…and how is this related to real estate?

In the dark of night in your local supermarket, from canned vegetables and salad dressing to fresh fruit and deli meats, countless items are being removed from store shelves. They are expired or expiring, past their prime.

What happens to them?

Much of the meat and, fruit and vegetables end up at the deli counter. Food banks get some of the can and dry goods, some gets marked way down for a quick sale and some ends up in the dumpster behind the store. It’s just the way it is, the cost of doing business, oversupply and under-demand…

In happens in real estate too. The majority of houses sell, most within about 90 days, but many don’t sell.

They don’t sell for many reasons: the agent didn’t market the home properly, the home is flawed or stigmatized or overpriced, the timing was bad, or perhaps it wasn’t on the market long enough, or too long, maybe there are too many similar homes on the market. These are all possible reasons. And there are more.

What’s important though, is that you the seller does not take it personally. It’s hard not to do. You’ve gone to the trouble of getting your house ready for sale, you’ve kept it neat and tidy, you’ve been asked at short notice to be absent between 7:00-8:00pm because there are some people who want to see it. You’ve been told to stay away on weekend afternoons for open houses. You’ve signed all the paperwork, talked to bankers and lawyers. Your neighbors know you want to move.

It’s frustrating. But like I said. Don’t take it personally. It is what it is.

You still want to sell. What should you do now?

The best thing to do, is to find out why it didn’t sell, address that issue and try again. Invite real estate agents like Alasdair and I over for a chat. We’ll be able to tell you why we think it didn’t sell. We’ll give you the advice you need to get your house on the market again and this time, learn from your mistakes and sell it in 90 days.

That’s what I’d do.

Filed under: home, home owners, real estate, real estate trends, Selling Real Estate by Keith Marshall
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I was in the sauna at my club when one of the other members commented that he was waiting for the home prices to go down before buying his next house. I had to tell him that housing prices are not going down. They’re going up. I think maybe his problem was that he wasn’t paying attention to the local news or even perhaps the national news. You hear a lot of news about real estate prices, but most of that news is out of the states. And much of that isn’t good.

In fact, the opposite is actually true in Canada. All the news about the Canadian economy and our housing market is positive. Here’s what happened this week in real estate:

Canada’s AAA rating

Earlier this month Canada’s AAA credit rating was overwhelmingly endorsed by all of the rating agencies. This means, foreign governments see Canada as a solid investment – a great country to lend money too. Money is flowing into Canada.

Canadian home prices continue to rise.

Although home prices were suppose to soften in 2011, it was reported in Property Wire last week, that the average price increase in Q4 2011 was at least 3.6% over 2010. Furthermore, they predict a further increase of 2.8% through 2012. And, now the experts are saying don’t expect any market correction until 2013.

Mortgage war breaks out. Finance Minister ready to intervene

A mortgage price war broke out among Canada’s major banks when The Bank of Montreal posted the lowest mortgage rate in Canadian history. The other big banks all followed suit. Our federal Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty said he stands ready to intervene in the housing market again. He does not want it to overheat. So much for a cooling market and prices going down, eh?

RIM and local real estate

On a local level, The Waterloo Region Record reported that the Kitchener Waterloo real estate industry is still keen on the local market despite RIM’s woes. The article was talking about commercial real estate but I think it’s safe to say our real estate market in KW is not impacted by what happens at RIM.

Share

Share this article if you know someone who is going to be buying or selling a home in the next year to 18 months. And if you’re thinking of buying or selling real estate yourself, please give me and Alasdair a call. We like to share.

Open House

Visit us at our open house this Saturday and Sunday 2-4pm 639 Bonavista Drive, Waterloo.

Filed under: advice, Around Kitchener Waterloo, Buying Real Estate, open house, real estate trends, RIM by Keith Marshall
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Seth Godin writes “Some things are bought–like bottled water, airplane tickets and chewing gum. The vendor sets up shop and then waits, patiently, for someone to come along and decide to buy.

Other things are sold–like cars, placement of advertising in magazines and life insurance. If no salesperson is present, if no pitch is made, nothing happens.

Both are important. Both require a budget and a schedule and a commitment.

Confusion sets in when you’re not sure if your product or service is bought or sold, or worse, if you are a salesperson just waiting for people to buy.”

I like this bit by Seth Godin, actually I like almost everything he writes. Probably because I am a marketer. Real estate is a marketing business. I market homes and I market my services.

