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    <title>Vancouver Real Estate</title>
    <link>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html</link>
    <description>Buying, Selling and Living in Vancouver</description>
    <copyright>Copyright (C): Terry Burgess, http://terryburgess.ca</copyright>
    <pubDate>Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:36:01 GMT</pubDate>
    <dc:creator>Terry Burgess</dc:creator>
    <dc:date>2013-06-17T17:36:01Z</dc:date>
    <dc:rights>Copyright (C): Terry Burgess, http://terryburgess.ca</dc:rights>
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      <title>BCREA: BC Housing Market Recovering From 2012 Slowdown</title>
      <link>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/bcrea-bc-housing-market-recovering-from-2012-slowdown-2607588</link>
      <description>&lt;h1&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;BC Housing Market Recovering From 2012 Slowdown&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;h1&gt;&lt;em style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: normal;"&gt;For immediate release&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: normal;"&gt; - &amp;nbsp;Vancouver, BC &amp;ndash; June 14, 2013.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;The British Columbia Real Estate Association&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;(BCREA)&amp;nbsp;&lt;img style="float: right;" title="May 2013 MLS Residential Sales Chart from the BCREA" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/Monthly%20Stats/BCREA%20-%20Res%20Sales%20Chart%20May%202013.png" alt="BCREA: MLS Residential Sales BC - May 2013" /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;reports that a total of 7,664 residential sales were&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;recorded by the Multiple Listing Service&amp;reg; (MLS&amp;reg;) in BC during May, down 0.7% &amp;nbsp;from May of 2012.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Total sales dollar volume was 2 %&amp;nbsp;higher at $4.1 billion.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The average MLS&amp;reg; residential price in the province was $534,013, up 2.7%&amp;nbsp;from a year ago.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;BC home sales continued to trend higher in &lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;May,&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt; said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;In contrast to slowing demand &lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;and moderating prices in 2012, the BC housing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;market is turning around.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Rising consumer demand combined with inventory levels that remain in check has moved the province&amp;rsquo;s largest markets into balanced territory. &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;Home prices have edged higher over the past three months in BC&amp;rsquo;s large Lower Mainland market,&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;added Muir.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The MLS&amp;reg; Home Price Composite Index for the Lower Mainland was up 0.2%&amp;nbsp;over the past month, and 1.4%&amp;nbsp;over the past three months.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Year-to-date, BC residential sales dollar volume was down 12.2% to $14.9 billion, compared to the same period last year. Residential unit sales were down 10.7% to 28,140 units, while the average MLS&amp;reg; residential price was down 1.7 % to $530,936.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Click on:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a title="BCREA: News Release May 2013" href="http://www.bcrea.bc.ca/docs/news-2013/2013-05.pdf" target="_blank"&gt;BC Housing Market Recovering From 2012 Slowdown&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;report to see the full stats.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
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      <category>Buyer</category>
      <category>Real</category>
      <category>Seller</category>
      <category>Stats</category>
      <category>Vancouver</category>
      <category>Vancouver</category>
      <pubDate>Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:31:24 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/bcrea-bc-housing-market-recovering-from-2012-slowdown-2607588</guid>
      <dc:date>2013-06-17T17:31:24Z</dc:date>
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    <item>
      <title>What Do Vancouver's May Real Estate Stats Mean To You?</title>
      <link>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/what-do-vancouvers-may-real-estate-stats-mean-to-you-2580358</link>
      <description>&lt;h1&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;What Do Vancouver&amp;rsquo;s May Real Estate Stats Mean To You?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="REBGV - May 2013 - 5 Year Home Price Index Trend" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/Monthly%20Stats/REBGV%20-%205%20Year%20Trend%20May%202013.png" alt="REBGV - May 2013 5 Year Home Price Index Trend" data-pinit="registered" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Stats At A Glance&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AnEPfuifnOlsdFI1N24zbHZxckZob1Itd2V2ZkFYeWc&amp;amp;single=true&amp;amp;gid=0&amp;amp;output=html&amp;amp;widget=true" frameborder="0" width="670" height="450"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To read the full report, Click on the&lt;a title="REBGV: Jun 4, 2013 News Release - Spring months bring balance to Greater Vancouver housing market" href="http://www.rebgv.org/sites/default/files/REBGV%20Stats%20Package_May%202013.pdf" target="_blank"&gt;&amp;nbsp;Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver's May Media package&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Notable&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sales&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;were&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;19.4&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;%&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;below&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;the 10 year annual average&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="color: #000000;"&gt;March sales&lt;/span&gt; were &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;30.2% below&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="color: #000000;"&gt;April sales&lt;/span&gt; were &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;20.9%&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;below&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;the 10 year average, so we are moving in the right direction&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;New Listings&lt;/strong&gt; were &lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7.4% below&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt; the 10 year average&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sales&lt;/strong&gt; were &lt;strong&gt;up 255 Units&lt;/strong&gt;, April was up 280, March was up&amp;nbsp;550 units compared to the months before&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;The &lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Benchmark price&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;for all residential properties went &lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;up&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt; last month by &lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;$1100&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;17%&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;of all homes on the market in May&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;sold.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; This is the third straight month that the ratio has been above 15%&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Condo and &lt;span id="docs-internal-guid-5e4d2b27-11ae-a129-8d5e-b913915a2db7"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Detached &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;prices went up slightly&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Townhome prices went down slightly&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Interest Rates are low and they are expected to remain there for the next year&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does it mean?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When sales are less than 35% of inventory (Vancouver is at 16.73%) or there is more than 7 months of supply (We are at 5.97 Months) it's &lt;strong&gt;Buyers Market &lt;/strong&gt;trending towards a balanced market.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sales and the number of listings are way down compared to the normal May stats in Vancouver. This is the 3rd month in a row that we have inched closer to the 10 year average, which is a good sign of a &lt;span id="docs-internal-guid-5e4d2b27-11af-1ac7-670b-843006a9b431"&gt;&lt;span&gt;stabilizing &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;market.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Condos and Detached home prices are up for the 3rd straight month signalling a continued slow recovery.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;For Buyers:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;3 months of price increases tells me that the the forecasted big price drops are going to happen in Vancouver.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Less listings than the 10 year average means there are less choices for buyers. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you want to be in a new home by the end of the summer, it's time to start seriously looking.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sign up for VIP status on &lt;a title="Terry Burgess - Sutton Group - West Coast Realty" href="http://terryburgess.ca"&gt;TerryBurgess.ca&lt;/a&gt; to get saved searches, the latest listings emailed to you and the most information allowed or contact me and I'll do all the work for you.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;For Sellers:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Homes in Greater Vancouver are taking an &lt;strong id="internal-source-marker_0.8186280336230993"&gt;average&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;of&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;54 days to sell&lt;/strong&gt;, which is down 2 days from April,and up 20.5% since last May. &amp;nbsp;The number of days it takes&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; to sell your home&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;depends on your neighbourhood, the type of home you have, how well it shows, the price and how well it is marketed.