Real Estate By Erica Alini 605 Views

‘Sell before you buy’ is the new housing market battle cry

It’s spring, but the real estate market in much of Canada has yet to exit hibernation.

Home sales in Metro Vancouver for the month of March plummeted to the lowest level since 1986, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. Activity in Alberta and Saskatchewan was more than 20 per cent below its 10-year average for the month, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) said. In Toronto, sales volumes were flat.

Granted, there are still signs of life in some parts of the country. Sales in Quebec and New Brunswick, for example, were well above average.

But many Canadians who need to sell a house this year will likely meet unfamiliar market conditions — those of a slow-moving housing market. Real estate agents, meanwhile, are dusting off their playbook from a decade ago, before the housing craze began.

So what does it take to sell your house in these conditions?

Curb your price expectations

The first step to get your home sold in this kind of market is to think hard about your pricing strategy.

In Vancouver, where the April housing market is looking a lot like March, real estate agent Steve Saretsky says buyers should price ahead of the market.

There were less than 1,800 recorded transactions in the Greater Vancouver area last month, CREA numbers show.

“If you want to be one of the few houses that sell, you have to set the market, not react to it,” according to Saretsky.

Given the current downward price trend in the city, that means a home that may be worth $1.4 million today may have to be priced at $1.375 million he said.

Know that the spring housing market isn’t everything

Many people believe the best time to put their home on the market is somewhere between March and June. That’s understandable since the spring is when most buyers start house hunting, said Romana King, director of content at Zolo.ca, an online real estate marketplace. The common wisdom is that parents, in particular, are keen to seal a deal by the start of the summer to be able to resettle the family in time for the start of the school year in September, she added.

The spring is often when you should list your home if you want to sell it fast, according to King.

But if you want to sell a home for top dollar, you’re not necessarily selling it the quickest,” she added.

When Zolo analyzed housing transaction data going back around 15 years in both Greater Vancouver and the Greater Toronto Area, it found that there was often a price premium for sellers who listed in the fall. Your home may remain on the market for longer but net you a higher offer in the end, King said.

King also cautioned against reading too much in some of the larger estimates, like Whistler’s $250,000 premium for April listings. Those are areas that have seen significant volumes of new buildings added to the local housing supply over the past decade. Newer homes tend to sell for more so that can skew averages, King said.



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