From our December 2020 Monthly Email (to subscribe click here):
Here we are already in the midst of December. Where has the time gone? 2020 has been an interesting year, to say the least, and the Victoria Real Estate Market continues to be moving full steam ahead into 2021.
Greater Victoria recorded 795 properties changing hands in November. And while that’s 195 fewer than October 2020, it’s close to the record for the month of November, which was 892 sales recorded in 1989. The benchmark price of a single-family home in the region increased to $813,700 from $752,300 in November, while condo prices also increased, to $508,400 last month, from $505,500 last year.
In last month’s emailer, I mentioned my new Sidney build. It’s the 7th home I’ve built in the last 5 years. The last 6 homes were built to sell. This time I’m building a home for personal use, so I have spent more time focussed on design and functionality related to specific needs.
I have learned many lessons building these houses. The experiences have made me a better Realtor. Better able to serve my clients and answer questions about how houses are built and what the local town/city/district allows and requires for building and renovating. I have also built up a list of contacts who I can draw upon as resources to help my clients, whether it is to help source a replacement part for a refrigerator or to find a good cleaner to do a move in or move out clean.
If you are interested in my experiences and have questions related to Real Estate or the building process or know someone who might be interested, I am going to continue to share the details of my current build in this monthly newsletter. Please feel free to forward this email to a friend or suggest that they sign up to receive it themselves by clicking here.
What we are building #MalaviewBuild
Our building lot was subdivided from our last building project and it’s located in a great Sidney neighbourhood. It’s about .125 acres and is the perfect size for a two level home with a small, low maintenance, south facing backyard. We worked with a local designer to maximize the amount of space for the lot based on what was permitted by the Town of Sidney. We provided the design company with our needs and they were able to come up with a design.
When finished, it is going to be a three bedroom, 2.5 bath home, with an office, a master suite on the main, and a rental suite over a large double garage. It’s a Modern Farmhouse design in classic white with black trim highlights, which is both old and new at the same time. If you’re not certain what this really looks like, Google Urban Modern Farmhouse and have a look at the images that come up. The total space will be about 3000 square feet, plus garage.
The house is still in its beginning stages, with a crawl space just completed. The question of crawl space or build-on-slab was a tough one to answer, but the decision to go with a crawl space came to me once I realized that housing a full size HVAC outside would require extra protective construction anyway, and in the end, the crawl space was the same price or a bit less than the slab. I feel good about that, despite not wanting a crawl initially.
Now that the foundation is complete, the build will start to quickly come out of the ground. Stay tuned for an update on that next month.
Wishing you a wonderful holiday season.
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