We've been looking at some wonderful houses on MLS in and around Montréal, but I was wondering:

- do the best houses make it onto MLS? Do realtors just point them to their favourite clients?
- are people selling privately a lot (as I've just done)?
- should a good house sell quickly or if it waits around a lot is that the sign of a "lemon"?
- do sellers expect offers below or above the asking price?

Thanks for your experience!

Most houses make it onto MLS because most people sell through realtors and most realtors belong to the MLS system. The seriously expensive properties are, I suspect, often not sold through MLS.

Quite a few people sell privately, to save paying the high realtor's commission. Success depends to a large extent on location. A "sale by owner" sign in the front garden can work, if people see it. The guy across the road from me tried recently and failed dismally. Our road is a small crescent off another small crescent. You don't come here unless you live here. Potential buyers simply didn't know that his house was for sale. He eventually conceded defeat and signed up an agent, who sold the place in about a week.

Good houses should not stay on the market for long, particularly not in Montreal and at this time of year. The pictures of a house will give an indication of how long it's been up for sale (do you see daffodils or snow?). Places that are not selling are either over-priced or have something wrong with them. "Wrong" can mean many things. A very nice-looking house near me was on the market for ages. I looked it up on MLS and found that it has only one bathroom. That's a big turn-off for many Canadian buyers. Another nice house near here also didn't shift. It's about 20 years old and similar properties, in the same price range but brand new, are on offer about two hundred metres away.

Prices/offers can vary a lot. If a place is really hot, and has several parties interested, offers may well go above asking price. For the house we have now, we offered 10% below asking and the seller countered in the middle. We accepted, although we would have paid more. It's worth mentioning that we were the first people to see the house (it had come on the market that day). We liked the house and considered it to be under-priced, so we moved very, very quickly on the offer to make sure no other potential buyers got a foot in the door. The process of viewing, offer, counter-offer, acceptance, inspection, deal-done and trip to the lawyer took place between mid-afternoon on Friday and mid-morning on Sunday.

There are lots of houses on www.welist.com as well, the site is for people who don't necessarily want to use a realtor.

David Beckham plays for Los Angeles.

That reminds me of our experience. We visited Moncton armed with a list of a dozen places to look at. On our second day (Friday) we noticed a for sale sign across the street from one we looked at. It wasn't on MLS until that day.

Our agent arranged for us to see it later that afternoon. Our process was all completed, including the inspection, all within 24 hours of walking through the door.

Approximately 90% of all houses sold in Montreal are listed on the MLS in. One may assume the remainder are private sale or closed sale (between family members/friends, or auctioned off . . .).

The MLS has two forms of access: one is for the general public (MLS.ca) and the other is accessible only to realtors - this one is a type of pre-showing for realtors. You can only get access to this pre-showing MLS through a registered realtor.

As stated by Souvenir, take a look at the photo; snow means a house that has some problems (houses that are overpriced or have serious disclosures generally sit for a long time). Houses in Montreal tend to be in two classes - recently renovated and in need of serious attention. Buyer beware!

The housing market has been in a small slump recently - many houses are selling 5-10% below the asking price.

House prices in or near the city of Montreal (within 5-10 KM) are high ($300K-$600K) and genarally lower in the suburbs ($150-$350K). Access to the city from the suburbs is becoming increasingly troublesome for many - as are the outrageous double-taxes now placed on the assumed rich families that live outside of the city . . .

As a side note www.welist.com does not cover Quebec. Try Proprio direct (http://www.propriodirect.com/info_en/entreprise05.htm) for semi-private property sales.

Bonne chance.

Like this: http://app2.interfacexpress.com/pcs/...SearchID=13945

I'd partly disagree with this, it's not necessarily an issue at all - when I listed this spring there was still snow on the ground. Taking photos then wouldn't have done the property and business much justice, so I used pictures taken the previous summer and fall.

We are talking about Montreal (which is in the province of Quebec). If a house was listed in November (with subsequent photo) and it is now the 5th month (May) then there is something wrong with the house or the price. This 'aint Kampools.

In my experience no, the best houses don't make it to the MLS. A realtor's favorite client is anyone they know who is willing and able to buy.

Only a small proportion of sellers in the Vancouver area. Anecdotally, they seem to have varying levels of success.

It depends upo the state of the market to some extent. Three of four years ago a sensibly priced house would sell in a few days. At the moment they are selling in a few weeks. But, generally, yes. If a house sits on the market beyond the average selling time it is overpriced or there is something wrong with it.

Again it depends on the market and how sensibly the house is priced, but generally you would start by offering below the asking price. It has to be realistic offer however, or it will be rejected out of hand.

<Sigh>

Thanks, I know where Montreal is. Are you familiar with 'Kampools'?

Not sure what point you're trying to make, but I think you've got the wrong end of the stick.

You stated "take a look at the photo; snow means a house that has some problems (houses that are overpriced or have serious disclosures generally sit for a long time)" This clearly implies that photos with snow in them mean that the house has been on the market for some time.

I disagreed, on the basis that photos don't necessarily represent when a house went on the market, only when the photo was taken, and I gave an example to illustrate this point. Personally I think it's dumb to use photos that don't show the house at its best, and a picture taken in the summer is generally better.

I understand the point you're trying to make but, at least in these parts, decent houses sell quickly. If I went on MLS now and saw a picture that was clearly taken in mid-summer, my fiRst thought would not be "what a nice house" but "why has that house been on the market so long?".

That reminds me of a house in Oakville I saw advertised on MLS a few years back. It was one of the very posh lakeside ones and worth a fortune. The advert stated quite bluntly that only people with a net worth of more than (tens of millions) should bother enquiring.

Same. Lots of houses have been up for a-g-e-s here, it's easy to spot them by snow/no leaves/high summer photos even without access to the listing date.

If I wanted to show what the house looked like out of season I'd make my wrong season pic an extra one, not the main listing pic so it would be clear.

Isn't it the case, though, that the pictures posted are the ones taken by the realtor when the place is listed?

Can you edit my post, BTW? I don't want to be associated with thoughts of fisting.

I guess so, I was saying if I wanted to show that usually my house didn't look like a pile of snow covered mess, I'd stick the summer shot in the "more" pics, and not have it as the main one, as alarm bells would be ringing for me too.

I know you can supply your own photos to realtors for MLS use, we did for the Winnipeg house sale as it was a rotten grey day when he came to take pics, and we happened to have the sunny blue sky one available from the listing when we bought 2yrs before