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3 tips to sell your house in a falling market

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55 Comments

There are a huge number of houses and condominiums for sale in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland with fewer and fewer buyers who have the desire and/or ability to buy.  Recently we got the alarming news that in the first 12 days of November not a single west side Vancouver house was sold out of 968 listing. 

So how can you make your house, townhome or condo stand out from the crowd and snag a buyer that still has access to credit?

There’s a saying: you can’t make money without spending money. So with that in mind we offer the following tips to increase foot traffic at your open house and sell your Vancouver property in a falling market:

1. Paint your roof gold.  This will really make your house stand out amongst your neighbors, particularly if you use real gold-leaf, not that cheap fake gold stuff.

2. Hire underwear models. Want foot traffic at your open house? Hire a few underwear models to lounge around the yard and entry way.

3. Offer free beer and weed. Or if you want to be family-friendly coffee and cookies, etc, but the underwear models will prefer the beer and weed.

If these techniques don’t work for you, the market may have gotten worse.  In that case you have two options that may still work as a last resort:

A. Pray to the money god for a buyer with great credit and a lousy eye for value
or
B. Lower your price.

Hey, it just might work!

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Downtown Vancouver R

Price the listing right and they're going to sell. It might be a bitter pill for Sellers, but thats what the real estate market demands. The key in this market is to get to the front of the line and be better priced than your competition.

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Vancouver Real Estat

Other side not have a good point. VANCOUVER REAL ESTATE GOING DOWN HARD!!!

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Anonymous

Are you drunk?

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scullboy

Pope, I am shocked….SHOCKED! At this outrageous and offensive post.

Underwear models do NOT drink beer and smoke weed.

Beer has too many calories and weed makes their eyes all red.

Underwear models drink clear premium liquor and do pills and powder excessively.

I can't be the only one around here who has dated an underwear model…. can I?

As Captain Jack said "I really have to write my autobiography, and if you're lucky I'll illustrate it."

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Anonymous

Brittanny,

Is that your final call before you loose your job?

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Vancouver Real Estat

That Brentwood listing is confusing.

He's suggesting that 5% down equals around $350k and he wants his interest back.

Regardless who'd have thought paying over $450/sq ft to live at Brentwood Mall is a good idea?

Anyone want to pay $3000 a month for a rental worth $1600?

Buy now or someone else might!

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Brittanny Originals

I will buy your house/condo.The price will be:

1. Current market rent fixed for 25 years

2. 0% down

3. 100% vendor financed

4. Strata fee to be included rent

5. No GST

6. No credit check

* My risk: Real estate values are likely to drop by 40%+.

* Vendors risk: I may walk away.

This is my final and only offer!

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Vancouver Real Estat

"West Vancouver builder Sean Hanley" *Builders are not like home owners interest rates that apply to home owners are different than builder,Builders interest rates are very similar to credit card so $100,000 or $200,000 bonus is still a profitable for Hanley type of builder as he is being rat on bloomberg let him scream for exit but home owners no need to scream as rents are higher and interest rates are low http://cuer.sauder.ubc.ca/cma/data/MortgageRates/… "For Hanley, that's meant nary a buyer for his five-bedroom home." *Scream Hanley Scream greedy builders you should have measure the size of population and supply of other projects. "At the same time investors stop buying. Prices are set by the few participants willing to buy. NOT the sellers." *Patriotz,There is a technical error in what you saying i mean to say you are not different than… Read more »

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read on

Yes, rather confusing. A little grammar is a dangerous thing.

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Patiently Waiting

This ad is confusing, but it looks like this pre-sale speculator is giving up on their $73K deposit on a Brentwood condo.

http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/reo/925526161.h…

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NO -LYMPICS

Price drops ; Isn't it simple ? It is always an equilibrium between a motivated seller and a motivated buyer. If , at the extreme end of the spectrum , people are placed in a situation they can no longer own their asset, and have to sell ASAP, they become a motivated seller. However, if there is no motivated buyer,….then what ? Reminds me of an old joke: 2 old men , Joe and Bob, were discussing business. Joe said he had an elephant to sell Bob for $100 . Bob then said, " What can I do with an elephant? I would have to feed it, clean up after it, provide shelter, Vet bills, oy vey !!!! I have absolutely N-O use for an elephant " Then Joe said " Ok Ok … tell you what…. $50 and I… Read more »

