Niagara's Hot, Hot, Hot Market This Past January | The Golfi Real Estate Show - Niagara Edition (Feb. 6)

On this week's Niagara edition of The Golfi Real Estate Show, Rob Golfi, Phil Golfi and iHeart radio host Tim Dennis talk about how hot the market was in Niagara this past January and CMHC's prediction of a big drop in housing prices this year.


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Transcript

Good morning, Niagara. This is Rob Golfi with the golf team. Welcome to the Golfi real estate show. Niagara edition with host Tim, Dennis, where is it more exciting in the real estate business in Niagara, lately? Welcome in everybody. Oh man. You know, every week, I don't think you can come up with. The numbers that are any crazier than the week before.

And you never, never short on surprises for me. Let's talk about this market in Niagara and particularly some of the surprising hotspots, Rob. Yeah. It's been insane and there's a couple of areas in Nagar. That's just been a crazy, but there, but there's one surprise in Fonthill Pelham. The numbers just didn't perform like the rest of the Niagara area.

So in 2020 in, in Fonthill Pelham deed sold 10 homes in January, January of 2021, they sold 17. So the, the, you know, obviously there's. You know, 70%, more, 77 more homes. Now let's listen to this in January, 2020, the average sell price was 889,000. Okay. Now in January of 2021, 857,759. So they're down 4% on average sell price now.

Like, so I looked at this, I checked it out. I couldn't, you know what, Tim, I just can't understand why that happened. And I, and I, I printed out the numbers, try to see the, you know, work out the average sale price. How many, maybe last year they had a couple of big houses that sold at Brown, you know, maybe brought that number up.

And then that's why this year we didn't sell that many big homes, the same percentage of high-end home sold and. I think what happened in Pelham fond Hill, they've kind of reached to a peak to a certain degree. And so they probably, you know what I mean? Like it's just that there's only so much that an area can go up and then after that people kind of look and say, Hey, we can't afford this area.

Let's, let's go somewhere else down the road. And Does that mean? Would you expect in a place like felon, Pelham, fond Hill, that there'd be some new builds starting soon because they, you know, there, there are people thinking they can get in on those prices by building some new ones. Yeah. Like, you know what Pell, like.

Fon Hill is a bigger, like an area in huge demand. Like people want to live there and there's like houses that are, you know, one to two, $3 million and higher that are our people are building there. And I mean, it's a gorgeous area and but. But I just can't understand it. Could I? Yeah, you're right.

Like it's, there is, there is a lot of development happening there. Maybe that's, what's a draw dropping the average sell price, like, you know, so basically the builders are supplying the demand and, but those deals aren't registered on the MLS. So, so every time a buyer comes into the area, And buys a house through a builder.

We lose that buyer that buys a resell a home. And maybe that's why that it, it probably didn't perform as well as the other areas. And yeah, so they were down 4% in average sale price. But saying that, but there's still, it's still a strong area. It's one of the higher price points in Niagara. It's the, it's the second highest it's two, a Niagara and the Lake.

So, so there, so the probably hit a ceiling to a certain degree. It, it will climb again. But they just probably have to cool off a bit. And and then, and then it'll start reaching up again. And I know, I knew Grimsby was the same way at, at, in certain times. Grimsey was just sometimes, you know, year over year, it'd be the same.

There wasn't much of a gain because they gained too much already earlier. So Pelham Fonthill probably had huge gains in the last year. And that's why it didn't yeah. Grow as, as, as hard, you know, year over year. So, so sometimes, maybe right now is a time to get into Pelham. Fonthill buy a house because then it's going to have another, another jump there.

Yeah, it was, it was crazy. So like in Fon Hill, um in January they listed 20 homes. No, sorry, sold 20, 20 homes and they listed 26 and and then. January. So right now there's only 1.9 months of inventory. So I'm assuming it's one month and nine days, I guess, of inventory left. If they stopped listing properties in Pelham font Hill.

So there's not that much available. So things, I think things are going to start picking up again and font and font Hill, because if they had a little sleepy time they're going to, and here's where, here's where it's very obvious in the difference between the years, because you look at. You know, the, the, the numbers themselves in Pelham fond Hill, you're looking at you know, 20 homes sold this year in January last, January 14.

