Should you Sell your Home this Summer?

Hi everyone, I’m James Garbutt. And I’m Denny Dumas. And this is the Garbutt Dumas Real Estate Podcast.

Denny: Quick answer, Monica, should you list your house in Summer of 2022? 

Monica: I’d probably wait right now until beginning of September. 

Denny: I say no, podcast over. Have a great day. 

Monica: That’s it. Don’t do it.

Denny: This is such a funny question and we get asked all the time like should I wait till September? Should I wait till next year? Then the answer is always It depends. It depends what you are looking to do. It depends what stage of life you’re in. Are you upsizing, downsizing moving out of the city. It is a full equation of life is not just a should I sell today or tomorrow? And these are these are fun conversations because once you start addressing this full equation question, it really makes a lot of sense for a lot of people. And so, I think my answer would be if you’re looking to upsize, I don’t know if there has been a better time in the last five years. 2019 maybe. But 2019 also was slower for your condo or townhouse that you’re trying to sell. Whereas a lot of condos and townhouses priced correctly right now are still selling quite quickly. And that single family home that you’re looking at or have been looking at for a year is, been hit the hardest in most neighborhoods. So I would say I would arguably say there hasn’t been a better time to upsize in the last five years or so.

Monica: For sure. I think after buyers right now, there’s a lot of choices and opportunity. If you’re a seller and you don’t have to sell right now. I would just, this is the time where I would kind of wait and see. Wait and see what happens. The rate, the rate changes just happened. Let buyers adjust let people get reapproved. There’s absolutely no harm in waiting. The weather is still beautiful and September, you’re not going to miss out on a lot of curb appeal. I would wait. I think that the market is going to improve through the fall. And definitely I feel that it’ll improve by the spring so I don’t see any harm in waiting right now. Unless the equation is you found a home that you want to buy.

Denny: Yeah, I mean, again, it depends like what, what you’re trying to achieve with this whole move. And if you are downsizing, if you’re selling your family home that you’ve lived in for 25 years, you are going to a condo or a townhouse or I‘d probably would steer the waiting if you are okay living in that house for another year or two. I think your single family home will be worth more in 12 months from now than it is today. I think it’d be worth quite a bit more and 24 months than it will, than it is today. And that condo that you’re potentially downsizing to has not dropped in value as much. If you are looking out of town as a downsizer. This is another big, well it depends. Depends on the market. I mean a lot of out of town, smaller towns in BC or outside of BC have been hit at equally as hard as Greater Vancouver. So if that downsize that you’re looking to do to the Sunshine Coast or to the island or to the Okanagan has come down a couple 100 grand similar to your home then the equation is similar and on the buy side you’re probably going to have more options and it’s probably going to be a much more comfortable buying environment than it was three or four months ago and then it will be in 12 months from now if you are waiting. So I’d say the person who I’d steer to wait is an investor who doesn’t need the cash out of their investment property. No harm in waiting another year or two, rents are high and going higher. I might as well hang on to it. If you are a downsizer I would look at where you’re trying to go and reassess. But that’s where I may steer you to waiting a little bit. If you’re an up sizer I would say foot on the gas immediately looking to make this move as quickly as possible because I don’t think this law is going to last super long.

Monica: Yeah, totally agree. Like it’s a buyers market right now. So we tell our sellers not to sell. We tell our buyers to buy, that’s what it is.

Denny: Yeah. Especially when you’re looking to upsize to like a long term family home. Waiting for the next rate hike may affect you positively may affect you negatively depending on if that comes and when that comes. We could see activity pick up in the fall. I think a lot of consumers are just like. the shock of the interest rate hikes seems to be subduing a little bit and people are okay with you know the reality of a 4% interest rate for now. And I think, I think the fall could pick up an activity so that buying environment that is out there right now is very chill. It’s very fun, to buy a house right now you get to do whatever the heck you want. You got seven to ten days on subjects. We wrote an offer last night and we told the listing agent this is gonna be 150 grand under, under list price and he’s like “Yeah, sounds great. Write it up. Let’s see it.”

Monica: Do you know what happened to me last night for the first time? I got countered less as a, as a buyer. I put an offer in for a buyer and the seller countered me less than our offer amount because they wanted quicker dates. $10,000 less than my offer. They countered me. It was crazy. I was like what is happening? Of course my buyers will accept!

Denny: If you wrote that offer in February this year, instead of countering less so, because sellers are understanding that this is reality. Right? And good Realtors are understanding that this is the reality. There’s a, there’s negotiation again, right. So you’re saying okay, well, I really need this date. So if you give this to me, I’ll give you five grand off. I’ll give you 10 grand off whatever that may be. Versus in February, it was like nope, this is the date I want and you’re gonna pay an extra 112 grand, right?

Monica: I was already asking for 20,000 off list and then they countered another 10 less with their dates. It was bizarre but we accepted it but that’s the market we’re in.

Denny: It’s, it’s fun to see the shift and it’s fun to like, you’re having different conversations in markets like this versus those busy markets with other realtors is your almost like fishing for, for how far you can push the envelope right like, say they counter you 10 grand less to give you their dates. There’s still the opportunity to call back and be like, ah, you know, this is gonna be really challenging for my guys. They’re renting, you know, whatever their story may be. We’ll do it for 15 grand less, right? Versus in February someone counters you and it’s like, well, we need these dates and we want an extra 50 grand you’re just like yeah, sign it, as quickly as possible. We finally got one right.

Monica: They’ll live with their grandparents until they can get in.

Denny: Totally, they’ll live in a tent, it doesn’t matter. Live in their van. I think that’s it for summer. Short and sweet. Depends on your situation, we love having these conversations to just kind of game plan what, what move you’re trying to make but short story is: up-sizers go look to buy. Your condo or townhouse has not gone down as much as the house you’re trying to buy, downsizers I’d say be cautious but it depends where you’re going heavily.