Information: three real estate agents who are stepping up to the plate

Have you ever noticed how so much of the real estate industry seems geared towards sellers? 

When it comes to buyers, the industry (on the whole) seems to obsess with whipping them into a frenzy and urging them to snap up property at going rates (or higher).

Who is there to guide their interests and provide them with the data they need to make critical decisions?

This is why critics the frankenumber HPI.  As Garth Turner recently said, "the HPI is to houses what moving averages are to stocks. Instead of telling you what properties sell for now, it tells you what they averaged over time. Realtors love this since it filters out peaks and valleys, making markets seem serene and predictable. But the HPI is as useless to a serious buyer as a four-month-old stock quote is to a trader."

As credit tightens and the easy marriage of sellers with hyped up buyers becomes a distant memory, there are astute realtors who realize buyers need quality information about what is going on in the market today. 

And there is nothing more important than information that gives them both an accurate view of current pricing and information which reflects current market momentum – elements critical to an informed home-buying decision.

On Thursday we showed you how realtor Larry Yatkowsky is now providing median prices of Vancouver homes which, while imperfect, is a tremendous asset for buyers.

Yesterday we profiled the latest market report from realtor James Wong who gives a frank, upfront assessment of the current market conditions.

And today we bring you two of  'Alphabet Arnie' Shuchat's latest contributions.  The first is the Top Price Reductions on Homes for Sale in Richmond.

(make sure you click on the link to see the full list. Screen shot only shows part of the list)

And the second it AA's Biggest Price Declines for Homes in Greater Vancouver. From Arnie's narrative:

A list of every price reduction in the Greater Vancouver market within the Real Estate board of Greater Vancouver (not Fraser Valley) within the last 7 days. I have included the addresses of every price reduction in excess of 5%. To be honest, the current number may only be an indicator of original delusion and may not "yet" reflect a "deal". The property could well have started off too high. I would have to look at each property specifically to see if it could be called a "deal". But the list is a starting point for interested shoppers. You can search the details of the addresses of interest by going to the "Properties" tab on our homepage and clicking on "address" search. I appologize if you are unable to determine what the selling areas are, but they are all encoded. If you are interested further, do not hesitate to call. Shockingly, the total list for the last 7 days for all price changes amounted to 244 properties of which 149 were in Richmond!

Information.  

It's the buyer's biggest ally and there is tremendous opportunity ahead for agents who go out of their way to service this need.

(Note: we would be remiss to overlook a shout-out to Realtor Paul Boenisch who provides the daily inventory stats we use on the right of this blog and whose motto is "knowledge is power")

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