Okay. Little bit of a difference, but not a massive one, but you said 1.9 months of inventory. In January of this year, last January nine and a half months of inventory. That's right. That's where the big differences, right? Yeah. And then, but, but look, look, look at in November 35 homes sold. In November, only 21 homes were listed.

Can you map so more homes? I'm sure I'm wrapping my head around that for a second. That's tough to take in I in, and that's where, where the price gets driven up. November was a crazy month at all through the peninsula. That's what drives the market up because now, so more homes sold and what's listed. So whatever.

So anybody that. Didn't have a great house that, you know, maybe it's like the runt of the litter of the homes out there. They ended up selling to because there was nothing else to choose from. So those guys ended up benefiting because there was it outperformed. It was a huge sellers market. Unbelievable.

But Fort Erie, now I got to talk about four. Eerie he's there. Oh, my four year. I can't believe it. How Fort Erie has just like did a 360 degree turnaround in less than two years. So in January of 2020 49 homes sold January of 2021 54 homes sell 10% increase. So listen to this in January. Of 2020, the average sale price in 40 area was 424,000 January of this year, 595,463 40% increase.

Now, is that, is that being driven by Ridgway crystal beach or is that all the way through Fort Erie? That's probably combination of both Fort Erie now you're, you're starting to see developers. Are like, if you look in Stevensville, there's certain a building, even Ceville on, that's becoming a hotspot because it's only like a 10 minute drive on the Queenie, less than that, less than 10 minutes to Niagara falls.

So it's, if they can't afford Niagara falls, Chippewa, they're going to go to. Stevensville now they're even going further down the highway, like 40% increase. I can't believe it. Like, it's just, well, I drive through rich way and I can't believe the amount of building that's going on. The new neighborhoods that have gone up and particularly along the Lake.

Yeah, around crystal beach and or crystal beach is, you know, it is what it is, but Ridgeway and those places just massive amount of building going on. Oh, I know. I know. It's just, it's just continuing and, and I think it's just going to keep going now. Like, I mean this whole Southern Ontario Lake we're.

Um, you know, like along the Queenie corridor is just gonna just go crazy. It's incredible. And in January they've so the, the, the sold 69 homes and and then they've listed. 78. So it's not too bad, but November actually it's actually been not too bad because they've all performed. Except for December in December, they listed sales were 71 and they listed 63 in December.

So, so that was a big sellers market, no matter where you were in in, in Niagara, December was just low inventory and buyers were still out there. They were just crazy out there now. Yeah. I'm just looking at some of these other places, because you said Fort Erie was up 40%. Niagara falls was up 50%. Yeah, I can't, I can't believe that.

And I, I, and I remember buying a home on Ross Avenue just behind the funeral home there on main street for $40,000 in 1985. I can't believe that. Just crazy, just crazy. And now that probably that house is probably worth five, 600,000. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. So in grit in Grimsby 28 homes sold in 2020, 37 and 2021 32% increase.

So the average sale price last year in January and Grimsey was 602,418. This year, 744,912 2014. Percent increase in average sale price unbelief, just and, and grizzy flat lines. It does the same thing. Just what probably happened in in Fonthill Pelham. So sometimes you'll see some, some years where it just flat lines.

It just, you know, it just, it it's hit the peak and then that's it. It's just and then time will go by and then it'll start climbing back again and aggressively. Now just for people who are not huge real estate people. Does that mean that if I own a home in Grimsby and I'm thinking of what it's worth, that it's worth 24% more now than it was a year ago?

Yeah, absolutely. Is it that easy to say that. Yeah, that's exactly it. Or if you bought a year ago and let's say you offer 500, your, your house is worth 24% more this year, like in January. And so it so it, it feels good. People, you know, are, are, are obviously refinancing to do improvements on their houses or whatever they need to do because now they've got more equity on their house and the interest rates are, you know, are crazy low.

Uh, interest rates. So, but yeah, that's, it's incredible. There's no investment out there that you can get that. And that's a tax-free investment if it's your personal residence. Yeah. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. In Lincoln, we had 36 homes sold in 20, 20, 39 in 2021 was an 8% increase. The average sell price in Lincoln.

