Follow-up to what the market is doing this fall.

Well yesterday was a day full of meetings for me.

First at our Coast Realty staff meeting we discussed the slowing market and what kind of things we can be doing to stay in business even through tougher times. We discussed such things as using the internet as a low cost or cost free way of developing a sound marketing system for homes. Websites such as Craigslist, eBay, Kijiji, facebook, blogging, personal websites, local websites and so on were discussed as useful tools for marketing ourselves and our listings. I think this is great and I have been using many of these marketing avenues in the past but our meeting put it into focus that these need to be further developed in a slowing market. Community involvement in service clubs, networking groups or other social setting was seen as great ways to develop business. We also discussed many other topics but I won't bore you with the rest.

What amazed me is that if this kind of thing works to sustain business in a slow market, what must it do in an active market? I think sound business practices and marketing strategies are essential even in the strongest markets, but this is beside the point.

My second meeting of the day required me to change my hat and meet as a member of the City of Port Alberni Planning Commission. On this month's agenda was the proposed rezoning of three apprtment buildings of four units each that sit on one acre of land. The owner wished to subdivide into three separate titles. The motivation for doing so seemed to be so the owner would be more reflexive to changing market and would have options of selling or redeveloping one, two or all three parcels separately. Seems like common sense to me, but again this is a reflection of where our market is headed in the short term and solidifies most of what the market has been telling us for the last six to eight months.

My dinner time meeting was as a candidate member of the Appraisal Institute of Canada. It was an interesting meeting with a room full of around 60 appraisers from the Nanaimo (mid-island) chapter. The unanimous view here was very much the same as my previous meeting of the day. We discussed what the slowing market meant for appraisers but what was surprising was how well, comparatively speaking, the Alberni Valley is doing in comparison to our surrounding markets.

Campbell River representatives are worried. With mills and mines shutting down coupled with an already high number of listings and low sales, they are preparing for prices to fall considerably. Parksville and Qualicum Beach have already begun to experience price drops. Port Alberni and the Alberni Valley, however, have not seen these price drops yet, and I think it is a function of affordability. Our relatively low house prices have put us in a position of higher demand for retirees and young families seeking affordable housing.

So again, between the three meetings, I got a clear picture from many others in the real estate industry that local markets are slowing. I am happy, however that although we are in a buyers market, we are just barely into a buyer's market and are very close indeed to a balanced market. I expect that the local market in the Alberni Valley should fare much better than surrounding areas as long as we continue to develop strong local economic strategies and further diversify our economy.

I also truly believe that any real estate professional that weathers any storm over the next year and a half will come out flying on the other side. Well let's wait and see what happens.

Please let me know if you agree or disagree with any of this. Comment or email trent@trentsnikkers.com