So now we're in the usual place in the calendar where the real estate cycle is supposed to be in the doldrums. July/August are usually the slowest months of the year in the real estate (along with December). As a matter of fact, even our office reduces our weekly meeting & caravan to every other week for the same reason. Many agents actually take the summer off for this same reason.
While the TREB announcements still indicate that market activity is higher than before, it's important to realize that this general kind of statement doesn't mean it's happening in every single corner of their domain. Some areas are always hotter than others, whether it's specific geography (I.e. downtown Toronto) or a particular type of home (detached or condo or bungalow).
People read in the media about how a particular home sold for well above the asking price and then assume they can make a similar score for their own home. Heck, I wish I could make the same thing happen for my own home, too! But the reality is otherwise. Those kinds of things are the exception, not the rule. In any given month, over 40% of the listed homes do not sell.
Why is that? There are a number of reasons including the three "L"s = Looks, List Price and Location. Whether you're in an up market or down market, you still have the single greatest control over how quickly your home sells - price. You set the price. Sure you want to get the highest possible price. But it's usually a trade-off of price versus how long it takes to sell. The more realistic the price, the more buyer-attention it gets, and the greater chance of receiving at least one offer.
I like to tell my sellers "I would rather you receive 10 offers and turn them all down, than to not receive a single offer at all".
No comments:
Post a Comment