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When I moved this blog from Community Server to WordPress back in June I was convinced that it would be easier to manage. I was wrong.


Forget the fact that Pamela and I lived in a virtual hell for two months moving and organizing content, but after all was said and done, I felt like a compulsive neat freak living with a messy desk (yes, I do know exactly how that feels). Stuff just feels out of place, and some of the better bits of content are hard to find, clumsy to navigate and poorly presented. I can see that. I just don’t have the time or the skill to fix it.


Alas, I shall admit that I am not a web designer, and that’s okay. ☺


Rather than continue to tinker with what I do not know, I have engaged the services of professionals to help me sort out my mess. We’ve just signed an agreement with 1000Watt Consulting, a company that specializes in helping real estate brokerages get their web stuff together. I am particularly excited about working with Joel Burslem, Marc Davison and Brian Boero on this project. All three of these guys made Inman’s 2009 "notable individuals" list. There’s a tremendous amount of knowledge and know how going on at 1000Watt so I’m excited to see what might happen here between now and February 4, the projected completion date for the "gutting and redesign."


I’m most excited to see what develops on our Saskatoon neighbourhood pages. Over the years, these pages have proven themselves valuable to home buyers, especially those who are unfamiliar with Saskatoon. Recently, I’ve done a whack of work with my flickr account organizing more than 1,300 images of Saskatoonand our neighbourhoods. I think that this content, properly presented, will really add a lot.


I’m hoping you might give me a little feedback on real estate listings display on these pages. I have a few options available to me through MyRealPage, my listings service provider. Would you kindly take a look at the three I selected and let me know which you prefer? You’ll find the listings displayed just below the opening text on the following three pages.


Let's call this one a film strip display. This page features a map based display. This one is sort of a grid.  (I ultimately see this being presented as a few rows of homes, rather than the six which currently display).


Thanks a lot for your suggestions, and thank you for continuing to visit.


On behalf of Pamela, Lyndon and myself we wish you the very best in 2010.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.


Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.


Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

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Saskatoon real estate week in review-December 21-25 2009
Saskatoon real estate sales took an expected tumble during Christmas week falling to just thirty units, down from fifty-five last week but trumping numbers for the same week last yearwhen just fifteen single-family homes and condominiums were reported sold to the Saskatoon MLS system. Typically, this week and the next produce the lowest points on our chart at both the back end and the front end of the New Year.


New listing numbers came in remarkably strong given the season with thirty Saskatoon home sellers listing a property during the six days leading up to Christmas, down for fifty-five last week, but substantially higher than the same week in 2008 when just fifteen properties were offered for sale. Both sales and listings recorded a one hundred percent year-over-year gain.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.



Active listings continued to slide as total residential inventory lost nearly five percent of its weight on a week-over-week basis and finished fifty-six percent lower than was one year ago. Total active listings are at 728 including 417 single-family detached houses and 264 condominiums. By this time last year there were 1,292 residential properties listed on the Saskatoon MLS system including 782 single-family homes and 429 condos. Last year, there were more houses available for sale than the total of MLS listings available this year. Nationally, as talk of growing home prices has been grabbing headlines residential inventory began to show some signs of turning around as the Canadian Real Estate Association reporteda five percent month-over-month increase in residential MLS listings and posted the largest gain since January of 2008 with 69,110 properties being offered for sale during the month of November.



This week, there were just three cancelled and withdrawn listings and not a single one made a return bearing the new listing flag. Five sellers adjusted their price, four taking the traditionally practical downward approach. The other added ten percent to his asking price while visions of sugar-plums danced in his head.


