Posted by
paige on
July 29, 2010 |
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2 hours in the office, 2 hours at the beach, 2 hours at the office, 2 hours at the beach…
OK seriously, temperatures in Kelowna have been over 33 degrees celcius for more than a week. There have been a few forest fires… some more serious than others and there have been a whopping 14 sales on Kelowna’s lakeshore since the beginning of June, 2010! That’s amazing when you consider there has been 19 sales in TOTAL since January.
Overall, listings are up and sales are down. This is typically the time when savvy buyers are on the prowl and those looking for high end properties can often benefit the most. First time buyers seem to be completely gone right now with only one sale under $300,000 in the last 5 weeks and investors are just starting to get cranked up again after a month or two long hiatus.
Strategy for buying in this type of market has to be planned out in advance to maximize your dollar’s buying power. Last week I worked with some people who found 5 houses in a neighborhood that they particularly liked. We narrowed it down to #1-5 and made an offer on the first one. It was rejected. Plan A was to move onto number two, but after careful consideration, we decided to wait it out for a few days and let the sellers think we had moved on. Sure enough, a week later we were able to get an accepted offer on house #1 for almost $30,000 below what the last house in that neighborhood sold for… great deal!
Strategy for selling in this type of market also has to be very well thought out. Buyers are elusive and slow moving. In order to even attract a buyer to a point where they would consider making an offer, the price being asked has to be thought of as “exceptional”. Even then, most offers start off low. For those bargain hunting, they’ll usually move on if the low-ball isn’t accepted. For those that have found their “perfect home”, it may take some time, but usually they’ll come to the table and a fair price can be secured.
Thinking of buying or selling? Contact me to find out how my tried and proven strategies can work wonders for you.
Talk to you soon…
Paige
Posted by
paige on
July 7, 2010 |
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Kelowna real estate sales are down again for the 2nd month in a row. In June there were 346 total sales and in May 378. Sale and listing stats up to June 2010 in Kelowna . What does this mean? It means that sellers have to to priced aggressively to attract the wary buyer.
The rush to beat the HST and lower locked in interest rates is over and the next batch of buyers are being very cautious and taking their time. Interestingly, product that has been typically moving quickly and priced under $400K is not moving much at all right now. In June there was 11 homes that sold over $800,000 and 9 of those were over $1,000,000. Haven’t seen those kind of numbers in a while.
Summer has arrived and will no doubt dispell the uncertainty that people are feeling… Kelowna, the best place on earth!
Talk to you soon…
Paige
Posted by
paige on
June 22, 2010 |
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When I first moved to Kelowna over 20 years ago and began my real estate career here, one of the things you did to build your client base was make phone calls… a LOT of phone calls. I logged hundreds and hundreds of hours calling people out of the phone book asking if they or anyone they knew was thinking about buying or selling real estate. Seems ridiculous now, but back then there was success to be had if you could tough it out. After that I graduated to door knocking. The last door to see my knuckles was opened by a gentlman in underwear who seemed perfectly content to stand there chatting.
Last night I received a call. You probably know the one, right at dinner time and asking to speak to Mr. or Mrs. Guernsey. My last name gets terribly mis-pronounced sometimes … in a funny kind of way. This person asked if I was Mrs. “Going-say”. I laughed and said yes, remembering all those phone calls I had to make years ago. Note to self: Don’t do that again. This person would not stop talking and when I politely said I had to go, they talked right over me. Finally I hung up, feeling guilty. That same person called back last night 3 times. I went from feeling sympathetic to feeling choked that our space was invaded like that.
I haven’t “cold called” in decades and I wonder if new realtors do that. Would you respond positively to a realtor calling asking if you were interested in buying or selling real estate or would a text or tweet be more in line with todays world?
Talk to you soon…
Paige
