Sea Smoke Chester Nova Scotia

Alternate view of full image at http://www.pbase.com/twharris/image/90681292

Nova Scotia real estate has been very exciting over the past few years and continues to grip my interest in a number of areas.

MARKET REVIEW

The US buyers market: Obviously the the weakness of the US dollar is impacting our Nova Scotia real estate market. Nova Scotia, since the 1920’s, has long been considered a second home destination by thousands US citizens. Many began traveling here by rail and steam boat, however, whether it is now by modern air or road travel our American friends are slowing their pace of purchasing their second (and sometimes third or forth) home in Nova Scotia. All is not lost, as recently as December our web traffic, according to alexa.com, indicated that 55.6% of our web traffic comes from the US, relatively unchanged from 6 months ago. Where we see the difference is actual feet on the ground in Nova Scotia. Our walk-in traffic at our Chester office slowed considerably in the fall of this past year. While sales to US citizens is still happening, the tap is but a trickle of what is was a year ago. One advantage of the slow down has been that the American buyers who do see their way to our province are serious buyers and are not wasting our time, as they have brushed off the concerns of our dollar and are zeroing in on a NS second home, come hell or high water.

The emerging buying market from the UK: 22.2% of our web traffic is now from the UK., about double the increase in traffic from just a year ago. Our major investment in Mayfair International Realty is paying off with exposure to the UK market through the Mayfair site, the Daily Telegraph and recently Country Life web sites. And more recently, we also picked up propertyfinders.com and thetimes.co.uk (both under development - on-line end of Jan 2008) thus extending our market influence deep into the UK with hundreds of thousands of potential homes buyers looking at our portfolio of homes for sale in Nova Scotia. Lastly, our biggest weapon in our arsenal is the development of secondhomenovascotia.com by our Realtor, Kilmeny Fane-Saunders, singlehandedly she has had a tremendous impact on our sales to the UK market and has to be congratulated for her efforts. Well done Kilmeny!

Upper Canada Buyers: During late 2006 and and early 2007 it was predicted by many of my clients that we should watch out for the Upper Canadian buyers, but quite frankly this has been a non-starter. While we still have any number of buyers coming out of Ontario, it has not been a landslide by any means. One thing for sure, as we carry over 600+ listings throughout Nova Scotia, we will be ready when the tide turns in that area.

Alberta buyers: Not a land office business by any means. The magazine publishers would want to make us think that it is a goldmine or an unexplored oilfield ready to tap, well maybe out there it is, matter of fact, that is just what they have out there goldmines and oilfields. The trickle down is not happening as fast as one may think. Yes, we have some Alberta patch people returning home and buying, but again not hand over fist. It was interesting, about 8 months ago there was a pieced published in the Chronicle Herald newspaper that a Nova Scotia lad returned from the oil patch to buy his mother a home in Sydney, good on him, but the article wanted us to believe that this was only the beginning and every Nova Scotia worker out in Alberta would be buying two homes soon, one for himself and one for his mom. We it’s quite like that. It is starting to build, we have started advertising into the Alberta buyers market, we see how it unfolds this spring. However, I am noticing another phenomenon, native Albertans leaving Alberta for Nova Scotia. I recently sold a 20 acre organic garden and log home to an Albertan couple, that are just aching to get out of Alberta. They can’t wait to move here and live the good life. Now, that is a nice story!

NEW VENTURES

Costa Rica & Panama: This has got to be considered a bit strange, but we have done it none the less. Last June, Tradewinds officially began selling real estate in Costa Rica and Panama. Rene Flinn has moved to Latin America, more particularly in the city of David, Chiriqui Province in Panama and has been very successful in establishing Tradewinds trademark in Panama and Costa Rica. We presently have several million dollars of real estate represented in Panama & Costa Rica. and slowly but surely Rene is putting us on the map there. Our first sales should close early in 2008.

In Panama, we have formed an alliance with Alvarez Realty to co-list selected properties from there enormous 5000 listing inventory and market them on a global basis. And in Costa Rica we have partnered with n American land fund group to market Tenant-in-Common land parcels for pure investment and eventual ownership is desired along the Nicoya Peninsula below Samara and above San Teresa. More on this development, Tenants-in-Common and other places for sale when I return form my visit to Costa Rica and Panama in late February.

