Selling your home in a tough market

The market in Kelowna BC so far this year has been far from great. Comparing it to the last 2 years, it has been much better than 2009, with only 369 sales from January 1st to March 16th. 2010 was considerably better with 742 sales in the same time period. Now in 2011 we have slowed down again to only 595 sales so far this year. Although this is obviously much better than 2009, buyers are still waiting and not many sales are happening.

So having said all that, you need your home sold! How can this be done? There are a number of things that need to happen to get your house to stand out in the crowd. Your first step to successfully selling your home, would be to hire a motivated, hard working Real Estate Team, ie. Team Upshaw RE/MAX. One that is willing to do whatever it takes to get your home sold no matter how tricky the market is. The most important form of advertising, is internet advertising, and to utilize this properly your home needs to look its best. Staging and great photography is a must!

The most important factor when selling your home is the price. In a market like todays, your best option is to be priced as close to market value as possible. The closer your asking price is to market value, the more you will get for your home. Buyers are more likely to offer closer to your asking price if it is reasonably priced, if it is too high, you will get “low ball” offers and potentially loose that buyer. We recently sold a home in the Lower mission for very close to the asking price in just 34 days, all because it was priced correctly, the sellers were very happy.

If you would like to learn more about how to get your home sold, give us a call and we would be happy to show you exactly what we do that makes our clients so happy. http://www.seanupshaw.com/view_agent.asp

Thanks for reading!

Dave Upshaw RE/MAX

Is your home Fit to Sell?

One of the most important things when selling a home, is how the buyer feels when they walk into your home. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Most buyers know whether your home is “the one” within the first 30 seconds of stepping inside your home, so its best to make sure your home is warm and welcoming.  Is your home Fit to Sell? Have a look at the RE/MAX Fit to Sell videos on our YouTube Channel.

To view all the Fit to Sell videos click the link

http://www.youtube.com/user/TeamUpshawRealEstate?feature=mhum#p/c/98C62C81B10C2E67/7/KxvaDftX8v4

Cheers,

Dave Upshaw

Team Upshaw

RE/MAX Kelowna

Why photography matters

Have you ever been searching through the MLS, looking for your next home, and came across a listing with pictures so bad, you just skip to the next one? What if that house was the one? You could have fallen in love with that home, but because of the poor pictures, you have no idea if it is a nice house or not! What a waste! Believe it or not, pictures make a HUGE difference. Here are some examples of some pictures I have taken. I believe they show this home off wonderfully.

When you list your home with Team Upshaw, whether you have a $300,000.00 condo, or a $2,000,000.00 home on the lake, we showcase your home to make it look its best to the potential buyers. On our website, www.seanupshaw.com we have the ability to put as many pictures as we like. This is just one of the marketing tools we use to sell your home, to find out more check out our website and give us a call!

Cheers, thanks for reading!

Dave Upshaw

Team Upshaw Remax Kelowna

A new Year

Happy New Year everyone!! Its 2011, the kids are back in school, and just about everybody is back to work at full speed. We had a great holiday season, spent some time with some family had plenty of turkey, and just enjoyed relaxing. We hope you all had a great holiday season too! But now it’s back to work! 2010 was for sure an interesting year in the Real Estate market. But things are looking up for 2011, with more serious buyers out there, and lots of homes to choose from, you have to make sure your not only your home is attractive, but the price is as well.  Most people believe they should wait till spring to put their home on the market. Sure the spring is a great time to sell, but so is the winter! You may not get as many showings, but the showings you do get are generally serious qualified buyers that have to buy. It’s a lot like fishing, if you don’t have your hook in the water, you’re never going to catch a fish! There is never a bad time to sell your home.

This graph shows the sales per month in 2010 the highest being April with 427 sales

With the new year, comes new technology. CREA has now released the REALTOR.CA App for Iphone, this app gives you full access to realtor.ca in an easy to use app. You can search for listings or Open houses around you using your Iphone’s GPS. Search any listing on the MLS and get information on any home for sale, wherever you are.  You can also contact the Agents by email or phone, directly from the app. We love technology, and we think this app is a great tool to help find your dream home, all from the palm of your hand.

Another big one is the use of social networking sites for Real Estate. More and more people are using sites like Twitter and Facebook. We have taken advantage of this and advertise and socialize on these websites to get the news of our homes we have for sale out to the public.

Street Text is a banner that we put on the top of all of our signs. This banner has a number on it that potential buyers can text to, when they do this, they receive information about the home they are in front of, removing the need to write down the house number and look it up at home later on. Buyers these days want information NOW, and if they cant get it now, they will move on to the next house.

