About Waterloo County, ON

Housing Market Update - May 2009

Did you know, that only 10% of agents attend the local MLS meeting in Cambridge Ontario, on a regular basis? It's a great opportunity to preview up to 10 homes each week. I even find out about homes coming up for sale before they ever hit the market. My knowledge of the available housing inventory, and preview into where the market is heading, allows me to accurately price a home based not only on market data, but seeing your competition first hand. Can you see how that is a huge benefit to you?

"Please help; do you have a buyer for my house?" It's a common request, but not always as desperate as the seller sounded this time. The answer in most cases, sadly is "no". I alone can only provide service to so many buyers. But that's the power of the MLS system; there are a host of other agents that may have buyers for your home. They just need to be told about it. And that job falls on the shoulders of your Realtor, and the place to do it, is the MLS meeting. I'll talk in another article about the importance of attending MLS meetings with regularity. But in this column, I want to talk about how else we can spread the word about your house.

We need to tell not only other agents, but the whole wide world. I was shocked to learn that this home in question, did not have its own web-site and that two of the most common online Classifieds were completely ignored. I couldn't even find the listing agent in a Google search. And as you already know, if you are not on Page 1 of a Google search, you are irrelevant. If your property is not on the first page of a search, it's invisible to everyone. How can this be? In today's day and age, someone claiming to have your best interest at hand in marketing your property, has completely ignored the one place where studies have show most people start their search?! The internet.

Here is what I provide for you, at no cost. A professional web-site with 21 favourite photos of your house. I buy the URL (allowing people to type http://www.youraddress.com) for your property address and make sure it's used in all of my advertising? Where will your home be advertised? How about realtor.ca, ready2move.ca, cambridgenow.ca, kijiji, craigslist, activerain, facebook, twitter, etc... I guarantee, that when someone searches your property address, it will be found at the top of the first page on Google. Your house will no longer be hidden in the back pocket of some agent, but will properly be exposed to the entire world.

Do not hesitate! Let me give you a demonstration of my marketing plan, without obligation, and you'll see the competitive advantage you will have over all others. Isn't it about time, your agent worked for you?

Send me an email at szabolcs.pall@century21.ca and let's get started.

So what's going on in the real estate market, I mean really going on? The most important thing to remember is that it is regional, so take with a grain of salt, all those national statistics that newspapers love to throw at us. They are not a true representation of what's really going on in your own backyard.

As far as where you should be investing, you should be looking at areas where the population and income levels are both on the rise. Government spending on infrastructure such as highways, light rail, subways and round-abouts are always a good indication of an upcoming hot spot. Among the highest in all of Ontario are Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge and Hamilton, according to Don R. Cambell from The Real Estate Investment Network of Canada. He was recently on the popular Canadian television show The Hour on CBC, hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos. Click on this link to see the full archived show: The Hour - March 18th, 2009.

Did you know that plans to harmonize the Sales and Provincial taxes could negatively effect your real estate transaction? It would apply to not only New Construction homes over $400,000 but will also affect resale home transactions. PST would now be applied to legal fees, real estate fees, appraisal fees, moving expenses, staging services, landscaping, and more services usually associated with real estate transactions.