Today is Thursday November 10th and this is the 43rd episode of the Marshall Report. Welcome to the podcast.
In this weeks’ episode:
1. Snow tires and travel
2. Question of the week: How much does a bathroom renovation cost?
3. Best of KW
4. KW real estate year-to-date
5. Thinking outside the bun, box or wall
6. Blowing in the wind
7. East, west
8. 8 Real Estate Market Trends in 2016
9. Participation
10. French and Taiwanese dogs
Let’s get on with the show.
Snow tires and travel
I got the snow tires on the cars last week. I’m early this year. I heard on the radio that although we had a mild autumn, the winter will be early and cold. According to the weather forecasters, after Remembrance Day, all bets are off. We will likely get our first snowfall before the end of the month. I don’t know if they’re right, but I’m ready and we’ll see. I won’t be here for some of the winter and that’s always nice. It’s always nice to break up the winter with a little more spring, summer or fall.
I like to travel. It is one of my five things. It is a great chance to live in the present. Travel randomizes your life. You learn how little you really need. You chill out, slow down and spend a lot of time with yourself as opposed to spending it with other people.
Question of the week: How much does a bathroom renovation cost?
At this time of year, I get invited out to people’s homes. As they consider selling their homes next springtime, they want to know what price they might get. They want to know what they can do to get ready for sale. What they can do to stage their homes and what they can do in terms of repairs and improvements.
In terms of price, that’s easy, realtors like me have lots of comparable neighbourhood sales information at our fingertips. If you are a busy real estate agent like I am, maybe you’ve personally been inside one of the comparables. That’s gold.
In terms of staging, the most sensible thing to do is to remove 1/3 to 1/2 of your stuff. Flat surfaces sell homes, so clean off the countertops, tables, shelves and walls. And then there are bathrooms and kitchens. Bathrooms and kitchens sell homes. They should be clean and in good shape.
But what about renovating? Should you do that kind of big improvement? That really depends on the rest of the house and personal presence. Perfect houses sell quickly and often over-asking price, but doing a reno just to sell is usually not such a great idea.
We can talk about it.
But here is a good rule of thumb when considering renovations. Take the cost of material and double it for labour. A simple bathroom reno should cost about $6000.
There is a guide that Carson Dunlop puts out in the show notes
Best of KW
You can take this one with as many grains of salt as you wish but the Best of KW winners were announced last week. Here are some highlights
Best bakery: City Cafe
Best Thai food: Northern Thai
Best local reporter: Terry Pender
Best yoga: Queen Street Yoga
Best new cafe: Smile Tiger
Best Patio: Boathouse
Also on the list DVLB, MPC, KPL, Yeti Cafe, TriTAG, West of Seoul, Apollo, Starlight, Cameron’s and a whole lot more.
There is a link in the show note where you can see the complete list.
KW real estate as of the end of October
October statistics tell us that we are still hitting the highs in Waterloo Region real estate.
Year-to-date, as off the end of October, there have been more than 5800 residential transactions this year, compared with just over 4900 last year, that is an increase of more than 18%. At the same time, the number of new listings is remaining low – 54% fewer this October compared to last October.
Average prices are up:
Detached houses sold for 14% more in October compared to a year ago.
Townhouses are up 23.9%
Semi-detached are up 17.6% and
Apartment style condo units are up 5.6%
Personally I feel that the nuttiness is over, but that might just be a seasonal thing. Things always calm down this time of year.
Thinking outside the wall. I was watching a movie on Netflix last night. It was so 80s: with the beat heavy synth music, the big hair and shoulder pads, the colours, even the furniture. And everyone was smoking cigarettes, all the time, in the office, in the car, in the diner.
It got me thinking about normal. We always think about the time that we are living in is normal but when we look back we always see the changes very clearly.
I get to experience this time warp personally every once in a while when I visit a house that has not been updated for decades. Carpet and wallpaper, wood panelling, textured ceilings.
When I was a kid growing up in the 70s there was a show on TV about the 50s. It seemed like such a long ago time to me, but my mom loved Happy Days. She said it was just like that. And then 10 years ago there was a show on TV about the 70s and to me it seemed both foreign and spot on.
Time moves on. We don’t notice it because we are moving through it.
We are currently living through a revolution – the Information Revolution. Someday historians will look back on it, like we look back on the Industrial Revolution.
Just like the Industrial Revolution, our revolution wasn’t inevitable. When you look back you wonder why did take so long to happen? When you look back or when you watch an old movie you quickly realize how slow and cumbersome it was to get things done, you wonder how did anything ever get done?
So I was reading an article about the Industrial Revolution. It argued that it happened in Europe instead of China for a couple of reasons:
1) Europe was fragmented and therefore there was lots of competition. Innovation comes out of competition – looking for an angle, looking for an edge. China was stable, unified and content.
2) Because China had standardized testing for mandarins. Though progressive, this lead to thinking from the same mold generation after generation. This rigidity knocked creative thinking out of of the picture. This is how we do it. This is how we always do it. Not good for change. Nlot good for progress.
The devil’s hairdryer
Here is a captured thought. Leaf blowers should be outlawed. They are noisy pollution bombs. I mean gas powered lawnmowers are bad enough but leaf blowers too. Come on. Get a big rake. Don’t be that neighbour.
East, west. Which is best?
A legacy of the Industrial Revolution is that east sides of cities tend to be poorer than west sides. The east sides of New York, London and Paris are noticeably and famously poorer than their western sides. Toronto too if you look east to Scarborough and Whitby, then look west to Burlington and Oakville. Its obvious.
And it turns out there’s a reason. Researchers say that it’s due to the impact of air pollution starting at the time of the Industrial Revolution and continuing till today. Prevailing winds in the U.S. and Europe typically blow from west to east. We know this firsthand in KW where the regional landfill is located west of Westvale. There residents sometimes complain about its smell.
Of course although the west side of towns may be cleaner, there is one drawback of living on the west side of town – commuting. If you live west you are driving into the sun both to and from work.
8 Big Real Estate Market Trends in 2016
Interesting is never a good word in real estate. 2016. It was an interesting year. I know the year is not quite over yet but a lot of sales have happened and the trends are pretty clear. Most of these trends will also likely continue into 2017. The real estate market in big. It does not change overnight. I talked about trends here.
This week’s call to action is to participate.
I often get calls and emails from people who want to get themselves signed up to receive listings by email. That fine. That’s good. I can build a file and you will start receiving automatic updates of homes matching your criteria.
But what’s next?
First comes looking and then comes shopping, right?
So I’m going to check in and ask what you’re learned, what you would like changed and eventually when you would like to start visiting homes. That’s participation.
If you are not participating in the process then there is no process.
I’ll leave you with this parting thought.
Whenever I hear someone talking to their dog in a foreign language I think to myself. That dog can’t understand that. Of course, I’m wrong. I know I’m wrong about that. I just can’t help myself.
