Being a realtor for over 17 years now has made me see many markets come and go. The one thing I have noticed lately is the “all or none” mentality of the modern market. I find that it’s either ”pedal to the metal” where you have buyers crawling over each other to put in their bid in multiple offer situations, or to the “brakes full on”, where every buyer sits back and does nothing, waiting for a glimmer of market change. Usually this is fuelled by the media reports.

If you can believe it, I remember a time (within the last decade) when you would list a place and it would take about 2 months to sell. It would have regular showings. It wouldn’t need any price reductions even though it was on the market for over a month, and it would usually sell within 3-4% of asking price. This was what we used to call a “balanced market”.  It is something that seems to have gone the way of the Do Do Bird. There was no panic price reductions or “auction type” multiple offer situations (rarely). It was just a calmer, more relaxed environment to do business in.

You could have your buyers go home and think about writing an offer, rather than having one hour to decide as there were multiple offers coming in on the property at a certain time that same day. As a realtor, I could schedule more time off as well, as I didn’t have to be at the new listing at a required time or else I’d have missed the parade (multiple offer situation). The market wasn’t controlling what I did or how I ran my business.

Wouldn’t it be nice to go back to a balanced market? I think many new realtors wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if this were the case. I recall one new realtor in my office came to me with the question: “what should I do, I’ve listed a place on Friday and got no calls on it all weekend. Should I reduce the price!?!” It’s this type of mentality that is fueling today’s more volatile market. In this age of computers and high-tech everything is moving at a much quicker pace but that is not always for the better. A more relaxed, balanced market would be more ideal for all involved. I wonder if we will ever see one again?