White Rock Buyer's Market: How to Make the Most of It

How to tell you are in one

Three numbers from the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board's monthly report, for South Surrey White Rock specifically. Months of inventory above six. Sales-to-active-listings ratio below about 12 percent. Median days on market climbing past thirty. When all three line up you are in a buyer's market, and when they have lined up for several months in a row sellers have started to accept it. The second condition matters more than the first. Early in a shift, sellers still price to last year.

Which homes to negotiate on

Not every listing in a buyer's market is negotiable. The well-priced homes still sell quickly, sometimes with competition, because every buyer in the market sees the same value. The leverage is in three places:

• Homes that have been listed sixty days or more, especially after a price reduction. The seller has already adjusted their expectations once.
• Homes where the seller has bought elsewhere and is carrying two properties. Your agent can usually find this out.
• Homes with a fixable flaw: a dated kitchen, a steep driveway, a poor listing photo set. The flaw is priced in twice, once by the market and once by the buyers who never came to see it.

How to structure the offer

Lead with terms, not just price. A longer subject period for a proper inspection and drain scope. Dates that suit you. A deposit that is firm but not excessive. Then a price based on the last ninety days of comparable sales, with the specific sales listed in the offer cover note so the seller's agent can see the logic. In a buyer's market I write offers that are meaningfully below asking far more often than I did in 2021, and most of them get a counter rather than a rejection. The ones that get rejected were usually homes that were already priced right.

Get a rate hold before you start, 90 to 120 days, so a rate move during a long negotiation does not change your budget. And keep the financing subject even with the hold. Appraisals come in low in falling markets.

What not to do

• Do not wait for the bottom. You will see it only in hindsight, and by then inventory is gone and you are competing again.
• Do not lowball the well-priced house because it is a buyer's market. You will lose it to the buyer who understood its value.
• Do not skip the inspection to save a few days. Sellers in a soft market are more willing to repair or credit than at any other time.
• Do not buy the wrong house because it is cheap. A buyer's market is a chance to buy the right house well, not the wrong one cheaply.

If you are the seller

Price to the last ninety days of sales, not to the peak, not to the assessment, and not to the neighbour who sold in 2022. The first two weeks on market are everything; the buyers who are actively looking see your listing the day it goes live, and if the price is wrong they move on and do not come back when you reduce. Present the home properly: cleaned, decluttered, photographed by a professional, with the small repairs done. And if you are selling to buy on the Peninsula, remember the market helps you on the purchase. I have had sellers take less than they hoped and still come out ahead because they bought well in the same month.

The short version

• Six-plus months of inventory, a sales ratio below 12 percent and rising days on market, sustained for a few months, is a buyer's market.
• Negotiate on homes that have sat, sellers who have bought, and fixable flaws. Pay fair value for the well-priced ones.
• Lead with terms, use a rate hold, keep the subjects.
• Sellers: price to recent sales and win the first two weeks.

If you want to know whether the Peninsula is in a buyer's market this month, ask me. I pull the FVREB numbers when they come out and I will tell you what they say for White Rock, not the province.