If I was asked to sum up the current market, “challenging,” would be the word that I would use. Simply put, we are in a soft period and that means that it is harder to sell a home and you should expect to get less for it. Looking specifically at detached houses in Victoria, the volume of sales this September is down by 41% from the peak this spring. Prices are down 6.5% from just a month ago, and down almost 9% from the most recent peak in March. The first impression from looking at these numbers will strike fear into the heart of most. But, as I always work to point out, where there is fear there is lots of opportunity!
Even though the volume of sales is down, move than 200 houses still changed hands in September in Greater Victoria. Your goal as a seller is to make sure that your offering is good enough to be one of those homes. That means a sharper price than you may be comfortable with combined with a clean, well presented house. Then once you sell, with cash in hand, you become the buyer in a buyer’s market. Seek out those sellers who take the news as literal truth, and pick up a bargain. They are definitely deals out there to be had!
There is a strong argument to be made that it is better to buy and sell in a troubled market than in a strong market. I don’t just preach these words, I live by them as well. I just sold my home this weekend for less (much less!) than I wanted to accept. But, on the other side of the equation, I saved far more on my purchase than I lost on the sale of my house. At the end of the day, I moved ahead on my personal balance sheet. If you buy and sell well, you can do the same in every challenging market.
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