The Town of Huntsville once again has a Realtor of Record for its real estate transactions. Following a Request for Proposals (RFP) process, the Town has selected Coldwell Banker Thompson Real Estate as its Realtor of Record.
At the March General Committee meeting, Town CAO Denise Corry presented the results of the RFP, which was issued on February 8 and closed on March 9. Just two submissions were received – from Coldwell Banker Thompson Real Estate and The Gonneau Group – both of which were evaluated on six weighted criteria: marketing strategies (10 points), references (5 points), qualifications and experience (30 points), familiarity with local market and conditions (10 points), fees (40 points), and additional services (5 points). The selection committee comprised Corry and Karen Schamehorn, the Town’s Risk Management and Purchasing Coordinator.
Both submissions were similar in content, said Corry, but “we did find Coldwell Banker stood out because of the additional services they would provide – assisting with leasing options, and the way they would promote the sales of our properties was impressive. We had a weighting system attached to each of the criteria and Coldwell Banker did come ahead of the other company with respect to points (in the RFP process).”
When asked why she thinks there were only two submissions to the RFP, Corry said, “I couldn’t say for sure. Typically municipalities aren’t in the business of real estate so we aren’t buying and selling in any great magnitude. My assumption for why companies aren’t submitting is we’re really not a profitable market.”
Coldwell Banker Thompson Real Estate – specifically Realtors Brent Stapleton and Scott Morrison – will receive a five per cent commission fee on the sale price of municipal properties sold. The agreement will be in place for a four-year term with the option to renew.
Corry said that whether the Town will renew after that four-year period or go out for RFP again will depend on circumstances at that time.
“It depends on what is happening with our properties. For example, I do anticipate within the next year we will do a third round of disposition of our vacant land… If we have most of our extra properties disposed of, we probably will just renew the term if they are willing to do it. But if we have substantial sales we may go out for RFP again just to be fair.”
In the last two rounds of property disposition the Town used an RFP process. For its next round, properties will be listed through the new Realtor of Record. “We still have a number of properties in the Town’s name that could have been vested through a tax sale – so if there is property or vacant land that someone’s not paying taxes on and that exceeded three years that would vest in our name. We have an internal working group that reviews those properties to determine if there’s municipal use for them, and if there’s not we would go through a disposition process.”
As a municipal government, we are not experts in disposing of land and we think it would be of much greater benefit if a realtor were to oversee the sale of those properties. We will continue to try to dispose of land that has no municipal use so we can generate revenue and generate taxes.
Mayor Scott Aitchison and Councillor Brian Thompson both declared a conflict and were not present for the discussion at the General Committee meeting.
A bylaw will be presented at the next Council meeting confirming the selection of Coldwell Banker Thompson Real Estate as the Town’s Realtor of Record.
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George Gilley says
If this is an exclusive arrangement In my opinion the five percent commission is nothing special