Eliminating the Buying Fear in Barrie Real Estate

Hello again,

          I am new to this forum so I just wanted to begin providing some real value. I am going to do a series of 3 short posts, each with 1 tip for eliminating the buying fear associated with real estate that I see here in Barrie. This comes from my team’s combined 25+ years experience and much research  

Barrie Real Estate Buying Fear #1

Declining Property Values
Contrary to the common belief that real estate is always a good investment because it’s on a constant rise, property values do plateau or even decline in certain markets for a variety of reasons. This makes buyers tentative and a little research is necessary. We want to avoid neighbourhoods in gradual decline because of newer subdivisions being built nearby making it appear less desirable. Unattractive developments like prisons and highways can reduce value as well. It’s important to know what is going on as far as growth in your area. In Barrie, we recently avoided development of an ethanol plant. The musty corn-dryer smell could have made back yard life unpleasant for miles around. A poor or mediocre economy can also keep home values down. But we all know about that already. Don’t we?

There’s truly nothing we can do to completely eliminate the potential of decline, or the risk in Real Estate investing. All we can do to eliminate the buying fear is to do our due diligence to avoid areas that will reduce the appeal of a home. Areas of ill repair where there are a lot of rental units. Areas with new schools usually mean areas of low crime as well, and make good long-term areas to buy. An area with a variety of industries and lots of employment choices levels the playing field too. If the mine shuts down in mining town, for example, you all know what happens. In Barrie though, we have many people who commute to Toronto, there’s tons of retail and service related jobs, a hospital, the Honda plant is 45 minutes away…  We have a vast employment pool, so if one company goes out of business, there are still many others employing people and keeping the unemployment rate down.

Regarding the developments of industry, highways or even prisons, you can reduce the fear with in depth knowledge of your city’s future development plans and avoid purchasing nearby. If, however, the development will increase value, buy near it. You can find this type of information by contacting the city government and ask about the developments or they may have them posted on the city’s website. If you aren’t a realtor, save yourself the research time because it’s your realtor’s job to find all of this out for ou so you can make an informed decision.

I hope this helps, and stay tuned for Tip #2

Cheers,