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Whether you’re moving to a new city for college or university, relocating your family for work, or settling in a new community later in life, there’s always an adjustment period when you’re out of your comfort zone. Sometimes it’s a move across town, sometimes it’s a move across the country, but settling somewhere new can come with challenges.
When you find yourself in a position where you need to move to an unfamiliar area, how do you assess it? How can you tell whether you’re choosing the right neighbourhood, the right school district, or even the right street? The internet can be helpful, but it can’t offer first-hand analysis or understand your exact situation.
Plus, for many Canadians, the other half of moving to a new community is selling their current home. How do you make the right decisions about when to sell, and how to best position your home when you make the move? Do you know which market trends will have an impact on your unique situation, and what trends could work in your favour?
The answer lies in working with a REALTOR®. A REALTOR® can not only access the latest and most accurate market data, they understand how more specific moving trends will impact those coming into the neighbourhood.
Data tells a story
Brett Perreault from the Sara Walsh Real Estate Group of Royal Lepage Connect, who works mostly in the rapidly growing Durham Region just east of Toronto, Ontario, was always interested in data from a macroeconomics perspective, but when he entered the world of real estate, he appreciated how data can also be used to tell a story.
“The numbers are tremendously helpful,” said Perreault. “Sometimes we’ll encounter a client who thinks they have an idea of the value of their home, but the number in their head is from nine months and three or four interest rate hikes ago. A lot can change numbers-wise in nine months.”
REALTORS® know how to analyze market trends using their experience and expertise. This helps them understand what certain insights might mean for the near future and allows you to make data-driven decisions.
Understanding neighbourhoods
“We’ll survey people totally new to the region and get a sense of their lifestyle, their budget, their wants and their needs,” said Perreault. That knowledge then helps them direct newcomers away from certain neighbourhoods, or into others.
Perreault also added for newcomers arriving from a slower area, market trends in a busier location may be a surprise.
“We might see a client coming to us from a slower market, where more days on market and much less frenzy around the sale is common,” said Perreault. This can lead to a bit of a shock when moving to a faster-paced market. For example, “[clients are] often surprised when they look at Durham, where things can happen at lightning speed.”
Often for those clients Perreault and his team recommend selling their home first, in order to take advantage of market trends and have a better sense of their buying power before moving.
However, depending on the market, it may be wiser to buy before selling. It all depends on where you’re looking to move. Denae McCullough, a real estate agent and REALTOR® in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, told us “market conditions are the number one consideration when deciding to buy or sell first. The market can shift quickly, so seeking the advice of your REALTOR® and learning about the market in your specific community, and the community that you’ll be buying in is important.”
Key factors to keep in mind
Yes, numbers are important to consider. But there are other elements to keep in mind:
- New developments: REALTORS® could be aware of potential new developments in a prospective neighbourhood. New construction might increase the value of other homes in the neighbourhood, but it could also mean years of construction and noise depending on how close you are to the development.
- Businesses: If more and more businesses are opening up shop in the area, it could be an indicator that the neighbourhood is growing. On the flip side, if businesses are closing, it could be an indication of the opposite. Your REALTOR® will have insights into what’s coming—and what’s going—and can help identify what this could mean for the neighbourhood.
- Demographics: Technically still more numbers, but the overall demographics of a prospective neighbourhood can indicate the direction in which the area is trending. A younger neighbourhood may be poised to experience an uptick in businesses, events, restaurants, schools, etc. If you’re in the same age bracket as the largest demographic, this is great news. However if you’re looking to downsize and move into a quieter neighbourhood, it may be a red flag.
- Perspective: Let’s say you’re looking to move from Kingston, Ontario, to Toronto. If you sell your three bedroom home in Kingston for around $520,000, you shouldn’t expect to buy a similar-sized home in Toronto for the same price. Your REALTOR® will help provide perspective on what you can expect to find in the same price bracket, or if you’d need to increase your spend to purchase a similar home.
Working with a REALTOR® who understands your needs
While any REALTOR® can identify and understand trends, it’s still important to find someone who understands you. Sara McKinley, a Regina-based REALTOR® with Century 21 Dome Realty, stressed the most important thing for REALTORS® is to put the client’s needs first.
“It’s not about me, it’s about them,” said McKinley. “I try to walk a mile in the buyer’s shoes.”
McKinley gets to know her clients well – joking, she’ll “be their best friend for the next six months.” In that period she gains an understanding of their lifestyle, dining habits, school requirements, worship practices etc. so she can help find the right property and location for them. She aims to make sure buyers can get involved in their neighbourhoods in a way that works for them.
McKinley added, while assessing market trends is key, local knowledge is also crucial, especially when it comes to finding property outside of the city centre. She’ll frequently direct prospective clients into some of the smaller communities outside of the city if those communities better suit her client’s interests.
Your REALTOR®’s ultimate focus is finding the home and neighbourhood that best suits your needs, where you’ll be happy for years to come. From housing stats to local insight, they can help identify trends in prospective markets so you can make an informed decision.
