Winnipeg's Real Estate Blog

How to Sell your Home in a slow(er) market!

What a difference a few months can make!  Back in July, Winnipeg had 500 active listings at any given day, and would see approx. 1,100 sales in a 30 day period.

Now, in November, we see around 1300 active listings, and have approx. 600 sales in a 30 days period.  These are figures for sales of homes inside the perimeter of Winnipeg.  That is a significant change.  As a home-owner, what can YOU do to make your home stand out?

Lets examine why we NEED to do anything at all:  In a "Sellers Market", as we had seen for the past 4 years, there were usually multiple buyers offering on the same house.  In order to make their offer stand out, buyers would do any number of things, such as

• write unconditional offers
• offer huge deposits and downpayments
• offer well above asking-price

Often they would do all of the above.  But that was the "Sellers Market", where buyers had to compete and stand out.

Now, enter a "Buyers Market", although we do not know how long this hiatus will last.  For now at least, it is the Home SELLER who has to compete for a limited number of buyers.  It is now the SELLER's job to make their home stand out, because buyers do have choices now.  So what can we do to make the home stand out?  Here are a couple of rock-solid tips!

1. Take lots of pictures:  MLS allows for up to 10 pictures, and buyers are suspicious of any listing which only shows 1 photo.  I recently sent 34 listings to a buyer-client, some of which had only 1 or two photos.  Since my buyer can not look at all 34 listings (a fact for which I am grateful  :-)), they chose the ones which looked the best in the pictures.  A natural progression of this tip is to do a 'virtual tour' of the home, enticing buyers even more.
2. "Stage the Home": While this has been very popular in Ontario, it is starting to catch on in Manitoba.  Since the goal is to make your home stand out, staging it with nice furniture is a great way to spark the buyers imagination as to what can be done with the space.
3. Advertise the home in a variety of places:  I've said it before:  Its no longer sufficient to plunk a sign in the ground and declare "Home 4 Sale", and count on the throngs of buyers to come knocking on your door.  I've personally been contacted by several disgruntled and disappointed Private Sellers who have learned that "Nothing is FREE",  or, as our parents always taught us "You get what you pay for".  Choose a Realtor who advertises beyond the MLS, and has his/her own website, and uses magazine and newpaper ads to the full extent possible. 
4. Make sure the home is spotless:  Fresh paint, clean carpets, working lights and spotless counters go a long way to leave a good first impression.

Despite the 'doom 'n gloom' newsreports, Winnipegs market is going strong.  No, not as crazy as it has been in the past few years, but nice homes still sell at a good pace.  Most of us actually like this market:  our buyers have the chance to go for a second look, get a home inspection, and other reasonable conditions.  No, houses are NOT selling for 25% off (unless they had been wayyy overpriced to beging with), but then, we have not enjoyed 30 to 40% increases every year either.

So if you are a home buyer, enjoy this lull: no one knows how long it will last.  And if you are the Seller, make sure your home stands out from the competition.  And make sure your Realtor does, as well....:-)

Home-Buying Myths: Reasons for working with your own Realtor

Whenever I hold an Open House, or meet potential buyers at other opportunities, I ask the buyer:  Are you working with a Realtor, or are you looking on your own?  When the answer is "We're looking on our own", I inquire as to the reason for doing so.  The answers to this used to surprise me, and I've selected the 3 most common "myths" here:

 

1) Buyers think they can save money by going it alone:

  On the surface this almost makes sense.  After all, we're taught that do-it-yourself can save you money.  While that premise works in many cases, such as building your own deck, or painting a room, it does not hold true when shopping for a house.  If the buyer uses the home-owners Listing Agent, that agent simply collects the entire commission.  Any discount or cut to the commission would go back to the home-owner, not to the buyer.  Also, I am fairly safe in saying that Listing Agents are very good at what they do.........including keeping their commission.  

 

2) Buyers think they can find and see all the homes that are available:

  It should be noted that printed weekly publications are, well, a week out-of-date.  Monthly magazines are even unreliable in that by the time a home is featured in any of these, it is quite often sold.  Some home-sellers decide not to use a "For Sale Sign", as they dont want the neighbours to know they're selling.  By working with your own Realtor,you will receive automated information on any and all listings which fit your criteria.  No missing out on any listings.

 

3) Buyers feel they can save time:

Some buyers are afraid of being tied to a Realtors time-schedule, thinking they can do it quicker on their own.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Think about this:  Its Saturday afternoon, and you found 3 decent looking homes you'd like to see.  So you pick up the phone and call all 3 Listing Agents.  Now you have to sit back and wait for their return call, which often takes between 15 mins and several hours.  

So once you hear back from them, you try to book appointments with 3 different professionals, all of whom have busy schedules of their own.  What do you think the odds are that they are all available during the 1 or 2 hours you've set aside for this?

On the other hand, if you are working with one agent, you simply call him (or her) and tell them your one-hour window.  The agent then books the appointments and goes thru the homes with you.  THIS is the way to actually save yourself some time.

So, if you are getting serious about buying a home or condo, call a Realtor who represents YOU in your search and thruout the buying and negotiating process.  After all, home-owners have their own Realtor fighting for them.......  shouldnt you?  Call me anytime....Bo at 204-333-2202