Word on the Street: Edmonton Real Estate Market Update
4 octobre 2007 – 23:36What’s been happening with real estate in Edmonton? More of the same except we are busy, busy, busy.Yes we are busier with sellers than we were last year. I’m pretty sure everybody is. Our average time on market has increased and buyers are definitely flexing their muscles with offers.
Sales are still down percentage-wise from last year’s record pace based on what we are seeing. Some sellers expecations are still high and pricing properly is certainly more of an issue this year than last year.
As I mentioned buyers are being choosey, except when it comes to homes under $300,000 where it is still in my mind a much more balanced market.
Lately i am getting a lot more calls from investors who want to sell properties. We’ve turned down many of of these investors since we are limited by the amount of time we have available. At the same time it’s interesting to me quite a few of the offers on our listings have been from investors. Most of my investor clients have not participated in the speculative side of the market and many have held back and are only now starting to awake cautiously to potential opportunities
Inventory is still growing - although not as rapidly as it was - and new listings are still far outpacing sales. Buyers and sellers are constantly adjusting their position in negotitations. This brings to mind a current example (the names, dates, and information below has been altered slightly to protect my ass and the privacy of those involved):
My clients were interested in buying a property that they could build their dream home on. While the property is not the only one for them they liked it enough to make an offer. Our offer included a significant deposit, around the $50,000 mark with the buyers waiving all conditions (against my recommendations). I was against this strategy but they wanted to make the best possible offer, and were prepared to take a significant risk to themselves to get the property. Truly its a very rare client that doesn’t heed that many warnings but they are my clients and I am obliged to follow their instructions.
So off we go making our offer 18% below the list price. Our reasons behind this was not that my clients felt that was a good place to start, but that the property was over priced. The property had been on the market for a significant period of time, in one of the strongest markets I have ever seen, and had no offers on it. Just that deduction alone made us feel comfortable that it was over priced.
The seller countered the offer at almost list price. Although my clients were prepared to, and did go substantially up from their original offer, the seller barely budged.
The Realtor for the seller informed me that the seller was sophisticated (this is where the ass protection comes in, so I won’t divulge more) and their position was they had a strong reason to believe the prices would go up in the spring. (I agree with this but only after they go down a little more, first, me thinks). So I recommended that my clients take one of the following options:
- Drop their shorts and play ball the seller is clearly smarter than we are
- Since the listing was days away from expiring, take a trip to disney and try to find the seller in tomorrow land
- Keep looking. One of you will be right. If you want it badly pay it, if not walk.
- Find another Realtor the stress is too much for me and I can’t take it any more.
(sarcasm)
So depending on your outlook and motivation you might see it more or less differently than I do. For the seller’s sake their Realtor did the best they could to represent their side. But in the end no deal.
Anyway not all sellers are in the need to sell position, in fact most aren’t. Some sellers are just testing the market, while others are definitely more serious. This is just one story from dozens in a very, very busy week.