…And Here’s Exactly Why.
“Let’s talk tomorrow at 2PM.” I heard that line six times. SIX. Three times asking me to reschedule. Three times ghosting me completely, only to resurface the next day asking for yet another reschedule.
Here’s a Realtor problem you don’t hear about very often: sometimes the deal that falls apart teaches you more about how you want to run your business than the ones that close. This is one of those.
The Pitch
Last month, a day after selling a luxury house listing in Kleinburg, I got a call about listing another one. North of $4 million again. A legit mansion: over 10,000 square feet, more than 7,500 above grade, a million dollars in new renovations. Versace tile. Gold bathroom fixtures. A full prep kitchen. Bedrooms so big a king size bed looked almost small in them. This is the kind of property where you don’t just list it, you build a campaign around it.
I did what I do: I put my project pants on and put together a full listing presentation proposal. I’m going to brag for a second here. It was a piece of art. Pricing strategy, positioning, timeline, all of it. The sellers called me back almost immediately. I got the green light, and they wanted to list with me as soon as possible.
The Plan
Now please understand, once I have the green light, I don’t sit on it. I brought in my stagers and we built a 54 page plan. Not a mood board. Fifty four pages. Every room, every light fixt
ure that we recommended needed swapping, every wall that needed a different colour, every scratch that needed fixing, every piece of furniture and clutter that needed to disappear before a photographer ever walked in the door. I penciled in the trades I trust most in this city, the ones I bring onto properties I truly care about. And I had a concept for a lifestyle film that, if I’m honest, was better than anything I’d shot before. Not a walkthrough with me showing you its features. A film.
This is the part of the job nobody sees. Before a single showing happens, before a sign goes in the yard, a Realtor doing white-glove-full-service has already spent weeks of unpaid time and real money getting a house ready to be worth what it’s worth.
Ghosted
Here’s where things took a turn. My sellers went quiet. Not “busy, give me a few days” quiet. Day after day of unanswered emails. Calls rescheduled for reasons like it being someone’s birthday. Verbal promises to sign off on decisions that never got signed. My plan was sitting there, fully built, penciled into the exact timeline they’d asked for, and I had nobody on the other end to execute it with.
Why I Walked
Here’s the thing about a plan like this: it only works if both parties show up for it. I can build the roadmap, hire the crew, write the film, lead the village, do the math on pricing down to the dollar. What I cannot do is sell a house with sellers who won’t communicate with me. So I chose to walk. I walked on a luxury listing that would have paid me in the ballpark of $120,000.00.
People ask if this was hard. Honestly? No. They ask if I’d give the sell
ers another chance. Also no. The hard part would have been launching a near $5M dollar property with sellers I couldn’t reach, watching the plan fall apart in real time, and having my name on it.
I’m Not Your Listing Agent. I’m Your Selling Agent.
Here’s what I actually want you to understand about hiring me (whether your house is $5M or your condo is $600K): it was never about getting my sign on your lawn or my name on the listing agreement. When you hire me, it’s because I plan to sell your home. That sounds obvious. It isn’t.
There are a lot of Realtors in Toronto calling themselves luxury realtors right now. You might be familiar with a couple reality TV shows featuring said individuals. Fancy signage, professional headshots in front of a Bentley, a killer Instagram grid. None of that sells a home.
I don’t want to be your listing agent today and your terminated agent in sixmonths. I don’t want your listing for two years. I don’t want my sign quietly decaying in your front yard while your house sits there getting stale. I don’t want to re-list it at the same price after it’s gone six months with zero traction and pretend that’s a strategy.
I go in with a plan to sell your home. Not a plan to get your listing. Those are two different things, and most sellers have never actually seen the second one.
I’m not going to promise you things to win your business. I’m going to show you exactly how I’ll sell it, in writing, before you sign anything. My plans are elaborate enough that I once handed one to a seller and he called me back and said, and I’m quoting him directly, “Are you fucking kidding me?” He thought I’d lost my mind with how far I was taking the marketing. I’m proud of him though. He listened anyway. We sold it. And we’ve remained friends ever since.
My goal isn’t to get your listing. It’s to sell your condo or house or loft for more than the next Realtor would, and yes, for you to pocket more money doing it than the cheaper agent who was only ever after the sign.
What It Taught Me About Selling At This Level
I’m excited when you’re excited. I’m all in when you’re all in. Listing a house comes down to trust, communication and decision making, in that order. Vetting for the right fit is what’s landed me the best clients imaginable, especially these last six years.
I should be vetting the client/Realtor partnership just as hard before I put hours of my time into a listing.
Walking away from that commission wasn’t me giving up on it. It was me protecting every seller who does show up.
The Real Estate Angle (You Knew This Was Coming)
That $120,000.00 number gets people’s attention, so let’s actually talk about what it represents. On a listing like this, a Realtor isn’t paid a retainer. Everything, the staging investment, the trades, the film, the weeks of strategy before a single showing, gets fronted on spec. If the deal falls through before it launches, that cost and that time is simply gone. Nobody reimburses it.
So when a seller asks me why commission on a $5M home looks the way it does, this is the honest answer: you’re not paying for a lockbox and a sign. You’re paying for someone who will build a 54-page plan, hire a crew most agents wouldn’t think to call upon, and walk away from six figures rather than put a half finished plan in front of buyers.
……….
Quick Answers For Your 2AM Googling
How much commission does a real estate agent make on a $5 million home in Toronto? It varies by brokerage and by listing, but on a luxury property the seller pays in the range of 4-5%, usually 2.5% of that going to the buyer’s agent. On a $4.5 to $5 million home, that can land in the $100,000 to $130,000 range for the listing agent alone, before marketing and staging costs come out of it.
What does listing preparation actually look like for a luxury home? At the top end, it’s not paint and staples. It’s full staging of the entire property, an original art curation with local galleries and artists, a project managed trades list for pre-sale repairs and upgrades, professional photography and drone video, and often a full lifestyle film with a script, actors and a director, all built and paid for before the home ever goes live.
What’s the difference between a listing agent and a selling agent? Any licensed agent can put your house on MLS. A selling agent builds a specific pricing strategy, staging plan, marketing plan and trades list to actually get it sold at the right price, and holds themselves accountable to executing it rather than just collecting the listing.
Can a real estate agent walk away from a listing? They sure can if the seller hasn’t signed anything.
The Bottom Line
A commission cheque was never the point, and neither is the sign on your lawn. A plan only works with a partner on the other end of it, and I’d rather walk away from six figures, or from a listing altogether, than take one I don’t actually believe I can sell.
If you’re getting ready to sell something in the multi million dollar range and want to see what an actual plan looks like, fifty-four pages and all, my door is always open.
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