\n<\/p>\n
Nine Inch Nails is probably one of the most underrated bands of our generation.\u00a0 Perhaps one of the most misunderstood as well.<\/p>\n
When I was in high school, one of the prevailing looks, or\u00a0cliques<\/em> was that all-black \u201cgoth\u201d vibe that had kids dying their hair black, wearing black nail polish, and even black trench coats which was an odd piece of clothing for a 15-year-old from Leaside on a hot summer day.<\/p>\n I remember after society tried to make sense of the Columbine shooting in 1999, people blamed, among other things, Marilyn Manson and his music, as well as Nine Inch Nails, simply because they liked to dress in black<\/em>, as did their fans.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll be honest; the guys I knew in high school who\u00a0did<\/em> dress in all black\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>fans of Nine Inch Nails, but I\u2019ll leave history (and the Internet\u2026) to disprove the myths of the link between 1990\u2019s heavy metal music and violence\u2026<\/p>\n In any event, Nine Inch Nails sort of gets wrapped up in this \u201cheavy metal\u201d genre but my god are they ever more than that.<\/p>\n You might not know \u201cTrent Reznor\u201d and \u201cAtticus Ross\u201d as household names, but everybody saw\u00a0The Social Network<\/em>, better known as \u201cThe Facebook Movie,\u201d and all the music from the movie was scored by Reznor and Ross.\u00a0 They also did the music for Gone Girl and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, among others that you\u2019ve probably seen.<\/p>\n My favorite song by Nine Inch Nails is \u201cThe Hand That Feeds.\u201d<\/p>\n What I love about the song is that it\u2019s so hard to define the\u00a0type\u00a0<\/em>of music therein.<\/p>\n It has elements of rock, pop, funk, and electronic.\u00a0 Certain segments of the song feel like\u00a0dance<\/em> music.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfb5 Just how deep do you believe Like any song, piece of poetry, or even religious text, the words are open to interpretation.\u00a0 Like your horoscope.\u00a0 Or a fortune cookie.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfb5 Are you brave enough to see? This is how I see a lot of the Toronto real estate market right now, and while it\u2019s hard to explain what\u2019s going on out there, the regular readers know that I often use analogies to get my points across\u2026<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfb5 So naive I can\u2019t possibly tell you how much this music feels like the May, 2025 real estate market here in Toronto.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfb5 Will you bite the hand that feeds? \ud83c\udfb5<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n We have discussed the following themes ad nausem throughout 2025 thus far:<\/p>\n 1) Sellers over-valuing properties. But there\u2019s a new theme that I wanted to explore today, one that is borne of all three of the above themes:<\/p>\n 4) Listing agents who bite the hand that feeds.<\/p>\n We could call this \u201clooking a gift horse in the mouth\u201d if we wanted to.<\/p>\n We could also say that this is like \u201crefusing the olive branch.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s \u201cslapping away the extended hand.\u201d<\/p>\n However you want to describe this; whatever your analogy might be, it\u2019s one of the largest problems in the real estate market right now it\u2019s a major reason why more transactions aren\u2019t getting done.<\/p>\n Simply put, many listing agents refuse to work with, listen to, or even respect the buyer agent who comes to them with an offer, and I\u2019m talking about a situation where the listing agent is out of his or her depth.<\/p>\n At best, this stems from\u00a0inexperience<\/em>.<\/p>\n At worst, this stems from\u00a0ego<\/em> and\u00a0greed<\/em>.<\/p>\n But combine inexperience, ego, greed, arrogance, frustration, unrealistic expectations, and at times \u2013 desperation, and there\u2019s no way to expect a positive result.<\/p>\n Let me regale you with a story which a colleague of mine recently shared.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll call her \u201cKim.