We’re here with a quick market update to keep you educated about the real estate market in Simcoe County and we are introducing you to the newest face on The Fournier Experience Real Estate Team!
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(Rich)
Good morning everyone, Richard Fournier here from The Fournier Experience Real Estate Team here in Barrie with Re/Max Chay. I’m sending you a quick video update about what’s happening in the market and we have a great announcement. We’re very excited to have someone who has a lot of experience in the real estate world, specifically on the new build side. His name is Andrew Bogues and he has joined us officially as of this week. Everyone in our circle, Andrew Bogues
(Andrew)
Nice to meet you guys!
(Rich)
Andrew, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself and about what’s going on in your world.
(Andrew)
Absolutely. I’m originally from Barrie, born and raised. I spent some time out in Alberta doing new home sales. I really honed in my understanding of mechanics and aesthetics from the ground up. I really gathered my experience out there and have brought it back home. With my wife and I having kids, we’ve ended up moving back to Barrie to be closer to family.
(Rich)
That’s awesome! Andrew is extremely handy so for any of your investors that are currently working with us or thinking of working with us, Andrew is definitely the person you need to speak with when you are looking at properties. He has a great eye towards those sorts of things, he’s very mechanically inclined, which I am not. My wife is more mechanically inclined than I am. We also have some other news, Andrew is a dad with two children, with a third on the way so in the next week he will be a proud father of his third child so if you don’t hear from him over the next couple of weeks, that is why.
He has a couple listings that he’s bringing over to the team as well, so maybe you can tell us a bit about the listings and what is happening with them today.
(Andrew)
Absolutely. I have two listings. One is located in the Sandycove Acres Park, the Parkbridge Lifestyles Community. It is a 2 bedroom bungalow, 1.5 bath bungalow, completely renovated top to bottom with new roof, new windows, new doors, new siding. It’s maintenance-free and a great location. We also have the property in Angus at 15 Lookout St. It is a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 storey, detached (linked underground). It has been renovated, nicely updated with fresh paint and so forth and on a great lot.
(Rich)
Now there are open houses on both those properties this weekend?
(Andrew)
correct
(Rich)
and what days are those?
(Andrew)
We have 55 Hawthorne Dr in Sandycove (Innisfil) on Saturday from 12-1 and 15 Lookout St (Angus) between 12-2 as well.
(Rich)
So if you have some time this weekend come on out and take a peek at these two listings!
On the flip side, let’s talk a little bit about what’s happening in the market today. So, pleasantly surprised and happy – January 2018 has turned out to be a very good month in real estate in Simcoe County. With all the new mortgage rules that have been enacted as of January 1st, interest rates going up, we thought the market may be a lot slower. As it turns out it has been a pretty strong market in regards to unit sales. We had 117 unit sales in Barrie (on the Barrie & District Real Estate Board), which is about a 14% drop from January last year. Simcoe County as a whole had 226 transactions in January which is a decrease in volume of 19% from last year. But last year was the most insane real estate market that I’ve ever been involved in, so I don’t even want to talk about last year. I’m pretty happy with the results that we saw in January 2018. It just tells us that buyers are absorbing the new rules quite well. People are always going to move in every single market and as it turns out we are probably going to have an amazing spring market. If you are considering your property back on the market or putting it on the market for the first time, we should start getting ready. We should have that conversation because the market is speeding up.
I was talking to some mortgage people last weekend and it turns out that the last 3 or 4 days in January, mortgage applications were going through the roof. So, having said that, if you are considering listing, let’s have a conversation. If you are considering buying, inventory is increasing. It’s not as strong as it was last year, but we will see more listing hitting the market in the next couple weeks.
In the meantime if you have any questions or concerns about what’s happening in the market, we’re always here.
Stay tuned though, next week we are bringing someone pretty special to this video update. Her name is Petra Evans, she’s a mortgage specialist over at Scotia Bank. She’ll be talking about what’s happening in the mortgage market and the real estate market and things you need to become aware of if you are in the process of moving. So, stay tuned for next week and in the meantime have a great weekend and if you need us, we’re always here! Chat soon.