That house sold for *whaaat*?!

I’ve been a full-time, professional Realtor for almost 15 years, and I have seen lots of interesting influences and changes to the Toronto real estate market. Over almost that entire time, the market has been strong. As far back as 2002 there were people (buyers, the media, maybe even some Realtors) thinking that the run we were on then was due for a break. Well, the market roared along through the early 2000s. Then, the ‘Global Financial Crisis’ caused a dip in late-2008-early-2009, but that only lasted for a few months, and now barely registers as a blip in the charts. (Scroll down to the table TREB Housing Market Charts – TorontoMLS Average Price, Monthly Time Series With Trend Line.) Since then, the market has been charging ahead. Today, we have a reasonably good economy, moderate job creation and continuing low interest rates, which all points to a continuation. It seems like there is no end in sight….

The first few months of 2017 have been remarkable. I’ve never seen price increases like this – I doubt that many Realtors have. I have written before about the years-long supply problem we’ve been having, and it’s worse than ever. That said, the ‘spring market’ usually generates lots of new listings. That’s starting, but isn’t fully going, yet. So, we are still in a super-competitive time.

Current conditions are making it hard to figure out what a house or condo is going to sell for. My job as a Realtor is to chaperone my clients through the buying and/or selling process, including guidance on pricing – i.e. what a property is worth. We look at recent, local sales and compare them to the subject property (number of bedrooms/bathrooms/parking, etc.) to come up with a fair price that works for my client. To be certain, we’ve had competition (i.e. “bidding wars”) for years now, and it has always been winner take all. Still, these days it’s different. With some of the prices we’ve seen recently, either the buyer didn’t get that guidance from their Realtor, or they didn’t care: it’s ‘kill or be killed’ and only one offer is gonna win!

So, if you ask me what your house is going to sell for, or what we should put on the offer for that condo, we’ll go through the comparables, talk about your finances and come up with a reasonable number. But, don’t hold it against me if the final sale price is way more than that! That’s just the market these days. On the buy side, we’ll do our due diligence, craft good offers and make the best presentation we can…. If you don’t get it, we’ll move on to the next good option. On the sell side, it’s probably best to plan your budget based on a price close to some recent comps. Then, we’ll market the property right, and enjoy the process – because no matter what, you’ll do fine. 😉