If at first ...

May 2007

If at first ...

Success image. Original at www.wallerblog.com

More than one answer
It doesn't take long if you're in the sales business to be told by a variety of gurus that there are a number of steps you need to take in order to achieve success -- and real estate is a prime example of an industry in which this happens.
One obvious thought is the ageold advice that If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
There are also various lighthearted suggestions, such as the one that tells you that when things don't work out to Do What Your Mother Told You instead and another that advises you to simply refer to any failure as Plan 1A.
Moreover, I had to smile at a twist on things that I recently ran across that read as follows:
If at first you DO succeed, try not to look too surprised.
In any case, though, I've started to recognize some factors that definitely impinge on my focus as an Exclusive Buyer Broker. In some regards, they affect listing agents to no less an extent, but in others they have a singularly different bearing on how I spend my days.

Storm clouds on the horizon
In one of my earliest newsletters, I likened the market to the weather. Both are hard to predict and they each have a tendency to change.
These circumstances lend substance to the idea of getting preapproved for a mortgage (which is a more complete process than becoming prequalified) and to also have the ability to take a quick decision when the occasion calls for it. Over the years -- and especially during the past two or three of them -- the market has, in fact, become a more fast paced one than it was. Bidding wars have become (far too) common, albeit we have managed to avoid them to a (fairly) large degree throughout the Niagara Region. At the same time, of course, prices have kept on moving upwards, although not as alarmingly as is sometimes reported -- or, I suppose, as sellers and their listing agents have often hoped.
Even so, there's less chance of late to take a sufficiently leisured approach to the market -- which, of course, frustrates me (and my clients) when it makes sense to take a thoroughgoing look for what could/would be the best possible buy. The likelihood of being stampeded into making an offer is NOT one of my favourite aspects of the market as it has come to exist.

Looking for the sun to shine
Things that go around often do come around and there's always a chance that what was there yesterday but isn't available today could well turn up again tomorrow.
A nice theory if you have the time for it, needless to say. However, whenever time isn't of the essence, it's better to wait a week or two than to "buy in haste and repent at leisure."
Nevertheless, a seldom realized source of the "unfindable" happens to exist in the records of expired MLS listings, some/many of which can be "brought back to life" if there are potential buyers in sight. I'm inclined to think that the (dare I call them?) ordinary Buyer Agents will ignore this segment of the market -- or at least not work it too successfully.
The problem here is that the powers that be (CREA, OREA, and RECO) recently required expired listings to carry a Do Not Call notation. The rationale was that owners should no longer be bothered by the series of calls from competing agents that traditionally followed an expiry. Subject to the owner's right to contact any alternative agent they chose, the only follow up contact was to be confined to the original listing agent. In fact, no one else -- unless invited by the owner to do so -- is now permitted to discuss the idea of a resurrection.
In contrast, though, I have been able to suggest exactly this contact on a number of occasions. I've simply asked the original listing agent to see if my buyer client could view the property and possibly make an offer for it. The idea has been well received and, more than once, the end result has been a sale that would normally never have been foreseen.

Shifting values
Twenty years ago, house prices were lower in the Falls and Thorold than in St. Catharines, and they dropped further if you looked at Fort Erie properties. The reverse applied as you headed in the direction of Grimsby and Hamilton. Give or take $10,000 or so, you were worse or better off when you chose to move outside St. Catharines.
This all changed as we experienced the 1990s market downturn when, on the whole, prices in St. Catharines were reduced more rapidly than elsewhere in the Region. The situation then steadily became more muddied with the emergence of numerous new housing developments, especially those in communities that had more room to expand than others,
By now, it isn't altogether unfair to say that you can spend whatever you have in mind just about anywhere in Niagara.
But one result is that an agent focused on taking care of potential buyers has more of a challenge than in the past. It isn't so much a question of where people are going to find value for their money. It's more a matter of deciding which of the alternative communities is going to prove the most suitable and appealing.
Moreover, the degree of activity varies both in and within each community. Here and there, listings can sell almost before the listing agreement ink has dried. In other places, there are you still times when you can't give the stuff away.

But just a minute ...
My Only in Canada newsletter last month talked about the market having softened (even though the fallout isn't of as much concern as it is in the US). One comment I made was that today's buyers are all the better for it.
Yes?
Well, yes. I did say as much.
However, all things are relative, aren't they?
Thus, let me suggest that, despite the fact that there seem to be fewer sellers and fewer buyers around these days, the challenges remain. If things aren't as cut and dried as they were twenty years ago -- and they certainly aren't -- the old adage about never giving up in your attempts to succeed hasn't changed one iota.
As my April newsletter also mentioned, you Gotta Work at this business.
Indeed, it's what the gurus are forever pointing out to agents.

With my customary good wishes to you, especially for the forthcoming Victoria Day weekend