The services of six popular real estate brokerage brands and one of advisory services were compared by the Protégez-Vous team in July 2023. According to the results published in the magazine which comes out this Tuesday, DuProprio and Via Capitale obtain the best marks consumers.
Protégez-Vous compared the services of Via Capitale, Royal LePage, Proprio Direct, RE/MAX, Groupe Sutton and DuProprio with the help of 820 members of the Protégez-vous panel, who bought or sold a property in the last five years.
“For more than a year, we have been following the real estate market and we have seen cases of bad practices being reported. We therefore wanted to know more about real estate services and the level of consumer satisfaction,” explains Marie-Eve Shaffer, journalist at Protégez-Vous, who spoke directly with several survey participants in an interview.
Consumers were asked to evaluate the courtesy of the staff, the quality of the services, compliance with the customer’s instructions, the progress of the visits, the conclusion of the transaction and the costs of the services. They rated their assessments according to a rating code of “very good”, “good”, “acceptable” or “poor”.
The consulting services company DuProprio obtained a “very good” rating in the six criteria evaluated, which places it at the top of the list with a score of 8.6/10, followed by Via Capitale with 8/10. RE/MAX and Groupe Sutton rank last with 7.6/10 and 7.5/10 respectively.
“Our first observation is that there are several consumers who prefer DuProprio to a brand to sell their house. And the reason is very simple, they do not want to pay the amount of the commission, which in many cases they consider abusive. The rates are 3.5% to 5%, which represents $17,500 to $25,000 plus taxes for a $500,000 house,” relates the journalist.
Via Capitale stands out in terms of the courtesy of the staff, respect for customer instructions and the conclusion of transactions. However, like other real estate broker brands, it has a lower rating for the amount of commissions.
RE/MAX and Groupe Sutton both received the worst rating for cost of services.
“We analyzed not only the services of brokers, the advisory services of DuProprio, but also the steps taken by people who decide to sell alone and who purchase services on a piecemeal basis, such as that of an appraiser to find out the value from their house or from a notary for advice, specifies Marie-Eve Shaffer. We analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of these three scenarios. »
As for consumers who have used the services of a broker, 66% would recommend the one they did business with. Royal LePage even gets a 78% recommendation rate.
Consumers who would not recommend their broker, i.e. 21%, deplored his lack of availability and attentiveness, his unpleasant attitude, the pressure experienced in choosing a notary or a building inspector, and the pressure from broker to offer a higher price than the asking price.
The magazine has also provided a section which indicates how to select the right broker and what to do if things go wrong.
Protégez-Vous also reminds you of the importance of the pre-purchase inspection, which 23% of respondents say they have neglected, as well as the legal guarantee, abandoned during the transaction by 27% of buyers who participated in the survey.
