With the real estate market which suddenly reversed in September, the work of real estate brokers is becoming more complicated and brokerage students may have to postpone their dream until later.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
After two good years during which buyers acquired properties almost with their eyes closed, brokers will now have to hone their skills, believe spokespersons for Royal LePage and RE∕MAX.
“I don’t want to minimize the work of a broker, but we basically managed auctions,” said Marc Lefrançois, chartered real estate broker at Royal LePage Tendance, in an interview.
“Now we no longer have that hobby,” he continues. We can no longer price [établir le prix] a house anyhow. Sometimes the brokers put them too expensive and it worked the same way. »
“Before, someone took out a brokerage contract and it was almost money in the bank, it was sure that it was going to sell with the progressing market”, adds Georges Bardagi, manager of Team Bardagi and president. by RE/MAX du Cartier G.B.
For the past two years, buyers haven’t had time to think before making purchase offers. The pressure was on, they were buying unconditionally, often after a five-minute visit. But the game has changed. A seller who waits for his buyer for several months no longer has the big end of the stick, and listing brokers will have to roll up their sleeves.
Negotiating with a person who has taken all his time to present his offer to you is not a dynamic that is very interesting for a salesperson.
Marc Lefrançois, Chartered Real Estate Broker at Royal LePage Tendance
This is why brokers must now know how to establish the right market value, which is of decisive importance in the sales process, just like marketing and the qualities of communication with salespeople. “Newcomers will have to develop new skills, especially when the house does not sell quickly enough at the established price”, specifies Georges Bardagi, who explains that newcomers have not learned to manage difficult conversations with sellers whose the house does not sell or whose value is reduced.
In its early days in the 1990s, in a bear market, it was always the bearer of bad news. “For five years, I went to see clients and told them: you lost $30,000, it’s no worse than the neighbor who lost $50,000. »
La concrete gold rush
Seeing a Klondike in real estate, many rushed into the business. As proof, requests for the issuance of permits have increased. They went from 1,805 in 2020 to 2,197 in 2021. The number of real estate brokers jumped from 14,772 (in 2020) to 16,682 (in 2022), according to data provided by the Organisme d’autoréglementation du courtage immobilier du Québec (OACIQ).
If we ask brokers, they will say that there is a staff shortage in everything except for brokers, there are always too many.
Georges Bardagi, manager of Équipe Bardagi and president of RE/MAX du Cartier G. B.
The broker, who has 32 years of experience, specifies that there has always been a high rate of turnover in the industry and that in these times of full employment, other better paying trades could seduce brokers.
“Over the past two years, we received a lot of calls from young people who were starting or making a second career. It was huge. It was coming in spades. With the market becoming more difficult, I’m not sure that there will be enough business for everyone,” notes Marc Lefrançois.
A plan B for newcomers
This is the observation that Maxime Paquette is making. He quit his job to complete the residential real estate training course full-time. A five-month training at a cost of $5,500. When he started his courses, the statistics about the slowdown in sales had not come out.
“I’m already in real estate, I have income properties and like everyone else, I saw the market surge during COVID,” he says to explain his registration for the training.
PHOTO CATHERINE LEFEBVRE, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Maxime Paquette
“I will finish my course and see how the market stabilizes. If it’s not profitable, I’ll go do something else in the meantime. Apart from brokers who are really on top and sell three or four houses a month, everyone who starts will not have the choice of having a second job. »
Maxime Paquette already has a DEP in mineral extraction and has several years of experience in northern Quebec. “It will be my lifeline if I don’t break through as I want in real estate. »
The real estate market is not like the stock market, reassures Georges Bardagi. There are births, deaths, successions, separations, cases of transfer of employees to other cities. “There is always movement in all markets,” he concludes.