Month: January 2018

So we’ve made it to 2018, the air is cold the Real Estate market has returned to what we like to call normal and we are pressing forward.  There’s that word, normal – what is normal anyway? Well on the Toronto Real Estate Board, normal is 20,000 listings and houses taking 3 to 8 weeks to sell. In the beginning of January, obviously not the most aggressive time of the year, we are usually at 60% of that so, we expect and have about 12,000 listing at present. Moving into February, we know that 10% to 20% more listing will come available each week and that puts us very quickly at our typical spring market of 20,000, if you are listed between now and mid February, 6 weeks to sell it makes it the end of March, with 60 day closing end of May beginning of June.  Seems so simple doesn’t it! This year is going to be a special year, with shrewd investors looking for desperate sellers and trying to make a quick buck on the flipside.  Other sellers still looking at offers that are often tens if not hundreds of thousands less than the offers they turned down less than a year ago, while they were chasing the market that is long since gone and now feeling dejected and needing to just move on. I almost look at it like a shark tank of predators out there, make sure any decisions you make are made with someone in your corner, someone who can deal with the pressures without all of that emotion which can cloud anyones judgement.  It’s easy to say you won’t get caught up in the process, that the pressures don’t affect you, you deal in big business every day! Remember dealing in business, and dealing with YOUR OWN business are very different things, you need someone you trust working for you just like your business needs you working for them! mccarthomes.com

So, during our 2017 roller coaster I noticed a trend rarely seen in the market – but one that became very quickly commonplace.  This new trend was to list a house at a fair market rate (remembering that concept was very fluid last year), and holding off on offers for a few days to a week then having the big offer day.  Now this is not a new approach really, what evolved from this is what struck me as odd: when offer day came and went and the sellers weren’t happy with the offers received or more painfully didn’t get any offers at all, there would be a price change on the listing, and suddenly it was listed 10%-25% higher than where it didn’t sell in the past week, what some agent’s refer to as ‘the new negotiating price’.  To me, these games further complicate the valuation of homes but alas they  are the games that must be played – but it’s so hard to faithfully be a part of them.  Yes, we have been guilty of following these market trends from time to time, a difficult market means you have to play all of your cards to make sure your clients reap the benefit of your cumulative experience. Our philosophy of properly priced and advertised to the right market stands strong, but these crazy times have sometimes called for extraordinary measures! What I can tell you, is if you are thinking of making an offer, make sure you check the listing history for recent price adjustments, it should give you some insight as to where the sellers are thinking price wise.  mccarthomes.com

With the New Year upon us, I am looking at the Real Estate market we left behind in 2017 and, along with everyone else, left with my head spinning just a little bit.  We started off oddly active, then continued to bull our way straight into a short but record breaking spring market, which is always the strongest time of the year, which of course abruptly ended more quickly than it started. The year then started to drag, with the bottom out of the market they were sitting hoping to catch the tail end of the whirlwind romance they had been teetering on the edge of, but often to no avail.  So the resale house inventory grew, prices softened, and the old market we had forgotten about started to emerge! We saw houses listed for more than 24 hours, offers under list prices and conditions, like the building inspection return to the table.  With buyers treading cautiously, sellers, often overcommitted elsewhere,  almost woefully optimistic about unpredictable prices time moved on and the market was dragged along with it.  Even coming to the end of 2017, all we can say for sure that if you are selling and buying today – the balance has always seemed just… what you sell for and what you pay for your new home, the values move up and down together.  You will not sell your house for the same price this spring as you would have last spring, but what you are buying will cost proportionately less this spring as it would have last spring – and to be perfectly honest, I like this spring better… you pay less, mortgage less, and have the peace of mind or fair valuations, home inspections and thoughtful planned financing – not just who can pull it together fastest and under duress!  Let’s make 2018 OUR year!!! mccarthomes.com