Beware The Word "Winterized" When Contemplating A Real Estate Purchase

  Having been a full time REALTOR® now for over 15 years, I have always tried to learn a thing or two every month that will help my seller and buyer clients with their real estate transactions.

 Too often information given about properties is inaccurate and or does not conform to our REALTOR® code of ethics requirements which may result in failure to act in the appropriate manner to protect clients. One term that appears far too often and shouldn't in MLS® and other published information about a property says that the dwelling such as a cottage is "winterized."  When used to describe a property that is listed for sale, the word winterized is used to imply that the dwelling can be lived in year round.

  During my early days of real estate training, one of our instructors told us to never use the adjective "winterized" to describe a property. It is somewhat of a vague term and the instructor said that nowhere in real estate terminology was the word even recognized. I have scoured through a lot of real estate glossaries with a variety of terms from A to Z and never have I seen the word winterized which raises the question what does the term "winterized" mean?

  The accompanying  photo is my own cottage that was taken last winter.  I own this property along with my brother and 2018 marks our 45th year of ownership.  There is also a second cottage on the property located above our two car garage. Both cottages have been updated and well maintained including municipal water and sewer, wood burning fireplaces and electric heat. The walls and attics are insulated and they are accessible year round.  Can and do we use them in the winter?  Sometimes. Would I ever describe them as being "winterized?"  Absolutely not.

  One of the neighbouring properties to my cottages is currently listed for sale.  It has been a full time year round residence for a number of years and in additional to the main house there are three cottages.  The MLS® description of the property says among other things that there are "....three completely finished cottages, one fully winterized, one partially winterized."  Once again this begs the questions, what does winterized" mean and what happened to the third "fully finished" cottage which I gather is neither fully or partially winterized.

  Every year I winterize my car, motorcycle, boats, lawnmower, snowblower etc.  I even winterize the cottages meaning that the municipal water is shut off, the pipes are drained, the chimneys are covered, the phone service is shut down for the winter and lastly the hydro is turned off.  This is the standard practice of correctly preparing equipment and properties for the long cold winter months.  Claiming that a property is "winterized" in any type of sale listing description is not and I highly recommend you use a reliable REALTOR® when considering making an offer on any property that is touted as being "winterized." 

  If you have any questions or comments I look forward to hearing from you, please feel free to Contact Me. 

Georgian Triangle Real Estate Market - 2017 Year In Review

  During 2017 we continued to see a strong demand for real estate across the southern Georgian Bay Region.  Following record MLS sales that were reported by the Southern Georgian Bay Association of REALTORS in 2016, the bar was raised once again in 2017 with total MLS volume for the year of $1.091 billion.  This was roughly a 5% increase in sales over 2016.

  Despite the higher sales volume last year, a shortage of MLS listed properties for sale continued to plague the local real estate market in 2017.  Sales activity in the first half of 2017 remained strong, with MLS unit sales to the end of June up 1% or roughly the same equivalent from 2016.  MLS sales volume at the end of June were up 27% and totalled $6234 million.  Meanwhile MLS listings during the same time frame were down 16% from the first six months of 2016 totalling 2,014 properties compared to 2,385 new listings one year earlier.

  Despite the shortage of properties listed for sale, MLS dollar sales in 2017 remained strong as the result of increased sales in the higher price ranges primarily the $500,000 to $2 million category.  Sales of properties between $500,000 and $1 million were up 31% and 36% respectively totalling 571 units compared to 432 in 2016. Sales between $1 to $1.5 million increased 63% with 83 sales reported versus just 51 a year earlier. Lastly, sales in the $1.5 to $2 million range were up 71% with 29 sales compared to 17 in 2016.

  In total there were 1,551 MLS single family homes sales in 2017 a reduction of 19% from 2016.  Condominium sales in 2017 totalled 523 units an increase of 9 units or 2% from the 514 condos sold in 2016.  Lastly, MLS sales of vacant land in 2017 totalled 316 properties, an increase of 4% over the number of vacant land properties sold in 2016.  As pointed out in the past, these MLS sales and listing statistics do not include properties listed, built and or sold by developers outside of the local MLS system.  The Blue Mountains was the only area municipality that realised an increase in MLS sales of existing single family homes in 2017 with 227 sales reported compared to 223 a year earlier.  All other municipalities saw a reduction of MLS residential home sales in 2017 their results are as follows: Grey Highlands down 26%, Cleaview down 25%, Wasaga Beach down 21%, Collingwood down 15% while sale in the Municipality of Meaford were down 13%.

  As we head into 2018 I feel that we will see a change in market conditions especially from the hectic first few months of 2017. Inventory will no doubt remain soft and the recent changes in mortgage rules will no doubt impact some buyers and that may well decrease the multi offers and over list price sales that we experienced in the early months of last year.  Meanwhile, the development of new homes and condominiums in the area will serve to add some much needed housing inventory to our market(s) over the next 2 to 5 years.  The demand for area properties will remains strong, fuelled to a large degree by buyers from the Greater Toronto Area and from cities in southwestern Ontario such as Guelph, Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, London and others.  We are still in the early stages of buyers in their retirement years looking to move to this area long term.

  As I have stated before, the challenge(s) for many of the local municipalities will be to manage the growth of the southern Georgian Bay area in such a way as to preserve the very reason why people want to vacation and or retire here in the first place.  Municipal services such as sewer, water and the local transportation infrastructure will all feel the pressures of the coming market growth.

  For further information on real estate sales in this area please visit the Newsletter section of my personal real estate website www.rickcrouch.realtor.   For a confidential no obligation conversation about you buying or selling real estate needs please feel free to Contact Me.