Home Buying Bombshells: Men Take A Back Seat in Real Estate Buying Battles

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Sept. 28, 2015) - As Canadian couples navigate a white-hot real estate market, agents are getting a front row seat to the battle of the sexes. With couples compromising and even conspiring among themselves to secure their dream homes, online real estate brokerage TheRedPin.com sought to definitively answer "who's the boss?" when it comes to real estate spending - men or women.

"The conventional stereotype used to be that the man was head of the household, but TheRedPin has never been conventional, " said Rokham Fard, CMO and co-founder of TheRedPin.com. "Since our agents have seen it all, we asked them to report what they've observed in the field, while also polling Canadian couples on their own experiences. We found some interesting results."

Key findings of the poll

1. When it Comes to Real Estate, the Woman is She-E-O: Women almost always get the home they want.

• Women get what they want: TheRedPin's agents were virtually unanimous (97.6%) that women are the ones to ultimately get the home that they want.
• Meanwhile, when Canadians were asked who makes the decision on expensive purchases, 42.5% of respondents said women, while only 36% said Men.
• Interestingly, of those who said that 'men make the decision' 43.4% were men (vs. 26.8% women.)

Field notes from TheRedPin.com's agents:

Women are the decision makers: While 18% of agents reported that men 'usually' make the final home purchase decision (vs. 82% women), they are universal in the opinion that the woman will get what she wants. Said one agent, "The man, if he is the decision maker, will have the final say but the woman will get what she wants!"

Conclusion: Men would like to believe they make the big spending calls for couples, but likely don't. And even when they do, they typically want to make their partners happy.

2. You Win! (or so you think): Canadians confess pandering to partners.

• 22% of Canadians believe that when it comes to getting their way, the dominant partner makes it happen through manipulation.
• 33% say it's through sheer stubbornness.

Surprisingly, Canadians claim to be pretty good at manipulation. Asked, "What percentage of the time they get what they want (while convincing partners that they won the negotiation)," nearly half (48.6%) said they pull it off 50% of the time or more.

Field notes from TheRedPin.com's agents:

Regardless of the incentives, TheRedPin's agents know first-hand that bribery is a factor in the home purchasing process. Our internal survey found that almost half of TheRedPin agents see one partner bribe the other.

Nearly a third of agents (29%) say this is the case the majority of the time.

Conclusion: It seems un-Canadian, but we may be a nation of high-level manipulators when it comes to choosing the perfect home.

3. Loaded Suggestions: Canadians would rather decorate than procreate.

While it may not be surprising that Canadian couples will resort to bribery when it comes to winning their choice of home, the results were surprising when it came to what bribes packed the most punch.

When asked what they were willing to promise their partners in exchange for getting their preferred home, 'more intimacy' ranked very low (8.4%) and was easily beaten by:

• Man/woman cave 16% (nearly double)
• Decorating rights (11.6%)
• New car (9.1%)

Conclusion: There's nothing sexier than new wallpaper.

'"In the end, the best way for everyone to win is to find the right property," added Fard. "Sometimes there's more compromise by one partner than another in the initial purchase, but both need to meet each other's needs to make it a home."

About TheRedPin:

TheRedPin.com connects people, data and technology. Our platform carries the largest database of active residential listings in the Greater Toronto Area, with plans to expand nationally. We are a challenger brand, with a unique business model that streamlines the real estate journey, and provides exceptional end-to-end services and benefits, not found at other traditional brokerages.

Founded in 2010, four friends recognized that the real estate industry might be the only sector not influenced by technology. The four saw this as an opportunity to reinvent the way people bought and sold properties, more specifically the way homes were searched. Today, TheRedPin is much more than that.

We are a tech startup that doesn't answer to the industry, we answer to our clients and ourselves.