\u201d<\/p>\n Kim\u2019s clients are looking at houses in the west end, casting the net wide enough to capture Bloor West Village, Roncesvalles, High Park, The Junction, and maybe even Dufferin Grove too.<\/p>\n There are a lot of options out there in their price range right now, which is up to $1,200,000, and they\u2019re noticing that a ton of houses are failing to sell on their offer nights and subsequently being re-listed.<\/p>\n Kim\u2019s clients saw one particular property that they liked, which was listed for $1,048,000, but was an odd house, with an odd layout, and one that the buyer pool might not flock to.<\/p>\n The property was listed\u00a0with an offer date,\u00a0<\/em>of course, but Kim\u2019s clients decided to take a wait-and-see approach, since so many houses were failing to sell on their offer nights.<\/p>\n Offer night came along and there were only\u00a0two\u00a0<\/em>offers registered, so with the listing agent calling Kim incessantly, saying, \u201cThis house is going to under-sell,\u201d Kim called her clients and encouraged them to consider an offer at a price that made sense for them.<\/p>\n They decided to offer $1,166,000 on the house, knowing full well that the \u201cvalue\u201d was probably higher and the seller likely expected<\/em> more, but with only two competing offers, they feel like they were in the game.<\/p>\n The listing agent, who we\u2019ll call \u201cRealtor Kenny,\u201d did his job and made it sounds like the three offers were all very competitive and that Kim would need to get her clients to come up in price, but Kim\u2019s buyers held firm at $1,166,000.<\/p>\n Realtor Kenny called Kim at one point and said, \u201cCan your clients come to $1,200,000?\u201d<\/p>\n Kim said, \u201cNo, they\u2019re firm at $1,166,000.\u201d<\/p>\n Realtor Kenny seemed to think Kim was a\u00a0priest<\/em> at one point, as he began to confess to Kim.<\/p>\n \u201cThese sellers are really hard,\u201d Realtor Kenny told Kim.\u00a0 \u201cThey seriously thought they were getting, like, $1.3 Million, and I don\u2019t know what they\u2019re going to do,\u201d he told Kim.<\/p>\n Kim just sat back and let Realtor Kenny talk.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know\u00a0what<\/em> to do,\u201d Realtor Kenny said at one point.\u00a0 \u201cThis market is so fucked,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t uncommon in today\u2019s market.\u00a0 Listing agents are having a tough time, and some of them are sharing with colleagues.\u00a0 But what\u00a0is<\/em> uncommon is for a listing agent to share this in the middle of an offer review, not to mention sharing it with one of the buyer agents who has an offer on his listing!<\/p>\n Realtor Kenny called Kim back a half-hour later and said, \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen.\u00a0 The sellers might not accept\u00a0any<\/em> of the offers.\u201d\u00a0 But the interesting thing was, during\u00a0this<\/em> call, Realtor Kenny didn\u2019t ask Kim to improve her offer.<\/p>\n Realtor Kenny just seemed to be venting.<\/p>\n An hour later, Kim got the call from Realtor Kenny that she felt was coming all along; he said, \u201cSorry, Kim, but we\u2019ve accepted another offer.\u201d<\/p>\n Kim said, \u201cThat\u2019s fine, I understand,\u201d and then asked what we all ask: \u201cCan you tell me how much the other offer was for?\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s where things get interesting.<\/p>\n Realtor Kenny said, \u201cI can\u2019t tell you just yet, since the other offer is\u00a0conditional<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Huh, really?<\/p>\n The seller accepted a\u00a0conditional\u00a0<\/em>offer over an unconditional offer?<\/p>\n Well, depending on the price, that might make sense.\u00a0 It\u2019s a risk, but hopefully a\u00a0calculated\u00a0<\/em>one.<\/p>\n As a reflex action, Kim said, \u201cOh, wow, they accepted a conditional offer?\u00a0 That\u2019s so strange!\u201d<\/p>\n Surprisingly, Realtor Kenny responded with, \u201cWell, I mean, it was just over $1,200,000.\u201d<\/p>\n Amazing.<\/p>\n It\u2019s amazing because Realtor Kenny\u00a0just<\/em> finished saying, \u201cI can\u2019t tell you just yet,\u201d and then told Kim thirty seconds later.<\/p>\n Perhaps Realtor Kenny was being defensive?