Speaking of sugar-plums, it was nothing short of a plum week for high-end home sellers as five of the thirty home sales reported recorded a price between $642,500 and $795,000. The average selling price reached its highest point this year at $310,143 gaining nearly $100K over the same week last year when a run on low priced condominiums pushed the average price through the floor. The broader six-week average returned us to reality and slipped just under a thousand dollars from last week to $286,389 but showed strong gains over the same week in 2008 when it slid to $270,282. The four-week median took an upward direction once again gaining four thousand dollars on the week to finish at $284,000, well above last year’s number of just $245,000.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


The average underbid on the twenty-nine of thirty Saskatoon homes that sold for less than asking price was $10,420, up marginally from last week when it was $9,924. The average discount as a percentage of the asking price grew from 3.2% last week to 3.4%.




As this year draws to a close let me just say thank you all for reading and contributing here. I’m looking forward to a great 2010 and hope the same for all of you.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.


Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.


Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS listings represented by all real estate brands, presented with more detail than you’ll find anywhere else. Check it out here.


Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

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A city of Saskatoon proposal to rezone a parcel of undeveloped land to accommodate high-density housing in Hampton Villagehas some area residents crying foul.


Joel Anderson, “a new resident of Hampton Village” is quoted in a story in today’s Star Phoenix. "It's hard to say it without sounding a little snobbish. You want to live in a nice area that equals what your income is, and you don't want to be surrounded by low-income housing. That's why we didn't buy something down in the Riversdalearea.”


310 Hampton Circle


The undeveloped land located at 310 Hampton Circle is currently zoned RMTN and accommodates townhouse developments at low to medium densities. The proposal, which has already passed through the municipal planning commission and will soon be heard by council calls for a zoning change to RMTN1 which can accommodate higher density developments that can generally be sold for less, raising some concern that the homes may become a target for real estate investors seeking cheap rental property.


"If you look out my backyard and you see the tops of these cheap townhouses, it's definitely going to take away. It may not hurt the value too much, but it will definitely make it harder to sell," Anderson said.


UPDATE: On March 1, 2010 the proposed re-zoning of this property was passed by city council.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.


Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.


Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS listings represented by all real estate brands, presented with more detail than you’ll find anywhere else. Check it out here.


Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

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For the first time since he initially acknowledged concern over a potential bubble in Canadian housing markets, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has openly indicated in an interviewfor CTV’s Question Period that higher down payments and shorter amortization periods are both on the table “if” there is further evidence of a bubble.


“If we see further evidence that there’s excessive demand in the housing market, or that there’s an indication that people are taking on obligations that they will not be able to handle in the future when interest rates do rise, then we’ll take some action,” Flaherty told the CTV.


Historically low interest rates intended to spur economic activity have pushed demand for homes higher resulting in sharp price increases in many Canadian markets. Near record level activity in our largest and priciest markets, Vancouver and Torontohas helped push the average selling price of a Canadian home to $368,665 (according to the Canadian Real Estate Association) , roughly twenty-percent higher than it was at this time last year.


“The likely action we would take is to increase the size of the down payment from five percent to a higher amount and probably, once again, reduce the amortization period. So, bring it down from a maximum of thirty-five years to something less than that,” Flaherty said.


I’m going to guess that December’s sale numbers will continue to fuel concern and bring us closer to seeing at least one of these changes implemented. Also uncertain is whether these changes would take effect immediately or if they would be effective at some future date.


Thanks to @JenCT for the heads up.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.


Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.


Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS listings represented by all real estate brands, presented with more detail than you’ll find anywhere else. Check it out here.


Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

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Saskatoon real estate week in review-December 14-18 2009
It was a surprisingly strong week for Saskatoon real estate sales given how close we are to Christmas. The phone rang a lot while offers and counter offers made their way back and forth, and by the close of the week a total of fifty-five Saskatoon homes were reported sold to the MLS system including thirty-four houses and twenty-one condominiums. That’s a decline of just three units compared to last week, and an increase of nine properties compared to the same week last year.


New listings slowed substantially, which seems reasonable given the season. Just thirty-three houses and condominiums came on the market, a drop of more than fifty percent compared to last week and well off of the sixty homes listed during the same week in 2008.



