Headlines recently about how it's getting more & more expensive to be a real estate investor.  What's an investor?  A person or company who decides to buy real estate for the purpose of leasing or renting it out.

Rising financing costs place a bigger burden on the owner who will be looking for bigger rents to offset those costs.  Bad news for renters but it's always a question of supply & demand that sets price in the end.  It can only be what the market will bear.

In Vancouver it has always been a challenge to cover operating costs & money was made on the lift when the real estate was sold.  There's more attention now on rising costs as owners have been hit with costs of entry, operating costs (maintenance fees in the case of condos), insurance in the case of single family homes, & in the case of older buiildings, the costs of repairs & replacements.  

So we have rapidly rising costs for most landlords but rent controls with existing tenants which doesn't come close to offsetting them.

When a clients wants to know about investing in real estate, this is the information I share.  Investors must be clear on the short & long term costs & benefits to make a decision that makes sense for them

Rising prices are making Sellers happy-no surprise there.  Sellers are Buyers usually though so they may feel the pain when buying.  

Another group that is getting happier & not so obvious, is those homeowners renewing their mortgages.  Why?  When prices dropped during all the interest rate hikes, it often ate up the equity in a home.  Traditional lenders want a minimum of 20% equity so now that prices are coming back, it should put a smile on this group's faces.

They say location counts in real estate but it's also timing to max out the price on the sale of your home.

You may have heard of the "Spring Market" & historically that has been a great time to sell, but what about the other months of the year if you can't make it happen in Spring.

A recent study was released showing the relative benefits of selling during the calendar year.  This data was tracked over 11 years & more than 46 million houses & condos.  There will always be local differences but overall it's a trend that's our best barometer of selling for the most & maybe for Buyers, times to avoid if they can.  Read more about this here.

We've always heard that there's a "spring market" in real estate going back years when families bought in the spring so that they could move & their children could be registered for school in time for September.

Depending on where you live there could be other peak selling times too but the most comprehensive report has recently been released from Attomdata.  It analyzed 51 milion sales of houses & condos in the US over 11 years & found that Sellers got the highest premium on sale price during these months:

May 12.8%

June 10.7%

April 10.3%

Every market is a little different but it does show a general trend that's hard to argue based on their data.  Not surprisingly, the price premium declines in the last few months of the year.

Vancouver is always a crazy market, often an anomaly compared to the rest of the country but as we sit in our Sellers' market (as of the latest April stats), we find that we're not alone.  In fact, most of the country's major urban centres are in the same position.  We simply don't have anough housing to meet the demand.

Major change I'm seeing in these recent stats is the number of days that a listing is on the market, usually in the 1-2 week range.  That means Buyers are out there & looking at listings at the first opportunity.  It's a "snooze, you lose" situation for Buyers.  

There will still be overpriced listings that will take longer to sell but for the most part, Sellers are pricing sharply to attract Buyers which usually means a fast sale.