[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″]We have seen no shortage this year, perhaps in any year, of headlines from ‘credentialed’ observers of the Canadian Real Estate market from around the world offering varying degrees of dire forecasts. Another year another story of the IMF, a foreign banks analyst, or some other entity making predictions about a market that does not exist. I say does not exists as there is no National Real Estate market, and forecasts about the Canadian market in general are as useful as forecasts about Canadian weather. I say this as a guy that worked in his yard in a T-shirt on Oct 17th, something not a lot of the country had the luxury of doing.
All that really matters is whether or not it is sunny, or snowing, on your street. And this is the domain of the local expert, one with their feet on the street.
Here are a few things about the home that you own which most armchair analysts seem to fail to consider:
- You live there, and you have to live somewhere. You are not leaving easily.
- CDN mortgages are ‘Full Recourse’ mortgages. You cannot throw your keys on the bankers desk and walk away, the banker will follow you wherever you go and they will get the very last pennies owed to them.
- CDN mortgage qualification standards are among the most stringent in the world. Despite this many CDN’s borrow significantly less than they qualify for. We CDN’s are a prudent bunch.
- Unlike the stock market, where a position can be liquidated with the click of a button, liquidating Real Estate is slow, cumbersome, and often tedious. Taking weeks, if not months. (Name an ‘exciting’ movie about price swings in Real Estate.)
On the last point, many a Real Estate investor can attest to wishing that at 4am when roused from a deep slumber to race to a tenants property to stop a leaking pipe flowing into the unit below – that if there were a ‘sell’ button it would get pressed at that moment. (this is a personal anecdote)
Just as many a homeowner, watching tall trees swaying near their home in a windstorm (or worse) might also press a sell button ‘just to be safe’.
But Real Estate is neither bought nor sold in split seconds, often logic exits the equation as well. Instead nearly every purchase and sale decision around Real Estate is driven by emotion, emotions which are driven by life circumstances. And it all happens in slow motion. Way too slow for most parties involved in the process.
Wonderful life circumstances (along with happy emotions) drive purchases and sales just as challenging circumstances (with less happy emotions) drive sales and possibly purchases as well.
Understanding that each of us is emotional around Real Estate is the first step. Emotional often equates to having less than perfect and objective judgement around certain aspects of a transaction.
Thus the second step is enlisting your best allies;
- A level-headed Realtor.
- A level-headed Mortgage Broker.
The right team will protect you from selling too low, buying too high, moving too quickly, and even from moving too slowly.
Seek professional guidance, a third party that will offer perspective that could be missing from an otherwise overheated experience.
Speak with both of us before you list and sell, selling today is the easy part – moving your financing over to the next property and actually locking down the next property can be trickier than you might expect.
We are here for you.
Thank you.[/vc_column][/vc_row]