Whether you are buying or selling your home, the process requires energy, patience, and experience in the real estate industry. Most people often seek the services of a real estate agency to ensure that the process goes smoothly.

With so much value attached to the property, you can’t select any real estate agent. It is recommended that you hire a trusted and experienced professional who can guide you through the buying/ selling process.

In this post, you’ll learn how to confidently choose a real estate agent.

Hiring the Right Real Estate Agent

When looking for a real estate agent you should look for someone with local experience and industry knowledge. But you also want to ensure that you find someone that you trust. Buying and selling homes is a stressful and emotional process so you want to find someone who will have you back every step of the way.

Here are some things to look for when hiring an agent:

Full-time Agents

Many part-time real estate agents in Regina are great at what they do. But the difference between a part-time and full-time agent is the convenience and availability they offer. If you’re needing to buy or sell a home relatively quickly a part-time agent might not be able to meet those time constraints.

A full-time agent, however, will work with your schedule and be more available to answer your questions throughout the process.

Local Expertise

You should only hire an agent who knows the area and its neighbourhoods like the back of their hands. You want someone who has interacted with the area and knows its dynamics. Their experience can come in handy when negotiating the best price for your property or advising you on neighbourhoods to buy in.

Agents You Click With

Your real estate agent is your representative. For you to close on a property, you must be on the same page in terms of prices, ideal property, and other pertinent issues. This requires some level of coordination and communication.

When you find an agent that understands your wants and needs the home buying/ selling process is made easy. What’s more, when you have this connection you can feel more confident in your decisions when buying/ selling your home.

Someone Who Offers Advice

Your real estate agent should be in a position to offer changes, suggestions, or advice that will make the buying or selling process easier. The best agents in the business will offer you sound advice, based on their experience to ensure that you find the right home or sell for a great price.

Questions to Ask a Real Estate Agent

Truth be told, buying a property will be one of the most significant investments of your life. Therefore, it’s important to choose the right real estate agent. Here are some questions you should ask a potential real estate agent:

How much experience do you have?

In a typical interview, the experience would refer to how long the particular individual has been in the business. But this isn’t the only way to see a real estate agent's experience. To better gauge, an agent’s experience, test their knowledge of the local market and the price of homes compared to your property.

Before the interview, do some research on your local housing market as well as on the area's economic performance. As you interact with the agent, gauge their answers. If they have many years of experience and can prove that they understand the market and stay up-to-date on any changes to it then this is a sign that you can trust the agent with your time and money.

What does your marketing plan look like?

Don’t receive a one-paragraph answer for this question. Expect a detailed breakdown of what your agent is going to do. The plan should include creative and tested solutions that will make your property stand out from others on the market.

Thanks to the internet and developments in technology, digital marketing is a crucial part of the marketing process. The agent should have web listings that use high-resolution images and video tours to advertise the property. A good real estate agent will know how to market your property in ways to attracts plenty of buyers.

What is your commission rate?

Generally speaking, real estate agents typically charge around 6% in commission. This is divided between the buyer’s agent and the sales agent. The commission is however not set in stone. You can bring out your negotiation skills and get the best price possible.

In the negotiations, inquire about the budget and any sales-related expenses that the agent will be required to pay.

Can you provide any references?

This is one that many homeowners or to-be purchasers forget. Once you get the names of previous clients, reach out and ask about the quality of services that you can expect from the agent. An agent with plenty of satisfied clients is one you can trust.

In Conclusion

Finding a trust worth real estate agent is so important when looking to buy or sell a home. If you’re looking for a trusted real estate agent, teach out to Jennica George and book an appointment today!

The sales and prices of real estate across the country are surging.

Unsurprisingly large urban centers like Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver are behind the push. However, recently trends have changed due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and low interest rates. The combination of these two factors has resulted in a surge in demand in more rural places and small towns and cities across the country.

Admittedly, the national averages on housing prices can be misleading at times. You may get caught up in those numbers and think that all markets across the nation are properly represented by that value. However, this isn’t always the case.

The truth of the matter is that some smaller markets are be doing quite well despite what the national averages might suggest. Take Saskatchewan, for instance. The province usually tends to be an outlier in regards to national figures.

However, even with its number presenting below the average price of houses in surrounding provinces, Saskatchewan continues to post remarkable figures.

Below, we’ll look at Regina’s housing market and how it fares in comparison to other markets.

A Look into Regina’s Housing Market

Admittedly, the real estate market in Saskatchewan isn’t quite as steep as other parts of the country. Be that as it may, it’s still heating up. Regina, in particular, has seen a surge in residential sales since the start of the year.

According to the Saskatchewan Realtors Association (SRA), real estate sales in Regina soared by up to 70%. Specifically, the market saw an increase in sales from 213 in March of 2020 to 362 in March of 2021.

This is not only a huge increase in a 12-month period for the city of Regina. However, if we look further back we see a 50.2% and 48.7% increase over the 5-year and 10-year average respectively.

What’s more, this growth didn’t stop in March. It continued through to April as home sales in Regina increased even further to 392 during that month. This was an increase of over 172% when compared to the same period last year.

As for the year-to-date sales, they shot up by a whopping 91% compared to the first four months of 2020; surging from 621 units to a staggering 1,186 units.

And with the sales increasing, so did the housing prices. According to the measurements conducted by the MLS Home Price Index (HPI), the price for a single-family home rose by around 8.5% during that period. That is, from $241,300 to $261,800 for a benchmark single-family home.

While this increase isn’t as extreme compared to what other larger markets have experienced it is still quite notable.

You might think that higher prices would have an impact on people’s buying habits. However, even with increasing home prices, demand has managed to remain consistent. This can be chiefly attributed to the volumes of homes being sold, which for Regina more than doubled.

In the period spanning April 2020 and April 2021, the sales volume went up from $43.9 million to $135.0 million, representing a 207.3% increase.

The right equilibrium between market demand and supply is key to keeping housing prices low. The number of active listings in Regina have gone down slightly. Nonetheless, levels remain robust enough to ensure there won’t be any drastic increases in prices in the near future.

But while active listings have fallen slightly, they still represent a 129.8% increase over last year. According to the Saskatchewan Realtor Association, the listings rose to 655 from just 285.

Typically, in Regina, a house will stay on the market for an average of 52 days. But as things stand, a home will now stay for 12 days less on average based on current real estate market trends.

What is Driving Demand for Regina Real Estate?

Currently, those driving up demand in the Regina real estate market are move-up buyers. This is expected to continue through to the end of this year. The most popular property type with move-up buyers is the one-storey detached home.

Typically, young couples make up the largest proportion of first-time home buyers. And this demographic is usually particularly interested in single-detached homes. In Regina, single-detached homes normally cost anywhere between $250,000 and $350,000.

The condominium market in Regina, Saskatchewan is mostly popular with single homebuyers. And although the demand for condos has fallen slightly, other markets appear to be faring well. Families, on the other hand, remain keen on buying homes with more space. But while the supply has been on an upswing, the same cannot be said about the demand.

What Should We Expect Moving Forward?

Experts expect the Regina real estate market to continue posting positive numbers. This is according to a recent report released by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) in May 2021.

Summary

There you have it, an overview of Regina’s housing market. If you have more questions, please get in touch with Jennica George. I am an experienced Regina realtor who can help you buy the home you want, in the neighbourhood you want, for the price you want it at.