Real estate experts say there is another indication that the real estate market in Greater Vancouver is changing.
Vancouver realtor and investor, Steve Saretsky, says the market is becoming so saturated that realtors are turning down listings.
“The inventory is stacking up, it’s not selling,” he said.
“Which is to say, there are a lot of realtors out there working for free.”
Home sales in Greater Vancouver are at their lowest since 2020 and Saretsky said sellers’ expectations in a buyers’ market are not always aligned with reality.
This means that listings that may have sold fast and over the asking price now might take more resources and time to close the deal — if at all.
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Realtor Roman Krzaczek told Global News that people need to adjust their expectations a little bit.
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“It seems like there’s a lot of listings that are being relisted because they didn’t sell last year and people are expecting the same price and that’s not very realistic in today’s market,” he said.
Krzaczek said many people do not realize that realtors have to put time and money into selling a home, including spending money on marketing materials.
“It cost me about $2,000 to list the property and it’s a lot of work; (it) takes a couple days to get the whole package put together,” he added.
He said he has to look at other properties that are available, take photos of the property to list it and complete any reports as needed.
Krzaczek said he recently lost a listing because the seller wanted to post the property for higher than what Krzaczek thought it was worth.
“Somebody else listed the property now,” he said. “So I wish them luck. Great people. I really hope that they sell because that’s, you know, they really need to move.”
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He added on Monday he saw a listing on Quadra Island drop from the $1.4 million list price to $1.3 million.
“My listing, we recently dropped the price from $1.2 (million) to $995,000,” he added.
“Big drops in price and beautiful properties, water or oceanfront properties. So there’s definitely some of that happening. And as long as we have clients, sellers that are realistic and they do listen to us, pricing is not a science, it’s more of an art form and I’m fully immersed in the market… If it’s priced well, it will sell. If it is not, it probably won’t sell. Not every listing sells.”
Krzaczek said he has not seen price drops like this in the market since he started in the business 10 years ago.
“Usually a price drop is $10, $20, $30,000,” he said. “But $130,000 $200,000 drops, that’s huge. So I don’t know what’s happening but it looks like there’s some kind of a price adjustment happening right now.”
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