I hope that everyone had a good month.  The last little bit I have been working on creating a real estate investment strategy based around the proposed LRT Green line, Chinese investment in Calgary and short term vacation property for free scenarios in Canmore.

 

What's new in the news for real estate

 

In the last month I have come across a couple things in the real estate world that have surprised me;  It takes a lot these days to do this to me but this one did.

 

Headline:

 

Talk about closing the deal! Realtor is busted for having sex with a man in a house she'd just sold after cops catch them in a 'passionate rendezvous'

 

From the outside this seems funny to me, seriously who does that?  But long-term it is just another stain on our industry, another reason for people to distrust realtors and lump us all into the 'used car salesman' pile of careers. 

 

Here's the story

 

The realtor had sold the house the previous evening, it was empty and the next morning at 5am she was caught inside having sex because a concerned neighbour saw a flash light on inside the home when it was supposed to be empty...opps

 

The realtor told the police that the two were married and that they had bought the house the night before. After the cops smelled marijuana in the car they questioned her more and she came clean about the situation.

 

The neighbour had this to say about the situation:

 

'I’m just shocked and amazed, but not surprised,' Hicks said.

 

Me too!! Shocked that someone would do this but not that surprised that it happened.  The police found more drugs inside and then finally the realtor admitted that the drugs were hers and that she was actually the realtor for the house.  The cops must have been like "Seriously?"

 

From the article I read:

 

The new homeowners filed charges, and said they did not approve the couple to be there or their unconventional ‘housewarming.’  Realtor and boyfriend were charged with criminal trespassing with both their bonds set at $1,000. It was not immediately clear if the realtor faces drug charges.

 

What about the realtor?

Not only was this realtor shamed publically but the partner she was with was too, it is all over the local media with pictures of her, him and oddly enough a bunch of FaceBook pictures of his mom too.  What a great way to get a good reputation...

 

From her bio online, something makes me think that the honesty and integrity portion is not that authentic.

 

Realtor X (no need to include her real name) believes that her genuine desire to help people, along with her honesty and integrity, make her an unparalleled partner for success in real estate ventures of any type.

A similar situation in Calgary?

 

At a friend's going away party a while back now a similar situation was brought to my attention but this time it was local.  If we've worked together recently you may have already heard this story as I just can't believe it happened.

 

What happened in Calgary?

 

I could probably go on about this for a while but the story boils down to this.  A friend of a friend had their condo downtown listed with a local realtor who is successful and is considered to be a top producer in town.  The seller had previous done a lot of business with this realtor on a commercial level and then decided to sell their personal residence.

 

While the seller's home was listed the seller traveled out of the country and while they were away it was brought to the seller's attention that someone was in their property; it certainly wasn't the seller as he was in Africa and they had been there too long for it to be just a showing.  Similar to the story in Texas, a concerned neighbour reached out but this time they called the seller directly; not the police.  After some investigation work by both my friend and the seller, they determined that the selling realtor had the seller's property listed on AirBnB for rent while he was out of town.  Can you believe that?  You go away for work and your realtor lists your home for rent on AirBnB without your permission...unbelievable to me but it is true. 

 

Once this was determined the seller came back to town and caught the realtor red handed.  The seller went to his house and found someone inside, he called the realtor and questioned him on what was happening.  The realtor basically didn't know what to do, he explained that he thought the seller would enjoy the extra rental income while he was away...problem is the selling realtor never told the seller about renting out his home.  Unreal!  If the seller had not caught the realtor doing this, he would have pocketed everything and never informed the seller about the short term rentals.  Zero integrity or honesty and this is with the seller and the realtor having a previous business relationship that was very beneficial to that realtor.  Needless to say I doubt they work together anymore...

Thoughts?

 

 

Not everything you read in a realtor's bio online is true, if you are considering working with a real estate professional, please do some additional digging, research their references online, maybe call some past clients and see how they liked working with the realtor you are considering.  Anyone can post about integrity and honesty online but do they actually live that way or, will they be having sex in your listing while you are gone on vacation?...