Bob Ransford
Sun
The traditional role of the real estate agent, of bringing together willing buyer and willing seller, has disappeared under pages and pages of legal documents and cautionary instructions.
Vince D’Ovidio is hoping that the cooling of the metropolitan Vancouver over-heated housing market might get him, and others like him, back to simple introduction.
D’Ovidio is one of the early pioneers of new-home-project sales and marketing campaigns. He started in the real estate business nearly 30 years ago and was once a business partner with Bob Rennie. Today, like Rennie, only on a smaller scale, he represents developers with entire multi-residence projects to sell.
When he started in the business, sales ability and customer service meant everything. Caveat emptor – or buyer beware – was largely the extent of protection offered the consumer. The real estate agent’s role was to identify the buyer’s needs and demonstrate the features and benefits of a property.
Legal obligations imposed on agents have now relegated that part of the buying and selling to second place behind the preparation of voluminous paperwork, the coordination of complicated disclosure and the direction of a review of a host of legal warnings before any transaction can be completed.
Government has actually listed agents in the war on crime, D’Ovidio points out. Every agent has an obligation to ensure the money involved hasn’t been laundered. ” . . . I have to interrogate a purchaser.”
“Think about a first-time buyer. They have enough stress in their life from just buying their first home, arranging their mortgage and this and that. Now, I come along and interrogate them about their job, where they got their down payment from, what their banking arrangements are . . . .”
D’Ovidio says it rare today for a purchase and sale contract for a new home to be less than 17 or 18 pages long.
“Everyone is trying to cover their butt and they simply turn to the lawyers.”
But D’Ovidio argues that without a willing seller and buyer it really doesn’t matter how many words are written on paper.
The bureaucracy associated with ever-increasing legal requirements is frustrating the good sales people, he added.
“They know how to find a seller fair market value for their property and they know how to find a buyer a property that will meet their needs.”
He admits this more human approach to the real estate business could leave agents like him exposed once in awhile in a transaction, but as long as all parties are acting ethically the deal will get done and everyone will be happy in the end.
Bob Ransford is a public affairs consultant with CounterPoint Communications Inc. He is a former real estate developer. E-mail: [email protected]
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