Thursday, December 28, 2006

Happy New Year 2007!


I wish you a very Happy New Year and all the best to you and your family in 2007!



























For more information please contact A. Mark Argentino

A. Mark Argentino Associate Broker, P.Eng.,
Specializing in Residential & Investment Real Estate
RE/MAX Realty Specialists Inc.
2691 Credit Valley Road, Suite 101, Mississauga, Ontario L5M 7A1

BUS 905-828-3434
FAX 905-828-2829
E-MAIL mark@mississauga4sale.com
Website: Mississauga4Sale.com

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Technorati assistance was awesome! Here is a great person to contact if you have a claim problem.


I was having many problems attempting to claim my blog at Technorati for over a year. I finally found a great blog written by a Technorati support person. I emailed her and she responded within hours and fixed whatever the problem was at Technorati and was now able to claim my blog, finally!

Here name was
Best Regards,
Janice Myint
Customer Support Specialist
Technorati
and her blog can be found at http://janicetechnorati.blogspot.com/

For more information please contact A. Mark Argentino

A. Mark Argentino Associate Broker, P.Eng.,
Specializing in Residential & Investment Real Estate
RE/MAX Realty Specialists Inc.
2691 Credit Valley Road, Suite 101, Mississauga, Ontario L5M 7A1

BUS 905-828-3434
FAX 905-828-2829
E-MAIL mark@mississauga4sale.com
Website: Mississauga4Sale.com

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Canadian Inflation Eases, Retail Sales Boom, Future looks Good for Real Estate


HIGHLIGHTS

-Fed remains on hold as retail sales boom and inflation eases
-Canadian international trade and manufacturing
-Shipments weak while productivity puzzles

December 15, 2006
It may be that the easiest job in the world this week belonged to the statement writer for the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) who added just a handful of words to the previous missive (the most significant of which were the that the housing market is seen now as “substantially” cooling and that some of the recent economic indicators have been “mixed”). Despite our efforts to turn this molehill into a mountain (see our commentary), there was not a great deal to glean from the Fed other than maintaining the status-quo. By contrast, the economic data released this week offers a better, although indirect, window into the Fed’s thinking.

Arguably the single most important piece of U.S. economic data these days is the retail sales report, as it will provide the first indication that the correcting housing market has begun to restrain consumer spending. Here the news was shockingly positive, as retail sales in November trounced the market expectations by rising 1.0%. It is equally encouraging that the gains were broadly based. The ex-autos and gasoline measure rose by a strong 0.9%. Even October’s worrisome 0.4% decline was revised higher to a relatively more benign fall of 0.1%. From the perspective of the Fed, the greater momentum in consumer expenditures reinforces their case to remain on hold for the time being in hopes that the retrenchment in the housing market remains well-contained, leading the overall economy to a coveted soft-landing.

Meanwhile, this morning’s CPI report likely generated a measured sigh of relief at the Fed as core inflation surprised the market and eased by a tenth of a percentage point to 2.6% in November. Even though core inflation remains above the Fed’s comfort zone, the three-month annualized trend stands at an extremely reasonable 1.6% despite the fact that shelter costs remain elevated. As the housing market continues to cool, shelter costs will likely follow, leading to a further moderation in core prices. When combined with our view that the consumer will eventually rein in their spending, the stage will be set for the Fed to deliver a modest 75 basis points of rate cuts beginning in March of next year.

More weakness in Canadian international trade and manufacturing

In Canada, this week’s data highlighted the challenges facing the economy. First up was the international trade report for the month of October. At first glance, while a $200 million fall in the trade surplus is not an ideal outcome, it was expected given the fall in energy prices and slower growth in the U.S. economy. Upon closer examination, however, the decline in October’s trade surplus was actually closer to $700 million after factoring in the upwards revision to September’s surplus. This development has two significant implications for the overall economy. First, with a shaky start to the final quarter of the year, the growth of exports is forecast to fall by 3.6% in Q4, contributing to the lacklustre 1.8% growth rate expected for real GDP (our complete quarterly economic forecast will be released early next week). Second, in isolation the upwards revision in September has the potential to push real GDP growth in the third quarter higher. However, trade does not exist in a vacuum and odds are that some of the other components of growth (likely consumption and inventory investment) may also be revised lower to reflect lower import growth – likely offsetting part of the impact of the trade revision.

