Whenever I am faced with a question like this, my answer is usually another question...which is, “To whom?"
In my experience your house has a different value to you than to the buyer or a lender or an appraiser and even to the local government, who needs to assess the value of the house for its tax collections. My job is to keep my finger on the pulse of the market and use my experience to make sense of the information that is available to me.
Here is an example that illustrates this issue.
Earlier this year I listed a property on the West side of Abbotsford. My suggested price did not go well with the sellers and they decided to list it much higher than I was advising. We did agree that if there was no offer on the property within 3 weeks, they would reduce and go with my suggested price. Due to a unique location we were able to attract many viewings and 10 days later we got an offer that was accepted by the sellers. It contained few subjects and one of them was, "Subject to the buyer being approved and obtaining a first mortgage." I was surprised by this offer since I knew that the buyers were paying more than the market value.
My sellers just kept smiling and reminding me that my numbers were wrong. That smile on their face did last for 5 days until we received the news that the Bank will not release the funds on the property since the purchase price is not supported by the market value.
We were forced to re-list the property at the market value and sold it a few weeks later.
So here you have it! It doesn’t mater what you think your house is worth. You have to find a balance between what you want to get and what the buyers are willing to pay and don’t forget about lenders and appraisers.
Have a real conversation with your Realtor about the price and the real values.
Tibor
What is a pre-sale? Example scenario: When the developer intends to build an apartment building and applies for financing, the bank will grant financing under certain conditions. One of them will likely be a certain percentage of pre-sales the developer will need to secure before receiving the funds.
It is common practice for a developer to approach several real estate investors and offer them an opportunity to purchase units of the non-existent building at a discounted price, and on good terms. Once the number of pre-sales is accomplished, the developer goes ahead with the construction, which will likely take two years or longer to complete. During construction, their marketing team offers the remainder of the units for sale at market value to the public. If you are a RE investor, you know that it is preferable to be buying at the pre-sale prices, not market value prices. The question is, how do you get the invitation to buy a pre-sale? In the past many years, investors have made substantial income by buying at wholesale prices and selling at retail prices even before they needed to complete their purchase. I saw many of them lining up and sometimes even camping overnight in front of the sales center to get a chance to buy at lower prices, but not everyone was lucky enough. You needed to be well-connected to get an opportunity, and you had to act fast. Today is a bit of a different story. Several projects in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley offer really good prices and incentives to secure a unit now and complete the purchase two or three years later. The list of incentives varies from one project to the next. Besides attractive prices, you can get low deposit amounts (5-15%), low or no assignment fees, free updates, a mortgage rate buy-down program, extra parking and more. A month ago, I helped a few of my clients purchase a presale in Surrey that sold out in 2 days, and I know of another good developer that will be offering a few units for sale as well. If you would like to know more about these opportunities, I would encourage you to call or email me, and I’ll be happy to send you details on those projects. Kind regards,
Tibor Bogdan
Century 21 Creekside Realty Ltd. 45428 Luckakuck Way #190, Chilliwack, BC V2R 3S9 cell: 604-855-2521 |
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