Ottawa and Surrounding Area Real Estate market discussion

Someone is testing the barrhaven town home market pricing again:

$452000

Applesmack wrote: ↑ Hoping for a bidding war. Will sell well over asking guaranteed. I'm pricing it at about 380k. Would be over 400k as an end unit.

jk9088 wrote: ↑ Underpriced for sure to generate demand but I don't think it's worth anywhere that high. House is quite old (especially compared to other homes in the Morgan's Grant area, many of which are at least a decade newer) plus it looks pretty small, and most importantly it's only 1.5 bathrooms (which always goes for a significant discount compared to the typical 2.5 bathroom townhouse that is popular these days). I don't think comparables in the area support a price point of 380k. I'd say 350k is closer to fair value.

Although in this market we have definitely seen houses being overbid into insane territory (like the recent examples in Barrhaven) so I guess it's possible someone desperate to get a house will bid that high.

Applesmack wrote: ↑ Taking another look I think you are right that it being only 1.5 bathrooms makes 380k unlikely. I think being 1.5 bathrooms makes it unlikely they will see a large bidding war as well. 1.5 bathrooms is as bad as 2 bedrooms. Maybe even worse.

FYI, sold for $341k

StefanW499 wrote: ↑ Someone is testing the barrhaven town home market pricing again:

$452000

46 Madelon sold for $425k last week and IMO, it was worth more (This one has a "cut out" in the family room at the back which I find really affects the flow based the pictures and the other one had the master extended over the entrance at the front so it appears that it was a bit bigger and also had a deck and hot tub which might not appeal to all buyers but I think it does add some value).

michelb wrote: ↑ FYI, sold for $341k

Wow that was fast. Thanks for the update. Houses are really being snatched up as soon as they hit the market these days! That price sounds quite fair, though I'd say they might have been able to squeeze out a few k more if they waited a bit longer for more people to view the house by withholding offers for a few days. I saw this with a house in Barrhaven too, sold immediately (one day) at a price I thought was lower than what they could've gotten (compared to other houses in the Barrhaven that went the open house + withholding offers method). But I think some sellers just want a quick sale to be done with it and don't want to bother with all the craziness.

jk9088 wrote: ↑ Wow that was fast. Thanks for the update. Houses are really being snatched up as soon as they hit the market these days! That price sounds quite fair, though I'd say they might have been able to squeeze out a few k more if they waited a bit longer for more people to view the house by withholding offers for a few days. I saw this with a house in Barrhaven too, sold immediately (one day) at a price I thought was lower than what they could've gotten (compared to other houses in the Barrhaven that went the open house + withholding offers method). But I think some sellers just want a quick sale to be done with it and don't want to bother with all the craziness.

They weren't accepting offers until 6pm on Sunday April 7th which is the typical way of doing it if you want to attract multiple offers. The only thing that might have helped is if they listed it a few days earlier to give prospective buyers more time to see it (they listed it on Friday April 5th). But realistically it's probably about what the market will bear at the moment - they still sold for $40k above asking and it's probably assessed at a bit of $300k so quite a bit over assessed value.

FWIW, looking at sales for the past week (about 500 in all of Ottawa MLS which includes rural areas), it seems to me that we aren't getting as many crazy overprice offers. This one was likely one of the biggest premiums over asking price but they arguably priced it below market value to attract multiple offers.

michelb wrote: ↑ They weren't accepting offers until 6pm on Sunday April 7th which is the typical way of doing it if you want to attract multiple offers. The only thing that might have helped is if they listed it a few days earlier to give prospective buyers more time to see it (they listed it on Friday April 5th). But realistically it's probably about what the market will bear at the moment - they still sold for $40k above asking and it's probably assessed at a bit of $300k so quite a bit over assessed value.

FWIW, looking at sales for the past week (about 500 in all of Ottawa MLS which includes rural areas), it seems to me that we aren't getting as many crazy overprice offers. This one was likely one of the biggest premiums over asking price but they arguably priced it below market value to attract multiple offers.

In this market, if you are selling a garden townhouse with 3bedroom and 2.5bath at around $330k-$350k range (based on the past two months sold price), what is the best method to get the max price? Set the price as the seller willing to sell or don't accepting offers until a week after listing and attract multiple offers?

Not sure if this was posted already but Ottawa is now Canada's fourth most expensive housing market:

Link

StefanW499 wrote: ↑Not sure if this was posted already but Ottawa is now Canada's fourth most expensive housing market:

Link

Prices are still very reasonable imo. And the government and tech companies there keep it stable with consistly having new people move to the city.

audiorichard wrote: ↑ In this market, if you are selling a garden townhouse with 3bedroom and 2.5bath at around $330k-$350k range (based on the past two months sold price), what is the best method to get the max price? Set the price as the seller willing to sell or don't accepting offers until a week after listing and attract multiple offers?

