Patrick Rocca on the Summer Real Estate Market
Patrick Rocca, a real estate agent with Bosley Real Estate talks about the pace of the Summer Real Estate Market and his outlook for the fall.
Jeffrey: I’m here with Patrick Rocca, Real Estate Agent with Bosley Real Estate. Welcome Patrick.
Patrick: Morning Jeffrey. Thank you for having me.
Jeffrey: Patrick I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about yourself and your service?
Patrick: Sure. I am a broker with Bosley Real Estate; we have five offices in the G.T.A. I work out of the central office on Merton Street. I’m the top agent in the Leaside Davisville markets and service those markets primarily.
Jeffrey: Patrick, I wonder if you could describe a little bit about the summer market in this area?
Patrick: Well, for lack of a better word, it’s been a little crazy and crazy is good if you’re selling. Pretty similar to what the spring market was like, we have not had a break which is very unusual. Normally we have a very active spring market that starts sort of late January and goes through until June, and then we have a lull in July and August and that just did not happen this year. July was the second best July on record on the Toronto real estate board. In my personal business of 23 years of being a realtor in the Leaside Davisville area it was probably my best July ever.
August we’re almost now over, and it looks like for me it’s going to be one of my better months as well for August and the numbers are pretty crazy. If you’re selling a home, it’s great. If you’re buying it’s still a problem because there is just no product, it’s strictly supply and demand.
I had a property that I sold last week for almost $200,000 over asking and I had, during the open house on the weekend I had over 40 couples on the Saturday over 35 on the Sunday and over 35 showings in total during the five days it was on the market. So, that just shows you the demand and at that time, it was a semi-detatched in the Leaside area, there was only two semi-detatched in the whole of Leaside and Davisville on the market that week. The week before I had one in Davisville and I was the only semi-detached in all of Leaside and Davisville. So, just nothing out there for buyers.
Jeffrey: Given the fact that there’s not a lot of product on the market is there anything that buyers can do to help them in terms of really getting value for their hard earned dollars?
Patrick: Well I guess value’s all relative. I mean we’ve seen significant increases in prices and I guess as a buyer, and obviously I work with buyers as well, you get to a point where if you really want the house you have to really step up and pay for it or you have to say, “Okay, this is a bit crazy. I’m not paying that price for this house.”
And we see it, we see it in multiple offer situations where you get buyers come in and they don’t come in very good prices and you get two or three that blow it away. So in terms of value, it’s all relative, honestly prices have, this year alone, increased in the Davisville Leaside market minimum 10% to 12% which is unheard of in a year, let alone an eight month period.
Jeffrey: Now that’s the case for existing re-sale homes. Are there any situations that you’ve come across where there are homes which perhaps don’t show as well where buyers could come in and think about doing something after they’ve purchased in terms of fixing up space, renovating or potentially adding an addition?
Patrick: Absolutely, oh yes definitely. Obviously that’s where you would come into play but there is obviously don’t show ten-plus that need work, that need new kitchens, new bathrooms, that are begging for an addition off the back. Those homes again still are very, very, very hot commodities for buyers.
Jeffrey: Now, we’re looking at the buyers’ side. On the sellers’ side is it just basically go on auto-pilot and just put your house on the market and it will sell? Or are there things the sellers should do to get the best price as well?
Patrick: Well, yes it’s not as simple as sticking a for sale sign on your property and then letting people come through and selling it. And some people make that mistake. I see houses that I go into that have not been presented properly, that don’t show that well, and they’re overpriced. Sometimes those properties that show like that and are overpriced are good opportunities for buyers because they don’t sell right away.
That’s the only real opportunity in this market for buyers to hopefully hone in on something that’s been on the market for an extra few weeks and that doesn’t show well. When I’m selling a home for my sellers, I mean presentation is key. I bring in a staging crew. We do lots of stuff to get the home ready and make it look like a 2014 home. Pricing is important, presentation is probably as important, if the home doesn’t show well it’s not going to sell. So we work very, very, very hard at that.
Jeffrey: Given the summer real estate market that you’ve experienced, what are some indicators for what the fall market’s going to look like?
Patrick: You know what? I don’t see any change. If I’m looking at my business and what I’m anticipating in the fall, I’m seeing that there could be a few more listings. I do have several listings coming up in the fall which is a good sign, but I honestly think it’s going to continue to be a seller’s market.
I think the market is not going to change until we really get a ton of supply and honestly we’re going to have to see some movement in rates upwards as well. I mean, just because you get an extra couple of semis on the markets, there’s still hundreds of buyers out there looking for semis. So I think you’re going to have to have a bit of product and a jump in the interest rates or mortgage rates to really sort of quiet the market down a bit and I just don’t see that changing so I anticipate a very, very healthy fall.
Jeffrey: Well, thanks very much Patrick. Really appreciate your views on the market and we’ll talk to you in a couple of months to see how the fall market went.
Patrick: Thanks Jeffrey, you take care.
Jeffrey: Thank you.