Yes, yes and a clear NO!

The summer is over, people are done with their vacation and can get back to their daily routine and worries. Oh, and that means for me it's time again to face the all important 3 questions of Real Estate..

"Is the real estate market still good?"
"Is it a good time to buy or sell?"
"Is the real estate market going to crash?"

Here a short extract of the latest freshly printed MarketWatch issue from the Toronto Real Estate Board that I get each month on my desk:
"August 2007 became the fifth record-setting month in a row, with 8,059 sales reported by TREB members troughout the GTA ... This figure is up 15 per cent over August of last year, and up seven per cent over the 7,498 sales recorded during the previous "best ever" performance for the month of August ... Summer (one of the slowest months in the Real Estate market) 2007 has been hands-down the most active holiday season for the resale market in the history of the Toronto Real Estate Board...Year-over-year prices increases have remained in the single digits. This kind of activity is sustainable for a long time."

My comment to the actual market situation:
We are still in a very strong market which will even pick up during the next two months again before it slows slightly down over the winter holidays again.
I just want to mention a few economic fundamental facts that are giving me the impression that we do not have to worry for a while about the housing market to crash in good old Canada.

1. Our economy is strong with a low unemployment rate.
2. The Canadian Dollar is slowly growing in strength.
3. We have over 250,000 immigrants each year. Most of them coming into the GTA (some go to the Vancouver area or Edmonton/Calgary, some poor souls even get lost in the Prairies) where they support the local rental market
4. A strong rental market supports a good housing market

Without getting too much into economics ... that is all GOOD! I personally have a very strong and positive outlook on the future real estate market.

So ... again, my answer to the three questions that I get asked the most is:
YES, YES and a loud NO!



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Photo not available?

One of the things that really bug me in the professional real estate world is the lack of quality photos of the properties that agents are putting up for sale. You would think that all of these so called "Professionals" would have heart the words "A picture is worth a thousand words" at some point in their career.

Well, ... I know that buyer clients are really keen on looking at a lot of pretty online pictures before they are even interested in taking a closer look at a home. I also know that seller clients would like to have the best and most professional photos of their most valuable asset on the net to attract buyers. Isn't that common sense?

Hmmm judge for yourself ... (here are a couple of pictures that I recently came across while I was browsing for homes for some clients of mine) ... what do these pictures want to tell us?

Let's assume I had hired an agent to sell my property and would pay thousands of Dollars for that service. I think I would have not been overly happy with these really original shots probably taken by one of these "#1" agents personally. I do not want to brag about myself but my clients get their properties photographed by a person that is called a photographer! They even put beautiful virtual tours together where the smallest home still looks like a little palace!
I am not saying that all the other guys and girls out there do a terrible job in regards to presenting their client's homes but if I were a client it would be one of the most important things to me. If I am turned off by some pics already as a real estate person who should be able to see "the true picture of a home", what does the consumer think?

And my personal favourite: "Photo not available" Really sells the property!



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