false leads in property listings.
“Sometimes I wonder: who do they
actually think they’re kidding?” |
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