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Look at when you want to make your move and then work backwards to when to put it on the market. &amp;nbsp;As, it's taking two months on average to sell and most offers have a move in date that's about a month away, you need to put your home on the market about 3 months before you want to move.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The best pricing strategy in this market remains the same. &amp;nbsp;Price your home as one of the best 3 prices for the closest comparables in your neighbourhood. &amp;nbsp;Pricing too high to see if anyone bites and pricing low to try and get multiple offers doesn't make any sense in a buyers market. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Fill in my my&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://terryburgess.ca/home-evaluation.html"&gt;Free Home Evaluation&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;form, or contact me, and I'll send you a Competitive Market Analysis for your home.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;For Both Selling and Buying:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When it's a great time to buy, it's a lousy time to sell and visa versa. &amp;nbsp;Getting less for your current home than you want is fine as long as you get the same amount off of your new home. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Be realistic.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;It's the net between the two transactions that matters.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Don't overprice your home. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Don't expect the sellers of your new home to accept lowball offers any more than you would&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;'Subject to buyer selling their current home' offers aren't really sales, so few are accepted and fewer are completed&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em style="font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;What Others Are Saying&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a style="font-size: 9pt;" title="Daily Dose Of What's Up In Vancouver " href="http://www.scoop.it/t/vancouver-real-estate"&gt;Daily Dose Of What's Up In Vancouver&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;- My Ezine updated daily around 9:30 AM PST&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Flaherty says government intervention is done, others say differently" href="http://www.canequity.com/news/9159-flaherty-says-government-intervention-is-done-others-say-differently"&gt;Flaherty says government intervention is done, others say differently&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;- Can Equity May 29&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="CREA: How have tightened Canadian mortgage regulations affected sales" href="http://www.creacafe.ca/how-have-tightened-canadian-mortgage-regulations-affected-sales/"&gt;How have tightened Canadian mortgage regulations affected sales&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;- CREA May 29&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Bank of Canada expected to hold line on interest rates" href="http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/governor+Mark+Carney+will+hold+last+interest+rate+meeting+this/8439275/story.html"&gt;Bank of Canada expected to hold line on interest rates&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;- Calgary Herald May 27&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Vancouver still most expensive housing market in Canada by a wide margin" href="http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2013/05/vancouver-still-most-expensive-housing-market-in-canada-by-a-wide-margin/"&gt;Vancouver still most expensive housing market in Canada by a wide margin&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;- VanCity Buzz May 23&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Half of Canadian homeowners plan to buy property in next 5 years" href="http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/half-of-canadian-homeowners-plan-to-buy-property-in-next-5-years-survey-1.1291632"&gt;Half of Canadian homeowners plan to buy property in next 5 years&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;- CTV News May 22&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Let Me Know If There Is Any Way I can Help You&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
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&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Be Social - Click to Follow Me On: &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/facebook.png" alt="" name="graphics2" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://www.facebook.com/VanWestTerry"&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://twitter.com//VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/twitter.png" alt="" name="graphics3" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://twitter.com//VanWestTerry"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://linkedin.com/in/VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/linkedin.png" alt="" name="graphics4" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;a class="western" href="http://linkedin.com/in/VanWestTerry"&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="https://plus.google.com/109691890502671269704"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/googleplus-1.png" alt="" name="graphics5" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;a class="western" href="https://plus.google.com/109691890502671269704"&gt;Google Plus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://pinterest.com/vanwestterry/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/pinterest.png" alt="" name="graphics6" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://pinterest.com/vanwestterry/"&gt;Pinterest&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;</description>
      <category>Buyer</category>
      <category>Real Estate</category>
      <category>Real Estate</category>
      <category>Seller</category>
      <category>Stats</category>
      <pubDate>Tue, 04 Jun 2013 20:53:24 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/what-do-vancouvers-may-real-estate-stats-mean-to-you-2580358</guid>
      <dc:date>2013-06-04T20:53:24Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>BCREA: 2nd Quarter Housing Forecast</title>
      <link>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/bcrea-2nd-quarter-housing-forecast-2524888</link>
      <description>&lt;h1&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: xx-small;"&gt;For immediate release:&amp;nbsp;BCREA 2013 Second Quarter Housing Forecast&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Transition Year Expected for BC Housing Market&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Vancouver, BC &amp;ndash; May 9, 2013. The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) released its 2013 Second Quarter Housing Forecast today.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;BC Multiple Listing Service&amp;reg; (MLS&amp;reg;) residential sales&amp;nbsp;&lt;img style="float: right;" title="BCREA: MLS&amp;reg; 2nd Quarter Residential Sales Forecast Table" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/Monthly%20Stats/BCREA%202nd%20Q%20Sales%20Forecast.png" alt="BCREA: MLS&amp;reg; Residential Sales Forecast" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;are forecast to edge up 1.9 per cent to 68,900 units this year, before increasing a further 6.5 per cent to 73,400 units in 2014. -year average is 86,800 unit sales. A record 106,300 MLS&amp;reg; residential sales were recorded in 2005.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;ldquo;Stricter mortgage credit regulation combined with&amp;nbsp;slower economic growth has kept BC home sales at a cyclical low over the past three quarters,&amp;rdquo; said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. &amp;ldquo;However, a faster growing economy is expected during the second half of the year and through 2014 which will support a growth trend in provincial housing demand.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;ldquo;The BC average home price forecast is revised upward for 2013, from a decline of 1 per cent to remaining unchanged, as result of stronger than expected market conditions in Vancouver,&amp;rdquo; added Muir. &amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;The average MLS&amp;reg;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;residential price in BC is forecast at $515,800 this year, before &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;rising 1.7 per cent to $524,500 in 2014.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&lt;img title="BCREA: 2013 Q3 Housing Forecast Update Table" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/Monthly%20Stats/BCREA%20-%20Q2%202013%20Housing%20Forcast%20Table.png" alt="BCREA: Housing Forecast Update Table - Q2 2013" /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In short, the Vancouver market looks to have more sales and a slight increase in prices going forward.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Further Reading&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Download the Vancouver&amp;nbsp;&lt;a title="BCREA: Vancouver Housing Forecast Q2 2013" href="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Documents/BCREA%20Vancouver%20Housing%20Forecast.pdf"&gt;Forecast, Economic Outlook, Housing Starts, Mortgage Rate Forecast &amp;amp; Vancouver Stats&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Download the full PDF version of:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a title="BCREA: 2Nd Quarter Housing Housing Forecast Report" href="http://www.bcrea.bc.ca/docs/economics-forecasts-and-presentations/housingforecast.pdf" target="_blank"&gt;BCREA: 2nd Quarter Housing Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;table style="page-break-after: avoid; page-break-inside: avoid; width: 100%;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"&gt;&lt;colgroup&gt;&lt;col width="154*" /&gt; &lt;col width="102*" /&gt;&lt;/colgroup&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr valign="TOP"&gt;