Saskatoon MLS listings (all residential) fell rather hard once again losing nearly five percent of total volume and slipping from 802 to 765 by the weekend including 437 single-family detached homes and 280 condominiums. At the present time, listings for 143 Saskatoon homes are scheduled to expire by the end of December, so I expect that we’ll see a fairly significant slide at the end of the month before listing inventory starts to grow again in anticipation of the spring market. It seems likely that our line of active listings for 2010 will come out on the left side of the graph someplace between 600 and 700. However, we only have to look back to 2008 to understand that regardless of where we start we can still peak at a pretty lofty number. I don’t get the sense that there will be an unusually large flow of listings in 2010, unless perhaps, we see a surge in prices that provides a window of opportunity for investors who bought at the peak hoping for a profit. I have no good feel for how much of that kind of inventory might exist today.



Cancelled and withdrawn listings were nearly non-existent at just eight homes, two of those quickly returning to the market bearing the “new listing” flag. Eleven sellers signed a price adjustment, though four of eleven went up in price, rather than down.


The average selling price of a Saskatoon home fell again for the second week in a row slipping less than three thousand dollars to $295,825, about five thousand dollars higher than it was last year at this time. The six-week average remained steady and very near the high for the year finishing at $287,587, a gain of over eight thousand dollars on a year-over-year basis. The four-week median price surged higher trumping last week’s number by nearly fourteen thousand dollars and reaching $280,000, a full twenty-five thousand dollars higher than it was for the same week in 2008. If it’s not already clear, I think it’s important to note that the year-over-year gains we’re seeing now result more from last December’s very tough conditions than they do from this year’s performance. Prices were essentially bottoming out at this time last year after several consecutive months of losses. This year, they’ve pretty much remained stable. The average price has come in between $280,000 and $290,000 more than fifty percent of the time this year. Prices are up year-over-year but they don’t seem to be increasing much more recently. I would say that there is some upward pressure under the $300,000 mark, and condos have inched up some, but the increases are very marginal.



Home buyers must have been in a giving mood this week as the average underbid on Saskatoon homes that sold for less than the asking price fell from $11,371 to just $9,924. That represents an average discount of approximately 3.2% of the asking price, down from 3.6% last week. Five home sales were reported as having traded above the asking price by an average of $750.




The bubble talk that began in October has continued to be a popular story for the national media. Gregory Klump, chief economist for the Canadian Real Estate Association insisted that Canadian real estate markets are balancing with increased listing activity. Meanwhile, Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty issued a warningthat the feds are prepared to act “if” a housing bubble occurs. Stuck between a bit of a rock and a hard spot on interest rates, Flaherty suggested that the preferred method of dealing with such a bubble would be by shortening amortization periods and raising minimum down payment requirements. Of course, I have no way of knowing for sure, but when the Bank of Canada is issuing repeated debt warnings, and the Federal Finance Minister starts asking people to cool their jets there may be reason to feel concerned. Aren't these the people whom we expect to feed us the "all is well" side of the argument?


Again, the fact that we’ve seen very little price movement even though demand has been exceptionally strong and inventory has been falling like a rock may be a sign that people are paying about as much as they can afford. Higher down payments and shorter amortization periods will erode affordability further. If there’s no more free income to absorb those increases, prices have got to come down.


Will this overheated Canadian real estate market sort itself out before spring? Are exceptionally strong unit sale numbers the result of pent-up demand from last year’s downturn, and if so, will that pent-up demand be exhausted soon? Will the government intervene and take steps to cool the housing market? There are some tough calls to be made for anyone speculating this year.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.


Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.


Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS listings represented by all real estate brands, presented with more detail than you’ll find anywhere else. Check it out here.


Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

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Saskatoon real estate week in review-December 7-11 2009
Saskatoon real estate sales took an upward turn this week as local agents reported a total of fifty-eight house and condominium sales to the multiple listing service, an increase of twelve properties over last week and a gain of thirteen compared to the same week last year.


