Welcome to RealtyLab. My name is Mark McLean. As a 20+ year veteran of the real estate industry in Toronto Ontario, I have seen the evolution, success and eventual decline of many companies all trying to become dominant players in a highly competitive business. Throughout my career, I have always worked with boutique offices, those offices that tended to be local players in the market. I was drawn to the personal nature of the small office. In January of 2007, I had an opportunity to become a partner in a high-end global real estate brand. Sotheby’s International Realty Canada (Toronto) had all the benefits of a high service, specialized, and local real estate marketing company with an affiliate network of over 500 offices around the world. In the first two years I built an office with 40 agents that was clearly a recognized luxury real estate brand in Toronto. In January 2010, I accepted a new position in business development with one of Toronto’s most successful boutique brokerages. Bosley Real Estate has roots in Toronto that go back 85+ years. This is a third generation family run company that continually invests in its future. Currently it has 4 offices and over 220 agents and support staff. The Bosley ”brand” represents history, integrity, and knowledge. Many members of the senior management team, including Tom and Ann Bosley, have held senior positions in the Canadian Real Estate Association, Ontario Real Estate Association, Toronto Real Estate Board and the Real Estate Council of Ontario. Other agents in the company sit on various real estate task forces including; the Green Task Force, the Youth Task Force, and the Condominium Task Force and we have some members who serve on Arbitration committees. Bosley Real Estate is not only a successful brokerage, but through their continual involvement is helping shape the industry as a whole. My role will be to continue to grow Bosley brand in Toronto while managing the new downtown west office. The new office is a unique flagship office with a conceptually new approach to how brokerage businesses operate. Throughout my career, I have paid particular attention to what works and what doesn’t. I am a visual person who recognizes the abilities of great brands and what they can accomplish given the right tools. Picking up on visual and social clues has helped me spot and develop trends in an industry that has not changed significantly in the last ten years.
Too good not to post. thanks to @sethprice for rocking it.
Think you don’t have what it takes to be an awesome Realtor? Here are ten things that escape many agents I have worked with in the past. Not only do these ten points require no real talent, they are also free. So really there is no sense spending money on SEO if you can’t deliver on most (or all) of the traits on the list. Boom!
How Important is Your Brokerage to your Business? The idea for this post popped into my head on the eve of our quarterly new agent training class that we affectionately call Bosley U.
‘Twas the night before Christmas when I sat down to think
About the year that had past… God, I need a stiff drink.
To all that are listening please sit back and prepare
For a recap that will leave you on the edge of your chair.
For buyers who bought, all snug in their beds
While double digit increases dance in their heads
And sellers relaxing, on heap loads of money
Take less than asking? Well…
The 4th Annual Real Estate Night Before Christmas Story by #RealtyLab is out!
T’was the night before Christmas, when all through the board
Not a staffer was stirring on screen or keyboard.
MLS was all quiet, scheduled maintenance with care
In hopes that new updates soon would be there.
The agents were nestled all snug in their beds,
While thoughts of new clients danced in their heads.
And me in my jammies taking a well-deserved rest
From meetings, and travel and on-the-air…
Mastermind Topic de Jour. Lost the Listing To a Relative
Mastermind Topic de Jour. Lost the Listing To a Relative
Probably one of the most frustrating things a Realtor has to deal with is losing a listing to a relative. The farther removed the more frustrating it gets. This week, at our Wednesday Mastermind session an agent confessed that this had just happened to her. She had spent weeks with the potential sellers, offering advice, helping them make final preparations for listing. Lots of in-depth…
What would you think of an advertising campaign that started off with "This house is a dump?"
Hi Everyone. I have another great meeting for you to try out. It was a lot of fun and a great learning experience and really, isn’t that the point? The idea came from my daily peek at the new listings. For a few weeks now the same property kept showing up. I found it strange that it was always appearing in my “new” feed. Upon closer look I saw that over the past 4 months it was listed in one way…
Coming Soon sign leaves me feeling like I need a shower. Is this an ethical practice? Your thoughts?
