Ever since the industrial revolution, real estate agents have become an integral part of the home acquisition process. They have always had the craftiest marketing strategies. I have heard of Brokers putting pictures for kids to colour on the back of their flyers. Brokers have colouring contests for kids to attract new clients. This is just one of many interesting marketing tactics real estate agents employ.

But the bottom line for a home seller is the marketing of their property. We have been monitoring the markets for sometime and the trend is going completely online. People are choosing to do as much of the home transaction process online. Mainly people want to have easy access to properties that fit the description they are looking for. Our online marketing strategy is to dominate relavant organic search results for highly relevant keywords that home buyers and sellers in Ottawa would type into search engines.

We believe the future of real estate is in home tours, beautiful and accurate real estate photography, good customer service, offer honest and accurate translation of current market conditions.

As you cruise threw Ottawa in any direction you can’t help but notice Condos flying up everywhere.  As the population becomes more dense and the younger generations flock to the city core, buildings are going up.  This past year marked the highest year of condo production ever.  As a real estate investor one really needs to pay attention to the market signs.  Yes the population is rising and so is the demand for properties in the region.  But we really need to look at the history of the market cycle and what happens when there is a construction boom.  Historically construction booms always will lead to an oversupply.  And every oversupply will inevitably lead to a price drop.  So my advice for today as buildings go up everywhere keep an eye on prices and vacancy rates in those new condos.  We recommend waiting a bit to buy your condo in Ottawa.  Don’t fall for heavy marketing that says “Buy Now” or agents that pressure you for quick commission.  Watch the numbers.  As the supply satisfies the demand the vacancies will start to rise slowly and then the prices will begin to fall.  Before you go any further you should decide,  ”Is investing in real estate is right for you?“.   Also check out this page for more property investment information.

It may seem illogical, but the leading property investor ROCK insinuates that it is timely to buy apartment buildings or condominiums – where there are seemingly large number of condos on the market.

According to Derek Lobo, the CEO for ROCK Advisors, the shift on the economic, political and social trends is making a stir up on apartment sector as a great place development and investment. The investors willing to take a leap in new stock development and old stock revival are bound to harvest great rewards from the renewing strong and steady sector. All they have to have is the willingness.

Rock made a ranking of prospects on the largest central urban’s in Ontario based on the social, political and economic factors.

There are differences on the status of each location, however, Lobo, being the head of the boutique commercial real estate firm exclusively focusing on the apartment industry, remains optimistic.

A constricting rate of vacancies is giving investors the gauge to take a second look at the Ontario apartments – where according to reports lists, are topped by Vaughan/King/Richmond Hill.

Markham and Ottawa came in secondary.

While North Bay, Northern Ontario’s Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie and are considered as the “overlooked.”

Some investors, however, remain less than affirmative on these purpose-built apartments having forecasts of a large number of condos striking Ontario in the next 5 years.

This inventory statement causes a raise of eyebrows from the Bank of Canada.

The completed, but uninhabited supplies of condominiums increased which makes a high risk correction in the market – according to the economic report on December.

Furthermore, according to market analysts, that phenomenon has already been sensed by the condominium investors in Vancouver with a number of units sitting idle.

The same reserved response was weathered in the recent CREW Poll where 53% of the respondents agreed that the condominium market is on the downslide and slightly 47% disagreeing.

These responses came less than a week after the Central Bank announced that the condo market has the most sensitive price decline sector over others.

There are inflations of new condominium developments in Toronto. In spite of this, analysts advise that the market is subject to correction with the intensity of the GTA market, referenced by the immigration.

The ROCK report may be getting on that uncertainty, with some parts of Toronto earning a rank in the top 10, while others are not.

Online Investing | Invest aBit

Realtor.ca is doing a great job of keeping on top of the online canadian real estate trends. This is a great benefit for Ottawa real estate shoppers.

Map
• The beta-format map tool with its improved search page is now easier to use. It consists of three simple sections; the search criteria on the left, the property thumbnail list on the right and the interactive map in the center.
• To get a clearer view of the interactive map, you can easily minimize the other two sections to reduce visual clutter.
• The mouse can now be use to create free-form outlines on the map to precisely work out the location criteria. It can also be utilized to mark a particular neighborhood or any other area to locate properties within a specific region.
• We continue to develop this tool in various ways including auto-sizing the product to fit high resolution monitors (HD). The latest version of realtor.ca will automatically fit itself to the monitors, which will get rid of the white space seen in HD.

Media Links

• Realtors and offices can be linked on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages.

Edge on October

• CREA stats show the national resale housing interest will grow by October, 2011.

Highlights

• The ten-year standard is equal to the year-to-date sales.

• The amount of newly-registered homes continues to be slightly changed compared to the past few months.

• The national housing market had constant new listings and much higher sales.

• The houses which were sold and marketed by the MLS systems of real estate boards & associations of Canada increased by 1.2% in October over what it was in September. The stage of national sales activity remained standard or unmoving. The growth in October sales built on a 2.5% increase in September and marked the highest sales point since January.

• Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver reported gains in their monthly sales.

• According to CREA’s president, G. Morse, the instability of the global financial market was well publicized in October but the desire of the people to buy a house was not affected. On the other hand, the rate of interest will probably remain static at low levels for some  time. All estates are local, hence home buyers and sellers should constantly check with their local realtor.

• Almost 400,000 homes were bought and sold through Canada MLS systems this year. This shows a boost of 1.8% in the first ten months of 2010, but is still in accordance with the 10-year average for the year-to-date number.

