Vancouver home sales soared have 30-40%, compared to a year earlier. In Toronto, prices for single-family homes jumped 13.5% in the past year; an increase of nearly $100,000 on average; where buyers have been frustrated with the frenzied pace of sales – which has hardly given a person or a couple time to carefully think over the most serious financial decision of their lives.
Affordability in the Greater Toronto Area is tougher than it has been in more than two decades.

Insane, right? How can it last? A growing number of experts have been saying that Canada’s great housing correction is a not question of “if”, but when.

But what is being overlooked in the debate about house prices is “Jobs”.

Vancouver & Toronto have created a lot of jobs in the past year. Job growth has attracted migrants from all around Canada, as well as from around the world. National job numbers have looked weak, but for the job growth there has been, it has been mostly in these two major cities where house prices have been out of control. Employment index (sourced from National Bank’s figures) reflects that job growth in both Vancouver & Toronto has been nearly double than the national average, since 2010. However, Montreal’s employment growth has been weaker than the national average; there home prices are $100K below the national average.

Large numbers of permanent immigrants (nearly a 1/4 million) coupled with the misfortune of commodity-producing (oil) regions such as Alberta have redirected population migration flows towards Vancouver & Toronto. So as long as this scenario persists, home prices in these two big metropolitan areas are unlikely to weaken significantly.

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Would you like to super-charge your career with 40+ fresh & real leads per month? Just contact us for for information on our Canadian Real Estate Lead marketing system.

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Utilizing online tools to market your real estate business is viewed as a “must” today for agents; likewise your website is equally indispensable.

Tweets and other forms of social media outlets are valuable assets beyond your website. Twitter and Facebook are effective for connecting with and engaging with prospects, customers, and former clients (referral sources).

Twitter is an especially effective tool for agents to utilize to grow their business. Twitter an open (and free) platform; so you can engage with literally anyone. Twitter is as easy as can be to use from your office pc or your smartphone while you are out and about.

Twitter allows you to easily post links, photos, and videos – which all add more dimension to your tweets. Using #hashtags in your tweets (a word or phrase preceded with the # character) allows you to extend the conversation beyond your following; therefore increasing your potential reach.

Perhaps you are already quite the tweeter? If not, and you are ready to start building (or improving) your tweets, then here are several tips on how to produce engaging and compelling tweets.

Find the line between being personal and professional

Yes, we are all human. We need that human element, otherwise the internet, apps, and robots in diver-less cars would be able to easily replace us.

It is wonderful for your audience to get to know you on a personal level – (and possibly want to hire you as their agent). However, do be careful with the any personal information that you publicly share. For safety reasons, personal information also includes your location and whereabouts.

As we interface with the public, agents should be wary of revealing too much information. Be prudent… It would make sense to share details about your public open house; but less intelligent to share every location you are at or are planning to be at throughout your day.

Images can say more than 100 tweets

Quality photographs are more likely to catch the attention of a Twitter reader, especially if the photo is well chosen (and also looks like you personally took it instead of copied it from elsewhere). Currently you can include up to 4 photos/images in one tweet.

Using key #hashtags

Make sure you don’t clutter your tweets with more than three hashtags; vary it between one, two, and three hashtags. Use #hashtags when describing: the subject matter, a location, or your own personal tag-line that associates your brand as an agent.

Use #hashtags in a natural way

In other words, don’t group #hashtags at the end of your tweet.

Here is an example: ‘#Realestate prices in #Toronto are skyrocketing, but the market is now crashing in #Vancouver.’

This is better than tweeting: ‘Home prices in Toronto are skyrocketing while Vancouver’s market is crashing. #realestate #canada. #Toronto #Vancouver.’

Share your listings, however…

3/4 (75%) of your content should be a variety about lifestyle, real estate market news; relevant news articles, of potential interest to your audience; the other 1/4 (25%) should be about your listings. Imagine tweets just all about your listings; most people would find that quite boring.

Also it can be handy to use some scheduling tools like Tweetdeck, Buffer, and Hootsuite. These services will publish the tweets that you have entered in advance.

