The only thing I know for certain is that, when it comes to real estate (and life, in general) … everything changes. That includes, among so many things, how favourable the conditions will be for you, when the time comes to sell your home.
We’re half-way through the calendar year, and it has already been a year of almost unprecedented highs and lows in Guelph. We started the year with the most overheated Seller’s market I have ever seen. Literally everything was selling… and for prices that left most of us shaking our heads and trying to figure out what in the heck was going on.
Now, the pendulum has swung and it has swung back hard. We’re currently in a strong Buyer’s market. Very little is selling, and as for prices, they have gone down, down, and even further down.
We’ve been down this road before – most notably in 2017, when we had a similar surge in competition and housing prices – the result of an inventory shortage combined with in-migration from folks leaving the GTA. But the ‘high’ wasn’t high like this year – and the ‘low’ wasn’t even close to as low as we’re at, post Seller’s market.
It’s very hard to accept a dramatic market shift like this, if you happen to be ready to sell your home when everything has gone from working in your favour to suddenly working in the buyer’s favour. Quickly shifting strategies and expectations isn’t easy… many just can’t wrap their heads around it. Myself, I am big on living in the here and now… so here are some realities to selling in the here and now.
Resale Home Inventory is High
I don’t know that it’s ever as simple as saying that inventory is everything… but it’s close.
Part of what drove competition and prices through the roof in the early part of the year was a dire shortage of properties for sale. Every day, I’d look at the ‘hot sheet’ and see a handful of homes hit the market. On some days, literally one or two properties were listed.
Today, the exact opposite is the case.
There are hundreds of homes for sale in Guelph, and in almost all price points. Detached, semi’s, condos, starters, luxury properties… and everything in between. There is a lot for sale across the board.
What does that mean? It means that Buyers can take their time. They can shop around and wait for ‘the one.’ There’s no more “we’d better just buy something / anything” with Buyer mindset. Now, it’s “I like it but I don’t love it… let’s keep looking.”
Which leads me to…
How to Present Your Home for Sale
I’ve long been a believer in taking as many steps as possible to present a home at its best. Purging, de-cluttering, painting, small renos if necessary and, of course, Staging, are all pre-list activities that I encourage clients to embrace.
In a crazy hot Seller’s market, it seems like anything and everything will sell… regardless of how it’s presented.
However, with inventory high and Buyers pickier than ever, the days of hoping a Buyer will just “see past” things (or overlook and accept them) are over. Now, you need to dazzle Buyers.
Outside, take all the steps necessary to boost your home’s curb appeal. If a Buyer walks up to your house and sees a yard full of weeds or a property that is even remotely tired looking, I’m telling you: you’re sunk. They’ve probably got a dozen other homes on their “maybes” list – they will simply move on and focus their attention on properties that have been well taken care of. Because they can.
Inside, the same concept applies. I’ve been through the process of selling my own homes TWICE in the last two years and I know how stressful it is. Frankly, I hate it. But… I do the purging, the de-cluttering, the Staging, the painting. I do all of it. There is simply no denying it: homes that present better sell faster. In a Buyer’s market, homes that don’t present well honestly may not even sell – at all.
And on the matter of selling, we need to talk about sale prices.
Your Home will Sell for Less
It’s that simple: your home will sell for less today than it would have a few months ago. The market shift has been significant and prices have shifted right alongside.
This is the part that hurts. I get it. I just sold my house and there is almost no doubt in my mind that I was close to $200,000 “higher” a few months back.
Do I regret not jumping on the bandwagon and selling in the crazy hot market? Hell yes, I do. But I wasn’t ready.
My house wasn’t ready. As excited as I was about the prospect of a crazy bidding war on my own house, I didn’t want to engage in that nonsense on the purchase – and would have almost certainly had to. Lastly, I didn’t want to disrupt my daughter’s school year. It just wasn’t the right time. I wish it had been… but it wasn’t.
So I sold during the toughest market I’ve ever experienced in 10+ years in this business. It was stressful. Showings were not a great many. Feedback was hard to get. And the price I got felt low. Really low.
On the plus side, I did buy in the same market and so it probably all worked out, more or less. It was a disappointing sale price but I feel good about where I landed on my new purchase.
Living in the Here and Now
As the zen proverb says: let go, or be dragged.
If it’s time for you to let go of a property, the best advice I can offer is to accept the realities of current market conditions. Then, let those realities guide all of your decisions when it comes to preparing the home and pricing it.
In our city, chances are pretty good that you’ve done well on your investment. It really is an incredible thing to hear Sellers bemoan the fact that they’ve only made $500,000 on a property in a handful of years. Honestly, folks – count your blessings and just be happy with the abundance that today’s market still offers.
Most of us – if we bought our homes even a few years ago – could never have anticipated the crazy surge in prices that we’ve seen in Guelph. Still, for some… it’s just not enough unless it’s what some neighbours got back during the Seller’s market and a number that, back in a certain moment in time, sounded great to them.
If you really can’t reconcile yourself to current market and pricing realities, another option is simply to reconsider the whole plan. Delay selling and take the risks associated with that. No one really knows what will happen with home values and economic conditions – although plenty sure like to act as though they’ve got a crystal ball.
Could things get quite a bit worse – and stay that way for a few years? I think so, yes. But I hope to be proven wrong about that. If history is a good predictor (and it usually is)… it will be a year or two before we even get close to the ‘heyday’ prices of earlier this year.
So, if you really “need” more money than you can feasibly get for your home right now, it might be time to take the sign off the yard, dig in, make any needed improvements to the inside and outside of your home, and wait it out until things turn around. Because they will. They always do!
