Why the heck isn't it selling?
2011 has been a fun year in Vancouver Real Estate...We had a Spring market full of multiple offers, I had one client that wrote 7 offers before we finally got them a townhouse in North Vancouver (that said the home they got was the best of the 8 we wrote offers on and they will freely admit this, but still slightly frustrating).
We had a somewhat normal summer (whatever normal means) buyers bought, sellers sold but coming into the fall things started to change. All of a sudden we had listing that weren't selling. They were priced right, marketed aggressively yet remaining on the market longer than anyone expected.
So why the heck aren't great properties selling? A few reasons come to mind:
- There is currently little to no sense of urgency in the Vancouver Real Estate market. The bank of Canada has said they are in no hurry to raise interest rates; there is LOTS of product for buyers to look at with hundreds of doors opening across Greater Vancouver in the next 6-18 months as well as an abundance of pre-sale properties available.
- The crazy-hot spring market did scare some buyers away as well as priced them out of the market in some cases.
- People are waiting or the crash (btw...not coming).
What the heck do we do? A couple different approaches we can take in a market like this:
- Take the property off the market until the New Year. This is a hard decision to make as you really never know when the buyer is going to come along however by taking the home off the market for a while it gets a chance to 'cool down' and you have the opportunity to bring it back to the market in the New Year and expose it to new, excited buyers.
- Slash the price and sell the thing...this is not always a popular option but is sometimes the right thing to do. Remember sometimes the right decision is the hard decision.
MOST IMPORTANTLY: Do not lose faith or give up hope. Trust your Realtor and the plan you have come up with together. However; if there isn't a plan, you're screwed!
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