Christmas Events around the Lower Mainland

Every year I try to find places to go and things to do at Christmas time. I came across this great website with all the Holiday functions around the Lower Mainland. Follow this link and enjoy! Have a Merry Christmas everyone!! http://www.venturevancouver.com/blog/christmas-events-2011-greater-vancouver

Christmas Events in the Lower Mainland

Every year I try to find places to go and things to do at Christmas time. I came across this great website with all the Holiday functions around the Lower Mainland. Follow this link and enjoy! Have a Merry Christmas everyone!!

http://www.venturevancouver.com/blog/christmas-events-2011-greater-vancouver

Canada Day at Lafarge Lake

I had the pleasure of attending Coquitlam’s Canada Day celebration at Lafarge Lake Park. It was quite a festival, with many artists and business there showing off what they had to offer. There was a huge food court as well where they had sample size food that you could purchase. It was just the right thing to have as you walked through and tasted various foods from different restaurants.

There were canoe rides for the kids as well as bouncy castles, face painting, free tattoos, plus much, much more for the kids. My daughter was still too young for all of that but it’s nice to look forward to that for the future.

I believe it was the first time for fireworks this year at Lafarge Lake, we had to leave by then anyways as the fireworks did not start until 10:30. My daughter was home and long asleep by then. I did get to see the full show from my upstairs office window though and I must say it was quite an impressive sight!

I am very glad that Coquitlam has stepped up their Canada Day celebration for the citizens and I look forward to taking my family there for years to come!

Stanley Cup Finals!

It’s fun to be in Vancouver this year as the Stanley Cup Finals are back for the first time since 1994. The city is just a buzz and even people who were not considered Canuck fans have “jumped on the bandwagon” and are watching every game very closely.

It is interesting working as a realtor working in this city to see this unfold. It is the same as in 1994, you cannot book any appointments on hockey nights. Don’t even think about phoning anyone during a hockey game. You end up setting your schedule around the hockey games. So the outcome of all of this is a slow down to the Real Estate Market in general. Everyone is just engrossed in the Stanley Cup Finals and everything else takes a back seat. It will be interesting to see if things will pick up where they left off before the play offs, and we have a busy market throughout the Summer. Only time will tell but here is one Canuck fan that hopes it does! Go Canucks Go!!

Easter Egg Hunting

Easter Egg hunts have become such a large part of our western culture nowadays, but have you ever stopped and wondered where this tradition originated?

The egg  is a pagan symbol of rebirth of the Earth as a celebration of Springtime, which was later adopted by Christians as a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday.

Many different cultures do different things with their eggs on Easter. In Germany and England, rolling eggs down a hillside is a tradition in a game called “egg rolling”. “Egg Dancing” is another European game where eggs are placed on the ground and the objective is to dance around them without breaking any. Another game, “egg tapping” is one where children tap their hard boiled eggs together, trying not to break them, the winner is the holder of the last intact egg.

So many interesting traditions have been created. Whether you want to hunt for eggs, dye eggs, or just spend a nice day out with family, here is a list of Easter themed activites happening all over the lower mainland this coming Easter weekend!

http://www.venturevancouver.com/blog/vancouver-easter-2011

Have a Happy Easter everyone!

Spotty Market in GVRD

As this year’s market is starting to unfold we are seeing quite a bit of disparity. Some Realtors are saying “the market is flying. Nothing is staying on the shelves”, while others can’t get any action on a listing. Some places just sit there while others close by are sold in days. That seems to be the trend in the Lower Mainland lately.

The difficult part of that is that sellers are hearing the news that the market is “hot” and they increase their prices. The simple fact is that the market is hot “in some areas” but not everywhere. So sellers have to look at things more specifically when they are pricing their own properties.

Ahhhh to wait for a balanced market… I think that may be a thing of the past. I hope not!

To view homes for sale visit our website www.realtyguy.ca, and feel free to call me at 604-936-0422 or email with any questions!

New Year- New Business!

Well it seems that the market is finally starting to pick up this new year after a very slow Fall and early Winter market. We saw more activity in the first few weeks of this year than we saw for the last few months of last year! With the mortgage changes coming up in March, many people are opting to get in the market early. This will hopefully carry over for the next few months and give us a brisk Spring market.

We should see things keeping busy though as traditionally the Spring market is the busiest market of the year. Only time will tell though!

To view homes for sale visit our listings section, and feel free to call me at 604-936-0422 with any questions!