So that's, you know, that's basically Beeville vine land Jordan station, Jordan that area. So in 2020, the average sell price in January was 616,603. This year, January is 757,799, 23% increase on your property that you own. If you own a property incredible. Like 23%. So grizzy Grimsey beam, Zelle Grimsey Lincoln.

You know, they, they were both pretty, pretty, pretty well on par as into a increase of 23, 24%. And it's more, you know, it depends where you go. They have like little pockets of subdivisions and, but they have a ton of land out there. So they're going to be growing. That's going to be the next big area.

And I know they're starting to develop a prudence landing. I'm not sure if you see it, that land, that prudence landing is the. Biggest stretch of waterfront that hasn't been touched yet. And that's going to start getting developed now that from deaths, between, between Buffalo and Toronto, that is the longest stretch of waterfront that hasn't been touched.

That is going to be a community on its own. There. In in prudence landing, that's going to be unbelievable. It's going to be something like what they're going to be doing at Casa Blanca, or they are in Grimsby with they're gonna have detached homes and condos and everything there. They're already got, you're already starting to see the sales centers going up in prudent land.

Yeah. What a change that's going to be. I remember going there as a kid, I remember going to the water park there, and then there was the going back even further. There was the Tivoli miniature world that was out there at prudence for years. Yeah. We used to go to proms at the at that there was a ballroom out there and boy has it changed over the years, but what a great stretch of property unbelief , that's going to be so super incredible once that's done.

And now it'll probably. Be done. And I, you know, who knows, it'll be a tick 10 years, 10 to 15 years. And you're going to drive by the queen Queenie now, and you'll look at it. And then 10, 15 years from now, you are going to, it's going to be crazy. It's you won't believe what's gonna look like in 10, 15 years from there now it's going to be just totally developed.

Wow. So we've got Niagara. Falls. So boy hometown 98 deals sold in January of 2020, 108 and 2021. So there's a 10% increase in amount of units sold. So, but Niagara falls that last year, January, the average sale price was 429,739. This year 645,858, 50% increase whole week. Holy smokes. Niagara falls is just killing it.

It's probably the best, um place in in Niagara. Formed outperformed St. Catherine's Oh, performed a well and well, and had a great performance, but just killed it. Narrator falls is just going to keep continuing, it's a great a hub to buy investment properties. It's, it's becoming a little tougher now, but it is going to be the, like a mega it's going to this.

This city is going to grow so big and it's going to be a place where more things are going to happen and you're going to find great. Things in Niagara falls, investment-wise development wise, everything, and hopefully the downtown on queen street does pick up and thrive. Start thriving again, we have to break for a second, Rob.

Uh, we'll get back to talking about other areas around the region. Lots of other stuff to discuss on this week's Golfi real estate show Niagara edition. When we come back after this, you've got the radio on. And it's the Golfi real estate show Niagara edition. I'm Tim Dennis with Rob Golfi of Remax escarpment, the golf team.

And when we left you last, just before the break, we were talking about the amazing numbers year over year in Niagara falls. We're talking about these numbers that are continuing to go up and we're kind of taking you across the Niagara peninsula as to what's hot and what's hot, but maybe not quite as hot as hot.

Because they're all high. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. So in Niagara falls, like Dave had an incredible three months, the last three months, especially. So if you look in November of 2020, 183 homes sold. In in Niagara falls in in November 182 were listed. So, and anything that was so whatever they put on the market sold a hundred percent, a hundred, a hundred percent, December 135 homes.

Uh, I sold 101 listed. So, so that's where the that's where a lot of the other stuff that didn't sell that was sitting on the market probably for a while. They probably ended up selling there for sure. And now look at, in January. 125 homes sold in 153 listed. Incredible, incredible. So it, it just it just, it's just crazy sales numbers of unbelievable.

Unbelievable. And then right now in Niagara falls in January, if no other houses get listed, you only have one point. Four months of inventory left and meanwhile, but, but look, if you look, if you even look in January of 2020, they had 3.7, that's still low. So the near falls has been performing like crazy.

It's just incredible. The th the, the next one is Niagara on the Lake Niagara and Lake had What is it here? Never like 14 homes sold in 2020, 29 homes sold in 2029, 2021, which is, which is pretty good. So it's almost doubled. So 107% increase. So the average price in 2020 was 881,593. The average sale price in January of this year is 1,000,050 8,327 19% increase 19.

