Rumours and the real estate market

It has been said that if you really want to know what is going on in a neighbourhood, speak with the locals, the neighbours. After 15 years in the real estate industry, I believe this to be true. You can find out "the feel" of a community by speaking with the people who live there. Drive by the parks, schools, downtown, and see what is going on. How clean do the parks look? How well maintained are the streets? Is snow being removed, or are there lots of ruts made from packed snow? Do the downtown businesses look like they are actually in business, or does it look like a ghost town? And when you are talk to the people, talk to the PEOPLE, not just one person. A prime example of this happened in our town recently. An out-of-town real estate showed one of my listings. He told me that his clients were really interested and that they may be writing an offer. However, a couple of days later, I received a message from the agent stating that his clients had been speaking with a neighbour of this property, and this neighbour told his clients that they should "just turn around and run". This neighbour said that the foundations of the properties in this area were all collapsing and that the person who built them did very poor work. I was shocked to hear this, as I remember when these properties were first built, and I have listed and sold properties in that area. Not once had there been an issue raised about the structure of the properties. Hence, I suggested to the agent that if his clients had concerns, that they should hire a property inspector. When I represent buyers, I suggest getting a property inspection no matter how old the property is. I also spoke with several neighbours in the area and they have not heard of any structural issues. My guess is that this "neighbour" who brought up these "issues" may have been someone who was either having a bad day, had issues with the builder (these were built back in the 90's), or just did not have any idea of what they were talking about. Anyhow, my clients lost a potential sale, and now the area is in damage control because someone started an unfounded rumour. ANOTHER example occurred this week. One person told me that there sure are a lot of houses for sale in town these days, while another told me there sure does not seem to be much on the market. Both people claim to have bought and sold many properties and are very familiar with the real estate market. Well...I eat, sleep, and breath real estate, as I have been working in the industry for over 15 years. I do feel like I know a thing or two about it. So, here is what's going on...not just from me, but from the numbers from the real estate board and MLS system - Vulcan has a low inventory of single family residential properties on the market right now. There is only one property listed for under $100,000. If you are hoping to see your property for over the $300,000 mark, you have a very small window of buyers who are looking in that price range. The majority of the properties that have sold so far in 2017 are in the $200,000 to $250,000 price range. These are the statistics, not rumour, not the local coffee shop info. My suggestion is that if you want to know information, whether it be in real estate, construction, retails sales, or whatever, talk to the people who are actually in the industry.