If you are selling in a hot area the best strategy I have seen is list the house on Thursday, host an open house Sat/Sun (plus do additional showings for people who can't make the open house), withhold offers until Sun night/Mon/Tues. This maximizes the number of people seeing your house and therefore number of offers. Offer date is flexible depending on the houses around you, for example I saw two houses listed on the same street using this strategy, one house accepted offers Monday while the other did offers Tuesday (to avoid competing directly against each other and "splitting" the offers).

audiorichard wrote: ↑ In this market, if you are selling a garden townhouse with 3bedroom and 2.5bath at around $330k-$350k range (based on the past two months sold price), what is the best method to get the max price? Set the price as the seller willing to sell or don't accepting offers until a week after listing and attract multiple offers?

I'm not an agent so take this with a grain of salt but with the current demand for properties in that range, I would think you're doing yourself a disservice if you didn't wait a few a certain amount of time before accepting offer. I think you list on Wednesday or Thursday, offer an open house on Saturday and / or Sunday (just to try to maximize the number of prospective buyers that can come through) and don't accept offers until Monday afternoon (or Sunday evening). Personally, I'd suggest Monday afternoon as it does give prospective buyers the opportunity to speak to their bank before making an offer with no conditions. For any house that's more than a few years old, I'd recommend doing an inspection and making that available to prospective buyers. Pricing is arguable; I think it's fairly common for homes to be listed below market value in order to attract more buyers and get an offer above but personally, I prefer listing at market value. If there's interest, you'll likely get above asking anyway. One potential problem with listing low in hopes of getting multiple offers / significantly above asking is that you might scare off legit buyers because you are attracting buyers that are looking for a deal (e.g. if you list at $229k rather than $249k, you might scare off legit buyers at $250k because all of a sudden, you've get 6 prospective buyers (but 4 of them don't want to / can't pay over $235k) and so the one that might pay $255k decides we doesn't want to get involved in the bidding war.

As far as not accepting offers for a few days. As a buyer, it sucks and you can lose some buyers this way (e.g. military buyer is in town for a few days and wants to leave with a firm offer signed might pass on your property) but the reality of the current market is that most new listings will have it and buyers are stuck dealing with it and it's unlikely you'll lose a buyer because of it.

blackdragon12 wrote: ↑ Prices are still very reasonable imo. And the government and tech companies there keep it stable with consistly having new people move to the city.

I kind of disagree; government salaries are not high (I think avg might be $60-70k/year) and I think we're getting to the limit of affordability for that kind of salary. Upcoming federal election could likely mean PC win which would likely negatively affect government hiring. As far as tech, there's quite a bit but not that much and a lot of Ottawa tech companies offer services to the government which would likely face similar downturn if the Libs are voted out. Other than Gov and IT, there's not much industry in Ottawa. Already education and health sectors are likely facing downturns with the Provincial government so personally, I wouldn't be surprised if RE prices go down in the coming years (but I certainly didn't predict the current hot market either!!!)

I kinda agree with you here. I work in the government as well, and the average salary is anywhere from 50-70k per year before deductions. Typically for 50-70k, with no debt, banks would only give you a mortgage of around 320k. Depends how much one can save on downpayment, especially if they are currently renting, then I find it difficult for an individual buyer to purchase a small townhome (which is now going for 400k in the suburbs).

Where I differ with you is that the market seems to be more geared towards couples buying. A couple with 2 income, even on the low end of 50k, can definitely afford a townhome in the 450k range or even slightly more.

The hot market was/is definitely affected by the recent federal government hiring by the Liberals in 2015. More people coming to Ottawa to work "indeterminately" = more people buying houses. Not to mention the global markets has been on a surge as well after the fallout of 2008.

The question now is whether the global market can continue to rise and/or if we get a change in government in October (definitely hiring freeze initiated, as Scheer has said he will try to balance the budget in 2 years). One or both of these factors coming to reality will definitely affect the Ottawa housing market.

Forgot to mention that Government employees also pay about 5-10k,/ year into their pension so from $60-70k/year, your take home is not that much after taxes, pension, union, etc.

CookieTrain wrote: ↑ ....
The question now is whether the global market can continue to rise and/or if we get a change in government in October (definitely hiring freeze initiated, as Scheer has said he will try to balance the budget in 2 years). One or both of these factors coming to reality will definitely affect the Ottawa housing market.

A goal of a balanced budget in 2 years will mean program spending cuts and this will definitely have an impact on the housing market.

skeet50 wrote: ↑ A goal of a balanced budget in 2 years will mean program spending cuts and this will definitely have an impact on the housing market.

From the previous experience, even there are program cut, it will take few years before it will impact the federal employees. If layout off begins right after Conservative win the election, then Federal jobs will become very unstable jobs.

