Dave and Jo

Hi Guys,

Can any one help with details of a web site that gives actual prices paid for property in Canada {Nova Scotia}.

We have sold our place in the UK and are moving next June but like most in the UK we have taken a big {£75,000} reduction on our price to sell.

We are hoping to make up some of the "loss" on our purchase and are hearing lots of stories about vendors taking big reductions on the MLS price but we are hoping to get some idea of the actual trend.

Any references for sites will be really useful.

Many thanks,

Dave and Jo.

Aviator

Your Realtor should be able to find out for you and advise you. You won't find this on a web site. These guys may have the information available, but you would likely have to go in http://www.pvsc.ca/
The listing may say what properties in the area sold for. As a rule government assessed property values bear no realtionship to reality.

Dave and Jo

Thanks Aviator, I took a quick look at the site and cant find a listing that gives values for actual sales, I will take another look and see if I can find a link.

The type of site I was hoping to find is similar to our inland revenue sites that show actual completed sale values.{linked to stamp duty figures}.

The issue is that Canadians I know are saying you never pay close to the price listed on MLS but the relators are still talking up the values and saying the Canadian property market is holding up {thats their job I guess}.

I will still put in offers well below the asking price but dont want to offend people.

Thanks again for your help.

Cheers,

Dave and Jo.

bimchick

People in Halifax usually pay close to the asking price...I don't know about the rest of NS. Where are you looking to move?

Aviator

There is not a site that gives actual prices paid. You would have to go into the office to find this information. If you hire a Realtor to represent you as a buyers agent, they should give you this information, you will have to ask through. Your Realtor would get paid if you buy a house, they get their commission from the sellers agent.

Helen Parnell

Like the other posts have said, there is no site you can go to and find the information out by yourself. You ask people like me. Just to give you an idea, it really depends on how good your realtor is and how comfortable are they at 'low ballling' When going in lower than list price you have to know the trend in the area, what local properties sold for, how long on the market etc.

Two cases recently in Cochrane. One house listed at $679,000 the other a nicer house 10 doors away $699,000. The $699,000 was conditionally sold and no one knew the price. We had to wait for it to go 'sold' on the wednesday. I knew this. My clients really liked the house at $679,000 and wanted to write an offer on Tuesday. NOOOOO I wouldn't let them. Wait until Wednesday. What ever that house sold for we can go in lower. Our plan worked. House at $699,000 sold for $625,000. So we went low and brought $679,000 house for $610,000.

Another house up the road, listed in January 08 $562,000. sold in October $400,000.

I have to emphasis it depends on the realtor. A fellow realtor has just helped two fellow expats. Both have brought houses for about 50-60,000 more than they should have. Some realtors do not like to negotiate or low ball.

Anyhow back to your post. House prices are slowly going down and some excellent bargains are to be had in Calgary. No one knows what is going to happen in the new year, so you could get a 'steal of a deal' or the prices may be the same or starting to move up. At teh moment over the year, houses have dropped on average about 10 - 12%

moondevil

Hi if this helps, but not in NS

We have spoke with a guy today regarding pricing etc, he has advised that the sellers are not yet hungry, but they will be there next year
He buys houses for a living, so yeah knowing him for a while now im listening, the housing market here hasnt gone like the uk, but best to rent and wait i would say at the moment

Unless you find one that you fall for

Canada2006

It really depends on how good the seller's realtor is. Like in the UK, some will suggest a too high valuation to get the property on their books. Obviously you can expect to take some of the value off the asking price. At the price levels we were looking at, $300k - $400k that would be around $10k on a house that was correctly valued for sale.

Until you've looked around though, it's hard to know what's under or over valued. The house we bought was, in my opinion, slightly undervalued and we paid less than I was ready to pay. Our Realtor was acting for the seller as well (that's another thread entirely) and suggested that our initial offer was too low, but did work hard to get us a price we were happy with including by reducing her commission slightly.

Dave and Jo

Hey Guys thanks for all the info and advice, really helpfull .

We are looking at several areas in NS but all outside Halifax....too busy there for us Devon folk.

Helen, we will certainly be looking for an agent like you....have you any contacts in NS ?

Thanks again for taking the time to help,we will keep you posted.

Cheers,

Dave and Jo

destinationnovascotia

We used Carla with A&H GMAC and she was excellent for us. She took us to look at general areas in NS as we didn't want to live in the City either. She then helped us narrow it down. During the negotiating phase she helped us to get a good deal too.

You can contact her on [email protected]

I hope that this helps,

Lynn

emmae

Just struggling with the concept of a realtor working on behalf of the buyer yet being paid for their services from the seller.

From my understanding the buyer's realtor receives half of the seller's realtor fees. Probably, stating the obvious but if this is the case, why is it in the buyer realtors interest to negotiate lower prices? Surely lower prices equal lower commission?

destinationnovascotia

I see your point, but the reccommendation I have just made illustrates why.

If I thought that I had paid over the odds for my house I wouldn't have recommended Carla. An additional sale from a recommendation will get more income for a realtor than an extra few $100 on a sale.

Also Realtors are regulated so if lots of people were complaining aout bad advice they would be investigated.

Paul Wildy

destinationnovascotia is absolutely right - if the buyer's agent's share is, say, 2.5% of the sale price and they negotiate you a discount of $20k the price they are only loosing $500 which is better than the sale not going ahead at all because you (the buyer) thinks the price is too high.

Paul Wildy

If you are looking in a pretty remote area a long way from the city you may be able to negotiate a decent discount but if you are looking at a popular area thats commutable to Halifax (say somewhere like Porters Lake or Fall River) then I wouldnt bank on getting a massive price reduction. As someone else said above a Realtor is able to look on the MLS system for you and see actual sold prices but I'm not aware that people are slashing prices of houses near Halifax yet - they went up by 11% to the end of Sept 2008 and people moving into the area seem to still be paying close to the asking price I think.

But the good news is that you will still get WAY more for your money than in Devon so even if you are having to take a drop on the price of your house you should still be much better off buying here.

Silverdragon102

We offered $10,000 below asking price and was accepted. Had a great realtor that advised us on what to offer and when counter offer came in told us to stick to our original which we did and was accepted. Love it where we are up near the NB border