Progress

What a great week! Was able to firm up D&A's great home in Kitchener.

Started working with C to find her a condo here in KW. Spent a few days checking out those on the market, ruling out those that don't fit her needs and landed on one that we may do an offer on tomorrow. It's the classic overpriced listing though, so then timing becomes important. We'll see how it goes!

I did a lot of work this week over at L's place. She's been away and not able to get her place ready, so I've been helping out with getting painters in and getting some odd jobs done. Even spent some time painting and cleaning myself! L has been extremely grateful as she was running out of time to get everything done and sent me these BEAUTIFUL fall flowers to thank me. What a treat!!! Her place will be listed tuesday and will show much better than where we started! I'm confident we should be able to sell it quickly and for much more than had we not done all of the work.

Off to for a little R&R before the weeks starts up again!

Fall Market

Well, it's been a busy first couple weeks of September. My kids are back in school and I'm still singing that Staples commercial..."it's the most wonderful time of the year...." (there, now you have it in your head too!).

D&A found a lovely home in Kitchener and we spent a few days trying to work out that deal. Amazingly we were able to get the sellers from a 5month close to 2 months (better for my clients) and down $8000 after only being on the market for a few days (better for my clients) and got all the appliances included yet too! Tomorrow we do the home inspection and if all goes well they'll be in their new home before December. Great news.

This morning I spent a bit of time getting some exercise and dropped about 70 flyers into the mailboxes of specific homes in R&S's preferred neighbourhood. I'm hoping to get a few calls from people thinking of selling so we can try and find a great home for R&S.

Last week I was able to attend the Re/Max Twin City Fall kickoff event. Sat thru an inspiring talk from a successful Realtor from Quebec who then encouraged us to attend his next event and sign up for coaching. Once again a reminder for me, that the whole over the top "I'm great" style of being a Realtor is just not me. I don't need to make millions to be successful. If I've chosen happiness, my family is happy, and my clients are happy than that's all the success I need. There's my 2 cents! Venting my little beef with so many of the programs out there that help Realtors.

Still getting L's place ready to list. I think there was more work to be done than time so after she called out for some help I've enlisted a few helpers to go in and get the painting done, trim up, doors rehung and hopefully ready to go for the weekend. Staging really is important. So, the more we can get done the better the place will look and hopefully the faster I can sell it for her!

This afternoon I'm off to a listing presentation. A few weeks back I took some clients thru a home in kitchener that was listed on a private sale site. There are a number of agents in town which target these private sales in hopes of getting the listing. I laughed when I saw the 1/2 a dozen or so magnets she had on the fridge from some of the 30-40 agents that had contacted her about listing! I am not one of those agents, and I think that's why she has called me to do a listing presentation for her. She's thinking of putting it on MLS since she has not been able to sell it privately. So, off to her place this afternoon to explain how I'm different.

A quick thanks to a few of you who have recently told me that you've passed my name along to someone you know who's thinking of buying or selling! Thanks so much for getting the word out there for me! Referrals really are the best compliment!

Off to do some stats for the presentation. And get cleaned up after this mornings' wet walk with flyers! Fun stuff! :)

Thx for reading!

August Stats

August Stats are in and show that consumer confidence in Kitchener Waterloo continues to gain momentum. Although average house sales are still down my a minimal 1.7% in comparison to last year, the volume sold in Aug 2009 was a 26% increase from Aug 2008. Check out the full media release below.

http://www.kwreb.on.ca/Stats/August%202009%20Media%20Release.pdf

This week continued to be a busy week. Ongoing search for D&A resulted in a number of showings this week. One of the ones they thought they might consider sold over the weekend and another that we went for a second visit at got an offer that night. Things are moving folks especially in the $250,000-$350,000 price range.

R&S were able to view a lovely backsplit in their dream neighbourhood, but were concerned about the number of updates the home needed in order to make it suit.

W&K decided to rent their condo and have decided to put off finding a new home for their family for a few more months.

R&C are out of province and trying to decide whether to come back and purchase a condo here in town.

L is getting her 4 bedroom house ready for the market. Cleaning, painting, redoing the driveway, new flooring. It's going to look great. And I've been checking out the competition in the price range and nothing has come up for weeks. Between the staging results and the lack of competition, the money she's pouring into her home in order to sell is going to pay off. I'm even thinking I'd like to list is a few grand more than we originally thought.

And things are moving along at the Grand River Lofts. Construction has started with the replacement of all the windows. Plans are being prepped for approval and we're happy to be starting off the fall with an Agent Open House event at the Lofts Wed. Sept 9, 11-1pm. Join us if you can, refreshments will be served!

September is here. I've always found that once the kids are back to school I often get a few phonecalls out of the blue from buyers or sellers wanting to work with me. Judging from the strong August numbers, I expect this September will bring some more lovely people out of the woodwork for me to work with. Can't wait! Know someone? Pass along my name! I work solely on referrals and word of mouth.