New listing activity moved in the same direction growing by eleven units over last week to finish at sixty-eight homes, trumping last year’s weekly listing number by thirteen. It’s been thirty-eight weeks since the Saskatoon MLS system last saw a year-over-year increase in the number of new listings for any week. I don’t imagine that there’s much significance to that little tid-bit but I always find it interesting when a longer-term trend meets its end.



Saskatoon MLS listings (all residential) declined again but failed to break the eight hundred mark in spite of my complete confidence that they would. Total active listings dropped to eight hundred and two properties, slipping by just twelve units compared to last week, but down by nearly six hundred properties from the same week in 2008 when thirteen hundred and eighty-eight residential properties were available for purchase. As of this morning, there are four hundred and sixty-two single-family detached homes available on the Saskatoon multiple listing service and two hundred and ninety-one condos. Last year at this time those numbers sat at eight hundred and fifty, and four hundred and forty-nine respectively.



Cancelled and withdrawn listings fell off to nearly nothing. The official total was just eleven homes, and only one of those properties made a return appearance as a new listing. Price reductions also fell to just fourteen. I suspect that sellers are feeling like there’s little point in changing their pricing strategy as historically, sales will come near to a stand still almost any day now and remain bleak through the balance of the year.


The average selling price of a Saskatoon home slipped a little less than five thousand dollars from last week to $298,457 and handily shattered the average for the same week last year of just $247,022. The six-week average moved forward by nearly ten thousand dollars on a week-over-week basis to $287,209 and fell just short of its peak for 2009 but recorded a gain of more than sixteen thousand dollars over the same week in 2008. The four-week median slid hard, falling fourteen thousand dollars from last week to $266,250 but managed to trump last year’s number by precisely ten thousand dollars bringing an end to another long-term trend for the Saskatoon real estate market. This was the first week since March 13during which all three price measures managed to beat those generated during the same week last year.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


The average underbid on the Saskatoon homes that sold for less than the asking price grew again, but just slightly, climbing to $11,371 from $11,049 the week before. Expressed as a percentage of the asking price, the average discount remained steady compared to last week at 3.6 percent. Overbid sales managed to make a bit of a comeback rising from nearly nothing last week to reach six units, nearly ten percent of sales with an average overbid of nearly eight thousand dollars.



I hope that you’re all managing to get the things done that need to get done for you to enjoy the holiday season with family and friends. Thanks again for reading, and thanks for your participation.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.


Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.


Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS listings represented by all real estate brands, presented with more detail than you’ll find anywhere else. Check it out here.


Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

Read

An estimated 30,000 mortgages granted to Canadians with poor credit or insufficient incomes at the height of the Canadian housing boom will not be renewed when they mature over the next three years, according to a story on globeinvestor.com. The sub-prime lenders who granted the loans say that the investors who financed buyers at above market interest rates, and in many cases charging add-on fees that many might consider unconscionable, are no longer interested in these investments so they’re calling for full payment at the mortgage maturity date.


Knowing full well that calling these loans will lead to losses, these sub-prime lenders are hard at work using lobbyists to try to convince your government that you ought to be on the hook. Apparently, these are “healthy mortgages” given to individuals with “impeccable payment histories.”  The lenders will be “forced to foreclose on them” if the government doesn’t establish a one billion dollar fund to bail them out.


The effort is cleverly disguised as a bailout of unfortunate homeowners, but hopefully the Canadian people can read between the lines. Apparently, most of these mortgagors would not qualify for financing through a mainstream lender, or for mortgage insurance. As the Canadian Mortgage Trends blog points out, “Makes you wonder how healthy they are if the borrowers can’t re-qualify.”


Ivan Wahl, CEO for Xceed, a sub-prime lender who will call loans on 1,100 Canadians when they come due reportedly said in an interview with the Globe, “The government certainly should step up to the plate to provide some facilities for people who got caught in the crunch.”


