“It’s all soooo good, David! We are so happy with you guys!! Loads of blessings have come out of this for us!”
Our phones are filled with client group chats, and each time I read the latest update from our kind, patient, and generous client above I’m blown away. This client has been navigating the rollercoaster of Langley’s challenging real estate market with us for months now. A couple of Fridays ago a lengthy subject to sale offer expired on her property and yet she’s continued with her praise – this is certainly a reflection of her, but I do hope it’s also a reflection of how we’ve tried to handle this more challenging market.
“What makes a ‘Good Realtor’ in a ‘Bad Market’?”
I’ve been thinking a lot about this question recently. Before I get into what makes a good Realtor (and we’ll wrap with a good client too), is it really a ‘bad market’? I’m not supposed to say that, I know, but then I’ve never been one to worry too much about the results of being honest. In my professional opinion, this is one of the toughest markets we’ve had to navigate in the near decade I’ve been in real estate.
Looking at the latest SnapStats (which we’re happy to share with you, just reach out!) here’s what we’re seeing in the Langley Detached market, one of the strongest markets historically this last decade in the Lower Mainland:
Declining Prices:
The average detached home price dropped from $1,583,000 in January to $1,450,000 in February—an 8% decrease in just one month.
Rising Inventory:
Inventory increased by 18%, rising from 340 homes in January to 400 homes in February, creating more competition among sellers.
Low Sales Activity (Sales Ratio):
Only 14% of detached homes listed in February actually sold (57 sales out of 400 listings). This low ratio highlights weakened buyer demand and increased difficulty for sellers.
The three statistics above are indicative of what appeared in late December and early January to be an early spring market cut off at the knees by the tariff talk that’s engulfed Canada this last month. And yet, there are of course still transactions taking place! A sales ratio of 14% is still a balanced market, it just takes some navigating, and to do that well it requires a good Realtor.
So, what actually makes a good Realtor in a bad market?
I asked that question on my Instagram stories the other day and some megathemes definitely came through:
1. Honesty
Those of you that have been through a home buying or home selling process will be familiar with our typeform onboarding, and will have been asked, ‘What matters most to you in partnering with a real estate professional?’ On almost every. single. one. of those responses we see the words ‘honesty’ and ‘trustworthiness.’
So what does honesty look like in this market? Multifaceted. Right from the get-go we’re honest in our expectation setting. Before preparing to list a home our clients receive a full consultation which includes a ‘By The Numbers’ sheet, providing an expected sale price range. We always calculate our fees on this page based upon the upper end (being doubly conservative) but we also ensure the client knows our sense of what a reasonable ‘floor price’ could be on their home.
We’ll always try to outperform, but we won’t ‘buy a listing’ by giving clients unrealistic prices – that’s just a planned disappointment and not the experience we look to deliver. Of course, the clients can ‘test the market’ higher, but they do that from a position of being informed that they’re likely in a higher price range than the market will currently support. At the same time, we’ve advised many clients to hold their price where they are, even for months at a time, because the data still points to that being around market value – we don’t want to participate in the race to the bottom unnecessarily.
2. Patience
The ‘days on market’ of listings are higher than we became used to in the early 2020s, with many properties now taking months to sell rather than weeks or even days. It’s still important to capitalize on the first two weeks of a new listing, but with limited buyer demand we need to buckle in for the long-haul. That doesn’t need to mean open houses every weekend, but we certainly encourage them following relistings or price adjustments. It also means we adjust our marketing, testing different tactics to reach the right buyers (and their agents).
Patience for us means that we don’t lean on our clients to make adjustments faster than they’re willing to make them. Frankly, in real estate we’re always the last to be paid. Once we’re on market we’ve invested thousands of dollars into a client, if we didn’t have the patience to trust the process it would be tempting to lean on those clients for a timeline that they’re not comfortable with personally – we’ve not done that, because we ourselves are also patient.
3. Options
In my experience, too many Realtors mistake their role in a real estate transaction. Our role is not to be dictators, it’s to be advisors. There are often multiple paths towards a sale and each client will push and pull levers like price, timing, condition of the home, etc. based upon their personal situation.
For example, if we’re selling a property for clients who have a firm timeline on a move out-of-area they’ll likely be more aggressive with their listing than someone for whom it’s a ‘nice to sell but not necessary at this time’ situation.
We’ve also hit a scenario recently where by the nature of our investment in Walnut Grove over the years we’ve had to recuse ourselves from transactions between buyers and sellers we’ve had an agency relationship with in the past, we’ve always tried to find a way to put those clients needs above our own and even recommended ‘cutting us out’ of a transaction and recommending lawyers draft the contract – that was an option for the prospective clients and we made that clear to them.
4. Collaboration
Combative negotiations get us nowhere these days – every transaction is taking a significant degree of collaboration and cooperation. Contracts used to be negotiated in hours, they’re now often negotiated over days or weeks. Two of our sales so far this year had negotiation periods that lasted weeks. Offers expire and are revisited. Due diligence often happens before an accepted offer – we recently decided not to reopen negotiations on a New Westminster condo that it turned out would have a $100,000 levy in the coming years.
We’ve even been trying to negotiate an offer for a Vancouver condo with a listing agent who’s seller is in the hospital and after 120+ days on market they still don’t have a power of attorney; at times we’ve had to step back from our frustration and continue trying to work with the listing agent while still trying to push them to legally present our offer. A recent Fort Langley listing of ours had a showing with one of our own agents at Royal LePage Wolstencroft, immediately after the showing we debriefed together and I check in with them on their buyer’s situation weekly. It’s definitely a market that requires collaboration over competition.
That’s The Answer
In a market like this one, you need a Realtor who will be honest with you, no matter the outcome; you need them to be patient, especially when it’s tempting to make drastic changes; you need them to remember their role as ‘advisor’ rather than ‘dictator’; and you need them to know how to collaborate to bring a transaction together.
What makes a ‘Good Client’ in a ‘Bad Market’?
Wrapping up, what makes a ‘good client’ in a ‘bad market’? We’ve never been shy with setting our expectations of our clients, we spell it out in our initial consultations with the ‘What We Expect of You’ page in our guides. We ensure we understand your expectations of us, and we ensure you understand your responsibilities too.
In this market we encourage our clients to remain hyper-communicative, keep us informed of your position, any questions you may have (even concerns), and to overall just keep talking. We’ve also found it’s in the client’s best interest to not take things personally, often the response of the market is not a reflection of how your property is showing, it’s a reflection of a soft market in general. Finally, we do appreciate our clients loyalty as we stay the course, we’re heavily invested in achieving your best outcome!
In February we managed to sell one of the toughest listings we’ve ever had, there were nearly ten offers, four separate listings, and many, many reasons for the transaction to collapse around us again. In spite of the challenging circumstances the sellers stuck with us and achieved the best result possible in the current market. Those are the kinds of results we’re now known for, and exactly what we’d like to offer you.
Your Good Realtors
I don’t know how many times I’ve looked at Emerson and Amanda this year and sighed, ‘other people’s Realtors…’ These are the markets where the experts stand out and the pretenders are exposed.
If you’d like to discuss with us your real estate goals for this year, or if you know someone else that needs true professional care, we’d love that opportunity. Our goal would be for you to be able to say what that same client we started today’s article with said in another recent message:
“What a crazy ride… and I am so happy it’s with you guys!💕💕”
We’re grateful for that wonderful seller’s trust, and continue to depend upon your trust too as we help others navigate today’s market conditions. Thanks again for all your kind introductions and encouragement, it means the world.