Mortgage Rate Forecast - How do buyers get their keys? - Market Update - EP: 139

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On this episode of Winnipeg real estate podcast, we're going to give you the housing stats for the past month and we'll talk about what interest rates are predicted to do over the next couple of years, all in the next 15 minutes on Winnipeg real estate podcast. You're listening to the Bo Knows Real Estate podcast tips and advice for home buyers, sellers and owners with award winning Remax agent Bo Kauffmann. Hello, everybody, I'm really happy to announce that we have a new home for Winnipeg Real Estate podcast.

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It's a new home on the Web and you can easily find it at Boknows.homes/podcast. So what's so good about it? Why am I so excited about it? Well, you can find all the episodes, of course, in one place with easy access to all the major podcast players right there, as well as links to my podcast apps which are available for iOS, Apple and Android devices. But more importantly, if you go to the site on your mobile device, that is Boknows.Homes/podcast, it'll load with a little icon in the bottom of the screen, a little microphone that allows you to send me a voicemail, questions about real estate and try it out.

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Send me your questions about real estate buying or selling and Winnipeg and I'll answer those questions in an upcoming podcast. We have an example today, and I'm going to answer a question later on in this.

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In this episode came across an interesting article today at a Canadian Mortgage Trends, where the Bank of Canada is saying that low interest rates are likely here to stay for another two to three years. This announcement is expected to affect both fixed and variable rates and fixed rates might actually be falling further. In a recent survey by BMO, 57 percent of first time buyers said they'll choose a fixed rate. The article ends with some economists predicting that rates will remain low well beyond the twenty twenty three year.

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And you can find a link to that article in the show notes below.

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The main focus of this episode is going to be the housing market report for November 1st in Winnipeg. And if you'd like to see the visual copy. This is a really, really neat way to do that. On your mobile device, go to Bonos DOT Home's market, especially on mobile devices. It'll load really quickly. It's kind of a story format and you can see all the slides with all the stats for Winnipeg housing market at this time of year.

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You know, this winter, I believe a lot of people are going to forgo traveling and saving thousands of dollars in the process of not taking winter holidays. Now, some will take that opportunity to put that money back into their homes in the form of renovations or upgrades, whether you want to improve your house simply for your own benefits or prepare for what I think is going to be a very hectic spring market painting offers, in my opinion, one of the best returns on your investment.

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Now, painting your home interior sounds like an easy DIY project, but I've seen I've seen some of them go horribly wrong. So unless you're an accomplished house painter, leave this to the pros. It's well worth the money. Call my friend Rob White at Urban Topcoat, painting walls, ceilings, floors. If it doesn't move, he can paint it. Now, I'm not charging for this shout out. I'm just recommending him because I've had a number of plans use them in the past and we're very happy with his results.

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You can call Rob at two or four seven nine one eight zero two for the link is in the show notes as well. You can simply go to Bonos Dot Holmes painting. It's a new URL shortener. Just makes it easier to say, but the link is in the señores as well.

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So let's take a look at the housing market stats and Winnipeg as they are on November 1st. Twenty twenty. First, let's look at the market highlights sales over the past month or so. During the month of October and Winnipeg, we sold six hundred and seventy two houses and ninety eight condos. Now while that's down a little bit from the previous month, it is still well above last year, same time and the most expensive house sold in Winnipeg for one point six million dollars in Tuxedo.

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And there were three sales of houses of a million dollars and more. Of course, this was one of them. So total three sales of a million dollars or more interestingly, too, there are twenty eight homes right now listed at a million dollars or more available in Winnipeg. So let's take a look at available houses, available listings in Winnipeg on November 1st. Right now we are down to nine hundred and fifty five available houses that's attached detached townhouses and duplexes and mobile homes.

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That's total nine fifty five and Winnipeg. Compare that to a thousand ninety the previous month. But the especially this stark contrast is to last year, same time we had one thousand six hundred and ten available. That equates to a 40 percent drop in available listings over the same time last year. How does that break down over price range? Well, houses under two hundred fifty thousand dollars, there's fewer and fewer of those. Last year we had four hundred and forty four.

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This month we have two hundred and ninety three. The mid-range, which is Winnipeg, the most popular price range from two fifty to five hundred thousand. Last year we had just about 800 available. Right now, this year, four hundred and forty. So that's that's about a 50 percent drop. And for luxury homes, last year we had three hundred and seventy available this month, same time. Two hundred and fifty seven. So obviously available houses are way down.

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What about the sales?

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Well, we all talked about the fact that last year we sold one hundred and twenty eight and this time same time period, we sold six hundred and seventy two. That's a fifty seven percent increase. How does that break down over with a different price ranges, the lowest priced homes under two hundred and fifty. Last year we sold one hundred and thirty seven during October this year. One hundred and forty three. One of the biggest increases are in that mid-range to fifty to five hundred thousand.

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Last year we sold two hundred and fifty one homes during October this year. Four hundred and thirty nine. And percentage wise, the biggest increase is actually in luxury homes. Those are listed at five hundred thousand and more. Last year we sold 40 in the month of October. This year, more than double, we sold ninety. So when the numbers of available listings are down 40 percent and sales are up nearly 60 percent, it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that we are in a hot, hot seller's market, especially in anything under five hundred thousand, up to maybe close to six hundred thousand dollars.