It’s clear what a win this proposal would be for these investors who would land on their feet with every penny due after milking this risky scheme for all it was worth. As sad as it would be for those homeowners who took these loans and lived up to their agreement, the taxpayer should not be on the hook for these mortgages. The mortgages should be dealt with in the manner prescribed within the agreement. Some people will lose their homes. That’s a harsh reality of these types of risky ventures. For those that have sufficient equity, the months ahead should provide some strong selling opportunities. For those who are in for more than the home is worth, let’s send that loss back where it belongs, to those who cooked up the hair brained scheme in the first place.


Homeowners that have been notified that their mortgage will not be renewed should immediately explore their options. Can you re-finance with another lender? Is there enough equity in the home that you may be able to sell the property? See a lawyer who understands foreclosure to find out what rights you have under the law.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.


Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.


Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

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The Saskatoon Region Association of Realtors recently reported November 2009 results for the entire residential categoryof Saskatoon real estate that includes single-family homes, condominiums, semi-detached properties, duplexes, mobile homes and vacant lots. Unit sales totaled 254 properties across all of these property types, at an average selling price of $278,885. Let’s have a look at how houses (single-family detached homes) and condominiums did in comparison to the entire residential category.


Single-family detached home (houses) sales remained strong for the season slipping to one hundred and sixty-eight units, down from one hundred and ninety-six in October, but up from one hundred and thirty-two sales in November of 2008. The total number of houses available at the close of November was five hundred and three, a drop of fifty-three units compared to last month and well below the eight hundred and eighty-two homes that were in the inventory at the close of November 2008. The absorption rate (total months of inventory) for detached houses grew to three months over the past thirty days, an increase of 0.2 months. Last year at this time there was a near seven-month supply sitting on the market.



House prices, by all three of the measures we use showed declines, some more seriously than others. The average selling price of a Saskatoon home slid nearly thirteen thousand dollars over last month to $300,153, just slightly lower than the $302,508 figure recorded last November. The median sale price tumbled close to sixteen thousand dollars month-over-month to reach $282,250, just behind last November’s number of $285,000. The three-month average slipped just sixteen hundred dollars from October’s close to $305,513, about forty-five hundred dollars lower than it was in November of 2008.



The average price per square foot paid for a Saskatoon house also showed a downward dip during the month of November slipping six dollars to two hundred and forty-five but remained higher on a year-over-year basis for the second consecutive month. In November of 2008, the average price paid per square was two hundred and forty-two dollars.



Sales of Saskatoon condominiums showed some continued strength, but came off of some pretty lofty numbers recorded in October. Total condo sales came in at seventy-six, down from one hundred and three last month, but a full one hundred percent higher than November 2008 when just thirty-eight condos were reported sold by Saskatoon real estate agents. Inventory fell from three hundred and twenty units last month to two hundred and ninety-two by the close of November, down from four hundred and ninety-three at the same time last year. The absorption rate from condominiums took a pretty steep jump climbing 0.7 months to 3.8 months over the month but remained sharply lower than the near thirteen month supply that existed at this time last year.



Condo prices did a total about face and showed gains that dwarfed the apparent losses in the single-family home category. Without a doubt, much of the change can be explained away by high-end sales including three units that averaged almost $700,000 a piece. The average selling price of a Saskatoon condo jumped nearly thirty-two thousand dollars over the previous month to a whopping $241,620, more than twelve thousand dollars higher than the average during the same month last year. The median sale price was up nearly twenty-two thousand on the month, also up on a year-over-year basis by close to eight thousand dollars. The three month average rose just under two thousand dollars compared to last month and remained lower than last November by roughly six thousand dollars.



The average price paid per square foot for a Saskatoon condominium also increased rising to two hundred and thirty dollars, up from two hundred and seventeen dollars last month, coincidentally where it also sat during November of last year.