It's funny because a little while ago we were talking about Niagara on the Lake and, you know, we both looked at the numbers and maybe December in January and looked like they were flattening a little bit, but it looks like it jumped back up again. It did, it did. So they've gotten into some high-end homes that are selling their Niagara Lake is becoming a place that people are looking at, but people, but what I find about people nagging Lake you, they, they really got to think about when they buy there, especially if you're out of town.

Retirees have no problem because they're not driving every day to work, to go to, like, let's say St. CA well, not St Catherine's, but let's say in, in Toronto or Mississauga, Burlington or whatever, because that, because just leaving Niagara on the Lake just to get to Queenie can take 10, 15 minutes.

So, so that's that, that's a, a drive alone as it is. Yeah. But but we're finding a lot of people are migrating there. A lot of now we're getting people from St. Catherine's in Niagara falls because if they work and work in St Catherine's Niagara falls going to Niagara Lake is not, is not, not too bad. St.

David's is, is, is part of this circle of what I brought in St. David's is becoming a lot of Niagara falls. People are moving to St. David's. Just because it's just a it's right there. It's just at the bottom of the Hill there. If you pass a mountain road, there it's quietly been a real Juul for a long time.

And there were a lot of people from outside of Niagara who never really knew about St. David's and now they do. It's like, Oh, this is fabulous. I know. And so you're finding a lot of people moving there and, and they're buying their one to $2 million houses in St. David's. And, and you should see if you drive around in there, they've got some nice little pockets and subdivisions in there and it's it's, it's really, it's really nice that and it's, it's a great place to move to.

No doubt. But but over there, over there in, in in Niagara, on the Lake, they only have 3.5 months of inventory right now. So, uh it's uh it's I mean, they're holding pretty good. They're holding pretty good. Now in January last year, they only had 11.8 months of inventory. So a year ago that there was no pandemic pandemic in January of 2020.

So what it changed. And then as the pandemic hit, June, things started climbing down. But if you look in April, Well, April people were, that was a very tough time. And, and there's only 22.4 months of inventory. So everything just kind of stopped because remember everybody kind of stopped in the middle of March.

And the reason why March's numbers are still good is because of that first two weeks of March which was rolling. It was, it was, it was rolling. So, but then April, everything kind of shut down, but then may thinks they're picking up and then all of a sudden look at it and it just started, it just started going crazy.

Notice that in Niagara, on the Lake, the number of new listings last January was about 65. And this past January, this month, just past 51, that's not a huge difference. No, no. And that's the thing is, cause Niagara Lake is it's, it's, it's a place you really got to think about moving to. It's a place that everybody wants to move to, but you really got to think about if that's where you want to be, because it's yeah.

That's like a little. It's a little, it's a little community, it's a different community and it's a beautiful community to live in, but you really got to think about your lifestyle. W you know, where you go to, you know, family and work and everything else, it's very, very, you got to you, you've really got to think about it when you moved there.

And when, when somebody makes a decision, they moved there. They, they fall in love and, and, and they'll stay. But if you're, if you're, you know, Traveling a lot going on on the highway to, to the GTA, it becomes a tough, a tough drive. It does. So what's going on in chin Catherine's St. Catherine's you know what?

I'm totally shocked that it's not outperforming Niagara falls. So in St. Catherine's, I mean, they're doing the numbers, but percentage wise, but St. Catherine's 132 homes sold in January of 2020, 143 homes sold in January of. This year, 2021, 8% increase. Okay. No problem. So last year in January, 2020, the average sell price in Jane was 450, 3,414.

This year, 595,644 31% increase. I'll tell you a Niagara falls is, is outperforming. St Catherine's and informing everybody. Yeah. And I mean, so, I mean, it's just like, so like, I I'm just surprised like, like usually St Catherine's has always had the higher average sell price and I don't know what to tell ya.

It's just they've they they're they're they're. You're moving along. Great. We're moving along, but they're not doing as well as, as as is it just lack of inventory in St. Catherine's because there, there are fewer and fewer places to build new homes and, you know, people that have them seem to be just hanging on, you know, when I, I don't think so.