We hope you have found this article useful? If so, let us know, as we love hearing from you. You can find us on Twitter @realestleads. You can tweet us any questions you might have about our leads service, or to share something funny perhaps or to just say hi!

to your colleagues to see your competition soar! jk 😉

Tweet: realestateleads.ca/blog/producing-compelling-and-persuasive-tweets-for-your-real-estate-business/

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Possible current market frenzy in Toronto & Vancouver before the 5% down-payment door closes.

This month’s home sales in Vancouver and Toronto (Jan/Feb 2016) could spike as people rush to get in before the 5% down-payment minimum door closes. This market is about about to see a lot of condominiums selling for $499,999.

The government is altering the rules on residential real estate down payments, but at least, in this case, giving all interested parties a two months advance notification. The change by February 15th, 2016 could be causing a market stampede.

Along with this change in BC and Ontario, Ottawa is upping the minimum down-payment concerning government-backed loans from 5 to 10% on “the portion” of a home selling for more than $500,000. The average transaction easily exceeds that amount. in Vancouver and Toronto.

Rates are still low and the weather have unseasonably warm; which only amplifies sales figures.

In the past, the Tories implemented changes and somewhat rudely made them effective immediately. This time around, an adjustment period was factored in.

The new measures hope to cool and stabilize the Vancouver and Toronto markets. The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) announced in December a yearly sales sales record. Vancouver sales were up 40% over year and the benchmark price for a home rose 17.3% over 2015

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Would you like to super-charge your career with 40+ fresh & real leads per month? Just contact us for for information on our Canadian Real Estate Lead marketing system.

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The Canadian Real Estate Association anticipates the average home prices to increase by 1.4% in 2016, to $449,000. Ontario supposedly will lead other regions, a 2.9% price gain.

CREA expects average home prices in Alberta, Labrador, Newfoundland, Saskatchewan, to decline further in 2016 because of the downturn in the price of crude oil. The association is estimating average Alberta’s home prices will fall by 2.5% in 2016. Saskatchewan home prices are expected to fall by 1.2% and by 1% in Labrador and Newfoundland.

Canada’s national average home price, however, is expected to edge higher by 1.4% in the year ahead, to about $449k; with Ontario leading the other regions with a 2.9% increase.

CREA says that low interest rates are boosting sales, however recently announced federal reforms pertaining to mortgage lending rules will have a negative effect beyond the scope of intended targets in the Toronto & Vancouver area; which are now widely recognized as Canada’s most expensive markets. Minimum down payments will be going up for homes that are selling for more than half a million; so the more expensive housing markets will be affected most. The regulatory changes will also cause unintended collateral damage to housing markets beyond Vancouver & Toronto; including places that are still under the strain of low oil prices. Sales activity in Calgary’s housing market, which has been hit so hard with the record slip in oil prices, will be affected by the higher minimum down payments for homes above $500k.

CREA’s recently revised 2016 forecast says that property sales were up 1.8% between October & November. Half the other markets covered posted declines. The Greater Toronto Area and Lower Mainland area of BC had the biggest month-month gains. The national sale price was up 10.3% to just about $457k on average. Excluding the areas of Vancouver & Toronto, the national average price would have been $339k in November, up 3.4% from last year’s figures. CREA’s MLS home price index was up 7.1%, the largest gain in more than five years.

CREA is expecting Canada will have the 2nd highest sales activity on record this year; an increase of 5% to 504k units expected in 2016. Partially offsetting increases in most provinces, estimates are that Alberta will see a 21.4% decline this year. Saskatchewan is also facing a 10.8% decline in sales activity compared with 2014. Nova Scotia will see a 5.1% decline, according to CREA’s estimates. British Columbia is expected to have the biggest increase. Ontario home sales are projected to be 9.3% higher in 2016 compared to last year; even though hampered by a shortage of single family homes around the GTA.

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Would you like to super-charge your career with 40+ fresh & real leads per month? Just contact us for for information on our Canadian Real Estate Lead marketing system.

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