By Warren McNeil,

This is like cutting off a a hand to a Realtor or any kind of business professional for that matter.  It’s amazing how much we use our phones in the car! Today I really tried not to use the phone while being in motion. I must say it was very difficult. The hunt for a good Bluetooth hands-free device begins. Our one vehicle already has a hands-free system installed which works really well. You just need to be a bit patient when initating phone calls. All the voice prompts take a bit of time to initiate and sometimes you have to repeat the number like 5 times. Voice recognition still has a little way to go.

My Blackberry has hands-free on it but I don’t like the speaker phone. It’s too hollow sounding.

Being a realtor, I rely heavily on my phone. I can’t say that I am thrilled that I can’t use my cellphone while driving but I think it was a necessary law to implement. Safety first! Obviously there must have been accidents due to cellphone usage. I think it is one thing to make a call, but people are text messaging now. I think this is extremely dangerous. I have been cutoff an numerous occasions by people who were texting while driving!

Hands-free, although a bit expesive to implement, is the right way to go. We will get used to this too! After all, we are Canadians!!!

Safe driving!

Warren & Melanie McNeil | Sales Representatives, Team McNeil | Re/Max Twin City Realty, Brokerage
( 519.579.4110 | * Click Here to Email | 8 www.TeamMcneil.com, www.ClickThatBlog.com

By Warren McNeil

The fall market has really come in with a bang. Houses are selling like crazy. As a matter of fact, it is hard to get into see new listings because they are selling quickly. This is good news for sellers since they are potentially getting more money for their houses.

The best thing we are doing for our buyer clients is to stay on top of all the news listings and when a new house hits the real estate board, we go in right away to preview it.  If we think it fits what our client is looking for,  we need to show it to them at the earliest possible opportunity. If the buyer likes the house, we make an offer before anybody else does. If the buyer does this quick enough, they can avoid a multiple offer situation (also know as a bidding war).

The frustrating part for buyers is when they come up against a multiple offer situation. This is great for the seller but not so great for the buyer. Buyers end up paying more money for a home when multiple offers occur.

From a seller’s point of view, creating a bidding war will yield a higher return for their home. In order for a bidding war to occur, two willing buyers have to want the  house at the same time and be willing to outbid one another. We are seeing quite a bit of this as of late.

Buyers need to move quickly if they want to avoid a bidding war. If a seller has a desirable house in a desirable area, it will be very difficult to avoid. Both Kitchener and Waterloo seem to be experiencing high demand right now. I think it has to do with the low interest rates and the government tax credits for first-time home buyers. There should be a lot of happy sellers right now.

Our market seems to be quite strong here in Kitchener-Waterloo at the present time. It will be interesting to see what the stats are for October. If you are thinking of selling, now is a good time. There is definitely no shortage of buyers.

Thanks for reading!

Warren & Melanie McNeil | Sales Representatives, Team McNeil | Re/Max Twin City Realty, Brokerage
( 519.579.4110 | * Click Here to Email | 8 www.TeamMcneil.com, www.ClickThatBlog.com

By Warren McNeil

Go Bus

By Warren McNeil

     The Table below shows the most relevant real estate data for the month of Sept 2009 and compares it with the previous month and the previous year, Aug 2009 and Sept 2008, respectively. This information is for single detached only.

If you can’t view the table below, see
http://www.teammcneil.com/blog/2009/10/08/kitchener-waterloo-real-estate-board-statistics-for-september-2009

In addition to the above stats, the board is reporting a record month for home sales in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. 531 houses sold in September. Here’s a quote from the media realease.

“Sales last month totalled $135,379,151 (up .6 percent from September 08) and included 335 detached homes (down 0.6 percent from September 08), and 102 condominium units (down 8.1 percent from September 08). It was the increase in sales of semis and townhouses that pushed September sales over last year, with an overall 18 percent increase to 86 units last month.”

For the full report, see http://www.kwreb.on.ca/Stats/September%202009%20Media%20Release.pdf

This is good news and shows that we still have a really strong real estate market. Interest rates, government rebates and increased consumer confidence are all playing a big part to achieve these numbers.

Thanks for reading!

Warren & Melanie McNeil | Sales Representatives, Team McNeil | Re/Max Twin City Realty, Brokerage
( 519.579.4110 | * Click Here to Email | 8 www.TeamMcneil.com, www.ClickThatBlog.com

By Warren McNeil

We have a brand new website and it is up and running! The site address is www.teammcneil.com

This took us quite awhile to create because we wanted it to be just right. We were looking for a simple design that was easily navigate-able so that visitors will spend more time on the site. We have a really nice listings module that does a great job showcasing our listings along with a filmstrip at the bottom of the main page. The main page has some dynamic imagery that makes the site look more appealing. We have  also kept the same colour scheme that we use in our advertising.

We hope you enjoy the site as much as we do!

Thanks for reading!

Warren & Melanie McNeil | Sales Representatives, Team McNeil | Re/Max Twin City Realty, Brokerage
( 519.579.4110 | * Click Here to Email | 8 www.TeamMcneil.com, www.ClickThatBlog.com