Christmas Market “The Most Wonderful Market of the Year!”

I get a lot of buyers asking me throughout the year “when is the best time to buy?” Well, right now is one of the best times to buy! I’m not throwing out a sales pitch. The winter market has traditionally been one of the best markets to buy in. Right now, just before Christmas you might find some motivated sellers that have been on the market a while and are REALLY wanting to get an offer before Christmas. A savvy buyer could take advantage of this.

What I have found though, is that buyers tend to get busy with other things as well, and they let it slip until after Christmas. Then before they know it, they are in a multiple offer situation in February or March. The old adage is to buy when no one else is buying.

Well, that is the Winter market. There are not many buyers and you could take advantage of a motivated seller. So don’t let this one pass you by (again), call your realtor, get out there and pick up a good deal!

To view homes for sale visit my website www.realtyguys.ca, or call me at 604-936-0422 with any questions!

Third Party Negotiations- The Key to the Real Estate Industry?

In the light of the recent talks between the Canadian Real Estate Association and the Competitions Bureau, I find many Realtors quite anxious and confused about how this is going to affect their profession. In my 17 year career as a Realtor I have seen many changes in our industry. We as Realtors have to adapt to these changes or be left behind.

The one thing that remains constant in our profession, and is in my opinion the main reason why our industry has been around for so long, is third-party negotiations. Having someone negotiate on your behalf can save you thousands of dollars in a Real Estate negotiation. I know this from personal experience. I once sold a revenue property that my father and I owned. The other realtor who brought the offer was negotiating with me on a personal level and it was extremely difficult to manage. I finally structured the negotiations as if I was a third-party and would have to convince my father to go along with it. I always told the other Realtor that I would take his proposal to my father and see what he would say. That way it gave me time to think and plan a course of action with my father.

I had another experience where I had a client who negotiated contracts for a large company. He was paid very well and his company flew him all over North America to negotiate on their behalf. When it came time to negotiate the offer on a house they wanted to buy, he asked if he could negotiate the offer himself. I told him that although he was comfortable in negotiations, most people are not. That is why they hire Realtors. Well, as it turns out, right in the middle of negotiating the purchase of their house the sellers found out the Buyers were waiting in the car and invited them in. When I went to the car I said “Okay, here’s your chance to negotiate on this deal yourself, the sellers invited you in.”

Well, after about an hour and a half with the sellers we came out of the negotiations with my buyer caving in to all of the sellers demands. All it took was a teary eyed seller telling my buyers how they built the house and raised the family there and now they have to sell.

My point is, that the buyer would not have been exposed to all of that if he relied on third-party negotiations and stayed in the car. It is much easier to be a tougher negotiator from a third-party stand point than face to face. If you don’t believe me try it sometime! That is the one reason why you will continue to see Realtors doing what they are doing and negotiating on behalf of their clients for a long, long time to come!

The Death of the Balanced Market?

Being a realtor for over 17 years now has made me see many markets come and go. The one thing I have noticed lately is the “all or none” mentality of the modern market. I find that it’s either ”pedal to the metal” where you have buyers crawling over each other to put in their bid in multiple offer situations, or to the “brakes full on”, where every buyer sits back and does nothing, waiting for a glimmer of market change. Usually this is fuelled by the media reports.

If you can believe it, I remember a time (within the last decade) when you would list a place and it would take about 2 months to sell. It would have regular showings. It wouldn’t need any price reductions even though it was on the market for over a month, and it would usually sell within 3-4% of asking price. This was what we used to call a “balanced market”.  It is something that seems to have gone the way of the Do Do Bird. There was no panic price reductions or “auction type” multiple offer situations (rarely). It was just a calmer, more relaxed environment to do business in.

You could have your buyers go home and think about writing an offer, rather than having one hour to decide as there were multiple offers coming in on the property at a certain time that same day. As a realtor, I could schedule more time off as well, as I didn’t have to be at the new listing at a required time or else I’d have missed the parade (multiple offer situation). The market wasn’t controlling what I did or how I ran my business.

Wouldn’t it be nice to go back to a balanced market? I think many new realtors wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if this were the case. I recall one new realtor in my office came to me with the question: “what should I do, I’ve listed a place on Friday and got no calls on it all weekend. Should I reduce the price!?!” It’s this type of mentality that is fueling today’s more volatile market. In this age of computers and high-tech everything is moving at a much quicker pace but that is not always for the better. A more relaxed, balanced market would be more ideal for all involved. I wonder if we will ever see one again?