Column: What is my house worth?

By Shawn Lackie

That’s a good question and one I get asked a lot these days. People are curious and always wanting to know how their largest personal investment is doing. I wish there was an easy answer to this but such is not always the case.

When the pandemic hit, many newer agents would simply ask their seller client what they wanted for their home, and Voila, there was the price! Often times that would work because the buying frenzy was full steam ahead and people were paying what was asked, and in many cases much more than that. Bidding wars were the flavour of the day, so when the dust settled the seller wound up with way more than originally expected.

That was an unrealistic and unsustainable market, as we have seen in hindsight. Many of those purchases were made when interest rates were at a record low. Yet, now they are renegotiating their rather large mortgages, the buyers are finding out just how much they overpaid.

It would seem, we are getting back to a more reasonable marketplace. The agents now have to earn their keep, and, by this I mean, when someone asks what their home is worth, they have to dig in and do some actual homework.

One of the largest hurdles to be cleared is, making the seller acutely aware of the current market trends. It no longer matters what the neighbour down the street got for their home in 2020. Prior to 2016, if you wanted to price a home you would look up comparable recent sales. These would have to be homes which were similar. You can’t compare a bungalow to a two-storey house, for obvious reasons. A one car or two car garage, the size of yard, amenities, proximity to schools, shopping and transit, recent upgrades, whether there is a pool or no pool, if there is an assessed value, well, you get the drift. When the madness hit in 2019 most of these matters became superfluous. People were just buying, plain and simple, but now they DO matter.

So, when someone asks what’s it worth, the agent had better be able to explain these differences. Many times the seller will say, “This is what I want” and more likely than not, it’s an unreasonable number. Hey, I think my place is worth a million bucks too, but would I get that in today’s market, not a chance.

We have seen the average price drop in the Scugog area, in the last year or so. There was one place which tried to get $1.2 million and it was up for quite a while. Then they dropped the price to $1.1 million. Still no takers. They cancelled their listing and came back a few months later at $999,000, with still no takers. When the light finally went on, it listed at $799,000 and it sold in a matter of weeks.

So, when I have someone tell me, “This is what I want and I won’t take a penny less,” and it's for an unreasonable amount, I usually say, “Well best wishes with that and I hope you find an agent who will make that happen for you because it won’t be me.”

Now, more than ever before, people are not rushing into rash decisions, so if you do decide to sell, make sure you get the feel of the current market and list accordingly, otherwise you’ll be sitting with a 'For Sale' sign on your lawn for a long time.

Feel free to check out this story and more on The Standard Newspaper website, at www.thestandardnewspaper.ca, or on my blog site, at https://slackie14.wixsite.com/buy-sell-and-more