• CREA’s chief economist, G. Klump, mentioned that Canada still shows positive economic progression with a delicate concern on investment and hiring choices. Buyer’s outlook highly depends on Canada’s economic reaction towards global economic instability in the following months.

• Consumers are certain that the Canadian economy will keep on being slightly affected by global economic instability. That certainty evolved from fiscal policy responses that prevented Canada from being pulled into a recession.

• The national housing market continues to have stability regardless of the imbalance of supply and demand between new listings and sales. The gauge of market equilibrium is up by 0.6% from September’s 52.8%.

• There is a slight difference between the buyers’ market & the sellers’ market; the latter being larger than the former. The sales-to-new listings ratio in the local market is up by 20% in October from 40%, resulting in a more balanced market.

• Another test of equilibrium between housing supply and demand is the average number of months it takes for a property to be sold. In October, it took 6 months on average for a property to be sold, compared to September’s 6.1 months.

• The price average for houses that were put up for sale amounts to almost $400,000 for October 2011. This is 6% higher than last year. It’s believed that this price data can be valuable in observing future trends.

• To guarantee maximum disclosure of homes listed for sale, Canada’s estate board makes use of MLS co-operative marketing systems.

Realtor.ca | Property Information from Realtors across Canada

Written by:
Divine somera

A major partnership has formed in the Canadian Real Estate market.  Toronto real estate company Realtysellers and PropertyGuys.com have teamed up in what may give

the Canadian real estate market a total makeover. The main objective of the partnership is to benefit the consumer with lower commission on their real estate transactions however, certain regulations by the MLS and Canadian real estate authorities have prevented their partnership to succeed.

This move doesn’t come without controversy. Essentially, the partnership will seek to

Under cut traditional real estate agents by providing buying and selling services at a fraction of the cost. PropertyGuys.com are considered private sale professionals. They have provided a site designed for home buyers that cuts out the real estate agent and allows homeowners to buy and sell for themselves. With the PropertyGuys.com strategy, the homeowner is able to price their real estate for a similar price to that of an equivalent property being sold by an agent. Since the homeowner is no longer paying commission to an agent, the commission that would have been paid is pocketed by the seller.

It is recommended that the seller lowers the price slightly below the market price for similar properties in order to sell the home faster resulting in the seller obtaining a higher profit. The main disadvantage of these services is the loss of expertise that a real estate agent is able to provide. Since home sales do not always go according to plan it is beneficial to the seller to have an agent on your side in case unforeseen circumstances do arise. Agents are also well versed in the legalities of home sales and have all of the proper legal documentation required for transferring a home’s ownership. These documents can be obtained by those outside the real estate business but require quite a bit of research. Those who opt to buy and sell privately also lose the negotiation skills of an agent – a detail that may not be considered and may result in financial loss to both the buyer and the seller.

When deciding whether or not to use a service like PropertyGuys.com you must consider how much time you are willing to invest in selling your home and whether or not that time and energy is worth more or less to you than the monetary cost of having an agent sell your home.

The property cloud is changing the face of Canadian real estate by delivering the tools necessary to buy and sell a home to smart phone users. This online business aims to allow real estate shoppers to access the MLS database and view photos, information, video tours, and obtain contact information for the seller or real estate agent conducting the sale.

Property cloud has tapped into the fact that more and more Canadians are using their cell phones for everyday activities and has delivered a service that integrates an MLS database with GPS functionality. In addition to these services, the company provides website generation software that allows an individual to create a website that meets real estate agent standards. These websites each generate a unique URL and a QR code that can be easily used to promote the listing through cell phones and unique URLs.

The company seeks to provide buyers and sellers with a new tool in their home buying and home selling arsenal.

Real-estate trading is a new trend in residential real-estate that is surely to make its way into Ottawa. Real estate trading results when two property sellers finding a match in their selling and buying needs.

Instead of 4 transactions, there’s just one! Usually each seller has to sell their home and then they must buy a new one. In a property trade, they simply trade their real-estate.

When considering property trading, you should keep three things in mind:

1. Use the idea of property trading as an additional tool; meaning don’t abandon your traditional home buying and selling process. Use the concept of home trading as a possible alternative.

2. When looking for property trades, you must make both your selling preferences and buying preferences known. Advertise both your property for sale/trade and give people an idea of what you are looking for in a new home.

3. You have to make it known that you are open to property trading. You will likely have to actively market your home to make this know. Also, ask your potential real estate agent if they will market your home as a ottawa property for trade.

Your real estate agent will act as the match maker in a property trade. Having a real estate agent with access to lots of properties definitely helps. The realtor will have to assess both the needs and wants of each potential trading party, and try to make a connection with the best match.

With property trading there is an added dimension of difficulty. Because there’s a whole matching process that must take place, the chances of finding the perfect property trade match is much smaller that a traditional home sale.

As property trading becomes more and more popular in the Ottawa real estate industry, remember to use it as a tool – not a complete solution to your home buying and selling process. Use trading as a tool to ensure the highest chance of you finding the perfect Ottawa property.

Now that Ottawa is gradually becoming a ‘big city’, growth has spread both outward and upward. As an increasing number of people have become interested in living in the central core, the obvious solution was to build up. We are now finding ourselves in a condo boom in the downtown and surrounding regions.
Over the last nine years, the number of condos in the Ottawa area has tripled. In 2001, just over 400 condos were built in Ottawa. By 2010, that number had grown to over 1500.

Condo living is about convenience – including living close to everything and the very little maintenance that accompanies them. The fact that this style of living is so efficient and economical certainly explains their current popularity. In addition to the purchase of condos for personal use, there has also been a boom in the purchase of condos for rental purposes. Rental properties are being built with increasing infrequency but property has always been a safe investment.