What a difference a few months can make!  Back in July, Winnipeg had 500 active listings at any given day, and would see approx. 1,100 sales in a 30 day period.

Now, in November, we see around 1300 active listings, and have approx. 600 sales in a 30 days period.  These are figures for sales of homes inside the perimeter of Winnipeg.  That is a significant change.  As a home-owner, what can YOU do to make your home stand out?

Lets examine why we NEED to do anything at all:  In a "Sellers Market", as we had seen for the past 4 years, there were usually multiple buyers offering on the same house.  In order to make their offer stand out, buyers would do any number of things, such as

• write unconditional offers
• offer huge deposits and downpayments
• offer well above asking-price

Often they would do all of the above.  But that was the "Sellers Market", where buyers had to compete and stand out.

Now, enter a "Buyers Market", although we do not know how long this hiatus will last.  For now at least, it is the Home SELLER who has to compete for a limited number of buyers.  It is now the SELLER's job to make their home stand out, because buyers do have choices now.  So what can we do to make the home stand out?  Here are a couple of rock-solid tips!

Despite the 'doom 'n gloom' newsreports, Winnipegs market is going strong.  No, not as crazy as it has been in the past few years, but nice homes still sell at a good pace.  Most of us actually like this market:  our buyers have the chance to go for a second look, get a home inspection, and other reasonable conditions.  No, houses are NOT selling for 25% off (unless they had been wayyy overpriced to begin with), but then, we have not enjoyed 30 to 40% increases every year either.