Remember, averages and cost per square foot numbers can provide some useful insights into pricing trends but they’re not as useful when engaging in an actual transaction. If you’re buying or selling you should be seeking current information on active listings and recent sales, which are most comparable to your property in terms of location, size, features and amenities.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.


Follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.


Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

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They say, “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression” and most of us accept this as true. It’s certainly the case in marketing homes. Your listing is really only “new” once for a very brief time. It is the time during which you have the greatest opportunity to attract the largest amount of attention from Realtors® and prospective buyers. It’s also the time during which you have the best chance of getting the highest offers on your home. When that new listing period passes your home becomes part of the listing stock, one of many active listings waiting to be bought.


When an agent submits a new listing to the Saskatoon multiple listing service® (MLS®) there are a few wonderful opportunities that can be effortlessly captured or just as easily squandered. The MLS® data server is a busy little computer that spends its day accepting data on Saskatoon homes for sale. There’s a special place in its digital heart for brand new listings.  It believes that one of its most important jobs is to notify people about great new listings that may be of interest to them. Several times each day, it packages the new data and sends it places. The first day your home is added to the MLS® database it could be seen by hundreds of potential buyers either in the form of an email update (“there’s a new listing that matches your requirements”) or displayed on one of many websites that accepts this data including Realtor.ca.



As a home owner, if you can have any say in the matter whatsoever you’ll want to ensure that your home’s listing isn’t sent out looking like the one pictured on the left. I won’t bother explaining why, because that would be condescending to people like you who have common sense. You already know why this listing is a perfect example of a massive fail. So, why does it happen nearly every single day? Why do we so commonly see brand new listings being marketed with no photos and with very limited listing detail?


As a prospective home buyer or a home seller under contract you might come to one of a few conclusions.

  • The listing agent doesn’t care about the quality of his or her work or how it impacts on you.
  • The listing agent is too lazy to gather three megabytes of data in one place and complete a twenty-minute task in a single session.
  • The listing agent lacks the common sense to understand why images and information are important.
  • The house being marketed is so butt ugly that it’s best that people don’t actually see it.

In most cases, none of these things are actually true. It’s far more likely that the agent is simply busy with a million and one other things competing for his or her attention. This important marketing task isn’t insisting that it should be immediately attended to and therefore, it becomes one of those little tasks that we can get back to later when time permits. But, this is not cool. It’s not cool at all.


This terrible fail is the result of a lack of planning and every home seller deserves better. While I rarely speak directly to other real estate agents on this blog I’d like to share some very simple thoughts on rolling out a new listing to help sellers capture the “once in a new listing” opportunities that exist.


Dear real estate agent,


Here are just a few things that you might want to be thinking about when you take your next listing.

  1. Your listings are your inventory. They are presented with your name attached to them and they are a reflection of your professionalism, your organizational skill, the level of care that you apply to your work, and your ability to manage details. If you can’t effectively handle this simple part of the process, how can a seller have confidence that you’re capable of handling a contract?
  2. Your new listings deserve a rollout plan. If you’re too busy to roll it out properly, don’t take the listing.
  3. Timeliness is important, but the quality of your presentation should never be sacrificed for speed. Any seller is best served by having their listing rolled-out properly tomorrow, instead of poorly today.
  4. Most of the tasks associated with a new listing can be performed by another competent individual who trades their time for money (assistant or virtual assistant), so don’t be afraid to delegate, but it’s your job to ensure that the tasks are completed correctly and once started, without delay.
  5. Decide with your seller on a launch date for the listing.
  6. Gather all of the important data about the property including a full compliment of photos (interior and exterior) prior to the rollout date.
  7. Write an attractive description, post-process images and prepare virtual tours in advance of the rollout date.
  8. Share your photos and your description with your seller to reduce errors and to improve the quality of your work.
  9. On the rollout date submit your listing using broker load and include all of the information you’ve gathered in a single session. Do it early in the morning. Nothing else will be competing for your attention at 6:00 am so you’ll have plenty of time to see the task through to completion, and to proofread and correct errors before the system starts to send data out around 10:00 am. Your listing will also show up on the “new listings” page of the MLS® all day, instead of just a few hours.
  10. Continue on with your other electronic marketing tasks while you’re in front of the computer with all of the data handy.

