This Spotlight was written by Jeff Neumann at Coldwell Banker Neumann
At the onset of the pandemic, you could not blame someone if they were skittish about the short term outlook for the real estate market. Aside from a general uncertainty that permeated all walks of life, there was an extra wrinkle thrown at our profession: how do you navigate an up-close-and-personal industry from a distance?
Until real estate sales were deemed an ‘essential service’, buying a home sight unseen might have seemed like the least of our worries.
Fortunately, real estate construction and sales were deemed essential and the business was boisterous throughout the pandemic. As for the nuances of showing properties and negotiating with buyers and sellers (all while maintaining the public’s trust during a pandemic), these were in short order proven to be non-issues. Covid proved to be the fire with which the best of the best forged a better way to do business.
Indeed, necessity was the mother of invention. Innovations to our industry, largely revolving around delivering a qualified buyer with as much information as possible with which to make an informed beneficial decision without disrupting the lives (and possibly the health) of the seller would frankly not have happened without the Covid nudge.
Despite all of the changes, we fundamentally remain a people business. We will be successful to the degree that we can earn our clients’ trust.
If the last two years have taught us anything, it is to accept that the status quo is not immune to change. And as it was two years ago, change is upon us again, this time with a sudden, (but I would argue necessary) rise in interest rates designed to counter inflationary concerns, consequently cooling what was perceived as an overheated real estate market.
The remedy has proven effective, but not without some significant bumps in the road for some homeowners. How big, and for how long those bumps will last, is fodder for pure speculation, and I won’t venture down that path.
However, I will point out that there remains the problem of a fundamental lack of housing in the Canadian market. We create fewer new dwellings than we do new residents, be they immigrants or existing Canadians entering the housing market as either renters or owners. These facts, I believe, are universally accepted.
Regardless of how we as a society decide to solve this problem, real estate is an industry well positioned for growth. Put simply, more dwellings will require more transactions. It is this fundamental that makes Coldwell Banker Neumann Real Estate bullish on the future of our business. Yes, there will be challenges, but we should embrace them, and emerge better for it.
So confident are we in the local real estate market that we are implementing a long-considered renovation to our flagship office at 824 Gordon Street, designed to allow all of our representatives’ access to state of the art facilities and encourage collaboration with like-minded professionals. As it is our mission to provide best in class support and service to the best representatives in the business, we realize the facilities provided to our staff, representatives and our clients needs to be the best in the business as well.
If we expect to earn the opportunity to represent you in the purchase and sale of your most valuable asset, our home should be our most valuable asset as well. Anything less, and we may be seen as the proverbial barefooted shoe salesman!