The second significant release in Canada was October’s manufacturing shipments. The details here were not pretty either. While the sector managed to avoid duplicating the dramatic 3.2% drop observed in September, shipments slipped by a further 0.1% – marking the third consecutive month of declines. Although new and unfilled orders picked up a touch, signaling a slightly less pessimistic view of the future, they too are coming off of significant declines in recent months. Suffice to say, Canadian manufacturers will continue to face a tough road ahead before feeling the boost from an expected pick-up in the U.S. economy in the second half of 2007.

Canadian productivity puzzle

We also learned this week that labour productivity in Canada fell by an annualized 0.3% in the third quarter, which was a much weaker outcome than we had expected. This marks the second consecutive quarterly decline, reinforcing the gradual deceleration in productivity observed over the last year. The surprise lay in the reported 2.4% increase in hours worked which was entirely at odds with the 0.6% quarterly decline reported in the Labour Force Survey (LFS) (Recall that labour productivity is the ratio of output to hours worked). While there are some methodological differences between the two measures (i.e. for the purposes of calculating productivity only the business sector is included while the LFS is an economy-wide measure), the sheer magnitude of the difference is suspicious and its effect is not trivial. As we noted in our recent report “A Primer on Potential Output” (available at http://www.td.com/economics/special/dt1106_potential.pdf), the growth of labour productivity not only has implications for our standard of living, but also for the conduct of monetary policy. A lower level of labour productivity implies that Canada’s potential growth rate may also be lower. If so, less economic slack will build during the near-term sub-par performance in the economy with the implication that the Bank of Canada would be less likely to lower interest rates in the face of slowing economic growth. On the other hand, given that the productivity data has been the source of major revisions in the past, it will be interesting to see if the fall in Q3 productivity is one day revised away. Thanks to this article from R. Paul Chadwick TD Canada Trust.


This will surely have a more positive impact upon our Toronto and GTA real estate marketplace and should allow for a very healthy winter and spring market to come!

For more information please contact A. Mark Argentino

A. Mark Argentino Associate Broker, P.Eng.,
Specializing in Residential & Investment Real Estate
RE/MAX Realty Specialists Inc.
2691 Credit Valley Road, Suite 101, Mississauga, Ontario L5M 7A1

BUS 905-828-3434
FAX 905-828-2829
E-MAIL
mark@mississauga4sale.com
Website:
Mississauga4Sale.com

Monday, December 18, 2006

8 Questions Real Estate Sellers Commonly Ask



I received an email from a prospective seller. Since the questions that he asked are somewhat common, I thought it would be best to post my answers here in my blog to help you in the event that you may be thinking of selling and have similar questions.




  • Can I have to sign a listing agreement with you for 60days? Yes, 60 days is fine with me as most of the time it takes less than 60 days to market and sell a home. For people like yourself that have already been put into difficult situations with a long listing, I like to list it for 61 or 62 days, just in case it is not processed on the same day it begins, this is important. You may know this, but 60 days is the minimum period TREB will accept an mls listing.


  • What’s the average length of time the homes you’ve listed have been on the market? Average time on the market this year is 3 to 5 weeks. If a property is well priced, it will sell within 2 weeks of listing, otherwise a price adjustment is necessary on about week 3 and then it will sell within 2 weeks, this is the reality of our marketplace.


  • How many homes have you listed over the past six months? I just counted and I have listed 23 properties this year (2006) and all have sold. I have become a listing specialist, meaning that I concentrate most of my efforts on marketing and promoting my listings, rather than working with buyers. I usually carry about 3 to 5 listings at any one time and focus on getting them all sold. In 19+ years in real estate, I can think of only two properties that have ever expired, all my listings sell.


  • How many of the homes you’ve listed over the past six months have sold? see above, I have one condo and one townhouse listed right now and two rental properties.


