Calgary Real Estate predictions?

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by nik-

Who suggested banning immigration? The obvious intent is to ban someone residing in another country from sitting on a property they never live in.

I'm suggesting that the people you're referring to are a very small group and it's actually wealthy immigrants who are buying up large portions of Vancouver real estate.
Therefore, if you want to curb the rising prices by stopping "foreign" buyers it's actually immigrants you're needing to limit.

[chemgear]

Looks like Calgary is doing quite well:

http://business.financialpost.com/20...ble-in-canada/

RBC says home ownership was less affordable in most major Canadian cities during the first quarter, although Calgary and Edmonton bucked the trend.

[darklord700]

Is there a way to look up listings from say two years ago without the help of a realtor?

[troutman]

A realtor told me she recently had 16 offers on the same listing.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by darklord700

Is there a way to look up listings from say two years ago without the help of a realtor?

The city used to have a listing of all the sales in the last few years for people to compare their assessments to, but I couldn't find it on their website this morning.

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by troutman

A realtor told me she recently had 16 offers on the same listing.

I'm curious what happens here. Do realtors keep playing the buyers against each other, and push the price up? Can you refuse all the offers, and re-list at a higher price?

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

I'm curious what happens here. Do realtors keep playing the buyers against each other, and push the price up? Can you refuse all the offers, and re-list at a higher price?

I've never had this happen to me selling (sadly), but when buying I've only ever been asked for the top price I'll go to, and not offered a chance to rebid. That really surprised me on one where I was outbid by $250. If I was the seller I'd have gone back to me and asked for a higher bid. I don't see how that could possibly be illegal, and you don't have a contract with these people, just offers from them.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I've never had this happen to me selling (sadly), but when buying I've only ever been asked for the top price I'll go to, and not offered a chance to rebid. That really surprised me on one where I was outbid by $250. If I was the seller I'd have gone back to me and asked for a higher bid. I don't see how that could possibly be illegal, and you don't have a contract with these people, just offers from them.

It sounds like you are suppossed to give you "top" offer. So, in theory, you shouldn't be able to offer higher later as you've already given your top dollar. That being said, most people probably won't give their top dollar the first time.

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I've never had this happen to me selling (sadly), but when buying I've only ever been asked for the top price I'll go to, and not offered a chance to rebid. That really surprised me on one where I was outbid by $250. If I was the seller I'd have gone back to me and asked for a higher bid. I don't see how that could possibly be illegal, and you don't have a contract with these people, just offers from them.

Weird. I've worked with purchasers at some pretty big international companies, and they work on this premise: bid your lowest cost, and you're not privy to anyone else's bid.

This isn't global business though. Real estate is a game of musical "stab the knife in someone else's back" so if I was selling and it happened, I'd sit all the buyers in a room and auction the house off.

[AMG_G]

Bidding is such a shaddy thing...you really don't know if there are actually other bidders out there. If my realtor says I'm in a bidding war I would retract and look for another house. Winning the chance to spend more money...yeah you really won.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

Weird. I've worked with purchasers at some pretty big international companies, and they work on this premise: bid your lowest cost, and you're not privy to anyone else's bid.

This isn't global business though. Real estate is a game of musical "stab the knife in someone else's back" so if I was selling and it happened, I'd sit all the buyers in a room and auction the house off.

Yeah, when I'm purchasing things at work that's how we do bids.

But a condo purchase isn't the same thing as a big contract between 2 large companies, and if I was the seller I'd absolutely try to auction it off for the last few thousand dollars.

[Travis Munroe]

Originally Posted by AMG_G

Bidding is such a shaddy thing...you really don't know if there are actually other bidders out there. If my realtor says I'm in a bidding war I would retract and look for another house. Winning the chance to spend more money...yeah you really won.

The name and brokerage of every real estate agent involved in the bidding war is given by the list agent for the other agents to verify.

I have been involved in a few competing situations this year already. Both on the buying and selling side. You are supposed to come to the table with your best offer. The list agent typically informs the interested buyers of a time that offers will be present to his/her client. You have until this time to submit your offer.
The seller can counter however you will only want to counter one bid to avoid a situation where you counter more than one party and they both accept.
Most of the time, I suggest offering full asking price if you really want the property and we are only up against one other bid. If we are up against a few different bids, you will want to go slightly higher than the asking.

Conditions also play a significant role. A few months back, a client accepted a lower offer with only condo document review as a condition vs more money but multiple conditions.

[AMG_G]

Originally Posted by Realtor 1

The name and brokerage of every real estate agent involved in the bidding war is given by the list agent for the other agents to verify.

