Get Your Sunscreen Ready

by Darrin DeRoches May 31 - June 6, 2012

How’s the market? How’s the weather? Hot Hot Hot! Things are moving so fast that if you blink, it’s gone. May has shown us a very strong market and if you or your agent are slow to move – it’s gone. This week I did a deal in Kitchener/Waterloo and the properties there are moving just as fast. We were one of a dozen showings in a 24 hour period. The difference is, while everyone was discussing the house, we made an offer on the spot and tied up the house – under asking. So what is the big deal?     The market is moving so fast right now, that multiple offers are happening all over the place. They can occur in a couple of ways. Homeowners hold off offers until a certain date with the intent of creating a multiple offer situation. Agents can also wait until all showings, open houses etc., happen and then collect offers. Both of these situations were occurring with the properties my clients were interested in and if I waited to make an offer, we would have definitely been in a competition for the property and most likely paid over asking in both situations. I removed conditions on the first deal that I did last week and the agent not only thanked me for a “quick and clean deal”, he went on to tell me how he has been receiving tons of calls on the property – even though it was listed as “ conditional – no show”. This basically tells the market that the owners feel strongly about the deal and do not want to deal with showing their house anymore. Agents kept calling hoping my deal would fall apart. If these same agents moved faster and were smarter in the first place, they could have competed with my client for the property. Instead, they are sitting waiting for another comparable property to come up on the market so that they can at least show something to their clients. The fact is, no comparable properties have come up on the market in the last two weeks. So if you have a property in the west end and are considering selling,  give me a call – buyers are waiting.     The Waterloo house is basically in the same situation. It is a starter home in a great area and the 12 or so buyers are now upset that they missed out. I drove up from Hamilton and was able to do a deal on the spot and we are now doing a home inspection to close the deal. The market is hot, and so is the weather – so prepare by getting pre–approved, work with an agent who is ready to move fast, and use a little sunscreen because you just may get burned if you are not careful! V     Darrin DeRoches is a local real estate and mortgage broker. He can be reached to answer questions, comments or stories about real estate experiences through this weekly column at mail@uniquerealty.ca.