&lt;td style="; border: none; padding: 0in;" width="40%" height="56"&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;img style="vertical-align: middle;" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/site-logo-1333748302799.jpg" alt="Sutton WestCoast Realty - You've found a home" name="graphics1" width="195" height="44" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="border: none; padding: 0in;" width="40%"&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Terry&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #5f6972;"&gt;Burgess&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Phone: &lt;strong&gt;604-340-2928&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Website:&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://TerryBurgess.ca/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;TerryBurgess.ca&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Be social, follow me on: &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/facebook.png" alt="" name="graphics2" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://www.facebook.com/VanWestTerry"&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://twitter.com//VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/twitter.png" alt="" name="graphics3" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://twitter.com//VanWestTerry"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://linkedin.com/in/VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/linkedin.png" alt="" name="graphics4" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;a class="western" href="http://linkedin.com/in/VanWestTerry"&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="https://plus.google.com/109691890502671269704"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/googleplus-1.png" alt="" name="graphics5" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;a class="western" href="https://plus.google.com/109691890502671269704"&gt;Google Plus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://pinterest.com/vanwestterry/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/pinterest.png" alt="" name="graphics6" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://pinterest.com/vanwestterry/"&gt;Pinterest&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <category>Buyer</category>
      <category>Real Estate</category>
      <category>Seller</category>
      <category>Stats</category>
      <category>Vancouver</category>
      <pubDate>Thu, 09 May 2013 15:16:36 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/bcrea-2nd-quarter-housing-forecast-2524888</guid>
      <dc:date>2013-05-09T15:16:36Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>What do Vancouver’s April Real Estate Stats Mean To You?</title>
      <link>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/what-do-vancouvers-april-real-estate-stats-mean-to-you-2510763</link>
      <description>&lt;h1&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;What do Vancouver&amp;rsquo;s April Real Estate Stats Mean To You?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="REBGV - Apr 2013 - 5 Year Home Price Index Trend" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/Monthly%20Stats/REBGV-%20Apr%202013%205%20Yr%20Trend-560-wide.png" alt="REBGV - Apr 2013 5 Year Home Price Index Trend" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Stats At A Glance&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AnEPfuifnOlsdEgzNmVWbDJmdGpuLUp3YmVnYnFoV0E&amp;amp;single=true&amp;amp;gid=0&amp;amp;output=html&amp;amp;widget=true" frameborder="0" width="670" height="450"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To read the full report, Click on the&lt;a href="http://www.rebgv.org/sites/default/files/REBGV%20Stats%20Package%2C%20April%202013.pdf" target="_blank"&gt;&amp;nbsp;Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver's April Media package&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Notable&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sales&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;were&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt; 20.9&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;%&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;below&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;(&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;March&lt;/span&gt; sales were &lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;30.2% below&lt;/span&gt;) the 10 year annual average and the lowest since 2001&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sales&lt;/strong&gt; were &lt;strong&gt;up 280 Units&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;compared to last month, which was up 550 units compared to the month before&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Listing Totals &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;were&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;0.4% below &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #000000;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;(March&lt;/span&gt; listings were &lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;14.4% below&lt;/span&gt;)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;the 10 year annual average&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Benchmark price&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;went &lt;strong&gt;up&lt;/strong&gt; last month by &lt;strong&gt;$4300&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;15.7%&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;of all homes on the market in April&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;sold.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; This is second month in a row&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Interest Rates are low and they are expected to remain there for the next year&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Since January the benchmark price of &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;Detached&lt;/span&gt; homes has gone &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;up 1.4%&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;Condos&lt;/span&gt; are&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt; up&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; 2.1%&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;Townhomes&lt;/span&gt; are &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;up 1.2%&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does it mean?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When sales are less than 35% of inventory (Vancouver is at 15.7%) or there is more than 7 months of supply (We are at 6.4 Months) it's &lt;strong&gt;Buyers Market.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Condo's, Townhomes, and Detached prices went up slightly.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sales and the number of listings are way down compared to the normal April stats in Vancouver, but they are slightly up from last month. The new normal continues in&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;the Vancouver market.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Prices are up for the second month in a row, which could be a sign of a slow recovery. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;em style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For&amp;nbsp;B&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;uyers:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It doesn't look like the big price drops are going to happen in Vancouver. &amp;nbsp;Now is the time to get into the market so you are settled by the end of the summer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For&amp;nbsp;S&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;ellers:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;On average, homes in Greater Vancouver are taking an &lt;strong id="internal-source-marker_0.8186280336230993"&gt;&lt;span&gt;average&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;56 days to sell&lt;/strong&gt;, which is down 1 day from March. &amp;nbsp;The number of days it takes to sell your home will differ as Real Estate is a hyper local market. &amp;nbsp;Each neighbourhood has its own DOM (Days On the Market) for each type of home (Condo, Townhome, Detached). &amp;nbsp;Contact me if you want to know what the average DOM would be for your home.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Look at when you want to make your move and then work backwards to when you should put it on the market. &amp;nbsp;It's taking two months on average to sell and most offers have a move in date that's about a month away, so put your home on the market around 3 months before you want to be out.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If this weekends weather is anything to go by, then summer is upon us. &amp;nbsp;You will want to get your home on the market now, before everyone goes away on their vacation. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;You need a new Competitive Market Analysis (AKA a Comparative Market Analysis or a CMA), done in the last 30 days to properly price your home. &amp;nbsp;I'll be happy to help you with that if you don't currently have a Realtor&amp;reg;. &amp;nbsp;Just fill in my my&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="font-size: 9pt;" href="http://terryburgess.ca/home-evaluation.html"&gt;Free Home Evaluation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;form. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The best pricing strategy in this market is to price your home as one of the best 3 prices for your type of home in your neighbourhood. &amp;nbsp;Price too high, and buyers won't even come to see it unless it's special &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;to them&lt;/span&gt;. &amp;nbsp;Pricing low to try and get multiple offers is foolish in a buyers market. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For people who have&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;both&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;a home to sell and one to buy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When it's a great time to buy, it's a lousy time to sell and visa versa. &amp;nbsp;Getting less for your current home than you want is fine as long as you get the same amount off of your new home. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Be realistic.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;It's the net between the two transactions that matters.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Don't overprice your home. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Don't expect the sellers of your new home to accept lowball offers any more than you would&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;'Subject to buyer selling their current home' offers aren't really sales, so few are accepted and fewer are completed&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em style="font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;What Others Are Saying&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a style="font-size: 9pt;" title="Vancouver Housing Market Shows Signs Of Improvement - The Globe And Mail" href="http://htl.li/kCWvq" target="_blank"&gt;Vancouver housing market shows signs of improvement&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;- Globe and Mail&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Canadian Housing Prices in Toronto and Vancouver to Continue to Rise" href="http://www.terrequity.com/blog/p/canadian-housing-prices-in-toronto-and-vancouver-to-continue-to-rise" target="_blank"&gt;Canadian Housing Prices in Toronto and Vancouver to Continue to Rise&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;- Coldwell Banker&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="A New Look at Affordability" href="http://www.metro604.com/2013/04/26/a-new-look-at-affordability/"&gt;A New Look at Affordability&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;- Metro 604&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Why The Greater Vancouver Multifamily Real Estate Market Is, Well, Better Than Gold" href="http://ceo.ca/vancouver-multifamily-real-estate-market-update-david-fitzgerald/"&gt;Why The Greater Vancouver Multifamily Real Estate Market Is, Well, Better Than Gold&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;- CEO.ca&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Bank of Canada may not hike rates until 2015" href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-business-stories/bank-of-canada-may-not-hike-rates-until-2015/article11213021/" target="_blank"&gt;Bank of Canada may not hike rates until 2015&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;- Globe And Mail&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Please let me know how I can help, i&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;f you are thinking of buying or selling.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;table style="page-break-after: avoid; page-break-inside: avoid; width: 100%;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"&gt;&lt;colgroup&gt;&lt;col width="154*" /&gt; &lt;col width="102*" /&gt;&lt;/colgroup&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr valign="TOP"&gt;
