A few months ago I was working with a family who wanted to acquire their next principal residence, but one that included a full or partial suite well suited to accommodate visiting families or potentially be used as a separate rental unit in the present or in the future. It’s not an uncommon objective, but the search, assessment and acquisition …
What do you suppose is the most important – the X factor in real estate marketing – to achieve the successful sale of your home? Realtors jump on trends in marketing without giving new tactics, technology, and methods much critical thought. Drone video. 3D virtual tours. “Coming soon” signs. Virtual staging. AI-generated ad copy. Exclusive realtor network marketing sites. Regardless …
Should blind bidding be banned? The Liberal Party of Canada seems to think so. Justin Trudeau created quite a stir when he announced the party’s plan to ban “blind bidding” in real estate transactions at a campaign stop recently. When I heard the news, I thought it likely an exaggeration or other form of “fake news” because real estate transaction …
In case you haven’t heard, there’s a housing inventory crisis across Canada and the United States (I haven’t looked beyond – maybe it’s another pandemic?!) In this video I look at the possible reasons not enough people are selling, and whether there are any signs of hope for house hunters. Video Outline (1:00) Stats: Number of Q1 Sales vs New …
House prices in Ottawa in early 2021 are going crazy! Last video we talked about the main reason. Let’s look at some other theories (and conspiracies!) about house prices. I mention a couple of media articles in this video. Here are links to those articles: Global News on Foreign Buyers The RBC Study that Global News References CTV July 2020 …
“No conveyance of offers prior to <time of day> on <specific date>.” …or… “Offers presented at <time of day> on <specific date>; however, the seller reserves the right to review and may accept pre-emptive offers.” If you followed or participated in the real estate market in Ottawa in 2020 you will have noticed one of these two phrases appearing in …
Is Ottawa’s proposed Shared Equity Mortgage “plan” a good idea? Okay, so I only know what I saw on CBC News the other night. They reported that the Canadian Government has yet to work out the details of the “plan”. We can’t fully assess it until we have those details… but the concept seems misguided to me in many ways: …
Talking about Ottawa condo prices with one of my clients recently, I realised it’s been 6 years since I looked at the average selling price trend for older vs. newer condo apartments in Ottawa. Here’s the article from 2012: Are New or Re-Sale Condos a Better Investment? Fast forward to today; let’s take a look at the average selling price …
Have you read the CBC article from April 25th about Ottawa real estate’s “Perfect Storm” intensifying “Bidding Wars”? I’d like to go through this article and shed some light on a few of the pronouncements it makes. You can read the original article here: CBC Article: Bidding Wars Intensify It’s fun working in real estate because almost everybody finds it interesting …
Law makers are waking up to some of the old school sales tactics that are unfortunately still common in the real estate business. CBC’s Marketplace ran their story (episode 44 – you can Google it if you haven’t seen it) about Realtors in Toronto working both sides of a transaction for the benefit of themselves (and buyer customers or clients) …
