Houses in the province continue to sell like hotcakes.
President of Cottage to Castle Home Inspection Services Jeff Leblanc says you’d think a booming housing market would be good news for Home Inspectors.
With so many people competing to buy, it is actually the complete opposite, “I was just looking at the numbers this morning. In the Moncton Real Estate market, which goes almost to Sussex, almost as far north as Kouchibouguac and then down to Nova Scotia, right now, we have around 400 active listings in that area. That includes new construction which isn’t even ready yet. We have over 470 realtors in the same area. Two years ago, we would have had 2000 to 2500 listings at this time. I looked at numbers over the last four weeks. The Moncton real Estate Board has sold 25 per cent more homes than last year, and I have inspected 60 per cent less.”
Leblanc says there is such a demand for homes that buyers are choosing to forego the home inspection, with some of them buying without even seeing the property in person first.
“One of our competitors, they’ve made the decision to close the business right now. They are not sure if it is temporary or permanent. With the way the market conditions are, it’s unfortunate that is what is going to happen. There are going to be some home inspection companies that are not going to be able to survive the shift in the market. It is unfortunate for all of us.”
Leblanc adds it is tough to pay employees when there is no business coming in.
He says, for those who have recently bought and chose not to have their home inspected, “It’s never too later to have a home inspection. We have done some home inspections for people who have been living in their homes for 10 years and they just want an update and an education on their home. It is certainly never too late. It is going to be challenging to have any recourse on problems because they chose to not have a home inspection, but it doesn’t mean that there aren’t benefits to helping them maintain that property moving forward so that they can address any concerns that are small now that could be larger down the road.”