&lt;td style="; border: none; padding: 0in;" width="40%" height="56"&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;img style="vertical-align: middle;" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/SiteLogo.jpg" alt="Sutton WestCoast Realty - You've found a home" name="graphics1" width="200" height="45" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="border: none; padding: 0in;" width="40%"&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Terry&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #5f6972;"&gt;Burgess&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Phone: &lt;strong&gt;604-340-2928&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Website:&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://TerryBurgess.ca/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;TerryBurgess.ca&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Be Social - Follow Me On: &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/facebook.png" alt="" name="graphics2" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://www.facebook.com/VanWestTerry"&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://twitter.com//VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/twitter.png" alt="" name="graphics3" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://twitter.com//VanWestTerry"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://linkedin.com/in/VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/linkedin.png" alt="" name="graphics4" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;a class="western" href="http://linkedin.com/in/VanWestTerry"&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="https://plus.google.com/109691890502671269704"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/googleplus-1.png" alt="" name="graphics5" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;a class="western" href="https://plus.google.com/109691890502671269704"&gt;Google Plus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://pinterest.com/vanwestterry/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/pinterest.png" alt="" name="graphics6" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://pinterest.com/vanwestterry/"&gt;Pinterest&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;</description>
      <category>Buyer</category>
      <category>Real Estate</category>
      <category>Real Estate</category>
      <category>Seller</category>
      <category>Stats</category>
      <pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2013 21:54:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/what-do-vancouvers-april-real-estate-stats-mean-to-you-2510763</guid>
      <dc:date>2013-05-02T21:54:00Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Logged In Users Get More Detail</title>
      <link>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/logged-in-users-get-more-detail-2478818</link>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;I updated my website today to give logged on users much more information on all listings and I removed the annoying (To me anyways) '&lt;span style="color: #999999;"&gt;Click here for more info&lt;/span&gt;' prompts on the listing details.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sign up is still free.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;When you are logged in:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="Signed On User Listing Detail" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/LoggedInDetail.png" alt="MyRealPage Listing Detail when user is signed on" width="600" data-pinit="registered" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Additional details include:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Room Sizes&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Bathroom configuration&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Parking spaces and if they are covered or not&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;What the maintenance fees include&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Listing date&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Original Price&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Construction&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Heating&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Foundation&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Exterior finish&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;When you are not logged in:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Pictures and description are the same then....&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="Not Logged On Listing Detail" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/NotLoggedInDetail-1.png" alt="MyRealPage Listing Detail when a users is NOT logged on" width="600" height="1077" data-pinit="registered" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Please let me know if you have any problems with this change or if I can do anything to help you find your new home.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;table style="page-break-after: avoid; page-break-inside: avoid; width: 100%;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"&gt;&lt;colgroup&gt;&lt;col width="154*" /&gt; &lt;col width="102*" /&gt;&lt;/colgroup&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr valign="TOP"&gt;
&lt;td style="; border: none; padding: 0in;" width="40%" height="56"&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;img style="vertical-align: middle;" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/site-logo-1333748302799.jpg" alt="Sutton WestCoast Realty - You've found a home" name="graphics1" width="195" height="44" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="border: none; padding: 0in;" width="40%"&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Terry&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #5f6972;"&gt;Burgess&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Phone: &lt;strong&gt;604-340-2928&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Website:&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://TerryBurgess.ca/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;TerryBurgess.ca&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Be social, follow me on: &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/facebook.png" alt="" name="graphics2" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://www.facebook.com/VanWestTerry"&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://twitter.com//VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/twitter.png" alt="" name="graphics3" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://twitter.com//VanWestTerry"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://linkedin.com/in/VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/linkedin.png" alt="" name="graphics4" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;a class="western" href="http://linkedin.com/in/VanWestTerry"&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="https://plus.google.com/109691890502671269704"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/googleplus-1.png" alt="" name="graphics5" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;a class="western" href="https://plus.google.com/109691890502671269704"&gt;Google Plus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://pinterest.com/vanwestterry/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/pinterest.png" alt="" name="graphics6" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://pinterest.com/vanwestterry/"&gt;Pinterest&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <category>Website</category>
      <pubDate>Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:32:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/logged-in-users-get-more-detail-2478818</guid>
      <dc:date>2013-04-17T19:32:00Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>BC Home Sales Tick Higher in March</title>
      <link>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/bc-home-sales-tick-higher-in-march-2476068</link>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For immediate release&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Vancouver, BC &amp;ndash; April 15, 2013.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img style="float: right;" title="Residential Sales Per Capita - March 2013" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/Monthly%20Stats/bcrea.ResSalesPerCapita.png" alt="BCREA: MLS Residential Sales Per Capita - March 2013" /&gt;The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports &lt;br /&gt;that a total of 5,661 residential sales were recorded by the Multiple Listing Service&amp;reg; (MLS&amp;reg;) in BC during March, &lt;strong&gt;up 6.6 per cent from February&lt;/strong&gt; on a seasonally adjusted basis, but &lt;strong&gt;down 17.7&amp;nbsp;per cent compared to March 2012&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Total sales dollar volume was down 18.5 per cent to $3.06 billion. The average MLS&amp;reg; residential price in the province was&amp;nbsp;$540,662, up 2 per cent from February, but down 1 per cent from a year ago.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;BC home sales in March posted the largest &lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;seasonally adjusted month-to-month &lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;increase since January 2011&lt;/em&gt;,&amp;rdquo; said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;However, &lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;homes sale per capita continue to remain &lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;near a cyclical low, suggesting that pent-up &lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;demand may be beginning to grow in the &lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;housing market.&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Year-to-date, BC residential sales dollar volume declined 22.1 per cent to $7.2 billion, compared to the same period last year. Residential unit sales dipped 18.8 per cent to 13,572 units, while the average MLS&amp;reg; residential price was down 4.0 per cent at $530,435.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Click on:&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a title="BCREA: April 15, 2013 Press Release" href="http://www.bcrea.bc.ca/docs/news-2013/2013-03.pdf" target="_blank"&gt;The Complete BCREA News Release&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, to get detailed statistics&lt;strong&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;table style="page-break-after: avoid; page-break-inside: avoid; width: 100%;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"&gt;&lt;colgroup&gt;&lt;col width="154*" /&gt; &lt;col width="102*" /&gt;&lt;/colgroup&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr valign="TOP"&gt;