I just think that I, you don't want, there's a migration of people that are just don't know St. Catherine's. The known the Agra fault, because you got to understand when people are coming from the GTA. Yep. They go visit Niagara falls, they're driving around the city. They're, they're checking it out. And and they're falling in love with it.

It's a nice small town. It's, it's got, it's kind of a small medium-sized town. It still has that, you know you know, it's busy in the summertime with all the tourist cars there. But it's, it's a, it's a great, it's a great little city to live in. And and I think people are just going there because they go there, visit the falls and they fall in love.

And then they think, Hey, I like to live in that in Niagara falls. And that's why Niagara falls has got that, you know advertisement of, one of the seven wonders of the world is right there in Niagara falls. So that's, that's where they're migrating here. So that's why Niagara falls. This is probably a place that a lot of people want to want to stay a lot of, a lot of, a lot of, um I would say immigrant people once they've are in Toronto they lived there for a while now.

They're coming in Agra falls. They're loving it. So, yeah, it's a great place. All right, let's go up early Hill into Thorold oral. Yes. 33 homes sold in January last year, year three, four. So it's almost the same. So the average sale price in Thorold last year in January is 481,692. This year, 610,676, 27% increase almost in almost, not too far off with St Catherine's was, but but again, you know, and that's kind of an almost normal overall with the peninsulas doing.

Uh, overall, but not what near falls Fort Erie and Welland has done, but but yeah, they've they've you know, it's moving along. I think that'll increase more once the pandemic is over with and because of the fact of, um we're going to get more people buying investment properties there because of the university and stuff like that.

Um, you're going to see that number jumped just as quite a bit more probably next year in January then than it is this year. Absolutely. And then there was Welland. Well, and Oh boy. Oh boy. This is the, this is the one that I never thought I'd ever see, but look at that 50 sales last year in January 53 this year in January.

So I'm not too far off. 6% increase. So last year, January of 2020 average sale price in Welland was $368,066. This year, 533,368, 45%. Increase this second biggest. So Niagara falls, right in falls, Niagara falls, 45%. I can't believe it. Well, and with that, that's like, where did that go? Okay. So here's the question.

Where did that come from? Affordability a lot of retirees the, the pandemic that's where that came from the pandemic. People are coming out this way for a well in Welland as an area like it, especially off the four Oh six, there there's a community there and a couple of communities and you're going to find that's going to grow.

Massively, and it's just going to keep going. So you're talking about these new places up on merit road, round the corner from the old fairgrounds. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they've got and I think what's the builder's name there? He's building a lot there. Uh what's his name? Jerry. Oh, I forget that.

I'm going blank on his name. It starts with an R. But it'll come to me. He's got the big mic home sign there as you drive by some yeah. That's the place I'm thinking of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he yeah, well is just done extremely well. So if anybody, any developers that bought land in Welland, they, their land value just went through the roof.

Just because of that fact, because now a builder or that is building, there can demand more money. So he actually is, is like if he bought land and developed it, he's going to, his profitability is going to be lot greater now just because of the fact that housing prices have gone up so he can compete with the resales.

And a lot of people buying brand new, just because of the fact everything's brand new, but obviously they got to do all their landscaping and. And window coverings and all their appliances after that, which costs money. But in saying that well it looks like another era destination for the GTA buyers that are coming up this way and we're finding they're there.

The more that Rob Ford puts this pandemic on, like tells it to shut down the more crazier and busier it's getting down in Niagara. And I know. So if he keeps things, you know, shutting down and stuff like that, you know, they open it, then they close it, they open it and close it. He's just pushing more people outside the GPA.

That's what he's doing. Has there ever been a time where the average home price was this much higher in Canada than it is in the us? Because we're more expensive? Well, our home prices are what, how many percent higher than the U S 40%. They're there. Same for 40%. So what it is is, um with what's happening there is the us government.

I think they're a little bit, their development is a lot faster and approved faster than it is in Canada. So what, what the Americans do? So let's say a developer, he's got this 250 acre parcel of land. He files an application. Wants to start dividing it up in lots, I think. And they were saying that it it's quicker to get that done in a U S than it is in Canada.