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That figure is expressed in inventory days on market. So how many days will it take to sell everything that's out there? Houses under two hundred and fifty thousand. You know, maximum range would be about one hundred and twenty days. Last year it was 100 days and this month we're down to sixty four days. In other words, if nothing else gets listed, it's going to take just two months to sell everything that's out there at this rate. Midrange houses last year, we're at ninety eight days to sell everything.

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Now we're down to twenty nine days. That's three times as fast and even luxury homes last year we are at two hundred and eighty six days. Now we're down to eighty nine days. So again, if nobody listed their house going forward it will only take any nine days. So three months to sell everything that's out there at the current rate, it's just a way to keep track and just a way to demonstrate how fast the market is. So normally at this time of year, this entering its November, I would say, you know, it's not a great time to sell because normally we have a ton of inventory out there that's built up over the summer and fall.

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But this obviously is not a normal year. So if you're looking to sell your house, now is still a great time to put it on the market. There's still lots of action, lots of activity. Give you a couple of examples. House listed in its Kildonan at two hundred and twenty thousand, sold for two hundred and sixty five. The house in St. James listed four to sixty seven, sold for three fifteen. And it's not just in those price ranges.

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There's a house in the St. Boniface area that was listed at five hundred and seventy thousand. It sold for five ninety. So it really doesn't matter what price range your house is in, it's still a good time to list it right now. Give me a shout. Bo Kauffmann remarks Performance Realty two or four three three three two two zero two. We'll be right back after this short announcement. Are you looking to buy a house or a condo and Winnipeg work with the agent who takes the time to explain the process to you, guiding you through every step for service beyond the sale book, your home buying consultation with Bo Kauffmann of Remax performance today, Bo Knows Real Estate to remember at the beginning of this show, I told you about a way to send me voice mail and ask me questions about real estate.

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Well, here's one right now. Hypo, we just bought a house and the possession date is coming up. How do we get our keys? Now, this is a very common question. I get to understand that it really depends on where you are in some places in the States and the rest of Canada. These things are handled by the REALTOR®, but in Winnipeg we do things in the following way. So about a week before possession date, let's say possession date is November 15th, while the week before the seller will meet with their lawyer and give them a copy of the key as the buyer, you're going to meet with your lawyer, signed a bunch of papers and give him the directions on how to get the mortgage money that's all handled through the banks.

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Ideally, the day or so before possession, the seller's lawyer and the buyer's lawyer exchange all the information. The buyer's lawyer sends the money, the seller's lawyer sends the keys. So in a perfect arrangement, if your possession is on, let's say, the 15th on a perfect world, you're going to go see your lawyer on the afternoon of the 14th and pick up the keys the day before possession. That's ideal. Most of the times I write possession as nine o'clock in the morning, so hopefully you'll have the key before then.

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And at nine o'clock you can show up at your new place, you know, and and open the door and go in. Please understand that just because you have the key the day before doesn't mean that you have right to access. Do not go in the day before. You might surprise the seller who spends one more day in the house or just as bad. Maybe the seller left an alarm on and you're going to go in there and trip the whole thing.

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The cops come. It's a whole it's a whole big thing. Now, notice I said in a perfect world, it does happen where nine o'clock in the morning the lawyers aren't in their office yet. They didn't get the instructions the day before. And at ten o'clock, they call you and say, hey, we just got the key. Now come on down and pick it up. So for that reason, I highly recommend that you do not order your moving company or any like service techs or sales reps or anything to show up at the house at 9:00 or one that morning.

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You may not actually have the key. Now, that's not supposed to happen, but does it? Yes, it does happen. Don't order the moving truck. They're going to sit in front for a couple of hours until you get the key and get in there. So perhaps funny story time here.

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I always recommend that you get a lawyer in the city where you bought the house. So if you're buying a house in Winnipeg, get a Winnipeg lawyer. I did happen to me once where both the Winnipeg, both the seller and the buyer were in Winnipeg, but they both chose different country lawyers don't know why they I guess they had some arrangement or they had some prior history with them. So one lawyer was in Tuktoyaktuk and the other one was in Winnebago.

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I don't remember the exact places, but on possession day they've both gone on holidays and nobody told the other one. So instead of possession, everything was delayed by a week. Now, that's not supposed to happen. And if if one party had wanted out of the deal, they might have had a case to get out. But that was perhaps that was the only time I've ever had a case like that. Both parties, they were just not on them, not on the ball.

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It was like done on country time, I guess. And it all worked out well. But choose a lawyer in the area where you live. And if you're not sure and you don't have a lawyer, give me a shot. I've got a good one on speed dial and I'll send you in the right direction.

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So we've just heard how hectic Winnipeg market is over the next few months. Here's what normally happens. Normally listing slow down, as does buyer activity. And this is normally a good time to buy. But since listings are already low, there's no large selection of homes on the market for buyers to pick from. After that, we're going to enter the spring market, which is traditionally a super hot sellers market to begin with. But will it be again in twenty twenty one or will there be an increase in foreclosures and people needing to sell due to economic difficulties in the pandemic?

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Now, next week, we're going to take a look at the condo market and Winnipeg. How is it reacting to the pandemic? And could condos offer an alternative to Shell shocked buyers in Winnipeg?

You've been listening to Bo Kauffmann of Remax performance REALTOR® are you thinking of buying or selling a house or a condo in Winnipeg call Bo at 204-333-2202.  Remember Bo Knows Real Estate.