Real estate agents caught breaking the law on hidden camera (Marketplace)

Our investigation found real estate agents breaking the law and steering buyers from low-commission homes.

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[KeithBalante]

I was not shocked that this happens. Kudos to the first realtor for being honest.

[rca]

We had an agent one time that was so, so good. Lowered his fee and worked with us for MONTHS in a hot market in the best neighbourhood. We wanted it for the schools but, it was over our budget a bit. I mean that guy went above and beyond. Fast forward 28 years and I have referred every person I know who was looking for an agent to him and he has sold houses of at least ten of them. Be good to your clients. They WILL remember.

[amorrbaby]

THIS is TRUE Journalism. And right on time, people need to know this

[davidbals]

If people stopped using agents then the system would be forced to correct itself and they would have no choice but to take less commission.

[thejamaicanscarface]

CBC always exposing what needs to be exposed. Marketplace is such an amazing show. Thank you!!!

[rainydays]

I sold my own home and I'm not a real estate agent. I lived in a high demand area and I knew it. I advertised online, on Kijiji, and put up signs in the neighborhood. You don't need for MLS. I had 1 Open House where I got 5 offers. I sold it that day for my full asking price. After I printed my own purchase agreement which you can buy at Home Depot, I took it to a lawyer who I paid $150.00 to look it over. I would try do the same on my next home sale. I think you should always try to sell your own home first.

[cmgoblin]

Serious respect for the first agent. He was honest and looking out for his clients and not for his pocket.

[hansschweikert]

We did a similar thing, we sold our own house in a private deal. When a real estate agent told us we'd lose 6% to them, I told my wife, "Heck, we could DROP the price of the house by 6% and be at the same place!" House sold in a week. I'm afraid the agents are going to price themselves out of the market eventually. Times change.

[oceanside]

Steering. Red lining. Threats. Ghost email harrassment. "The Board" does nothing. Should Realtors be valuing land taxation? Where are the assessors? Glad someone is talking about this.

[Youarelight]

The amount of work the crew did for this is amazing, Keep it going.

[lunamar]

As a realtor I am so happy this is happening. Not once have I turned down a lower commission, in fact I have put down my commission on my own many times just to help my buyers secure a home. I am glad this is coming out, I hope more comes out. Makes people who practice real estate for the love of it look bad and get pushed out of real estate. I am on the verge of giving up real estate because of the agents not the clients

[xdae]

I gave a full offer to a real estate agent. He never even provided the offer to his client. He hid it because the listing was still only a week old and he wanted to find someone who’d offer him more. His client is 86 years old. I had to drive to the client’s home and tell him my offer for him to find out i existed.

[vuaeco]

It's not just steering but there are many more tricks in the book that they regularly use like asking for a higher commission, negotiating tactics... When I bought my house a few years back, there were broken windows, broken doors, broken carpets. I offered them $5000 less to cover the cost of repair of those items. But I told the realtor (buyer's agent) that I really loved that house because of the location. Later I realized that was a big mistake to tell her that because she knew we would buy it at full price regardless (or even offer more). So she came back and said the seller wanted a full price, no negotiation. I didn't understand why at first why they just couldn't reduce $5000 from a $700, 000 price. And it's not like I was trying to low ball them or anything. It was for repairing broken things in the house. Later after we already bought the house, I found out that she teamed up with the seller's agent to NOT reduce the price for us so that she can get more commission from the seller.
Car dealers, dentists, and realtors are usually on top of the list of people you should never trust.

[dakotaakers]

My wife and I bought a house last year. We saw a few and then found one for 50-70K less then the ones we had been seeing but we liked it. Our realtor gave us a speech about how an extra $200 a month on your mortgage gives you so much extra money in buying power. She told us many times we can do way better then the house we live in now. She was legit angry that we didn't max out what the bank would loan us but came in 100k less. This business is insane.

[THETOYTIMEMACHINE]

This is the best show. Every Canadian needs to watch this

[TheKim]

I painted a sign on a piece of plywood. By the end of the month, cash in hand, I gave the keys to the new owners. We used a real estate lawyer to process the transaction, the cost was $800. I had decided to use an agent if it didn't sell in 3 months, all it cost me to try on my own was nothing, I already had the plywood and the paint in the basement.

[alittlewheiser]

As a home buyer and I saw a listing I didn’t give them a choice to show me the home or not. If they refused I dropped them and found another agent.

[nyizzle]

Another problem: since the agents get paid a percentage there is an incentive for them to inflate the price of the house by faking bidding wars etc, more transparency is needed.

[lifewithcctran]

The first guy agent was honest and he had ethics. He said he just wanted the buyer to be happy and have a home...he was all in with the low percent commission. He was honest.👏

[euphonikprince]

Business Ethics is taught in Business Schools, but in reality profit above Ethics is the order of the day.