So their pace of building new builds. Are a lot faster than it is in Canada. And that's why, and in Canada, I mean, you got to go through hoops and you got to fight the OMB or the, or the city, the township. And, you know, let's say you want to build this. And so th th they make it a long process for the Canadian builders.

So what that means is that it's taking longer to put new homes up. Which means that housing prices are going to keep going up fast. If there's not a supply of houses there for people to buy, right? Yeah. Like I highlighted here over here, it says that several factors that have been cited to explain the difference between a Canadian and us markets, that stronger population growth in Canada has been.

Uh, driven by migration, although that took a pause during the pandemic, it's expected to pick up again, but then also a third of the homes sold last year in Canada. We're in Toronto Vancouver, but it also says in Canada, they're also in Canada because there's no capital gains. That's why prices are going up, but there was another part here that I was reading that it was talking about.

Hundreds of American cities have improved affordability by containing to growth of housing costs. Largely by helping increase the housing supply says the report the laws of supply and demand apply to housing, like any other. Good. So basically. We don't have our supply is too slow. Our, our supply of new homes is too slow when we come back on the real estate show this week the mortgage and housing folks say, after all of that, we've just discussed the mortgage and housing folks say that the Canadian market could see a drop of close to 14%.

We'll get Rob's views on that. And Few other real estate questions that people have given us. We'll get to that. When we come back right after this, you've got the Golfi real estate show Niagara edition with Rob Golfi of Rob Golfi.com or Remax escarpment, the Golfi team. I'm Tim, Dennis, Scott eliteness through all of this.

I'm getting some information to you. If you're in the business you know, all of this, but if you're in the market, you need Rob Golfi to help you through all of this. Now. A question that comes up a lot. And I've been through this selling a home, thinking about selling a home and you get into this disagreement with your, your spouse or whatever.

Do we fix it up? We spend money to sell it, or do we sell it as is, and maybe ask for a little less money, gotta be one of the number one questions people ask, right? It is. You have to be very, very careful because a lot of times people you know, I actually, we had this one house that was in the the rural area and the whole house needed to be updated.

And like, it's almost at a point where it almost needs to be tear down, but it's, but it won't be torn down. So so the guy says to me, he goes, Rob, should I maybe paint it and freshen it up a bit? I said, Look, everything's dated in this house. I said it in a nicer way, you know? Yeah. I just said, you know, I would just leave it the way it is.

It is. I go just because somebody is going to come in here and probably do something totally different than what you have. And I, and, and, and it's not worth spending $5,000. It was a big house, very big house, $5,000 or whatever to paint it. And like I said, it's just, people are going to look at it and they'll make a decision.

Whether they're going to rip this out and do that. Now, if it's a fixer upper and not a fixed, I'm going to not use the words fixed. If everything's dated in the house, it's not worth doing it. It isn't it. You know what I mean? Like if it's one of those houses that the kitchen is, you know, it still has the 19.

Forties or thirties? Kitchen of or 1960s. Kitchen. Yeah. Still has a, the bathroom or 1970s tile. Like everything, everything is dated. I wouldn't do anything sometimes. I'll say, Hey Rob, if I, you know, if you know, change the carpet over here, it, it, it won't give you any more money. It's just theirs because the whole house is dated.

And it's, and it just, there's no sense. Cause somebody may end up saying, well, too bad. They put new carpet. Cause we're just going to rip it out anyway. So, but there are things, so it depends on the neighborhood. It depends on the house style and depends on the year the house was built. So like, you know, if you got these houses that were built in the.

You know, the late eighties, which there are these houses they've probably already gone through one renovation now. Now they could be going on their second renovation. Like the, you know what I mean? So these houses are probably 30, 35 years old now. And so those houses there, it just depends if the house is still the same as it was in 1988.

No, I wouldn't, I wouldn't do it maybe, you know, but if the house. Does have an updated kitchen and it's got updated flooring, it's got this, but the bathroom isn't updated. Yes. I would update the bathroom. I would do that because everything else is pretty good. So it would make the difference of like a complete house that somebody can move into.

Um, otherwise they're going to look at it and say, ah, you know, I gotta do the bathroom now. You know, moving in is pain in the butt, all that kind of stuff. So, something like that. Yes, I would do it, but there's a lot of times we tell people not to the market we're in right now. You don't have to. I'm telling you a sellers market, you save money.

