Author: Michael Bailey

This week’s story is a little different. It doesn’t really have a happy ending. It just has an ending. Last spring, I was working with clients who wanted to buy a house just north of Bradford. It was a raised bungalow on a wooded lot, and it was a beautiful place. Funny enough, I remember very little about the house itself now. What happened during the negotiations has stayed with me much more clearly. We had submitted a competitive offer and were waiting to hear back from the listing agent. Later that evening, my phone rang. The agent wanted to…

This week’s story is a little amusing, although it didn’t feel particularly amusing at the time. It didn’t teach me much about representing buyers. It did, however, change the conversation I would have with sellers on my next listing, and pretty much every listing after that. This happened early in my career, back when I was with RE/MAX. I received a lead through the national website from a family looking to buy a house in Barrie. Their son was coming to town to attend a private religious college and study to become a preacher. They were a very devout Christian…

We couldn’t close the purchase without insurance. But getting workable insurance meant replacing a furnace, and that work needed to happen after the buyers owned the house. That was the problem I found myself working through this spring on a rural property just north of Bradford. It became one of those transactions that teaches you something new, even after years in real estate. The challenge was finding a sequence of steps that the buyers, sellers, insurer, and professionals involved could all accept. An Older Furnace Became the Biggest Obstacle When I’m helping buyers consider a rural property, there are some…

A real estate case study by Michael Bailey, Broker | Century 21 Heritage Group | Bradford, Ontario When Family Calls I wasn’t the obvious choice. My brother-in-law’s family is close, the kind of close where holidays are loud and laughter is louder. There are two other realtors in the family, and one of them had already handled several home sales for different family members. So when my phone rang, and it was my brother-in-law asking me to list his house, I was genuinely surprised. I’ll be honest about something else: his previous home had been sold by a large team…