Month: March 2011

Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 936 residential properties in February through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system compared with 1,030 in February 2010, a decrease of 9.1 per cent.

Of those sales, 213 were in the condominium property class, while 723 were in the residential property class. The condominium property class includes any property, regardless of style (i.e. detached, semi-detached, apartment, stacked etc.) which is registered as a condominium, as well as properties which are co-operatives, life leases and timeshares. The residential property class includes all other residential properties.

“Once again we’re seeing sales numbers very close to the five-year average for February, which is 962 sales. It’s important to note that the homes that sold last month did so far more quickly than in January, spending an average of just 33 days on the market. As well, prices rose slightly more than they had in the previous two months which indicate we still have a very steady market here in Ottawa,” said Board President Joanne Tibbles. “This tells us that there is a demand for resale homes in Ottawa, and that when buyers see the home they want, they’re going after it, perhaps even going up against other bidders,” Tibbles added.

The average sale price of residential properties, including condominiums, sold in February in the Ottawa area was $338,408, an increase of 6.7 per cent over February 2010. The average sale price for a condominium-class property was $260,112, an increase of 6 per cent over February 2010. The average sale price of a residential-class property was $361,475, an increase of 6.9 per cent over February 2010. The Board cautions that average sale price information can be useful in establishing trends over time but should not be used as an indicator that specific properties have increased or decreased in value. The average sale price is calculated based on the total dollar volume of all properties sold.

The Ottawa Real Estate Board is an industry association of 2,600 sales representatives and brokers in the Ottawa area. Members of the Board are also members of the Canadian Real Estate Association.

The MLS® system is a member based service, paid for by the REALTOR® members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board. The MLS® mark symbolizes the cooperation among REALTORS® to effect the purchase and sale of real estate through real estate services provided by REALTORS®. MLS® commercial and residential listings are available for viewing on the Board’s internet site at http://www.OttawaRealEstate.org and on the national websites of The Canadian Real Estate Association at http://www.REALTOR.ca and http://www.ICX.ca.

source: Ottawa Real Estate Board

Here is a glimpse into the execution of a quick sale I just made:
– Figure out what the active comparable sales are
– Figure out what the sold comparable sales are
– Determine what the house should sell for, and the highest we can ask while still making the property appear to be the best value
– Determine what kind of people live in the area and pay most for it (cross reference Cencus info, postal info and sales info)
– Make some home enhancements (touchups or renos, staging suggestions, adjustments to curb appeal)
– Capture the home in it’s best light (Professional photography and marketing pieces)
– Put together an info package that appeals to the target market identified above
– Make description of area, street, and home appeal to the target market
– Same with the imagery in your marketing
– Market the home on the lifestyle the target market will have in this home – sell on emotion!
– Submit property to MLS, private website, and 35 others to hit major search engines
– Distribute info packages to realtors that just sold similar properties and that may have leftover buyers
– Clear the home for a good dozen showings on first day
– Receive the offer (easy at this point)
– Negotiate with the agents to get your full price and all the terms you need (you need to know your stuff for this)
– COOPERATE with the agent and help them sell the property to their clients
– Let all the other agents that showed the property know there is an offer, which makes them all jump and drives competition for your clients
– Negotiate until you have the strongest offer on the table that your clients are willing to take
– Accept it
– Manage the conditions and help the other realtor do so (to make it easier)
– Negotiate to not “rock the boat” throughout the conditional dilligence
– Close it!

The keys to this one were:
– Targetted Marketing which attracted those buyers that were willing to pay the MOST for the property.
– Pricing the home correctly, so that it appears to be the best value in the marketplace and will still net your clients the most possible. Any higher helps sell the competition.
– Professional marketing to showcase the quality
– Strong negotiating to get and keep as much money on the table as possible
– a great cooperating brokerage with competent agents
– burning the candle at both ends to communicate with ALL realtors to drive competition for your client

Result? Everything my clients wanted be end of the same day it was listed.

Note: These results often make our job look easy i.e.” I can put a sign up and sell for full price in one day too!”, or ” I can’t justify paying a realtor for 1 day’s work”. What they dont see is a great deal of intelligent work and strategic planning that was put into it, to pull the trigger and hit the target as quickly and as accurately as possible.

I would argue that these results are actually a TESTAMENT to the excellent work performed by some agents.
What more could you ask for?

In the end, I’m happy that my long hours and hard work paid off, my clients are shocked it went exaclty as planned, and we are all happy.

Special thanks to the fantastic Realtor’s on the other end in this one – LOCKE Real Estate. They hustled to get this deal for their buyers, and it was well deserved. Bravo.

Marc

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