You get, if you dump $5,000 into that, into your house, to think that you're going to get more money, you're going to get more money anyway. So why, why waste $5,000? If you're throwing 30,000 into a new kitchen, are you going to get 30,000 extra dollars when you sell it? No, not, not, not if the rest of the house is pretty well, mostly is, is dated because maybe somebody would have said, you know why I wish they didn't update the kitchen and maybe we would torn out a wall to do something different with the kitchen.

So you have to be very, very careful of what stage you are in your house. And then like, like I'll walk in and I'll say, you know what? Don't do it. No, no, no. They say, Rob, I'll do this. I'll do this. Don't don't do it. Cause you're gonna you're you're just throwing money away because whatever, because you're gonna you're we're going to get you a good money for your house.

What about something as simple as just, okay. We're just going to freshen it up with a coat of paint sometimes. Yes. Depending on the color of the paint inside the house, red or green paint, you got to, you got to, I would probably do some changes with that. You ever walked into a house as an agent and said, have you changed anything here in 50 years?

Have you ever walked into one of those? I have, I, there was a house I'll tell ya. We, I walked in and they've probably lived there for probably I'd say 40, 50 years and they haven't changed one thing. And the husband was a heavy. Smoker. Oh, like, do you know how hard it is to that? Nicotine off the walls and the ceiling and everywhere.

It was tough. And so they, I, the people that bought it, they had to like, they started scrubbing it. It was almost easier to rip down all the. The w all the plaster construction, the plaster walls, and just put new drywall because just like it was literally, they were, they started it and it was just dripping down the nicotine ne we're talking 50 years of nicotine.

Yeah, just, just, you know, he smoked in the house and it was just like, you move a pitcher and you see, you can see the picture, you know, and they're done that. Oh yeah. It, so those houses, there's no set. You can't paint over it. It's just going to bleed through and then you don't want them to but you have to, you know, people look at that and some people will take the challenge.

Of removing the nicotine and they'll end up having a nice house, but it does, that does reflect a little bit of the of the price. And if you're in a balanced market, you have to be very careful. But if you're in a seller's market, you're good to go. Cause there, cause there's nothing out there and there's a lot more buyers than there are sellers out there.

But, but if you're in a balanced market or you're in a buyer's market, Yeah, you're going to have a tough time. So I mean, we haven't, we haven't had a really buyers market in a long time, but you know, we don't know that could shift any time. It could be next year. It could be later this year. It could be, it could be next month.

We don't know. Are you seeing more homes? Coming on the market because I mean, we've talked about almost since this show began, we've talked about a low inventory. But we've now passed new year's we're into a new year. It's 2021. And although the lockdown restrictions and won't matter much the same as they were prior to new year's, but are you seeing more people sprawling their homes up there to see what's going, they they're starting to, but they're going so fast.

It's not enough yet. It's not enough. And you know, it's like, it's like somebody, you know, like there's somebody that says, they think, Oh, I'll probably get more money. I mean, I have a pool and stuff like that. And they're waiting for, you know, maybe may to put their house up for sale, but that market may be gone.

I mean, it may, we might go to like, to a balanced market where it's, you know what I mean? Since we now. Yeah. So since we spoke last, are the prices still going up? What's happening in the market right now? They're still going up. They're still going up. I have, you're not gonna bleed this in Niagara on a Lake.

I've got a waterfront property there for sale on fire lane and fire lane, 11 eight. And we had. An agent from Toronto Richmond Hill co and show his clients in nag on the Lake, a house. Now Tim, that's a 90 minute drive. Yep. And from, from Richmond, Richmond Hill, like, so think about this. They're taking their clients 90 minutes down to the four Oh six or whatever, four Oh three to the Queenie down to the Niagara 90 minutes spend maybe a couple hours in Niagara on a Lake and then 90 minutes back.

And, and I asked him, so how was the traffic? Wasn't been good? He goes, he said, he goes, you're not going to believe this. Even the HOV lane was busy. He goes, I'm like, I go, I go, nobody's really paying attention to this shutdown, but I can't believe agents where they're coming from. I just can't believe it.

And they're coming from all over and 90 minutes away, I just, so, I mean, they don't know the market down. Okay. Because we've talked about that before that, you know, if you've got a Toronto agent looking at homes and Niagara, they're not really going to know the intricacies of this, this whole region.