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shikko

@6 rubberduckie said: If a person wanted to sell tomorrow, what price should they list at?? I know everyone says “low” but what does that mean? 10% less, or 15% less than peak? What would you say is the discount factor for a near-new westside townhouse? If you wanted to sell tomorrow, I'd say price the house for 150x what its monthly rent would be; so a townhouse that would rent for $2000/month should be priced at about $300k. Alternately, follow mohican's "fair price equation", which you can find by digging around at the Langley Financial Planning blog. So basically, price it at a point at which it makes financial sense to buy it. That price should attract buyers, who may then bid it up amongst themselves. This would also have the effect of giving you a data point on… Read more »

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Hanley is a tool!

…said Hanley, 48, who has cut his asking price to C$3.99 million…The only other option is to reduce my asking price by C$600,000 to C$700,000 to where I’d be virtually giving the place away,”

This guys thinks $3.29 million is "giving the place away"?! What a tool!

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Patiently Waiting

"The cost of “Free” Honda Civic? $103,050"

Excellent point. Also, it is amortized for 25-35 years, assuming the bank allows it in the mortgage. Typically, car loans are 3-5 years and can be had a very low rates right now, if you have good credit.

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Tony Danza

If a person wanted to sell tomorrow, what price should they list at??

You would probably have to list at $0 and take the highest bid received by the end of the day. I'm pretty certain this would result in a sale. Just tell your friend not to worry they can always rent the place out, after all according to Petard Ladner "we have like what a 0.001% vacancy rate in Vancouver?".

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Londonernow

Sorry, Shima already posted the bloomberg story above.

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Londonernow

One of the top news stories in Bloomberg today:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601213&a…

See, Vancouver is famous.

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mino3

“The only other option is to reduce my asking price by C$600,000 to C$700,000 to where I'd be virtually giving the place away,'' Hanley said. “I'm not about to do that.''

The arrogance astounds me. A perfect example of someone who will chase the market all the way down.

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vanguy

“The only other option is to reduce my asking price by C$600,000 to C$700,000 to where I'd be virtually giving the place away,'' Hanley said. “I'm not about to do that.''

Do it now, or do it later!!!

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shima

Vancouver real estate reported at bloomberg.com today. Here is the link http://tinyurl.com/5cfugt (I hope that works as this is the first time I have tried tinyurl).

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NO -LYMPICS

Re Millenium project:

Well, any construction worker on that site should consider themselves lucky. Unlike others who have had the rug pulled out from under them with all the other projects stalled or outright cancelled, , this Millenium group of workers has literally guaranteed work for almost a year ( Millenium is scheduled to be completed by Sept. 30 , 2009 ). Like Montreal's 1976 Olympics … my guess is the Millenium will be a gravy train till then with lots of O/T based on nervous Gov'ts desperate to save face.

Maybe the Millenium contractors should bring in financial advisors etc. for the site's workers so they can better face reality, given everyone else being impacted by the global financial meltdown will have had over a year head start adjusting to these new realities.

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read on

From an article in today's sun:

"METRO VANCOUVER – West Vancouver builder Sean Hanley thought Canada's real estate market would be immune to the housing recession that sent values tumbling in the U.S. Then the economy slowed and oil prices fell….

“It's been a little bit surprising the consequences of the subprime crisis have been so far-reaching,'' said Hanley, 48, who has cut his asking price to $3.99 million and is now offering a $100,000 bonus, on top of regular fees, to the agent who delivers a buyer, according to a Bloomberg News story."

*********

How does one become a successful (so far) developer and builder and yet be so obviously retarded?

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VancouverBanker

Anyone who thinks prices will only drop 20% from peak is extremely deluded. We're already 9.8% down from peak on the benchmark and it's only been six months! At this rate we'll be 30% off peak by the end of 2009, and that's notwithstanding that the drop is picking up steam and will get worse as there are construction and related-sector layoffs.

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Gadwin

>ohnoyoudidnt Says:

>

>I meant to ask, how much are people in the GVRD on average

>losing per day since the start of the decline?

The detached benchmark home in the REBGV dropped $30K in October. At that rate, if you owned a comparable home to a detached benchmark home, you would be losing approximately $1000 per day.

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blueskies

larry! you da man!

the average bear is looking for info…

a snapshot from the trenches is spot on

no spin no digression… just the facts

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