A pretty good analogy of  the property searching  process is the luggage carousel at an airport.  The luggage up-ramp from the arrival plane deposits luggage on a carousel that goes around and people can pick their luggage up when they see it. People watch the luggage as it comes down the track and try to identify it before it gets to them. They know what they are looking for but many cases are similar so until it gets close, they can’t positively identify it. Sometimes this is too late and it goes by to make another round. Think of properties coming up the ramp and being deposited on the carousel as a new listing. Each bag/property has a price on it.  People look for something that appeals to them and watch it come around.  If you are right by the up ramp, you can pick and choose from everything that comes along but if you want one of them, you must grab it quickly or risk it going all the way around until it comes to you again. The risk is that someone else, somewhere else around the carousel will see it and grab it before you. The stress is that there is more coming and maybe something better will come up the ramp or at a better price so you don’t want to commit. If it goes all the way around without someone taking it then there is a reason. It might be way overpriced, it may have issues or be in poor condition or maybe it is just unique and only appeals to a small number of buyers. You get a second chance. If it goes around the carousel several times then there is definitely an issue. Of course it may just be too big or small for most peoples needs or it may be an outrageous colour or an ugly style. Usually a price reduction will solve that but not always. It depends on the motivation of the seller. Some are willing to hang on for years until they get their price. In the long run prices always go up so either the market rises to match the property price or it’s the only ones left on the carousel so the buyers either take it or just don’t...

Every situation is different but in most cases when off island people decide they might want to move to Salt Spring, the first thing they do is check out the market to see what they can get for how much. They have an image or dream in their mind and try to find properties for sale that meet those criteria. They generally have a budget amount in mind also.  In their initial searches they may find that what they want and their budget are not in alignment. This doesn’t mean all the money they can spend but more like what they are comfortable with. They either adjust their parameters or try somewhere else. Depending on how far off the market their expectations are, some have the lottery ticket attitude that “ you never know”  or despite there being hundreds if not thousands of people watching the market, maybe a diamond in the rough will be missed by everyone else.   If they are selling, their Realtor will do a CMA ( Comparative Market Analysis) on their property of similar for sale and sold properties in their area and come up with what they consider a fair price to sell the property. The same can be done for homes they are looking to buy with the exception that there is a limited selection and getting true comparables can be very difficult. You can only deal with what is for sale at that slice in time. So much of the value of a property is non-statistical and a lot of the price is emotional appeal.  Once people decide they do want to purchase on Salt Spring, they start searching the MLS. Some will also Google realtors on Salt Spring and go through their website looking for property. This is a bit of a double take because 99% of properties are listed on the MLS so you get the same results. Some realtors have “ Exclusive “ listings that are not on the MLS but that is a whole new challenge because as of June 2018, acting for the buyer and seller ( double ending) is not allowed anymore so for the most part they would have to refer the buyers to another realtor to act for them anyway. Having Exclusive listings does not have the financial advantage to Realtor any more usually. It also doesn’t do the seller any good as only a small percentage of the potential buyers are going to know the property is for sale. Most often a Realtor will put the buyers on an “ auto-email” list so that as new listings that fit the criteria come up, the client will be emailed about it automatically. Rule of...

2018 SFD Sales Price Stats10 Year Price TrendActive Listings HistoryListings under $600,000Sale Price to Assessed Value RatioSell to List Price Ratio Previous Next Click on chart for more finer...

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