Where Have All the Platinum Agents Gone?

Remember back in the good old days—say, 2016 to 2021—when Platinum condo agents were basically rock stars?

I’d walk into a downtown launch event and see them in tailored suits, sporting designer watches the size of small clocks, brandishing their worksheets like VIP passes to the hottest nightclub in town.

"Psst… Darryl, I can get you 5 units facing south. High floor. Parking included. BUT YOU HAVE TO SIGN TODAY!"

It was like dealing with black-market arms dealers—except the product was 500-square-foot boxes in the sky.

Fast forward to 2025…and I find myself asking:

Where the hell did all the Platinum agents go?

Life After Platinum

Turns out the answer is both funny and a little sad.

A bunch of them are…

• Selling resale condos they used to call “junk stock.”

• Hustling rentals for $500 commissions, which barely covers gas back and forth on the 401.

• Pivoting into commercial real estate because “it’s all the same, right?”

• Blasting assignment sales on Instagram every two days.

• Studying for their mortgage license because hey, someone’s gotta finance these desperate flips.

• Calling me up to pitch podcasts.

I actually had one call me last month:

"He told me, "Remember that insane launch at Yonge & Eglinton in 2017 when I sold out 300 units in three hours? I want to do that again. I thought everyone loves condos. People LOVE condos!"

But even he admitted that half the buyers from 2017 are now trying to sell at a loss because they can’t cover the $1,200 a month in negative cash flow. The velvet-rope launch days? On pause, indefinitely.

He didn’t love that answer. Behind the silence, it sounded like he was working the late shift at McDonald’s.

A Personal Platinum Tale

Let me tell you a story.

Back in 2019, a Platinum agent I knew—we’ll call him Tony—was so hot he could sell pre-construction ice cubes to the Inuit. He calls me one day, all fired up:

"Darryl, you HAVE to buy these condos at Jane & Finch. This is the future, man. Transit-oriented development! Urban revitalization! You’ll double your money before occupancy!"

I laughed so hard I almost dropped my phone in my coffee.

Fast forward to 2025: Tony called me two weeks ago. Now he’s pitching me land assembly deals because “at least land doesn’t close next year into a tsunami of oversupply."

Welcome to the club, Tony.

What’s the Lesson?

Here’s what I tell people these days:

If your business model depended entirely on selling dreams, eventually you run out of dreamers.

Pre-construction condos worked when:

• Interest rates were zero-ish.

• Prices went up faster than deposits cleared the bank.

• Investors believed tenants would cover the mortgage.

Now we’re living in reality. Rents aren’t keeping up with costs, condo fees are rising like a rocket, and nobody wants negative cash flow on a $1,400-per-square-foot unit.

So Platinum agents? They’re either pivoting, panicking, or plotting their next reinvention.

I honestly wish them well. But man… I'm glad I was never a Platinum agent.

Want to read more tales from inside the trenches of Toronto real estate? Subscribe and buckle up—it’s going to be a wild ride.

— The Assembly King