After hours of research and over 700 calls to consumers, we were surprised to learn that no one mentioned service when working with a REALTOR®, even though it’s one of the industry’s most significant claims. The absence of “service” reported coincided with our belief that business owners and landlords deserve better and that they should expect more from their REALTOR®. Your business takes precedence, and we want you to take charge of the process. We want you to be in the driver’s seat when it comes to leasing, disposing or acquiring property, we want you to be in the driver’s seat. We pride ourselves on customer satisfaction. We work with you collaboratively to understand your goals and employ strategy to achieve them with creativity, diligence and confidence. We also have a team behind us to help you get the most out of your sale or lease.
Leverage the power of the Internet.
Realty Unleashed always lists on Realtor.ca/MLS because it is Canada’s undisputed champion of real estate search. Not leveraging Realtor.ca is as incredible as disregarding the importance of Google.
The mom + pop shop matters.
For example, while many commercial buildings quickly lease 85% of their available space, very often, the remaining 15% can be a challenge. Because those opportunities are best suited to small businesses, it is impossible to use the existing strategy of emailing opportunities to existing contacts because they are a broad base and ever-evolving. In fact, approximately 95,000 new businesses start in Canada each year. And yet, the remaining 15% is so vital to the profitability of any property. Small business looks to Realtor.ca/MLS for those lease opportunities, and they are missed if listings are not there. For context, in 2021, small businesses made up 98.1% of all employer businesses in Canada.
Canada exposure matters.
Secondly, listings populated on Realtor.ca inform not only potential buyers or lessees but also notify the thousands of commercial realtors representing Alberta business owners and Ontario and British Columbia. There are 100,000+ realtors Canada-wide, and leveraging the MLS allows us to reach all of them.
Data matters.
Lastly, Realtor.ca enables users to interact with listings, creating invaluable data. Listing views, photos views, and Favourites offer feedback which can help shape future projects. For example, two commercial projects in two locations receiving vastly different online traffic can help builders find undiscovered opportunities for development.
Co-operating is Key.
One of the primary considerations that commercial agents face when deciding to list on Realtor.ca is the requirement to share the commission with the buyer or lessee’s representative. In the industry, this is known as cooperating. It is in the sole brokerage’s best interest to keep the commission and produce a successful transaction by canvassing its existing network.
However, it is in the property owner’s best interest to bring a property to market to allow competition to determine its value. Moreover, offering a sale agent, in any industry, a commission to bring a buyer to the table is a great incentive to have other sales professionals work for you. Real estate is no exception.
Photos drive traffic.
Online data is incredibly valuable, but in-person foot traffic will ultimately bring a sale. Putting the property’s best foot forward is vital to motivate someone from window shopping to in-person shopping.
Indeed, having a place to view the photos is first and foremost. Only posting listing photos on a brokerage’s website is insufficient in getting maximum reach, which is why we are so committed to Realtor.ca. But we further ensure that the photos that are posted on the internet are carefully staged, taken and select to ensure that a property looks its best.
For example, a multi-family draws more interest if a handful or even one of the units is staged. Staged units continually outperform empty vacant ones. We offer this service for free, and you can learn more about it here. If there are no vacancies to highlight, we can, with the agreement of a tenant, clean and provide a staging consult to show off one of the occupied units.
There are numerous examples of tenant-occupied properties where there is little care to make the property look great. We do this by offering the tenants a free cleaning, donations runs and giving them an opportunity to show off the pride they take in their homes.
Whatever the property, we make sure that we use natural light photography to capture each property in its most flattering light. And when appropriate, we use drone photography to let you sit back and take a look at the bigger picture.