Zoocasa: When an Appraisal Isn't Worth the Paper It Isn't Written On,

Big splash in the Globe and Mail this morning about a new function on Zoocasa.com's do it yourself real-estate search site. Now with a few keystrokes consumers can get an appraisal of their property.
Zoocasa, which is owned by media giant Rogers Communications, has partnered with Centract Settlement Services, an appraisal firm owned by Brookfield Residential PropertyServices. Brookfield, by the way, also owns Royal LePage and Via Capital.
As usual, the news story is full of quotes about how this service will deal yet another blow to rotten real estate agents who hoard information and then charge people money to access it instead of giving it away for free.
First off, pretty much any agent on the planet will give a homeowner a free valuation of their property as part of their sales pitch. We don't get paid until we sell the house.
Second, the Zoopraisal function is only an estimate, based on the sale of similar properties in the neighborhood. That might work in a subdivion where all the houses or condos are cookie-cutter, but it won't do you any good in a neighborhood where the houses are different. It also doesn't account for improvements or differences in location within a neighborhood. For instance, next to the crackhouse is almost always worth less than two blocks away from the crackhouse, right?
I took the service out for a spin, using it to appraise my own home. Punching in my address, the software next prompted me to choose a housing type but wouldn't let me choose "bungalow", only two storey, side-split or condo. Hmmmm.
I chose side-split, because the fun I was having was, you know, side-splitting.
Within a nanosecond the computer churned out a value, that was conservatively $100,000 more than my house is actually worth. That was the mid-range value. The low range was about $25,000 below, while the highest value was about $175,000 too high.
My house is worth X, give or take $175,000. Thanks so much Zoocasa for clearing that up.
If I were to put my house up for sale tomorrow, which of the appraisal website's proposed values would I use to price my house?
Never mind algorithms, the best way to price a house is to have someone who knows the market walk through and study the comparable sales in the neighborhood within the last 6-12 months.
The dinkus who runs the service says that "hoarding of information" is a "crutch" that has hurt agents. This from a guy who works for a media conglomerate that sells specialty television packages, cable TV service, cellular telephone and Internet services and a host of magazines, among other things. How come when Rogers charges for information it's business and when I give mine away for free it is "hoarding"?
Things that make me go hmnnnn.
As the old saying goes, Beware Greeks bearing gifts. By which I don't mean Greeks and I certainly don't mean gifts.

******
Later. . .

And another thing. Don't you think that if they wanted to they could have put a really good appraisal tool online? I mean, Brookfield has an in-house appraisal firm so it must be able to collate the data. Could it be that Brookfield prefers to "hoard" the information?  @%#&ers!

Montreal Resales Surge in September

Eager buyers paced a surge in single-family home and condominium sales on the island of Montreal in September,with sales in each category rising by 15 per cent and 10 per cent respectively compared to September, 2010, according the latest stats from the Greater Montreal Real Estate Board.
That worked out to 324 houses and 510 condos sold.
The jump in those two categories offset a 5 per cent drop in plex sales last month. The number of two- to five-unit building sold totaled 213, compared to 225 a year earlier. Sales volume, or the amont of money buyers spent, rose by 6 per cent to $854.4 million in September alone.

The strong September results were the fourth consecutive month of gains for the Greater Montreal area, with the island leading the way.

Canada's 5 Priciest Properties

Huffington Post Canada has a piece today about the five priciest residential properties for sale in Canada. Three of them are in Vancouver, a fourth on Toronto's tony Bridle Path and the fifth on Ile Bizard in good old Montreal. I've looked at this house and can't help but think that it looks more like a corporate resort than a place where flesh and blood humans live.
Check them out here.

Montreal's Urban Foxes

I've seen three foxes since moving from the Plateau Mont Royal to southwest Montreal. Each time has been a treat, because they are so fast and so elusive.
The first one dashed across the road in front of my car near the Wellington St. off-ramp of Highway 15 North. I spotted the second at a distance while walking my dogs on the grounds of the Douglas Hospital and the third came up to our picnic table on a warm August night in LaSalle's Parc des Rapides.
OpenFile shares the skinny on urban foxes.

Treehouses for Grown-Up Kids

I will never outgrown my love of trees or houses. The treehouse? Win-win! Trend Hunter has a gallery of some of its favorites,  from Keebler Elf  inspired to the  poddiest of 2001: A Space Odyssey contraptions.

A Love Letter to Jean Talon Market

My friend and former Gazette colleague Susan Semanak has just released a book, Market Chronicles: Stories and Recipes from Montreal's Jean Talon Market. It is a beautifully written and photographed love letter to North America's largest open-air market. Semenak is a gifted writer and has serious chops as a cook. She's also as nice a person as you could ever hope to meet.
Here's a Gazette video of Susan walking through and talking about the market. Go grab a copy in English ou en francais for $40. You won't regret it.