In general, with a townhome you get more quality interior living space; however, there are trade-offs such as less yard space, strata fees, and bylaw restrictions.

Three key things too look for in my opinion.

1/ Cost and structure of cost
2/ What’s included?
3/ Performance/success rate of the company offering the mere posting package.

In 2013 there were approximately 80 mere postings listed in with the Victoria Real Estate Board, for 2014 that number will be approximately 90 mere postings. Personally, I’ve doubled my mere posting sales year over year and hope to continue the trend in 2015.

96% plus more of the time the cooperating commission offered is 3.0%100k+1.5%balance, or more!

Engineering, Home Protection Office, municipal requirements, and more have made new home construction a lot more expensive than in the past.

Raw numbers indicate that more than 90% of the time a buyer’s REALTOR® represents the buyer on a purchase; therefore, why are many sellers paying the listing REALTOR® half of the commission if numbers show the REALTORS® listing very rarely actually sell the property themselves? Food for thought.

If you bought a home in Victoria seven years ago it’s probably worth a similar amount plus or minus a few percent. If you bought a home in Toronto seven years ago you are up approximately 45% and Vancouver up 25%. However, if you are buying now into the Victoria market the flatness and underperformance of our market is not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion.

Ben sold his Central Park town home in a very difficult market. When compared to a commission of 6%100k + 3.0%balance he saved over $5,000 of his hard earned equity! Below is what Ben had say about his experience selling with a Flat Fee MLS® (Mere Posting) package.

It seems people find losing money on real estate difficult to grasp, while losing money on other type of assets such as cars seems perfect acceptable.

Watch the video for a real life examples of returns on units currently being rented at the Bayview Promontory, 83 Saghalie Road, Victoria, BC.

I personally just bought a condo at the Era!

Mere posting demand is on the rise year over year!

If you are going to sign it read the fine print first!

First of all, why is the seller selling is not a question that truly pertains to the sale of a property; however, that aside, if you aren’t preapred to answer the questions of “why are you buying,” than you shouldn’t be asking the questions of why is the seller selling. My two cents for today.

Don’t try to over analyse what the other party might be thinking or interpreting – just go with what you personally are comfortable with!

The buyer is concerned about paying market value for the property, not about the commission.

I think you are better off waiting for the seller to re-adjust their expectations versus submitting a low ball offer. It is very rare to see properties sell more than 5% off CURRENT ASKING PRICE; however, 5% off ORIGINAL ASKING PRICE is much more common. The difference between original and current asking price is the seller re-adjusting his or her expectations.

May, 2014 we saw 714 total sales. This was the first time in 49 months we’ve had over 700 sales. What does it mean for the market going forward?

The difference between pricing your home $699,900 and $700,000 is significant in terms of market exposure.

Where you grow up and or live can influence your opinion of an area.

We haven’t seen a 700 sales month in 49 consecutive months! Will April, 2014 be the one we break the barrier?

Night and day difference!

 
Expensive appliances can be both expensive and a headache to replace down the road when they start to age.

What price was the house listed at with the previous three REALTORS®? Bet you it was higher!

We are moving away from a prolonged buyers’ market more towards a more balanced market. For VREB stats – http://www.vreb.org/

 

In my opinion!

In my opinion the easiest way to reduce stress during a real estate transaction is to take the emotion out of it and simply treat it as a business transaction.

In my opinion it does not make sense to do so.  The buyer’s REALTOR® knows if his or her buyer does not buy one particular property they will buy a different one; therefore, there is very little incentive for a buyer’s REALTOR® to lower his or her commission to pull a particular deal together.