Author: Kirsten Mason

Sell Your Home: Why You Should Pay A Good Commission To A Kamloops Buyers’ Agent

Information For Sellers

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Today’s real estate market in Kamloops is very competitive. There are a number of homes for sale that are very similar in characteristics and also in price. There are a few factors that affect the sale of homes that are similar. Simple, obvious things such as curb appeal, interior design and upkeep, clutter, scents, accessability, etc, are all issues to be aware of when selling a home. There is one underlying, very important home selling technique that is often overlooked by sellers and ultimately puts their home at a significant disadvantage. This factor is the commission a seller offers the buyers’ agent (or Realtor representing a buyer) in order to bring a qualified buyer to purchase their home.

It is a fact that Realtors work with the most qualified buyers. These buyers have often already been pre-approved for a mortgage and are ready to make an offer on a property in the near future. By offering a less competitive commission to the buyers’ agent, you are not motivating Realtors to come bring their qualified buyers to your home and sell it. The the best way to describe it is, if you went to work for a month, and at the end of the month you were told you weren’t going to make 100% of your normally expected pay how would you feel? This is the sentiment out there in the market, especially now that buyers have so many homes to choose from. We are now seeing buyers agent selling bonuses and higher commission rates than have been seen over the past few years. Sellers are beginning to understand that money motivates. Homes that offer less commission to buyers agents are often overlooked. Unfortunately I don’t make the rules, I am just passing on this information for the seller’s benefit. Please don’t make this mistake.

If you are motivated to sell your home ensure you do the basic things such as maintaining an attractive curb appeal, keep your home neat and uncluttered, etc. More importantly if you are selling in the Kamloops real estate market, offer a competitive commission to the buyers’ agent, otherwise you are just hurting yourself financially in the long run!

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Low Interest Rates + More Negotiating Power = More Affordable Real Estate!

Information For Buyers

What usually happens, as interest rates decline, real estate buying power increases. Currently interest rates are at the lowest they have been in years. The lower interest rates coupled with the current buyer’s market makes buying a home more appealing. Buyers find that when the interest rates are very low, they qualify for more of a loan than when rates are high.

This shift in the market has created a great opportunity for first time home buyers, buyers and renters looking to get back into the Kamloops market. The savings on home buying are in both the purchase price of the home and interest charges. Buyers are able to negotiate more aggressively on a contract now than years in the past. I have found that lately more first time home buyers have begun their search for the first time. Buyers who are also looking to get back into the market or have been renting for a number of years are also beginning to see the value in the lower home prices and low interest rates. Homes in Kamloops are finally beginning to be priced in a range where buyers can justify purchasing a home. Plus, for first time home buyers, they receive further savings because first time home buyers don’t have to pay property transfer tax.

All these factors make buying your first home, getting back into the real estate market, moving up to a larger home or downsizing your home more of a reality!

B.C. Real Estate Association Market At A Glance

Kamloops Real Estate Statistics, Real Estate Information
Kamloops Real Estate: 2008 YTD MLS Transactions by Board (small boards) Here are some charts that the B.C. Real Estate Association has released. I personally find it helpful to see statistics as an image or chart, sometimes just numbers are not enough. The first chart is a comparison of all the smaller boards throughout B.C.  Kamloops is one of the mid-sized boards among the smaller markets. As you will see in this chart, the Kootenays, Kamloops and Chilliwack appear to be very similar in the amount of activity for MLS listing sales. You can click on the image to enlarge it.
 

Kamloops Real Estate: Housing Market MLS Listing ActivityThis next set of 4 graphs shows the direction of the market. From left to right the graphs read Kamloops Residential Market Conditions, Kamloops Quarterly Residential Price, Kamloops Months of Residential Supply and finally bottom right Kamloops Residential Unit Sales. It is interesting to see the sales to active listings ratio in the first graph and how the lines flipped to the downside suddenly. I think that this flip took a lot of people by surprise. The bottom left chart shows the strong buyers market that we are in and how it shot up mid to late 2008.
 
 Link

Economic Uncertainty Drives Real Estate Plunge Across Lower Mainland

B.C. Real Estate News, Kamloops Real Estate News

I found this article on the Vancouver Sun’s website today. Provincially the real estate market is feeling the squeeze. The Sun reported that real estate sales are down 58% in the Lower Mainland. In Kamloops, the Kamloops and District Real Estate Association released it’s January statistics and our board is reporting 64% drop in residential sales for the month of January. Read below for the full story, it is focused more on the Lower Mainland, but keep in mind our market is not so different here in Kamloops. We are affected by some of the same economic factors that the Lower Mainland is affected by.

Home sales at lowest point since early 1980s, according to reports

Real estate sales across the Lower Mainland crawled along in January, real estate boards reported Tuesday, with consumers reluctant to buy during recessionary times and with expectations that prices will continue to decline.

In Metro Vancouver, Realtors recorded 762 Multiple-Listing-Service sales in January, down 58 per cent from the same month a year ago, and the so-called benchmark price for a typical detached home down 11 per cent to $659,638 compared with January of 2008.

In the Fraser Valley, Realtors booked a similar 59-per-cent decline in sales at 359, and the so-called benchmark for a typical single-family home down 9.6 per cent from the same month a year ago.

Both the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, which covers most of Metro except Surrey, and the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, which takes in Surrey and White Rock, said sales were at levels not seen since the early 1980s.

“We’re seeing the same factors at play: uncertainty in people’s minds about where the economy is going and where their jobs are going,” Robyn Adamache, a market analyst with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said in an interview.

“As well, I think at lease some people are expecting further price reductions and perhaps are holding off on buying waiting for that to happen.”

The B.C. Real Estate Association on Monday released its latest forecast that predicted prices will decline 16 per cent in Metro Vancouver over 2009.

Adamache added that January is traditionally a slow sales month and not a month that can be used to gauge how the year will go, but “we’re sort of well below [sales levels] we’ve seen in previous Januarys.”

Both real estate boards also saw inventories of unsold homes decline in January. In Metro Vancouver, covered by the Greater Vancouver board, January new listings were down 30 per cent to 3,700, and current active listings of 13,966 are down 6,000 from October.

However, Adamache said that sales have slowed so much that the months of supply in unsold inventory has crept up to 11 months, the highest it has been in 10 years.

She added that the ratio of sales to new listings has dropped to a level that has not been seen since at least 1984, the first year for which she has records.

In the Fraser Valley, total inventory of unsold homes in January stood at 8,630 units, 26 per cent higher than January 2008, but 30 per cent lower than the record high inventory recorded last September.

Tsur Somerville, director of the centre for urban economics and real estate at the Sauder School of Business at the University of B.C., said it will be later in the year before we know how much the market is still declining, or whether there has been any stabilization.

The reason, Somerville said, is because the year-over-year comparison is with a month that had relatively high sales, and the dramatic drop-off in Vancouver’s markets did not begin until later in the year.

“I think we’re still declining just because the [sale decline] is 60 per cent versus 40 to 50 per cent,” Somerville said in an interview, “but we won’t get a sense of how much and at what rate until later.”

Dave Watt, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, said the last 10 days of January did see realtor showings and sales pick up relative to the beginning of the month.

Watt said the buyers in the market are “back to looking for a home to purchase and are very much thinking long term.”

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