Real eState
LACKIE: Real estate market realities
It was actually pretty fascinating.
For context, it was a condo townhouse in one of the more desirable pockets of the city. The interior wasn’t the freshest but we worked hard on preparation and staging, so it looked great and the possibilities seemed endless. I was fortunate to have sellers with realistic expectations anchored in both the data and the current market conditions.
A few things I gleaned from this: the real buyers out there right now are not playing games. If you’re hoping they’ll bite on your property, you’d better not be either.
Second, buyers know who has the leverage right now. Conditional offers should be expected.
Lastly, and perhaps most surprisingly to some, multiple offers no longer automatically equate to selling way above list price. There are countless examples of recent sales where multiple offers still didn’t get to asking price. Having to negotiate is the new normal and it’s time for sellers and their agents to accept it.
Here’s a perfect example:
I have a client who has a very specific wish list for a pied a terre in the city. He’s motivated and ready to buy with a speedy close. We’ve drilled down on one building that would be ideal. One unit we saw and it looked promising though was priced almost $60,000 more than another virtually identical unit a few floors up.
This other unit was similarly intriguing but basically impossible to get access to – appointment requests were routinely ignored. After finally previewing the property and later speaking with the agent I learned a few things: they had strategically priced it below seller expectations as a means of driving activity and interest. Apparently, they hadn’t noticed that that type of play isn’t supported in a market like this – it only serves to waste people’s time.
Make it make sense.
The other unit in the building has even less action, the agent returned not one of my three calls – I simply got lucky on my fourth attempt. He could not have cared less that my client was contemplating an offer.
Across the board the attitude seemed to be that the only opinion of value that matters is that of the seller’s. Why would they sell for less when the spring will be better, they said.
Oh, if willing could make it so.
But what if they’re not? What if best case scenario the prices only flatline for a while? What is that going to look like if this kind of magical thinking endures? Agents who are propping up this kind of behaviour will be doing a disservice to their clients and their colleagues.
These two tales from the trenches feel striking in juxtaposition. This market will no longer support the types of games and manipulation so common during the run up.
Who is going to tell them?
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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