Is your home not selling?
Posted on
December 9, 2008
by
Garth P Raven (Prudential Sussex Realty)
Is your home not selling? What can you do to make your home more marketable? One step that often has positive results for a Seller is to have their home pre-inspected before they place their home for sale.
After all, almost every home that sells on the market place today has a home inspection done by the Buyer prior to the removal of subject clauses so why not smooth out the process and have one done in
advance? Understandably, Buyers want assurances that the operating systems in your home are running smoothly, so give them the confidence to place an offer on your home by taking a step to relieve any nagging doubts they might have.
Pre-inspections are an effective anti-haggling tool for Sellers. Often a sale can be jeopardized if the
Buyer’s inspector develops a long list of unexpected repair items. If this happens, last-minute price
negotiations on a subject offer could ensue, or worse, the contract could be terminated. In today’s flat markets, Sellers have to look beyond the mythological prices and easy sales attained in years previous and offer more incentives to the Buyer to consider their home.
Oddly enough, even though most Sellers have been Buyers at one time, they often forget to look through the eyes of a Buyer when they’re trying to sell their home. They forget that they were once plagued by indecision themselves and needed that extra boost of confidence before they made the plunge into home-ownership. It only makes sense that if a report is made available to them that reflects the home is in good condition, then they have more incentive to move forward and offer a top-notch price.
Sellers can use this inspection to determine what they need to do to put their home in the best competitive shape for the market, or price it fairly to sell “as is.” They will have the opportunity to repair or
attend to problematic areas before a sale is initiated and at a time that fits their schedule and at a more
reasonable price than costly rush charges allow. There is no sense in upsetting a Buyer and perhaps
having them walk away from a sale if the problem(s) could have been identified and rectified beforehand, is there?
As homes age, given the life expectancy of certain systems, home inspections remain prudent. Sellers
that have homes that have reached the Big Five-O or beyond should be especially interested in a clean
bill of health and be even more eager to prove to Buyers that their home is worthy of their notice.
However, all homes, regardless of age, can and do have problems even if they are minor ones.
continued… very soon!
Trish
Market update!!
As most of you have heard, sales in the Vancouver real estate market have been down this year, the numbers vary from area to area. The strata market has been soft, while single family homes and building lots have been significantly better, again depending on the area.
The media types have been talking about a so called bubble, and a correction in the real estate market, as if there will be some dramatic shift in prices one day. I believe this is a misnomer. To the contrary, we’ve seen small corrections happening every day over the last few months to compensate for the smaller number of sales, as opposed to a sudden price drop. So in effect, the correction has already and is already happening on a daily basis. This doesn’t mean that it could not correct more, or less as time goes on. Some buyers believe that because of the slow market, they should automatically submit low ball offers assuming that home sellers should be desperately trying to sell and escape the market before this correction, however again this is wrong thinking, as there is a good chance that new home sellers entering the market have priced their home correctly, given the current circumstances.
I believe that because the interest rates have been so low for so long now, a lot of the new home buyers that could buy, did buy in the last couple of years, leaving a lack of new home buyers to drive the entry level market. There are however still a small number of new home buyers entering the market all of the time, and of course folks upsizing and downsizing, to continually add some buoyancy to our market.
Despite the market sales being lower this year, I’ve been very fortunate, so thank you friends, family, and valued clients!!
All the Best!
Garth
Who's Doing High Fives Now? SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER, 2007
If you think lenders make too much money, you are not alone........ However, it's very likely that you, the borrower, are an eager participant in all those profits. Billions of dollars are literally given away to the banks each year because of consumer pathy. Lenders know this and in fact they "bank" on it. What do we mean?
Well, a recent survey conducted by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reveals that despite all the new mortgage products on the market, people looking to renew their mortgage will more often than not, revert back to their current lender. In fact, according to the report, 81% of them did. Does this make sense when the competition could be offering lower interest rates and better terms? It doesn't. There is some good news though. This same survey indicates that consumers are shopping around slightly more than they were in the past. People that were renewing their mortgage were faithful to their financial institution to the tune of 88% in 2000. By 2006 this dropped 7 percentage points.
This decline in lender loyalty was also very evident in repeat home buyers and people that refinanced their mortgage because of wanting extra cash to make home enovations or consolidate debt. In 2006 only 65% of these consumers went back to their current provider – well down from what it was in previous years. The only category that remained relatively stable was first-time home buyers.
57% of these buyers financed through their banking institution in 2000 and this remained almost constant - 58% in 2006. It would appear that first-time buyers are savvy and cautious when it comes to mortgage debt. Initially, they do their
research diligently when it comes to comparing lenders and what they can offer. However, these very same buyers that were so careful at the start, oon join the ranks of those that are "too busy" at mortgage renewal time to check out and compare lenders. Most people know that banking is a business. However, not all acknowledge that bank
employees are paid to look after the bank's best interests – not yours. In fact these employees have quotas to fill – big quotas! It is amazing that people will go to seminars sponsored by Lenders and expect to be told how to negotiate the best mortgage deal for themselves. Puh-leeze! That's like inviting a fox to the chicken coop to tell the chickens how to avoid getting eaten by him. It makes no sense whatsoever, yet that is exactly what people do. Even more remarkable is the fact that these potential customers believe they are getting sound and unbiased information and actually act on the
advice given by the fox. This can be a very costly mistake.
However, let us explore mortgage renewal in greater detail.
Mortgage funding is extremely competitive. Lenders spend an enormous amount of money just to get mortgage business in the first place and they certainly don't want to lose customers now or at any time in the future.
If homeowners would just take a few hours and shop around for several proposals from different lending institutions when their mortgage term is up, they might be pleasantly surprised about their findings. The chances are that they would quite possibly receive an offer from another Lender that is better in both interest rates and/or terms provided.
Lenders may even pay for all the set-up, transfer and legal fees when the mortgage business is transferred to them. Once a homeowner has different options in hand, the power to choose becomes theirs. They can accept this new favorable proposal or have their current lender match or better it. Odds are, your lender isn't going to be
willing to give up your business without a fight.
How much actual cash could be saved by keeping Lenders honest? Well, let's figure it out. A $300,000 mortgage calculated at 6% over a 25 year amortization period works out to monthly payments of $1,919.42. Conversely, at 5.5% and using the same criteria, the payments are $1,831.18. The difference is $88.24 per month. Now multiply that by 60 (five years of monthly payments) and you will see that by negotiating a better rate, rather than blindly accepting the first offer, you have saved $5,294.40. Really, with a little investigative effort, you could have put a stash of cash in your jeans or made a handsome contribution towards paying off your mortgage. Instead of the Lenders' CEO's counting profits and doing high fives around the boardroom table because of consumer apathy, you could be going on vacation. You may be trained to be loyal but hopefully, not tamed! Next time . . . shop around! |
The data relating to real estate on this website comes in part from the MLS® Reciprocity program of either the Greater Vancouver REALTORS® (GVR), the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB) or the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board (CADREB). Real estate listings held by participating real estate firms are marked with the MLS® logo and detailed information about the listing includes the name of the listing agent. This representation is based in whole or part on data generated by either the GVR, the FVREB or the CADREB which assumes no responsibility for its accuracy. The materials contained on this page may not be reproduced without the express written consent of either the GVR, the FVREB or the CADREB.
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