I was at the open house for this one last Saturday: https://www.redfin.ca/on/ottawa/166-Gra ... /149267443
And I think there was like 20+ people.. Never seen that many people at open house.
A friend of mine told me that there was a very similar property on the same street went for $780k last year.. crazy market indeed.

Will this trend continue in Kanata?

sky417 wrote: ↑ I was at the open house for this one last Saturday: https://www.redfin.ca/on/ottawa/166-Gra ... /149267443
And I think there was like 20+ people.. Never seen that many people at open house.
A friend of mine told me that there was a very similar property on the same street went for $780k last year.. crazy market indeed.

Will this trend continue in Kanata?

It will be interesting to see if they get their price. 161 which appears to be a larger model sold for $800k a few weeks ago but it does not have a ravine lot and the evaluation on this one might be higher . In January, 115 sold for over a million so there is demand in the area but it's city eval was quite a bit higher than these two.

michelb wrote: ↑ It will be interesting to see if they get their price. 161 which appears to be a larger model sold for $800k a few weeks ago but it does not have a ravine lot and the evaluation on this one might be higher . In January, 115 sold for over a million so there is demand in the area but it's city eval was quite a bit higher than these two.

Yea I actually went to the open house for 161 as well, I think it was priced at $829,900.. was the final price $800k?
Another one with similar price: https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/2042 ... nata-lakes
Apparently there is nothing below $800k in this area anymore.. Remind me of Vancouver RE market back in early 2000s

sky417 wrote: ↑ Yea I actually went to the open house for 161 as well, I think it was priced at $829,900.. was the final price $800k?
Another one with similar price: https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/2042 ... nata-lakes
Apparently there is nothing below $800k in this area anymore.. Remind me of Vancouver RE market back in early 2000s

Kanata Lakes is a pretty small area. Detached in rest of Kanata is not doing all that well. Detached outside greenbelt in rest of Ottawa is not doing all that well either, as other posters have noticed the shrinking premium between freehold towns and small singles.

Being from Vancouver, I don't Kanata RE is going to triple anytime soon, as much as I hope for that to happen. Way too much land. Mattamy is now building towns in Richmond Village, of all places.

StefanW499 wrote: ↑ Someone is testing the barrhaven town home market pricing again:

$452000

This one definitely seems overpriced. Will be interesting to see what they are able to get for it...

michelb wrote: ↑ They weren't accepting offers until 6pm on Sunday April 7th which is the typical way of doing it if you want to attract multiple offers. The only thing that might have helped is if they listed it a few days earlier to give prospective buyers more time to see it (they listed it on Friday April 5th). But realistically it's probably about what the market will bear at the moment - they still sold for $40k above asking and it's probably assessed at a bit of $300k so quite a bit over assessed value.

FWIW, looking at sales for the past week (about 500 in all of Ottawa MLS which includes rural areas), it seems to me that we aren't getting as many crazy overprice offers. This one was likely one of the biggest premiums over asking price but they arguably priced it below market value to attract multiple offers.

Ah I didn't realize it was listed on Friday, thought it went up more recently. I agree it's a totally fair price, but in the current market it seems like most people are able to get a good amount above "fair price" for suburban townhomes, so in that respect I think they would've done a bit better by leaving it on the market for a few days longer before accepting offers. Proper strategy is important in this market to get maximum selling price for your house. I don't think the list price/amount over asking really means anything since it was definitely way underpriced on purpose, and the assessed value also doesn't mean too much in this environment (where I think pretty much all houses are going for significantly above the MPAC assessed value).

michelb wrote: ↑Pricing is arguable; I think it's fairly common for homes to be listed below market value in order to attract more buyers and get an offer above but personally, I prefer listing at market value. If there's interest, you'll likely get above asking anyway. One potential problem with listing low in hopes of getting multiple offers / significantly above asking is that you might scare off legit buyers because you are attracting buyers that are looking for a deal (e.g. if you list at $229k rather than $249k, you might scare off legit buyers at $250k because all of a sudden, you've get 6 prospective buyers (but 4 of them don't want to / can't pay over $235k) and so the one that might pay $255k decides we doesn't want to get involved in the bidding war.

I totally agree, I don't like the strategy of seriously underpricing a house. You will definitely get more offers, but the percentage of quality offers will decline, so there's no point. Doesn't matter if you get 30 offers if 20 of them are well below market value (but above the artificially low asking price), might as well just price it fairly and get those 10 good offers. There seems to be several sellers lately though that were playing this "underpricing" game, and it still worked well for them. I guess it can go both ways--you may scare off some legit buyers (who decide to just go bid on another property that has less people submitting offers), but you may also push other legit buyers who really want your house into increasing their offers after seeing how many other people are bidding.