&lt;td style="; border: none; padding: 0in;" width="40%" height="56"&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;img style="vertical-align: middle;" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/site-logo-1333748302799.jpg" alt="Sutton WestCoast Realty - You've found a home" name="graphics1" width="195" height="44" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="border: none; padding: 0in;" width="40%"&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Terry&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #5f6972;"&gt;Burgess&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Phone: &lt;strong&gt;604-340-2928&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Website:&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://TerryBurgess.ca/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;TerryBurgess.ca&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Be social, follow me on: &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/facebook.png" alt="" name="graphics2" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://www.facebook.com/VanWestTerry"&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://twitter.com//VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/twitter.png" alt="" name="graphics3" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://twitter.com//VanWestTerry"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://linkedin.com/in/VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/linkedin.png" alt="" name="graphics4" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;a class="western" href="http://linkedin.com/in/VanWestTerry"&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="https://plus.google.com/109691890502671269704"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/googleplus-1.png" alt="" name="graphics5" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;a class="western" href="https://plus.google.com/109691890502671269704"&gt;Google Plus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://pinterest.com/vanwestterry/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/pinterest.png" alt="" name="graphics6" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://pinterest.com/vanwestterry/"&gt;Pinterest&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <category>Buyer</category>
      <category>Real Estate</category>
      <category>Seller</category>
      <category>Stats</category>
      <category>Vancouver</category>
      <pubDate>Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:39:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/bc-home-sales-tick-higher-in-march-2476068</guid>
      <dc:date>2013-04-15T16:39:00Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>BC Real Estate: Back To PST</title>
      <link>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/bc-real-estate-back-to-pst-2466348</link>
      <description>&lt;h1 dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;BC Real Estate: Back To PST&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;On April 1, 2013, BC reverted back from the HST to the GST + PST. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The good news&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;...You pay 5% GST on Real Estate Commissions instead of the 12% HST. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The bad news&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;... There is a temporary 2% transition tax on &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;new&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; homes/condos.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;BC&amp;rsquo;s 2% New Home Transition Tax At A Glance&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Applies to &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;all &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;new&lt;/span&gt; residential homes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; that were 10% or more complete by April 1, 2013 &amp;amp; possession takes place between April 1, 2013 and April 1 2015.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Payable by the buyer&lt;/strong&gt; on the&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; earlier of&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; the completion date or 60 days after the Strata plan is registered.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;You can get a &lt;strong&gt;rebate&lt;/strong&gt; based on percent complete as of April 1, 2013 as shown in the following table:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="BCREA: 2% Transition tax rebate table" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/BCTransistionTaxRebateTable.png" alt="BCREA: 2% Transition tax rebate table - April 1 2013 - April 1 2015" width="500px;" height="308px;" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Additional Reading&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;BCREA: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.bcrea.bc.ca/government-relations/hst-pst-resources/pst-transition-rules"&gt;&lt;span&gt;HST to GST: Transition Rules for Real Property&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;BCREA: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.bcrea.bc.ca/docs/government-relations/2013-02-18-transition-rules163B8801E546.pdf?sfvrsn=2"&gt;&lt;span&gt;HST to PST: Transition Rules for Real Property.PDF&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Canada Revenue Agency: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/gi/gi-128/gi-128-e.html"&gt;&lt;span&gt;GST/HST Info Sheet GI-128&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong id="internal-source-marker_0.9432378818746656"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt; font-weight: normal;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;table style="page-break-after: avoid; page-break-inside: avoid; width: 100%;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"&gt;&lt;colgroup&gt;&lt;col width="154*" /&gt; &lt;col width="102*" /&gt;&lt;/colgroup&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr valign="TOP"&gt;
&lt;td style="; border: none; padding: 0in;" width="40%" height="56"&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;img style="vertical-align: middle;" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/site-logo-1333748302799.jpg" alt="Sutton WestCoast Realty - You've found a home" name="graphics1" width="195" height="44" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="border: none; padding: 0in;" width="40%"&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Terry&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #5f6972;"&gt;Burgess&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Phone: &lt;strong&gt;604-340-2928&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Website:&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://TerryBurgess.ca/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;TerryBurgess.ca&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Follow Me On: &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/facebook.png" alt="" name="graphics2" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://www.facebook.com/VanWestTerry"&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://twitter.com//VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/twitter.png" alt="" name="graphics3" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://twitter.com//VanWestTerry"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://linkedin.com/in/VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/linkedin.png" alt="" name="graphics4" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;a class="western" href="http://linkedin.com/in/VanWestTerry"&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="https://plus.google.com/109691890502671269704"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/googleplus-1.png" alt="" name="graphics5" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;a class="western" href="https://plus.google.com/109691890502671269704"&gt;Google Plus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://pinterest.com/vanwestterry/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/pinterest.png" alt="" name="graphics6" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://pinterest.com/vanwestterry/"&gt;Pinterest&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <category>Buyer</category>
      <category>Home Financing</category>
      <category>Rebates</category>
      <category>Tax</category>
      <pubDate>Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:06:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/bc-real-estate-back-to-pst-2466348</guid>
      <dc:date>2013-04-10T20:06:00Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>What do Vancouver's March Real Estate Stats Mean To You?</title>
      <link>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/what-do-vancouvers-march-real-estate-stats-mean-to-you-2452223</link>