As many of you know, YouTube has become one of the most used websites on the internet, so again, because 90% of buyers start their search online, we have taken advantage of this. We have our own Youtube channel, This channel allows us to showcase our listing in a completely unique way. We literally walk through the home with a video camera, not just a bunch of still shots made into a video. This gives the potential home buyers an idea of what the home feels like, something still pictures cannot do. Great pictures are also extremely important, but these videos just add to it. Buyers can decide if they like your home even before they step foot inside. All our walkthrough tours are filmed in High Definition and include information about each room as they are being walked through. Click on this link to have a look yourself. www.youtube.com/teamupshawrealestate

With all this technology working for you, along with other marketing technics and 3 dedicated fully licenced REALTORS, we know we can get your home SOLD. Thanks for reading! Talk to you soon,

Team Upshaw

Why choose Team Upshaw to market your home? “Negotiating the right price”

Welcome back everybody! I hope everyone enjoyed the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Team Canada Won GOLD, Canada got the most over-all gold metals, congratulations Canada! Sadly it is all over and now it is time to get back to normal life. Thanks everyone for tuning into our Real Estate Blog, this week we will be talking more about what Team Upshaw does for YOU in the successful sale of your home.

Negotiating the right price:

Sean Upshaw has been in the Real Estate business since 1992. Sean became rookie of the year in his very first year in Real Estate, all because of his exceptional negotiating skills.  Sean and the rest of the team are constantly learning, including taking negotiation courses and always thinking of better ways to do our job and getting YOU the best price for your home.

The Following are some guidelines to follow to when negotiating the price:

Challenge the ideas that are presented to you. Negotiating requires you to be assertive and question what you are being told. If you disagree with someone regarding the price, value or condition, speak your mind. Of course, be sure to do so diplomatically.

Become a good listener. Listening carefully and critically thinking about what you are being told can prevent a considerable amount of confusion and ensure that the negotiations run smoothly.

Aim high. If you’re selling, try marking the price of your home about 5% above what you would actually want. This will leave you some negotiating space to come down. If you’re a buyer, offer a price that is lower than what you normally would; enter negotiations with the optimistic attitude that the seller will come down.

Use a little patience. Relax. This could take a while. Be diplomatic. Because negotiations may be a long and tedious process, it can be very easy to get irritated. Keep your cool.

Be aggressive. But not hostile. You do want to be assertive and dominate negotiations. When meeting with the prospective buyer be sure to try to take control of the negotiations. Talk with a strong and confident voice, and be sure to have responses for any potential arguments that may be thrown your way.

Don’t get nothing for something. Whenever you agree to give something, be sure to get something in exchange. For example, if you are the seller and you agree to lower the price, you may want to hold back on any additional goods that you may have initially been willing to give away (like appliances).

Always give the appearance of being willing to walk away. Never reveal your desperation. Always give the impression that you will be willing to walk away. Time is on your side. It’s most likely that you and the other party are eager and pressured to resolve the transaction. Acting calm and under control, in addition to taking time to think rationally, will help you in the long run. In short, just think before you speak.

Since 2009 Team Upshaw consistently got within 3.4% of the asking price. With an average of only 68 days on the market.

www.seanupshaw.com

Why Choose Team Upshaw to Market your home? “Team Open Houses”

When choosing a REALTOR, it is very important to choose one that is concerned about you as a person, not just with selling your home. With Team Upshaw, you get 3 dedicated people working for you. That means that whenever you need something, at least one of us will be available to assist you. Our goal is not just to sell your home for any price, 
we want to get you as much money as the market allows, in the quickest possible time. That’s where Sean comes in. Sean is an excellent negotiator and is very good at correctly assessing all the details of the Real Estate Process. Team Upshaw wants you to get the best results in the sale of your home. Because that is what you deserve!

Open Houses with Team Upshaw:

When Team Upshaw does an Open House, there are a number of things we do to make it a positive experience for everyone. Here are a few things Team Upshaw does for you at an Open House.

1. We do a Team Open House, so there is always 2 or more of us at the open house. We do this is for security reasons for both the home owner, and the REALTORS doing the open house. We never leave anyone alone to walk around freely without our watch.

2. When someone walks into our Open House, we immediately engage in conversation with them, and start to tell them the main features of the home, and make them feel welcome.

3. On occasion we will bring along fresh cookies or snacks, to make the house feel warm and inviting. But we ALWAYS have a box of chocolate’s for our guests to enjoy.

4. Before anyone leaves, we provide them with a feature sheet with the details of your home, and a business card; no one ever leaves empty handed.

5. Before an Open house, we make sure as many people know about the open house as possible. We do this by advertising the open house on a number of websites including www.seanupshaw.com, www.castanet.net, www.realtor.ca, www.openhousekelowna.com and MANY other websites. We also Advertise the open house on TWITTER, in order to let as many people as possible know about your open house.

