He’s right. Selling your house in the winter this year makes good financial sense on what is arguably your biggest investment in life. Why? Because we are in a smouldering hot real estate market right now in Toronto. Buyers have literally never in their lifetimes seen interest rates as low as they are today. They have never before seen appreciation rise as fast as it is right now. And economist’s predictions that Toronto’s housing market would be the main winner from the downturn in oil prices and rock-bottom interest rates are proving true already for 2015.
So it’s a great time to be a buyer….except if you are one there is literally no inventory. (Inventory is what us Toronto Realtor’s call great houses and condos and lofts for sale.) Which is why it’s an even better time to be a Seller. It’s a Seller’s Market here in Toronto right now. For every buyer there’s 20-100** more exactly like them with the same needs, the same wants, and the same budget.
I’ll paint the picture: there are precisely four homes currently available in all of Leslieville (hypothetically speaking) somewhere near the buyer’s (and the 20-100 like them)’s price point and they all have crooked floors, sketchy electrical and smell faintly of mould in the basement. But wait! What’s this? Your wonderfully renovated semi gets listed — still with original charm in tact, tastefully decorated, staged by a brilliant designer-agent team and boasts an updated kitchen and gorgeous hardwood. No knob and tube and someone has even shovelled the walk. Buyers everywhere go bananas and you see showing request after showing request come in from the potentials. The listing agent (let’s say me, *wink*) is holding off offers until next week at which point the feeding frenzy on your house will begin. All the buyers who came through and fell in love (because there has been nothing quite like it come up in forever) will bid over-asking for your home in an attempt to get it. You hold all the cards.
Two conversations emerge every week at our Bosley Real Estate sales meetings. “I can’t believe that house sold for that much” and “I have so many buyer clients yet there is nothing out there to show them.”
This is what the market is like right now. A lot of buyers competing over very little quality house offerings. Even the condo market is more competitive than it’s been in years. Great condo units since January 1st are going into multiples too right now. (Case in point – my listing only a few weeks ago that was priced at market value, even higher than our best pre-list comparable, still saw 3 over-asking offers.)
In year’s past it’s been the norm to hold off and wait until the snow has melted and the flowers are in bloom before listing your house. Seller’s wait thinking that spring feverish buyers will pay more to see the outside freshly sparkling too. And while spring is going to be busy this year, you will make MORE MONEY selling your house NOW than you will when everyone else decides to sell in a couple months. Buyers this year are so hungry for a good house that they will venture into a snowstorm to get it (trust me, I’ve been out with some of these ones).
There is no logical reason not to take advantage of being the best house on the block for sale. Come spring, you are the one who is going to have competition. Sell your house now. Contact me to arrange a time for us to sit down together and talk.
**Realtor’s Estimate