      <description>&lt;h1&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;What do Vancouver&amp;rsquo;s March Real Estate Stats Mean To You?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="REBGV - Mar 2013 - 5 Year Home Price Index Trend" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/BCREA-%20Mar%202013%205%20Yr%20Trend-560-wide.png" alt="REBGV - Mar 2013 5 Year Home Price Index Trend" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Stats At A Glance&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AnEPfuifnOlsdFkxR1lSTjZ4bmJpemowWklrcWhoWEE&amp;amp;single=true&amp;amp;gid=0&amp;amp;output=html&amp;amp;widget=true" frameborder="0" width="670" height="450"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To read the full report, Click on the&lt;a href="http://www.rebgv.org/sites/default/files/REBGV%20Stats%20Package%2C%20March%202013.pdf" target="_blank"&gt;&amp;nbsp;Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver's March Media package&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Notable&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;March &lt;strong&gt;Sales&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;were &lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;30.2%&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;below&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt; the 10 year annual average and the second lowest since 2001&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sales&lt;/strong&gt; were &lt;strong&gt;up 550 Units&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;compared to last month&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;March &lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Listing Totals &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;were&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;14.4% below&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;the 10 year annual average&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Benchmark price&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;went up last month&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;15.2%&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;of all homes on the market in March&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;sold.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; This is the first time the ratio has been above 15% since May 2012&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Interest Rates are low and they are expected to remain there for the next year&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does it mean?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When sales are less than 35% of inventory (Vancouver is at 15.2%) or there is more than 7 months of supply (We are at 6.6 Months) it's &lt;strong&gt;Buyers Market.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Condo and Detached prices went up slightly, while Townhomes went down slightly. &amp;nbsp;The overall Benchmark Price &lt;strong&gt;went up .9%&lt;/strong&gt; overall last month. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sales and the number of listings are way down compared to the normal March stats in Vancouver. &amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;After a year of below average sales, it has to be considered the new normal for the Vancouver market.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Most people have a vested interest in keeping housing prices high. &amp;nbsp;Home owners don't want their biggest asset to go down in value. &amp;nbsp;Developers want the most money for their work. &amp;nbsp;In fact, the only group who wants prices to go down are first time home buyers. &amp;nbsp;The last year has shown that they are not a big enough group to force the prices downward, especially after the Government changed the mortgage rules to eliminate many of them.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;I don't think that the prices will go down much in the near future. &amp;nbsp;In fact, they are actually going up slightly right now, which could be the first signs of a slow recovery. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;em style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For&amp;nbsp;B&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;uyers:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After a year of waiting for the big drop in prices that some were predicting, buyers are slowly beginning&amp;nbsp;to realize that it's not going to happen. &amp;nbsp;If big price drops aren't coming, then you have to ask yourself... what are you waiting for?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For&amp;nbsp;S&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;ellers:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Homes in Greater Vancouver are taking an &lt;strong id="internal-source-marker_0.8186280336230993"&gt;&lt;span&gt;average&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;57 days to sell&lt;/strong&gt;, which is up 1 day from February.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Look at when you want to make your move and then work backwards to when you should put it on the market. &amp;nbsp;It's taking 57 days on average to sell and most offers have a move in date that's about a month away, so put your home on the market around 3 months before you want to be out.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you want to be out of your home this summer, then it's time to put it on the market. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You need a new Competitive Market Analysis (AKA a Comparative Market Analysis or a CMA), done in the last 30 days to properly price your home. &amp;nbsp;I'll be happy to help you with that if you don't currently have a Realtor&amp;reg;. &amp;nbsp;Just fill in my my&amp;nbsp;&lt;a style="font-size: 9pt;" href="http://terryburgess.ca/home-evaluation.html"&gt;Free Home Evaluation&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;form. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The best pricing strategy in this market is to price your home as one of the best 3 prices for your type of home in your neighbourhood. &amp;nbsp;Price too high, and buyers won't even come to see it unless it's special &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;to them&lt;/span&gt;. &amp;nbsp;Pricing low to try and get multiple offers is foolish in a buyers market. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For people who have&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;both&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;a home to sell and one to buy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f; font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When it's a great time to buy, it's a lousy time to sell and visa versa. &amp;nbsp;Getting less for your current home than you want is fine as long as you get the same amount off of your new home. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Be realistic.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;It's the net between the two transactions that matters.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Don't overprice your home. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Don't expect the sellers of your new home to accept lowball offers any more than you would&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;'Subject to buyer selling their current home' offers aren't really sales, so few are accepted and fewer are completed&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em style="font-size: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;What Others Are Saying&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Home Ownership Offsets BC's High Cost Of Living" href="http://www.rew.ca/news/home-ownership-helping-offset-bcs-high-cost-of-living" target="_blank"&gt;Home Ownership Offsets BC&amp;rsquo;s High Cost of Living&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;- REW.CA&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Change to mortgage default rules turning more people into savers" href="http://business.financialpost.com/2013/03/29/change-to-mortgage-default-rules-turning-more-people-into-savers/?__lsa=87d4-1058" target="_blank"&gt;Change to mortgage default rules turning more people into savers&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;- Financial Post&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Credit Union predicts housing sales will pick up in BC" href="http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Credit+union+predicts+housing+sales+will+pick+snail+pace/8158670/story.html#ixzz2PQy9F0ae" target="_blank"&gt;Credit union predicts housing sales will pick up in B.C. but at a snail's pace&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;- Vancouver Sun&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="BC Housing forecast 2013-2015" href="http://beaconnews.ca/blog/2013/03/bc-housing-forecast-for-2013-to-2015/" target="_blank"&gt;BC housing forecast for 2013 to 2015&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;- Beacon News&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Why you should lock in your mortgage" href="http://business.financialpost.com/2013/03/29/why-you-should-lock-in-your-mortgage/?__lsa=7d49-cd73" target="_blank"&gt;Why you should lock in your mortgage&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;- Financial Post&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Please let me know how I can help, i&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;f you are thinking of buying or selling.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;table style="page-break-after: avoid; page-break-inside: avoid; width: 100%;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"&gt;&lt;colgroup&gt;&lt;col width="154*" /&gt; &lt;col width="102*" /&gt;&lt;/colgroup&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr valign="TOP"&gt;
&lt;td style="; border: none; padding: 0in;" width="40%" height="56"&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;img style="vertical-align: middle;" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/SiteLogo.jpg" alt="Sutton WestCoast Realty - You've found a home" name="graphics1" width="200" height="45" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="border: none; padding: 0in;" width="40%"&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Terry&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #5f6972;"&gt;Burgess&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Phone: &lt;strong&gt;604-340-2928&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Website:&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://TerryBurgess.ca/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;TerryBurgess.ca&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Be Social - Follow Me On: &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/facebook.png" alt="" name="graphics2" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://www.facebook.com/VanWestTerry"&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://twitter.com//VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/twitter.png" alt="" name="graphics3" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://twitter.com//VanWestTerry"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://linkedin.com/in/VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/linkedin.png" alt="" name="graphics4" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;a class="western" href="http://linkedin.com/in/VanWestTerry"&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="https://plus.google.com/109691890502671269704"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/googleplus-1.png" alt="" name="graphics5" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;a class="western" href="https://plus.google.com/109691890502671269704"&gt;Google Plus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://pinterest.com/vanwestterry/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/pinterest.png" alt="" name="graphics6" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://pinterest.com/vanwestterry/"&gt;Pinterest&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;</description>