Halifax office: Finally the ground has been broken for our new office in Halifax at 53 St. Margaret’s Bay Road. It has been a long time coming. Our developer is citing rising construction costs and lack of manpower for the slow start. Regardless, it will be coming out of the ground soon. The condominiums above our offices wil be called Crown Bay, with the first two levels being set aside for commercial. We have purchased approx. 1600 square feet of the main floor with ample parking (23 spaces) for our office. We will be doing the interior design later in the year, but expect some innovation in our gallery area and display techniques. Our targeted occupancy date is Dec. 2008.

Thank you all and I hope you have a happy 2008.

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The model suite isn’t an actual unit from the development, but instead is a representative sample of the main elements and style potential residents can expect to see in the finished building.

…The painting, depicting a view of Wright’s Cove as it may have looked 100 years ago, was commissioned from Zecha Rexhepi, a local muralist who teaches oils and water colours for HRM and has worked on projects as varied as Alderney Gate in Dartmouth to 18th century churches in Europe.

…For more information on Sheppard’s Island and the model suite, please contact Chris Bray or Shelly Sansom at 461-4017, or via email at chris@sheppardsisland.com and shelly@sheppardsisland.com You can also visit the development’s Web site at www.sheppardsisland.com.

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…One way to protect your American or UK clients against these currency risks is to recommend a currency specialist like HIFX Inc., who offers a free service that can lock in an exchange rate for your clients for up to 2 years. Currency specialists can also typically provide a much better exchange rate than the banks at zero cost to your client, resulting in a 1%-3% tangible savings.

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…In and around Boulder, houses that have been staged - usually vacant houses that are filled with trendy furniture pieces - sell 46 percent faster than those that haven’t, Short said, citing Boulder real estate sales statistics.

…Once the sellers agree to a home inspection, they can attach receipts to the finished report to show what was done to correct problems, said Jerry Chesser, a home inspector for Win Home Inspection in Denver…. When a seller is willing to do a pre-listing home inspection, it increases the real estate agent’s comfort level as well, said David Fish, an agent at Re/Max in Boulder, who pays for the $300 inspections out of his own pocket.

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One of a series of articles on real estate topics. All of the authors of “Speaking of Real Estate …” articles are full-time REALTORS® who work at Tradewinds Realty Inc. at one of our locations in Nova Scotia.

Checklist A – Important things to do before listing a house for sale
By Lynn Stewart and Paul Crocker, REALTORS®

Exterior repairs and touch-ups:

• Repaint or replace your mailbox. Mail boxes seldom age well, but they are a prominent part of the view at the front door that greets potential buyers.
• Clean and tidy up the garage/carport. (Plan on making a few trips to the dump.)
• Repair and/or paint eavestroughs, downspouts and soffits.
• Refinish the front door and polish any door brass.
• Grease the rollers on the garage door(s) and make sure that they work properly. Buyers often open these doors to make sure that they do – in fact – open.
• Replace all cracked or broken window panes. Thermal window panes (the ones with two sheets of glass with a sealed insulating air space between them) often age badly, with the seal failing and admitting humid air which usually results in condensation or “fogging” between the panes. These should be replaced with new inserts because they project an image of an ageing and neglected residence.
• If necessary, repaint the exterior and interior window frames and trim.
• Make sure that the doorbell is in good working order.
• Replace any warped/cracked/missing roof shingles.
• Make sure the house civic (street) number is visible and give it a fresh coat of paint if appropriate.
• Replace worn or noticeably faded exterior doormats with new ones.

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One of a series of articles on real estate topics. All of the authors of “Speaking of Real Estate …” articles are full-time REALTORS® who work at Tradewinds Realty Inc. at one of our locations in Nova Scotia.

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One of a series of articles on real estate topics. All of the authors of “Speaking of Real Estate …” articles are full-time REALTORS® who work at Tradewinds Realty Inc. at one of our locations in Nova Scotia.
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