I have been involved in a few competing situations this year already. Both on the buying and selling side. You are supposed to come to the table with your best offer. The list agent typically informs the interested buyers of a time that offers will be present to his/her client. You have until this time to submit your offer.
The seller can counter however you will only want to counter one bid to avoid a situation where you counter more than one party and they both accept.
Most of the time, I suggest offering full asking price if you really want the property and we are only up against one other bid. If we are up against a few different bids, you will want to go slightly higher than the asking.

Conditions also play a significant role. A few months back, a client accepted a lower offer with only condo document review as a condition vs more money but multiple conditions.

Thanks for the info Travis...but realtors who price lower than market to try and instigate a bidding war is still shaddy in my books.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by AMG_G

Thanks for the info Travis...but realtors who price lower than market to try and instigate a bidding war is still shaddy in my books.

Really? I don't see how that affects you negotiating a price. If someone else shows and up and pays more than you, you won't get it. If not, you will. It also has the advantage of being much faster for the seller. If you don't like, don't bid.

I actually think there are significant benefits to RE being sold by auction, and it's commonly done that way in other countries. (Australia especially)

[GP_Matt]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Really? I don't see how that affects you negotiating a price. If someone else shows and up and pays more than you, you won't get it. If not, you will. It also has the advantage of being much faster for the seller. If you don't like, don't bid.

I actually think there are significant benefits to RE being sold by auction, and it's commonly done that way in other countries. (Australia especially)

I hate the auction idea simply because a wife could become emotionally attached to a house and force you to bid higher than is rational or give up and feel emasculated. Really no good can come from it from a buyers perspective.

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

I hate the auction idea simply because a wife could become emotionally attached to a house and force you to bid higher than is rational or give up and feel emasculated. Really no good can come from it from a buyers perspective.

That's the whole point of it though. It's no different than ebay; I get involved in bidding wars all the time because it's something I REALLY want. From a selling perspective, having your wife chirping in your ear that she really really needs those granite countertops is a good thing.

Anyways, I'm going to list a rental property pretty quick to see where the market is. I had offers on it 4 years ago, so I should have a good indication of the market value in comparison to 2008.

[GP_Matt]

I am not really advocating against the auction idea. I can see it hurting a lot of buyers though because a home purchase is so emotional.
You can see it already with people who are buying their first home. Once they are given the impression that they can afford to buy a home they seem to stop at nothing to make it happen. Even if it means agreeing to higher interest rates or terrible terms.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

That's the whole point of it though. It's no different than ebay; I get involved in bidding wars all the time because it's something I REALLY want. From a selling perspective, having your wife chirping in your ear that she really really needs those granite countertops is a good thing.

Anyways, I'm going to list a rental property pretty quick to see where the market is. I had offers on it 4 years ago, so I should have a good indication of the market value in comparison to 2008.

In a sellers market an auction style sale is most certainly a good way to squeeze extra money out of buyers and avoid conditions the sellers do not want to rep or warrant . If buyers are going to be stupid enough to get into a bidding war then more power to the seller. The problem I have with sellers is what they do when the market isn't as hot as they hoped.

I don't want to put words in AMG_G's mouth, but I think that the point of how shady the bidding war strategy is relates to what the seller does when things do not go according to plan and they do not recieve more than what they were hoping for. I've heard countless stories of sellers making a 'teaser' list price well below market value in order to try to incite a bidding war, recieve bids above list price but below what they deem as market value and then instead of accept any of the offers just pull the property from the market and try again months later. Effectively wasting everyone's time.

I think if you're selling strategy is the bidding war and it blows up in your face it's unethical and pretty shady to walk away from offers above your list price. How would you feel if you went to a car auction, bid above the reserve price and every other bidder and didn't walk away with car because the seller wanted more than your bid?

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

I've heard countless stories of sellers making a 'teaser' list price well below market value in order to try to incite a bidding war, recieve bids above list price but below what they deem as market value and then instead of accept any of the offers just pull the property from the market and try again months later. Effectively wasting everyone's time.

You'd have to have a pretty compliant realtor to get away with that. The standard MLS listing contract used by realtors in Calgary includes a provision that the full commission is due and payable if an unconditional offer at or above list price comes in, even if the seller doesn't take it. That's a pretty big disincentive to do that. Assuming the realtor isn't in on the shadyness, I suppose.

[darklord700]

My house's assessment value dropped from $500K to $440K from 2008 to now. Now can I assume if I upgrade to a better area and a better house, those houses will be cheaper now than it was in 2008? Maybe not to the exact extend but at least the general trend should hold, am I right?