Real estate investors lament lack of decent Realtors

An investor is arguing that despite the increasing number of Realtors in the market, there are not enough good ones to help investors grow their portfolio.

An investor is arguing that despite the increasing number of Realtors in the market, there are not enough good ones to help investors grow their portfolio.

Finding a good Realtor to source the best deals is proving increasingly difficult and especially in prime markets, according to the founder of one of Canada’s biggest investment clubs.

“Getting an investor friendly real estate agent is not as easy as everyone thinks,” said Jarek Bucholc from Canada Real Estate Investors Club (CREIC).

“Obviously, the most important thing for any investor is having a Realtor working hard for them,” he told our sister publication, Canadian Real Estate Wealth. “But finding a Realtor that really understands the needs of an investor is hard. It takes a lot of harder work to get a good investment property and some agents simply don’t want to spend all of their time to doing that. This is especially true in cities like Calgary where there is a limited stock of good investment properties.”

In the wake of Real Estate Council of Alberta imposing a fine on a Calgary man posing as a Realtor and scamming money and property titles from homeowners, Bucholc says investors need to be more careful of who they deal with.

“People like these tend to target the more vulnerable homeowners, like those who face foreclosure but investors, and especially first-time investors, can also come up against this,” he said, referring to the Derek Johnson case.

Johnson faces a $50,000 fine for allegedly acting as a realtor and broker without proper authorization in two separate cases. It was also revealed by the real estate Council that he had been advertising properties for sale without the owners’ knowledge or consent and is now trading under the name John Davis.

“Just as you do your due diligence on a property, buyers need to be active when researching the agents they want to work with,” added Johnson.