      <category>Buyer</category>
      <category>Real Estate</category>
      <category>Seller</category>
      <category>Stats</category>
      <pubDate>Wed, 03 Apr 2013 21:29:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/what-do-vancouvers-march-real-estate-stats-mean-to-you-2452223</guid>
      <dc:date>2013-04-03T21:29:00Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Home Sales Continue at Modest Pace: Pent-Up Demand Growing</title>
      <link>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/home-sales-continue-at-modest-pace-pent-up-demand-growing-2413183</link>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;For the complete news release, including detailed statistics, click &lt;a href="http://listserv.realtorlink.ca/t/110351/1444641/30053/0/" target="_blank"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="style2"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;For immediate release&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div class="style4" align="center"&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Home Sales Continue at Modest Pace: Pent-Up Demand Growing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p class="style13"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vancouver, BC &amp;ndash; March 14, 2013. &lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;The&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that a total of 4,501 residential sales were recorded by the Multiple Listing Service&amp;reg; (MLS&amp;reg;) in BC during February, down 23.6 per cent compared to February 2012. Total sales dollar volume was down 29.9 per cent to $2.39 million. The average MLS&amp;reg; residential price in the province was $514,134, up 3.1 per cent from January, but down 8.1 per cent from a year ago.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="style13"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.bcrea.bc.ca/sf-images/economics/2013-02chart.gif" alt="" width="315" height="236" align="right" hspace="12" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="style13"&gt;"BC home sales continued at a modest pace in February,&amp;rdquo; said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. &amp;ldquo;Despite improved affordability, many potential buyers and sellers remain in a holding pattern. With pent up demand now becoming latent in the market, it&amp;rsquo;s not a matter of if, but when home sales rise above their current pace."&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="style13"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="style13"&gt;&amp;ldquo;An unusual spike in the average MLS&amp;reg; residential price in February 2012 is largely responsible for the year-over-year percentage change,&amp;rdquo; added Muir. &amp;ldquo;Most BC markets have experienced relatively stable price levels during the first two months of the year.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="style13"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="style13"&gt;Year-to-date, BC residential sales dollar volume declined 24.6 per cent to $4.1 billion, compared to the same period last year. Residential unit sales dipped 19.6 per cent to 7,911 units, while the average MLS&amp;reg; residential price was down 6.2 per cent at $523,117.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="style13"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 class="style13"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;img style="font-size: 9pt; font-weight: normal;" title="Feb 2013 Avg $, Act Listings, SalesToActRatio Table" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/BCREA-%20Feb13AvgActSTA.png" alt="BCREA: Feb 2013 Avg $, Act Listings, SalesToActRatio Table" width="650" /&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p class="style13"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;table style="page-break-after: avoid; page-break-inside: avoid; width: 100%;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"&gt;&lt;colgroup&gt;&lt;col width="154*" /&gt; &lt;col width="102*" /&gt;&lt;/colgroup&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr valign="TOP"&gt;
&lt;td style="; border: none; padding: 0in;" width="40%" height="56"&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;img style="vertical-align: middle;" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/site-logo-1333748302799.jpg" alt="Sutton WestCoast Realty - You've found a home" name="graphics1" width="195" height="44" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="border: none; padding: 0in;" width="40%"&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Terry&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #5f6972;"&gt;Burgess&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Phone: &lt;strong&gt;604-340-2928&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Website:&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://TerryBurgess.ca/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;TerryBurgess.ca&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
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      <category>Buyer</category>
      <category>Seller</category>
      <category>Stats</category>
      <pubDate>Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/home-sales-continue-at-modest-pace-pent-up-demand-growing-2413183</guid>
      <dc:date>2013-03-14T17:25:00Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Why you need your own Realtor®</title>
      <link>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/why-you-need-your-own-realtor-2410698</link>
      <description>&lt;h1&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Why you &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;need your own&lt;/span&gt; Real Estate Agent&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;BC uses the Designated Agency system where there are 3 types of Agency:&lt;img style="float: right;" title="Designated Agency - BCREA" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/DesignatedAgency.png" alt="BCREA's Designated Agency" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;Designated Agents for &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;each&lt;/span&gt; of the Buyer and Seller&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;Limited Dual Agent of &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;both&lt;/span&gt; the Buyer And Seller&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;No Agency&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Each type has it&amp;rsquo;s own Duties and Responsibilities. &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The British Columbia Real Estate Association has created a &lt;a title="Working With A Realtor (Designated Agency) BCREA" href="http://www.bcrea.bc.ca/docs/working-with-a-realtor-/wwar.pdf" target="_blank"&gt;Working With A Realtor&lt;/a&gt; contract that you will have to sign that outlines the 3 types of agency and allows you to choose the Agency that you want.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you are like most people, you will skip over the details and just sign where your Realtor&amp;reg; says to, but you will reduce or eliminate some of your rights if you choose anything other than Designated Agency.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Real Estate Is Adversarial&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Sellers want the best price for their home and terms that they want. &amp;nbsp;Buyers want to pay the least and get the terms that suit them. &amp;nbsp;The resulting negotiation is adversarial.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Buyers and Sellers give up&lt;/strong&gt; exclusive loyalty and some disclosure when they enter into a Limited Dual Agency agreement. &amp;nbsp;An Agent is supposed to work in the best interests of their client. &amp;nbsp;When both the Buyer and Seller are clients, it&amp;rsquo;s unclear who&amp;rsquo;s best interests are being served.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You wouldn&amp;rsquo;t go into a courtroom without having your own lawyer to protect your best interests and you shouldn&amp;rsquo;t Buy or Sell a home without having an Agent who is specifically protecting your best interests either. &amp;nbsp;Everyone seems to know this, but it is still common practice for buyers and Sellers to sign Dual Agency Agreements.&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Why Do People Sign Dual Agency Agreements When It Limits Their Rights?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;I could say, because they haven&amp;rsquo;t been educated in what they are giving up, but that&amp;rsquo;s only part of the story. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; color: #cd092f;"&gt;From The Buyers Point Of View&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;95%+ of buyers find the homes on the internet and they seem to want the listing agent to show them the home they have found. &amp;nbsp;This forces one of two things: Either the Buyer and Seller both have to sign a Limited Dual Agency agreement with the listing Agent, OR the Buyer has to find a different Realtor&amp;reg; to make actually make an offer. &amp;nbsp;The second choice makes the most sense for both Buyers and Sellers, but it&amp;rsquo;s usually not done. &amp;nbsp;A better choice is to use a designated Buyers agent to help you find the home and make the offer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some Buyers think: &amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;ll bet I can get a better deal if I have one Agent who will reduce their commission&amp;rdquo;. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Fair enough, but:&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;The Dual Agent has twice as much to gain or lose by having both sides of the deal which will make them extremely motivated to get the deal done. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;The Dual Agent at least helped set the price of the home in the first place and they won&amp;rsquo;t want to pitch low offers, even if they are in line with the current market conditions.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Very few Realtors&amp;reg; can act completely impartially with a Buyer they have just met and a Seller they have a relationship with.