The new owners of a long-running Chatham real estate company say they don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but they want to bring an “innovative look” to the business.
Amber Pinsonneault and Kristen Nead took ownership of Royal LePage Peifer Realty Inc. at the beginning of the year. Former owner Brian Peifer, who started the business with his father in 1968, will stay on with the company.
Pinsonneault has taken over the broker of record position from Peifer and Nead is working as the broker manager, a new position for the company. Although they are now in charge of day-to-day operations, they will also continue to sell real estate.
“We really don’t want to change what Brian has already established because he has really done a great job at building this company,” Pinsonneault said. “Now, we’re going out there to social media.”
The COVID-19 pandemic pushed more of the business online, Pinsonneault said, and discussions began in August to purchase the company.
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“Both Amber and I love opportunities and of course investments that broaden our experiences in our professional lives,” Nead said. “We were looking for this opportunity and Brian was excited to turn it over to us.”
The two new owners have spent their entire real estate careers at Peifer Realty. Nead has been in the industry for 15 years and Pinsonneault for five.
Pinsonneault said real estate marketing had already been shifting to social media prior to the pandemic, but the last year “put people behind their screens more than they wanted to be.”
Other changes, such as using pre-qualified buyers, sanitization and asking potential buyers to refrain as much as possible from touching surfaces, will likely be permanent, she said.
Virtual showings have also become a key part of the business, Nead said.
“If they are still wanting to see the house in person (after the virtual visit), then we would show them the house,” she said. “It’s still kind of limiting that face-to-face contact, but it’s still the same transaction.”
The Chatham-Kent real estate market has continued to break records during the pandemic. The average price of homes sold in January was $350,452, a 42.4 per cent from January 2020, the Chatham-Kent Association of Realtors reported.
“What we’re seeing is people are leaving bigger city centres and they’re coming to Chatham-Kent for a different life experience,” Pinsonneault, a member of the local real estate board, said.
For those who already live in Chatham-Kent, she said mortgage rates are low and home prices are still low compared to most of the province.
“Yes, our housing is going up in price, but I wouldn’t say that it’s unsustainable, especially given how different the prices are from say here to Toronto,” she said.
Nead and Pinsonneault said they both plan to stay with Peifer Realty “until the end.”
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.
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.
MONTREAL – The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says Montreal-area home sales rose 9.3 per cent in August compared with the same month last year, with levels slightly higher than the historical average for this time of year.
The association says home sales in the region totalled 2,991 for the month, up from 2,737 in August 2023.
The median price for all housing types was up year-over-year, led by a six per cent increase for the price of a plex at $763,000 last month.
The median price for a single-family home rose 5.2 per cent to $590,000 and the median price for a condominium rose 4.4 per cent to $407,100.
QPAREB market analysis director Charles Brant says the strength of the Montreal resale market contrasts with declines in many other Canadian cities struggling with higher levels of household debt, lower savings and diminishing purchasing power.
Active listings for August jumped 18 per cent compared with a year earlier to 17,200, while new listings rose 1.7 per cent to 4,840.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