Real estate is sold. It’s not bought, and that’s where many real estate agents make their mistake.

The Kitchener Waterloo real estate market is no longer a sellers market. Houses priced right and in good order sell well. Here is what we currently have for sale.

If you’re interviewing agents, please interview us.

Filed under: About me, Buying Real Estate, for sale, home, house, Industry, life of a realtor, real estate, real estate trends, Selling Real Estate by Keith Marshall
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Last year, Alasdair and I sold a house in Kitchener’s “Quailridge” subdivision. Quailridge is a Kitchener subdivision name from the 1990‘s, a name that never caught on. Property developers and city councilors sometimes miss the mark. But that’s OK, neighborhood names often find themselves despite what they’re called. Actually neighborhood names can be very fuzzy and elastic (more on this later).

There is an awkward art to neighborhood naming and as we “go local” and residents identify more and more with their neighborhoods and less with their city, region and province, we might want to rethink the way neighborhoods are named. Further to that, neighborhoods change, evolve, rise and fall with economics, transportation, education and industry. Their names and identity can hold on long after the fact or can change in less than a generation. Some, like Westmount are steeped in history. Others like Conestogo, Deer Ridge or Hidden Valley are up and comers. Whether or not they take hold, and live up to their images will be decided in time.

One thing is true though, with Waterloo Region growing so fast, naming neighborhoods is more important now than ever.

For example, I live in Uptown Waterloo. I’ve lived here for less than a year, but Waterloo has been very good over the last decade about branding Uptown as Uptown and now it is. Twenty years ago it wasn’t. It was a very different city centre twenty years ago. But now it is and I identify with it. I am an Uptown Waterloo resident. I meet people all the time that are Stanley Park, Laurelwood, Victoria Park or East Bridge residents. We all feel we are part of our neighborhoods.

I read an article recently that asked the question, “Why does it matter so much that residents feel a sense of neighborhood identity?” A growing body of research that’s been gaining momentum over the last decade suggests that strong feelings of connectedness to place on a smaller scale has a strong relationship to how secure individuals feel about their place in the world.

There is money involved as well.

In real estate, we love statistics. Every week in the news there is a report that tells us that sales are up over the same time last year by (say) 6%. Actually in Waterloo Region house values rose by more than 6% per year for over a decade. But what is hidden in the statistics is that some neighborhoods appreciated at a higher rate that others. The homes in Laurelwood, I would say, have increased in price better than the regional average. The homes in another area of town (perhaps Huron Park) increased at a much lower rate.

Knowing that Clair Hills is next to Laurelwood, a real estate agent, will market his listing as such. His marketing material might say things like “in Waterloo’s Laurelwood-Clair Hills area of town”. Suddenly the boundaries have become elastic (and the price has gone up).

Neighborhood associations have been quietly gaining strength in many parts of Waterloo and Kitchener and that’s a good thing. We are “going local”, creating neighborhoods and this is great for society and our communities.

As far as I’m concerned, the neighborhood name isn’t as important as the sense of neighborhood itself. I feel that we have to become part of our neighborhoods (in any way we want) for our own sense of place and for the greater good of our neighbors, not to mention our property values. If you care more about your neighborhood, it will show.

The article I was reading talked about how South Central LA was rebranding itself as the less stigmatized, South LA. No one wants to buy a house in South Central LA.

Closer to home, we have new neighborhoods on the rise and old neighborhoods in decline. We recently created the Tannery District. I think that neighborhood is sure to catch on. Williamsburg is another new one but it’s called by most people, the name of the developer – Activa and that makes no sense. Finally, if you know where Highway Market neighborhood is, you’ve lived here a long time. Highway Market closed up two decades ago. I think the name still has a decade left in it and then it too will fade into history.

Filed under: Around Kitchener Waterloo, real estate trends by Keith Marshall
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According to REM, following Brookfield Residential’s purchase of Prudential Real Estate brokerage franchises, there are no plans to merge the company’s other major brand Royal LePage under one company banner. Brookfield is a multi-brand company.

Royal Lepage is one of Canada’s oldest and best recognized (and respected) real estate franchises. Brookfield has owned Royal Lepage since 1980.

For Prudential Real Estate brokerages across Canada and the USA, the acquisition by Brookfield brings us more power especially in the global relocation business which is now double the size.

Filed under: Around Kitchener Waterloo, editorial, general news, real estate trends by Keith Marshall
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