The recent issues between the Canadian Real Estate Association and the Canadian Competition Bureau have sparked a handful of fruitful conversations between myself and friends, clients, etc, over the past few weeks. I've found myself more than once listing off the many ways a person benefits by using a realtor to buy or sell their home. Sitting near the top of this list is the detailed knowledge a realtor has of the market in both broad and specific terms.
An experienced, active realtor is out there in the trenches everyday and has their finger on the pulse of what's happening in the market, on both macro and micro levels. On a macro level, a realtor will be able to tell you that "the combination of low interest rates plus the low inventory of houses for sale is contributing to rising house prices." Fine. But really anyone can read the real estate section of the Toronto Star and see that this is the case.
On a micro level however, a good realtor will know specifically that "one-bedroom + den suites in this particular building have been selling on an average increase of 0.5% per month since June, but you shouldn't pay as much for one of the north-facing suites because they have these awkward hallways leading towards the master bedroom that essentially waste 75 square feet of floor space whereas the south-facing suites don't have any wasted space..."
In other words, realtors not only have access to a wealth of sales history information and market statistics - we're also putting this information to use in real-world situations on an ongoing basis.
We're actively stepping foot into properties, assessing the pros and the cons, analysing values for buyer clients, preparing CMA's for seller clients, etc... These are the daily activities that an active realtor is involved in and it's this constant engagement with the market that breeds a very specialized sort of knowledge and allows us to keep our finger on the pulse of the market.
If you’re thinking of making a move and would like to know how I can help, feel free to contact me for more info.