It really is that simple.


Home sellers; don’t be afraid to set the bar high in terms of your expectations in the rollout of your listing. Ask your agent for a rollout plan and some assurances that the presentation of your home will be handled with the great care it deserves.


Related posts


A compelling case for more photos on your home listing If a picture is worth a thousand words...


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.


Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.


Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS® listings represented by all real estate brands, presented with more detail than you’ll find anywhere else. Check it out here.


Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

Read

Saskatoon real estate week in review-Nov. 30-Dec. 4 2009
Homes sales remained steady this week with Saskatoon real estate agents reporting forty-six sales of single-family detached homes and condominiums, down just one from last week, and up from thirty-four compared to the same week last year.


New listings slid, falling ten units from last week, and five from the same week in 2008 as just fifty-seven homes were added to the Saskatoon MLS system.



Saskatoon MLS listings (all residential) fell again, but more significantly than we’ve seen in recent weeks as nearly five percent of the active listings expired at the end of November pushing the total inventory to just eight hundred and seventeen units, its lowest level since the last week of April 2008. As of this morning, there are just four hundred and eighty-four detached houses and two hundred and eighty-two condominiums showing an active status on the multiple listing service. Active single-family home listings are down forty-four percent from the same week last year when eight hundred and sixty-two houses were offered for sale. Active condo listings are down forty-one percent, year-over-year. At this time in 2008 there were four hundred and sixty-three condos for sale in Saskatoon.



Cancelled and withdrawn listings came in at thirty-one, and eighteen of those properties were immediately brought back in as a new listing. Just nineteen sellers adjusted their asking price this week.


It was a week of extremes when it comes to Saskatoon home prices. Buoyed by a number of upper end sales including three at a half-million or higher the average selling price for the week came in exceptionally strong at $303,211. Interestingly, prices have only broke the $300K barrier a half dozen times this year, with four of those occurrences happening in a ninety day window from the second week of September until now. The six-week average gained over five thousand dollars on the previous week to finish at $277,893 about six thousand dollars lower than the same week in 2008. The four-week median soared gaining over nineteen thousand dollars on the week to $282,328, a gain of more than twelve thousand dollars on the same week last year.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


The average underbid on Saskatoon homes that sold for less than the asking price grew with higher prices to $11,049 up from $9,876 the week before. Expressed as a percentage of the asking price, the average discount slipped to 3.6%, just slightly lower than last week’s 3.7%. The percentage of sellers who completed a deal within ten thousand dollars of their asking price fell from eighty-one percent last week to sixty-five percent with pretty much all of that sixteen percent disappearing from the lowest discount bracket of “up to $5,000.”


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.


Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.


Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS listings represented by all real estate brands, presented with more detail than you’ll find anywhere else. Check it out here.


Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

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TD Bank Financial Group released a “Resale Housing Outlook” yesterday that provides some insights into the potential consequences of the quick recovery that the Canadian housing market experienced over the past year. It’s a pretty interesting, “where we’ve been, where we may be headed” report. Some of the ideas that caught my attention from the report are outlined below. The full five-page report can be found here.


While in the thick of a recession, the strongest countervailing force that set the stage for the mother of all rebounds, apart from lower prices, was lower interest rates.


All said, the housing market has gone beyond retracing its steps and fully recovering from the end of 2007 – which had marked the peak of a half-decade long boom, concentrated in Western Canada…As of October, both sales and the average price stood 5% higher than their respective 2007 peak…But now that home values are already past their previous peak in such short order, we estimate that the typical home remains overvalued by 12% at the national level. Unfortunately, sheer momentum suggests that this overvaluation is likely to increase over the course of the next few quarters, peaking at 13-15% in H1/2010.