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h3 dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f; font-size: small;"&gt;From The Sellers Point Of View&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Sellers rarely sign a Limited Dual Agency Agreement when they put their home on the market. &amp;nbsp;They sign a Designated Agency Agreement, in part, to get the undivided loyalty of their Realtor&amp;reg;. &amp;nbsp;If the Agent finds a buyer and the offer comes in with the Limited Dual Agency agreement, the Sellers just want to see the offer. &amp;nbsp;They don&amp;rsquo;t want to sour a deal or their relationship with their Realtor&amp;reg; by saying to the potential buyer, &amp;ldquo;I don&amp;rsquo;t want to give up any of my rights, go find another Realtor&amp;reg; to make your offer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f; font-size: small;"&gt;From The Agents Point Of View&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Agents love to talk about the &amp;lsquo;Win/Win&amp;rsquo; situation. &amp;nbsp;We tell ourselves that we can be impartial and that we can act in good faith for both parties and that our job is to bring the deal together anyway, but in my opinion, double the income without double the work is the reason we do it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;When Is It OK To Use The Same Realtor&amp;reg; To Buy And Sell?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;If &lt;strong&gt;both the Buyer and the Seller are savvy in Real Estate&lt;/strong&gt;, have multiple transactions each, and neither needs the Agent&amp;rsquo;s council or expertise, then using the it&amp;rsquo;s OK to use the same Realtor&amp;reg; for both sides of the same transaction.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Realtors&amp;reg; at open houses who aren&amp;rsquo;t the Listing Agent&lt;/strong&gt; can not offer you Designated Agency. &amp;nbsp;There is little to no difference between them and any other agent you pick off the street. &amp;nbsp;I&amp;rsquo;d say it&amp;rsquo;s OK to use them under Limited Dual Agency, as long as they don&amp;rsquo;t have a Designated Agency Agreement in place with the sellers. &amp;nbsp;Just don&amp;rsquo;t tell them anything that you don&amp;rsquo;t want the listing agent or sellers to know, and things should work out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It makes things easier when you are selling your current home and buying a new one to use the same Realtor&amp;reg; for both transactions. &amp;nbsp;If your Realtor&amp;reg; specializes in being a Buyer Agent or doesn&amp;rsquo;t know the new area you are moving into, then ask them to refer you to a local area specialist because they will know the type of Realtor&amp;reg; you need.&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Agents Duties and Responsibilities&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;h3 dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Designated Seller / Listing Agent&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Provides &lt;strong&gt;undivided loyalty to the Seller&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Obey all &lt;strong&gt;lawful instructions&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;from the Seller&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Put the best interests of the Seller before the Agents&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Protects the Sellers Interests&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Negotiates the best price &amp;amp; terms for the Seller&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Disclose all known facts that may influence decisions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Maintain the confidentiality of the Seller&amp;rsquo;s private information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Probably knows the Seller&amp;rsquo;s Motivation&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Probably knows the Seller&amp;rsquo;s low price&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Seller must sign a designated Agency acknowledgment&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h3 dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Designated Buyer Agent&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Provides &lt;strong&gt;undivided loyalty to the Buyer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Obey all&lt;strong&gt; lawful instructions from the Buyer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Put the best interests of the Buyer before the Agents&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Protects the Buyers Interests&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Negotiates the best price &amp;amp; terms for the Buyer&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Disclose all known facts that may influence decisions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Maintain the confidentiality of the Seller&amp;rsquo;s private information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Probably knows the Buyer&amp;rsquo;s Motivation&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Probably knows the Buyers high price&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt;"&gt;Buyer must sign a designated Agency acknowledgment&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h3 dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Limited Dual Agent (Working for both Buyer and Seller)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Deal with both parties fairly&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Disclosure to both parties of all known facts that may influence decisions except:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Price&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Terms (other than in those in the contract or listing)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Motivation of either Buyer or Seller (Unless authorized in writing)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Personal Information of the Buyer or Seller&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Must disclose any known defects to the Buyer&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Buyer and Seller must sign an acknowledgment agreeing to Limited Dual Agency&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Take a look at the &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.inman.com/reports/dual-agency"&gt;&lt;span&gt;INMANNews Dual Agency Map&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span&gt; to see how it&amp;rsquo;s limited in the US&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h3 dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;No Agency&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Note: Your must sign an acknowledgment agreeing to No Agency&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4 dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;The agent can:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Explain Real Estate Terms, Practises and forms&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Assist with screening or viewing properties&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Prepare and present offers at your direction&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Provide a list of lenders and inform you of their policies&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Identify the other costs involved in your transaction&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h4 dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;The agent can not:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Suggest a Price&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Negotiate a deal&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Inform you of their clients bottom line price&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Disclose any confidential information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong id="internal-source-marker_0.8667555223219097"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;table style="page-break-after: avoid; page-break-inside: avoid; width: 100%;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"&gt;&lt;colgroup&gt;&lt;col width="154*" /&gt; &lt;col width="102*" /&gt;&lt;/colgroup&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr valign="TOP"&gt;
&lt;td style="; border: none; padding: 0in;" width="40%" height="56"&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;img style="vertical-align: middle;" src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/site-logo-1333748302799.jpg" alt="Sutton WestCoast Realty - You've found a home" name="graphics1" width="195" height="44" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="border: none; padding: 0in;" width="40%"&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #cd092f;"&gt;Terry&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #5f6972;"&gt;Burgess&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Phone: &lt;strong&gt;604-340-2928&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Website:&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://TerryBurgess.ca/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;TerryBurgess.ca&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p class="western"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Follow Me On: &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/facebook.png" alt="" name="graphics2" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://www.facebook.com/VanWestTerry"&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://twitter.com//VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/twitter.png" alt="" name="graphics3" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://twitter.com//VanWestTerry"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://linkedin.com/in/VanWestTerry"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/linkedin.png" alt="" name="graphics4" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;a class="western" href="http://linkedin.com/in/VanWestTerry"&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="https://plus.google.com/109691890502671269704"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/googleplus-1.png" alt="" name="graphics5" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;a class="western" href="https://plus.google.com/109691890502671269704"&gt;Google Plus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://pinterest.com/vanwestterry/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://terry-burgess.myrealpagewebsite.com/_media/Images/pinterest.png" alt="" name="graphics6" width="16" height="16" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;a class="western" href="http://pinterest.com/vanwestterry/"&gt;Pinterest&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <category>Buyer</category>
      <category>Real Estate</category>
      <category>Seller</category>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:13:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://terryburgess.ca/blog.html/why-you-need-your-own-realtor-2410698</guid>
      <dc:date>2013-03-13T22:13:00Z</dc:date>
    </item>
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