I would be the first to admit that the latest real estate craze, the “Coming Soon” sign, is a bad idea. Okay, I get it. It’s a marketing ploy. It tells potential buyers out there that you are going to be listing a home soon BUT if you call me directly maybe you can beat the rush. That’s called double-ending. It means the listing agent represents the seller and the buyer in the transaction. While,…
Many years ago I wasn’t afraid to submit a lowball on behalf of my client. Actually, if the research showed that the property wasn’t worth the purchase price, I was happy to go in with guns blaring and make my stand no matter how grumpy the seller was. In most cases I would look at a couple of facts; first there were the comparable properties. Easy enough to do when they were condos, but houses…
The Battle Lines have been Drawn between Service and Price
Awhile ago I was speaking to a friend of mine about diapers. Yeah, that’s an odd way to start a blog. More specifically we were talking about all the diapers she was going through and how grateful she was to Diapers.com for the speedy delivery and awesome service. I had to admit I never heard of the company even though they have been around for about 7 years or so. Thankfully my diaper changing…
Is That Innovation Or Just a Good Idea? Does it scare you or encourage you?
There has been a lot of talk about innovation within the real estate space these days so I thought I would throw in my two cents on the topic because we see innovation all around us, not just in our industry either. At the core I’m a big fan of innovation. I remember being mesmerized listening to Luke Williams the professor of Innovation at NYU speak on the subject. The first question, of course,…
Dum Da Da Daaaaa! Where Do Clients Come From? The survey results are OUT!
I know you’re dying to find out the results. Earlier this week I sent out a simple message to my agents…”The results of my little survey are in BUT you will have to attend tomorrow morning’s meeting to find out where clients come from. The methods were highly unscientific but the results will be mildly informative (hopefully) and, with any luck, generate some worthwhile conversation”. The heading…
What's my house worth? Is There Value In Giving Free Advice?
We’ve all been there. A guy is talking to another guy at a party and it turns out that the first guy is a doctor. The second guy asks him about a pain he is having. What is the usual response? “It’s most likely nothing but if the pain persists then go see your doctor”. I get the feeling that it’s part of medical school training. Deflect the question….don’t answer the question…under any…
Building a Team Part 2. The Sub Brokerage model explained.
In my last blog post I talked how teams are becoming a popular option for experienced agents in Toronto. Operating a team is not for the faint of heart. Successful team leaders need to have faith in the abilities of their teams and give them free rein to work for the benefit of the team, while poor team leaders spend more time managing than doing what they do best….sell.
RealtyLab's latest post...Building A Real Estate Team? Part 1
In theory building and running a real estate team seems like a pretty good idea. You are getting more leads than you know what to do with so you bring on a junior agent as your buyer agent. You give them good quality leads and if they sell the client a home you take a percentage of their commission. The more junior agents you have…
Steal this office meeting. It's Time To Play The Objection Game.
Sometimes you need to have a little fun with the meetings and to be honest, the more people who attend, the more fun it is. Yesterday’s meeting got everyone engaged and if you are ever stuck for a good meeting topic please do me a favour….steal this one. Especially if you have a group of over 20 agents in a room.
Every active agent will tell you that whether they are working with a buyer of a…
I’m trying to be polite here. The “WTH” stands for ‘What the heck”. A few weeks ago at our Mastermind session we talked about how an agent lost a deal over a relatively small item. In this case it was a $500 Ikea cabinet. As soon as that story came out others piped in about some of their lost deals too. It was surprising to see what buyers and sellers would walk away from. I put it out to my…
Real Estate Jeopardy. The Game Show Meeting Topic. Try it, you'll like it. I run nearly over 90 meetings a year. 45 of them are direct "office meetings", me standing in front of a group of agents talking about "stuff".