  • How will you market my home? I will market and promote your home using the methods outlined on this page: http://www.mississauga4sale.com/marketing-16-point-plan-realtor.htm The key advantage that you will have with me is the fact that my website is currently #1 in the google directory for our area, which means that we will receive the highest amount of internet traffic and the most inquires and potential purchasers for your property, this is the truth. See this link on google


  • How are you paid? I am paid through you, as is the listing broker.Read more about commissions


  • Can you provide me with references? Yes I can. I provided him with 5 references, which of course I can give you too. I cannot post on the internet, as you can understand, privacy issues, besides the spam they would receive!


  • Will you be going away on vacation in the next two months? No, I take vacation in the summer with my wife and two boys.


I have many clients similar to yourself that are out of town or absent from the property and all of our transactions are very successful. As long as my seller has email and uses it often, as you seem to prefer, then we will have a great business relationship. I use email all the time and prefer that means as our main method of communicating. I will email you the mls listing and the offer on your property and the counter offers etc. I scan all documents and use pdf format, this way you can print them out at your convenience and review and send back. As well, there is almost no loss in clarity, makes the lawyers very happy too.


You will receive regular updates from me on our progress. I have electronic records of all the showings and would be more than happy to forward to you once per week or whenever you want them. As well, I follow up and solicit feedback from all the agents that show your house and will attempt to help them with any questions or concerns they may have. Since the property is vacant, I will attempt, with your permission, to have a public open house every weekend until it's sold. This method allows for much higher traffic than most.


I will take many interior and exterior photos and create a very professional write-up on your property pointing out all the features and benefits of your home, with map etc. and once a buyer has read through all the information and photos and then contacts me, it's quite often that they buy the property. Here is an example of an online feature sheet.


You can be confident that I will be honest with you and do my best to get you the best price and terms for your property. I am highly motivated to get you sold too, we have the same goal.


The real estate market continues to be very active and homes have been selling well (see average price graph) over the past few months months. Near historic lows for mortgage interest rates have helped.


The winter real estate market is nearly upon us and sales continue to be brisk. We anticipate the real estate market will continue to be strong over the next month or two, especially if interest rates stay low. We are all hoping the market will sustain the momentum over the next few months and throughout the winter market.


Just in case, here are some items to read over and think about before you sell,



As I mentioned at my website, my job is to give you all the information so you can make the best decision for yourself and your family. I look forward to helping you sell your home. I will work very hard to earn the right to be your trusted advisor, skilled negotiator and use my expert marketing and promotion to get your home sold at the best price and terms for you.


Thank you again for contacting me. Once you have analyzed and evaluated the above information please let me know how you would like to proceed.


Mark


So there you have it, answers to relevant seller questions.



For more information please contact A. Mark Argentino

A. Mark Argentino Associate Broker, P.Eng.,
Specializing in Residential & Investment Real Estate
RE/MAX Realty Specialists Inc.
2691 Credit Valley Road, Suite 101, Mississauga, Ontario L5M 7A1

BUS 905-828-3434
FAX 905-828-2829
E-MAIL mark@mississauga4sale.com
Website: Mississauga4Sale.com

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

December Toronto Real Estate Market Report - November 2006 breaks 6,000 Sales

Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) Average Prices and Graph
The December Real Estate Market Report shows that November was still a good month and there were over 6,000 Sales

Signs of a healthy market are still around in the Toronto and GTA marketplace. The article below summarizes the recent press release from the Toronto Real Estate Board.
See a Graph of Price Trends
December 6, 2006 -- November put in another solid performance, with 6,281 sales transacted through the TorontoMLS system, Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) President Dorothy Mason announced today. "This 6,000 plus figure is in keeping with a generally healthy real estate market," said the President.

"By the end of December, the Toronto area market will have exceeded 80,000 resales for only the third time in TREB history." Prices remained stable in November, with the average moderating slightly to $355,727 from October's $356,423.

The average was up four per cent over the November 2005 figure of $341,177.

This was the news release that was issued by the Toronto Real Estate Board.

Read the full report and see graphs of price trends

For more information please contact A. Mark Argentino

A. Mark Argentino Associate Broker, P.Eng.,
Specializing in Residential & Investment Real Estate
RE/MAX Realty Specialists Inc.
2691 Credit Valley Road, Suite 101, Mississauga, Ontario L5M 7A1

BUS 905-828-3434
FAX 905-828-2829
E-MAIL mark@mississauga4sale.com
Website: Mississauga4Sale.com