6. After an Open House, we follow up  how the Open House went by either calling you direct, or emailing you, whichever works best for YOU.

Thanks everyone for Teaming UP with Team Upshaw

www.seanupshaw.com

Next week……..”Negotiating the right Price”

The Difference a Year can make in Real Estate

I thought you might like to see the difference a year makes by looking at some of these headlines.

Here are some of the Headlines from 2009

BC Home Sales Decline by One-Third in 2008 – January 12, 2009

BC Home Sales Start with a Whimper in 2009 – February 16, 2009

Home Sales Increase in February – March 13, 2009

Affordability Drives Home Sales Higher – April 15, 2009

Housing Market Balancing Out – May 14, 2009

BC Home Sales Continue to Climb – June 11, 2009

Home Sales Climb for Fifth Consecutive Month – July 13, 2009

BC Housing Market Exhibits Balanced Conditions – August 14, 2009

August Home Sales Continue at Brisk Pace – September 11, 2009

BC Housing Market Gains Momentum – October 15, 2009

So what are we to make of all these Headlines looking forward into 2010. The following comments are intended to be Canada wide but remember we are living in one of the most desirable places in Canada so what happens across our land will only happen here if not sooner than later.

1) Canadian Housing starts are expected to rise

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says starts statistics – which mark the actual, shovel-in-the-ground beginning of construction – were expected to improve throughout 2009.

The reason?

“Over the next several years, housing starts will gradually become more closely aligned to demographic demand, which is currently estimated at about 175,000 units per year,” CMHC said.

2) Building permits have bounced higher

This indicator of builder confidence and construction plans has made steady gains.

“Building permits are recovering from the extreme lows earlier this year,” the Bank of Montreal said in a research note.

In June, the value of building permits was $5.2-billion, 1 per cent higher than the revised $5.1-billion measured for May. Residential permits rose 0.5 per cent to $2.7-billion, marking the fourth month in a row for an improvement.

3) Existing home sales soar

Nowhere has the turnaround been more apparent than in July sales of existing homes in Canada’s biggest cities.

“For instance, sales in Greater Vancouver were up a massive 89 per cent year-over-year, a world away from a 70-per-cent drop last November. Toronto is a little less frenetic, but managed to post a 28 per cent year-over-year gain in July.”

Edmonton also reported a 28 per cent increase in the number of homes that changed hands year-over-year and, in Calgary, the level of resale activity was up 22 per cent year-over-year.

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) is expected to report further gains in national home resale activity later this week.

4) It’s still a buyers’ market, but prices are firming up

Economists expect that when CREA reports on the national picture Friday, the statistics will show that the prices are up about 4 per cent year over year – skewed upwards by sales in the higher-priced markets.

Real estate agents are sleeping with their pagers again with the return of bidding wars in some local markets.

5) Affordable mortgages

The sharp drop in mortgage rates has almost single-handedly returned housing affordability to its long-term norm from the worst levels in 17 years. That affordability has made a big impact. Record low interest rates are what is driving the market.

You may have seen this recent article but I thought it was worth passing on.

By The Canadian Press, cp.org, November 16, 2009

October home sales improve 41.5 per cent year over year, marking monthly record

OTTAWA – Canadian home resales improved 41.5 per cent year over year to 42,288 units in October, a record for the month, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.

The national average price for homes listed on the Multiple Listing Service also reached a new high in October at $341,079. This was 20.7 per cent higher than the same month last year.

New sales records for the month were reported in one-fifth of local markets, including Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, MLS home sales totalled 45,818 units in October, two per cent higher than the previous record set in May 2007 and 74 per cent above the recent low in January.

“Low interest rates and upbeat consumer confidence continue to release the pent-up demand that built late last year and earlier this year,” stated CREA president Dale Ripplinger.

“The release of that pent-up demand has boosted national sales activity to new heights and is drawing down inventories.”

The sharp rise in demand for homes has shrunk inventories to 194,994 or a seasonally adjusted 4.1 months worth, the lowest level in more than two years and 20.8 per cent below the peak reached a year ago. This is the sixth month in a row in which inventories are down from year-ago levels.

Seasonally adjusted new listings on MLS were slightly higher in October compared to September at 65,148 units. New listings peaked in May 2008, then declined until March 2009, and have remained relatively steady since then.

“New listings are still expected to rise in the coming months in response to headline average price increases,” stated CREA chief economist Gregory Klump.

“New supply dropped dramatically in December last year and earlier this year in response to a difficult pricing environment. Sellers who moved to the sidelines should be drawn back to the market as prices rise further over the rest of the year and in early 2010.”