The misalignment of home prices with their fundamental drivers, such as demographics and income, cannot last. That much is known…Because a necessary realignment has been erased so quickly without support from income growth, another adjustment must take place – although it could take many forms. As of our writing this note, early signs of market cooling are emerging and our analysis still suggests the most likely outcome is a soft landing and relative stagnation of home values in real-terms along with a resumption of stronger income growth over the 2011-13 time frame.


As the central bank begins to hint at a tightening monetary policy cycle in the second half of next year, sales could well see a last gasp of strength. Moreover, by that time, the availability of units on the supply side should provide a relief valve helping to cool price growth. And, by 2011, while the overall economy will have improved significantly, housing markets will be losing momentum.


While current price levels are above what we estimate to be long run fundamental values, they do not appear so dramatically out of line as to warrant a sharp correction in the near-term…As for price momentum, it is more clearly unsustainable…Recall that every price increase that is not matched by a commensurate income gain increases the overvaluation gap. Second, more supply should come online in the first half of 2010 in the form of new home and condo completions.


The current market tightness, as measured by the sales-to-listings ratio (limited inventory), while expected to ease gradually over the course of 2010, will not turn on a dime. As a consequence, it will be supportive of price growth in 2010 that is stronger than fundamentals can support over the long haul. After climbing by an estimated 4-5% on an annual basis this year, the average existing home price is expected to gain another 9-10% in 2010 as sales climb to 475K.


In closing, we note that the most important downside risk to our near-term forecast is not that the market cools more than we anticipate. While this risk certainly exists, it would not cause significant market disruptions, and it would ensure that affordability does not continue to erode at the current pace. The risk is rather that the market remains as hot as it currently is for too long, eventually running head-on into monetary policy tightening (and longer term bond yields rising). There is more than adequate time for the housing market to cool before then, but history suggests that if it fails to do so, the ensuing adjustment would be a rude awakening.


Thanks to Larry Yatkowsky of Vancouver’s Yatter Matters for the heads up on this report. See Larry’s overview, “Green Chair Talks.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.


Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.


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Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

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The Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS® (SRAR) released the residential real estate statistics for November 2009today, accompanied by this release.


The residential resale market remained strong during the month of November with 254 properties being sold, 41% from November 2008 when 180 homes sold. Year-to-date, unit sales are at 3611, up 8% from 2008 when 3,359 homes sold by this time.



Year-to-date Saskatoon REALTORS® have sold more than one billion dollars of residential real estate. The $1,003,976,000 number represents a 3% increase over the 2008 year-to-date volume number of $970,223,000.


The average selling price for the month of November was $ 278,885 remaining on par with November 2008. The year-to-date average residential selling price is $278,033 down 4% from 2008. The decrease indicates an increase in the mid price range homes being purchased by more first time and move up home buyers. Homes took 43 days on average to sell in November. The days to sell number has remained level for the past 6 months.



MLS® listing inventory continued to correct in the month of November. Home buyers had 877 residential homes to select from at the end of November. This inventory number includes 288 condominium units. REALTORS® listed 356 properties in November, down 16% from 2008 when 425 units were placed on the market. Reduced inventory is contributing to a more balanced real estate environment.



Sales activity in small town markets surrounding Saskatoon was strong with 75 properties having sold, up 168% from 2008 when 28 properties changed hands. The sales number is on par with 2007. The average selling price in these areas for November was $280,453, up 24% from November 2008, which had an average selling price of $226,546.


The real estate market is progressing as real estate professionals had forecast. Inventory numbers are returning to more normal levels and sales activity remains steady. The average selling price has remained steady throughout 2009 indicating a stable environment. Similar market activity is expected as we move into 2010.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.


If you live in Saskatoon we’d sure appreciate hearing your comments about your neighbourhood. Please visit our “Saskatoon Neighbourhoods” page and let us know what you love about your community.


Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

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