\u00a0 Perhaps he felt like Kim was calling his strategy into question and he felt the need to tell her that the accepted offer was $34,000 higher than hers?<\/p>\n Regardless, the property was marked \u201cSold Conditionally\u201d on MLS and noted conditions on financing and home inspection.<\/p>\n Fast-forward to the Thursday before the Victoria Day long weekend, and Kim checked her phone to see\u00a0four\u00a0<\/em>missed calls from Realtor Kenny.<\/p>\n She\u2019s been in the business a long time.\u00a0 She knew what this meant.<\/p>\n Kim called Realtor Kenny and he sounded panicked!<\/p>\n He also started to butter Kim a little bit and she knew that he was going to work an angle.<\/p>\n \u201cThis deal is falling through,\u201d Realtor Kenny told Kim.<\/p>\n She asked him, \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0fallen<\/em> through, past tense?\u00a0 Or it is<\/em> falling through, as in, currently?\u201d<\/p>\n Realtor Kenny said, \u201cIt hasn\u2019t fallen through yet but they let us know that they\u2019re not moving forward.\u00a0 They want to extend their condition for fifteen business days; some bullshit about their lawyer not being in town, and their financial planner not being able to give them the go-ahead\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Kim was stunned.<\/p>\n Conditional sales rarely fall through in today\u2019s market, and this most certainly surprised Realtor Kenny!\u00a0 Kim could hear the panic in his voice.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you think your people would come back to the table?\u201d Realtor Kenny asked Kim.<\/p>\n Now, here\u2019s where we need to pause for a moment and ask a very important question:<\/p>\n Who is doing whom the favour?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n You could argue that Realtor Kenny is doing Kim the favour by giving her a second chance at a property that her clients wanted.<\/p>\n But you could also argue that Kim, if she were to get her buyers back on paper, would be doing Realtor Kenny the favour by helping to bail him out of a bad situation.<\/p>\n Feel free to decide how you wish.<\/p>\n However, in a situation like this where the offer date has passed, the original deal fell through, and the property is going to be offered up for sale\u00a0again<\/em>, I would argue that Realtor Kenny had lost any and all leverage that he possessed one week prior.\u00a0 In fact, once a conditional sale falls through, the buyer pool often sees the property as stigmatized.<\/p>\n Kim told Realtor Kenny that she would check with her buyers to see if they were still interested, but added, \u201cWe saw two properties last night and we were literally just talking about making an offer on one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Realtor Kenny said, \u201cPlease, Kim.\u00a0 I need your help here.\u00a0 Check in with them and let me know.\u201d<\/p>\n Kim said that she would.<\/p>\n But then, rather amazingly, Realtor Kenny said, \u201cAnd see if they can come up to $1,200,000, okay?\u201d<\/p>\n Wait.<\/p>\n What?<\/p>\n Kim\u2019s clients had offered $1,166,000 on the offer night.\u00a0 They were beaten by a higher offer.\u00a0 That offer was conditional<\/em>.\u00a0 Now, that offer had fallen through.<\/p>\n Kim didn\u2019t quite understand.<\/p>\n \u201cUm, Kenny,\u201d she said, \u201cIf my clients were going to $1,200,000, they would have done so on offer night.\u201d<\/p>\n Realtor Kenny said, \u201cYeah, well, I need to get my sellers the same price as before.\u00a0 Okay, yeah, just check with them, okay?\u201d<\/p>\n He sounded panicked.\u00a0 But of course he was!\u00a0 Whether he had advised his sellers to accept a\u00a0conditional<\/em> sale, or whether it was their idea, it didn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 They were already hurt because they \u201conly\u201d got $1,200,000 or thereabouts for their home, which they overvalued, and now they were most likely pressuring Kenny to secure a firm sale.<\/p>\n Kim told Kenny, \u201cI can call them and ask if they would put $1,166,000 back on paper.\u00a0 Would you like me to do that, or not?\u201d<\/p>\n Good for Kim.<\/p>\n Tell me that Realtor Kenny was \u201cjust doing his job,\u201d but was also risking biting the hand that feeds.