Phones Are Ringing

by Darrin DeRoches September 8 - 14, 2011

August is always a slow month for all business and real estate is no different. We are now into September and the kids are back in school and all the moms or dads finally have the house back to themselves. This is when everyone starts to think about what is next? Thanksgiving? Christmas?  The next couple of week’s people start to focus on a new home purchase for the holidays. The market starts to pick up mid–September and stays pretty strong until mid– December. So what does this mean for buyers and sellers?     First things first if you are thinking of selling – take pictures. The weather is already feeling like fall, but before it changes take a lot of outside pictures if you are even thinking of selling in the next eight to 10 months, especially if you have a pool. These pictures can be invaluable to sell your home in the coming months.  Most people cannot picture your yard and pool when it is all covered up. If the trees provide you privacy in the summer months a prospective buyer may be swayed by your pictures. A virtual tour with summer pictures will make your home stand out against your competition in the colder months.  People will be sitting at home searching homes on the MLS and when they click on your home, you have vibrant flowers, green grass, sky blue water in the saltwater pool and your competition only has a frozen driveway, grey cement pool and leafless trees – which house would you pick? If a picture is worth a thousand words, I am positive summer pictures of your home will be worth thousands of more dollars the sale of your home.     If you are looking to buy in the next couple of weeks make sure you have an agent who is on top of the market. They should have you on an email blast that will send you a prospective home the second it comes out, usually days before it hits the MLS.  Competition will be tight in the coming weeks since more buyers will be looking and you need to be on top of the market.  Some agents do not move “as fast” as other and you may lose out on your dream home or even worse get into competition and pay thousands of more dollars than you would if your agent is on top of their game. The second thing you should be looking at is older listing that has become ‘stale’ in the market. These are listing that have been sitting all summer and have probably dropped their price and are hoping someone will come by during this next little while and snap them up.  These homes are on shaky ground since they have been on the market for a while and the owners want to sell. There are deals to be made and I know of a couple listing in this situation and I am taking clients to see them tonight before the market heats up and so do prices.  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.