They're not going to know the difference between Niagara on the Lake and Niagara falls. It was funny. We just hired an agent that lives in Welland and and she moved to Welland. I'm not sure maybe four or five years ago. She came from out of town from Toronto. Now she be, this is before she became a realtor.

She the realtor show sold her a house in in Welland. And and I said to, I said to her, I go. Would you buy, like, were you happy when you moved into that neighborhood? And she said, no, she goes, I, I regretted buying this house after she moved in, just because of the fact we thought our agent knew the neighborhood and it was, it wasn't the right neighborhood for us.

And it's, it's sad. And we find a lot of people that have bought houses from, from their agent that came from the GTA that  didn't kno, there, that area re would never use an out-of-town agent again, or ever used that agent again to, um to sell seller, buy a house again, because, because it wasn't the right neighborhood for them.

They didn't know it. And they shouldn't have driven down wherever they're coming from to go into a territory that they're not familiar with. It's like, you know, it's like going to a different country and say, Hey, this is a great area move here and into this neighborhood. And and meanwhile, it could be a crime neighborhood or it can be you, you just don't know.

And. So you gotta be very careful especially if, if you have a, if you're going out of town to buy a house, use the use somebody that lives in lives and works in in that area. And here's a little, so we have, we have agents that live and work in well in St. Catherine's Niagara falls, Fort Erie, everywhere.

Right? Yeah. And if you're living in Toronto and looking down here, I mean, here's something that might help you a little bit, because I would assume that a lot of the people who are coming down here and looking at Niagara on the Lake or, or Fonthill or someplace they're looking at pretty nicely nicely priced homes, let's put it that way and you actually have a luxury site.

Uh, that just aims at those homes and those buyers, right? Yeah. So we just launched our it's called Golfi luxury.com. And if you go to Golfi luxury.com it is our luxury site and we are actually one of three. Agents or teams in Ontario that has a link to the worldwide, um luxury homes. So on the site you can it's the easiest site to navigate.

Um, you click on it and it let's say if you're looking for houses in Niagara, you click Niagara and it shows you all the different communities in Niagara and Toronto, and also in the Hamilton Wentworth area. So for instance and it gives you all the luxury homes that are in that, in that area. Now we also in, and if you wanted to mess around and just, you know, see what other luxury homes are doing in different markets, you can at the top of the page, you'll see, it says worldwide properties, you click on there and you can actually.

Uh, look at homes like it could be in Paris, it could be in Italy, it could be in Las Vegas. It could be Miami beach, Los Angeles, anywhere in the world, it'll have the luxury properties and it's, and it's actually pretty cool to act, you know? I mean, we're always. Always intrigued about how the rich and famous live and looking at their properties and, and seeing what they have.

And it's actually a great way to get some great, great ideas. Just go on my website and hit worldwide properties at the top of the page. And then you'll click on, you know, price points and different areas or whatever, and you'll be able to find beautiful luxury homes all around the world that you can actually look at, or if you're, or if you're in the market, it looking at it.

But we are getting, we're starting to get a lot of traction on it because we know luxury homes have become more popular. Now, more people are, are, are, are, are buying houses that they can actually enjoy more. They want more room because they're at home more, you know, they want the pools, the tennis courts, the basketball courts.

They want, you know, even bowling alleys in some of these houses, you'd be surprised. So if you're, if you're not in that. Tax bracket. And you still have questions about buying or selling your home here in Niagara? You can go to Rob Golfi.com. The website is Rob G O L F i.com. You can call them at (905) 641-0308.

And ask questions at any time, 24, seven and Yammer. No one of those questions may show up on this program very soon because we get lots of questions that we try and answer here on the golf real estate show. So thank you, Robert. So we will we'll do this all again next week. Maybe we'll have some more questions from people online, but we'll also talk about what's happening in the Niagara market.

And again, If you listen to this program and you like what you hear and you want to hear some of the other shows, just search out the Golfi real estate show on your platform. You can find it anywhere on iTunes or Google podcast or Spotify. Rob we'll talk next week. Thank you. Have a great weekend. That's it for this week's Golfi real estate show Niagara edition.