\u00a0 He needed Kim; not the other way around.\u00a0 Kim\u2019s clients, as mentioned, were literally just about to submit an offer on another home.\u00a0 Sure, they might want to take another shot at\u00a0this<\/em> house, but there was no need for them to raise their bid.<\/p>\n Realtor Kenny told Kim, \u201cSee what you can do,\u201d and Kim said that she would speak to her clients that evening.<\/p>\n The panic was real, however.\u00a0 Realtor Kenny was blowing up Kim\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n Can u get an offer tnight<\/em>?\u00a0 He texted her.<\/p>\n Any updates plz n thx,\u00a0<\/em>came the second text.<\/p>\n This went on and on for hours.<\/p>\n Kim called Realtor Kenny back and before she could say anything, he blurted out, \u201cWill they do $1.2 Million?\u201d<\/p>\n She said, \u201cHi Kenny, first of all,\u00a0no<\/em>, but secondly\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s when Realtor Kenny cut Kim off and said, \u201cWell, that\u2019s what the house is worth!\u00a0 I don\u2019t understand what the problem is here.\u00a0 We already sold it for this price once, we can do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n Realtor Kenny was not in a position to be lecturing Kim, and yet that\u2019s exactly what he was doing.<\/p>\n But then he actually started\u00a0bargaining<\/em> with Kim and said, \u201cI mean, I could probably get them down to $1,190,000, but you\u2019d have to throw in $7,500 of your commission.\u201d<\/p>\n Wow!<\/p>\n The balls on this guy!<\/p>\n I mean, say what you want about Realtors and how they\u2019re overpaid, how $7,500 is nothing, yadda, yadda, yadda, but that\u2019s not the point.<\/p>\n This wasn\u2019t just \u201cbiting the hand that feeds anymore.\u201d\u00a0 Considering that Realtor Kenny was asking Kim to do\u00a0him<\/em> a favour and help\u00a0him<\/em> out of this jam, he was now \u201clooking a gift horse in the mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n Kim finally connected with her clients and they were unsure about resubmitting an offer.\u00a0 They wanted to know that, if they did, they<\/em> were in the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n Kim called Realtor Kenny back later that night and asked him the million-dollar question:<\/p>\n \u201cDid the sale fall through?\u00a0 \u00a0Is it official?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Amazingly,\u00a0that<\/em> was the moment when Realtor Kenny felt the need to come clean and say, \u201cWell, the thing is, we actually\u00a0<\/em>have until\u00a0tomorrow<\/em> at 6pm.\u201d<\/p>\n You\u2019ve got to be kidding me.<\/p>\n Yes, Realtor Kenny was panicking and scrambling, but he wasn\u2019t going to win any favours with Kim by lying about the condition expiry, or at best, misleading Kim.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have until tomorrow night, then why are you asking me about this\u00a0now<\/em>?\u201d Kim asked Realtor Kenny.<\/p>\n Again, Realtor Kenny was doing his job; he was mitigating.\u00a0 But at what cost to his working relationship with Kim on a potential deal?<\/p>\n \u201cI need to figure this out as soon as possible,\u201d Realtor Kenny said.\u00a0 \u201cMy clients are killing me right now and they want certainty.\u201d<\/p>\n Certainty.<\/p>\n That was about the moment when, if it hadn\u2019t been clear enough already, Kim realized that Realtor Kenny was going to do anything and everything to salvage his relationship with the sellers, even if it put Kim at a disadvantage.<\/p>\n Kim said, \u201cKenny, I realize you have a tough seller on your hands.\u00a0 I sympathize with your situation.\u00a0 But I have a buyer \u2013 not a seller, a\u00a0buyer<\/em> in an area where it\u2019s a buyer\u2019s market.\u00a0 You have called me about a deal that is still very much alive, misled me about the condition, and asked me to improve an offer that I don\u2019t even think I can get back on paper!\u201d<\/p>\n Kim was exasperated.<\/p>\n But then Realtor Kenny came up with, as Matthew McConaughey said in\u00a0Wolf Of Wall Street<\/em>, a \u201cbright idea; a special idea.\u201d<\/p>\n He said, \u201cKim, why don\u2019t you submit an offer tonight that\u2019s\u00a0conditional<\/em> on my sellers being released from the other agreement!\u201d<\/p>\n Really?<\/p>\n Perhaps Kim could also lie down in the parking lot so you could run her over with your truck?<\/p>\n Just consider this from Kim\u2019s perspective: her clients were interested in two\u00a0other<\/em> houses, both sitting on the market without offer dates, and Realtor Kenny wanted Kim to have Kim\u2019s buyers tie themselves into a conditional agreement, wait another 24 hours or more, and take the leverage out of their hands?<\/p>\n Kim told Realtor Kenny, \u201cYou\u2019d love my offer, wouldn\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n Realtor Kenny said, \u201cYes, of course!\u00a0 Even conditional!\u201d<\/p>\n Kim said, \u201cYep.\u00a0 Then you can go to the\u00a0first<\/em> buyer of the home and tell them you have a\u00a0second\u00a0<\/em>offer.\u00a0 That would surely give them a reason to firm up, wouldn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n Realtor Kenny went quiet.<\/p>\n He stuttered a little bit, just enough to make Kim think that this wasn\u2019t actually his master plan, but it didn\u2019t matter, since the presence of a second offer might actually serve to light a fire under the first buyers.\u00a0 After all, buyers are always more interested in a property when somebody\u00a0else<\/em> wants it too.<\/p>\n Kim spoke to her buyers later that evening and was very clear about the conversations that she\u2019d had with Realtor Kenny.\u00a0 The buyers had no intention of increasing their bid price, and they most certainly had no intention of making an offer conditional on the seller being released from another Agreement of Purchase & Sale.<\/p>\n The next morning, Kim submitted an offer on their behalf for a\u00a0different<\/em> property and it was accepted, as is.<\/p>\n That evening, Realtor Kenny sent Kim a text message and said, Deal fell thru.\u00a0 Door is wide open.\u00a0 Plz let\u2019s do a deal!<\/em><\/p>\n Kim didn\u2019t respond.<\/p>\n Realtor Kenny called her the next morning and she informed him that her clients had purchased something else.<\/p>\n He was shocked.<\/p>\n But why?<\/p>\n What did he\u00a0expect<\/em> to happen?<\/p>\n Tell me that you think this guy was a mad genius all along and this was just part of his strategy, but I vehemently disagree.\u00a0 He was just an agent with no plan and no clue.\u00a0 He felt that the market owed him something.\u00a0 He had completely lost the ability to be impartial and to see the situation through anybody\u00a0else\u2019s<\/em> eyes.<\/p>\n He made the bizarre assumption that Kim\u2019s clients would come\u00a0up<\/em> in price to match the price of a buyer who ended up walking from the deal.<\/p>\n He lied about the condition expiry.<\/p>\n He asked Kim to throw in commission as though it was her fault the prices wouldn\u2019t \u201cmatch.\u201d<\/p>\n And he then expected Kim to put her clients at a\u00a0disadvantage<\/em> and submit a conditional offer when they had absolutely no reason to do so.<\/p>\n He was waiting for other market participants to rescue him from his own doing, and all the while, alienating the people who he could have actually worked with.<\/p>\n I have so many stories like this right now, I can\u2019t even count them.\u00a0 Listing agents have no idea how to work in this market and it\u2019s showing with every interaction.<\/p>\n Say what you want about any agent\u2019s business acumen, demeanour, or strategy, but biting the hand that feeds<\/em> is never going to work in this market.<\/p>\n These listing agents.\u00a0 Seriously\u2026<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfb5 So naive<\/em>\n
Will you bite the hand that feeds? \ud83c\udfb5<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
Do you wanna change it? \ud83c\udfb5<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
I keep holding on to what I want to believe
I can see
But I keep holding on and on and on and on \ud83c\udfb5<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
2) Listing agents not educating sellers.
3) Listing agents not knowing how to work in a balanced or buyer\u2019s market.<\/p>\n\n
\n
I keep holding on to what I want to believe<\/em>
I can see<\/em>
But I keep holding on and on and on and on \ud83c\udfb5<\/em><\/p>\n