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Li Read, Caring expertise...knowledge for you! (Sea to Sky Premier Properties (Salt Spring)) Real Estate Broker/Owner

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Li Read
Caring expertise...knowledge for you!
location_on Salt Spring Island, BC — Sea to Sky Premier Properties (Salt Spring)
Get to Know Li Read

 Contact Li Read at Sea to Sky Premier Properties (Salt Spring), on beautiful Salt Spring Island!

      Cell:  250-537-7647 Office: 250-537-8763

Managing Broker, Sea to Sky Premier Properties (Salt Spring)

Consistent mls award winner (Silver, Gold, President's Award, Medallion Club award).

I love my career!  

  Salt Spring Island Real Estate & Gulf Islands Real Estate with Li Read

 As a full service/full time real estate agent, on Salt Spring Island,  and also selling on the adjacent Southern Gulf Islands (Galiano, Mayne, Pender, Saturna, & water access only options, in between (Wise, Parker, Secret, Gossip, DeCourcy, Phillimore Point), plus private islands, since 1989, I look forward to sharing my expertise and knowledge with my clients.   I also represent unique properties on Vancouver Island (which I see as just the largest of these Gulf Islands!).  

Living & working on a Gulf Island is very different from a "city scape".    

Scenic Gulf Island photo

 Boats & floatplanes are also a part of one's work life, not just cars & highways (although the sea is just a highway, really).

Scenic Gulf Island photo

I now work under the Vancouver Real Estate Board, and had achieved MLS recognition for ten consecutive years of Gold Award accomplishment, while affiliated earlier through the Victoria Board (MLS President's Award for same).    In the various companies I've worked for, since 1989, I have always been a 'top producer', achieving the highest award levels, while connecting several hundreds of sellers and buyers Diamond Club awards, Chairman's Club awards, Lifetime Achievement Award).  .   Most recently, I've achieved the Vancouver Board's Medallion Club sales award (top 10% in sales, in that Board).

Sales awards (at company levels, MLS/Board levels, & internationally -- references upon request) are an indicator, from one's peers in the industry, of excellence in customer service.

By the way, "Li"  rhymes with "see".     Thanks!

Scenic Gulf Island photo

Salt Spring Island and the Southern Gulf Islands are "governed" by the B.C. Provincial Government,under the Islands Trust.    The Trust came into being in 1974, with a "preserve & protect" mandate, to keep the Islands as these pristine and park-like enviroments, for the benefit of all B.C. residents.    

Two trustees per Island (not representative of population, then) are elected every four years, in the B.C. civic elections, to manage the Trust bylaws/official community plan, on each Island.    These strong zoning/density bylaws control (& effectively "cap") growth.   

Scenic Gulf Island photo

 Limited supply, and a strong buyer demand, usually result in higher prices, regardless of market trend in play at any given time.      There will always be a low inventory of properties for sale, then, on any Gulf Island, due to this Islands Trust mandate and resulting cap on growth.

Scenic Gulf Island photo

There is no industry on the Gulf Islands, unless you consider tourism as an industry.    Salt Spring Island is the largest and best serviced of the Southern Gulf Islands (Gabriola, Thetis, Galiano, Salt Spring, Pender, Mayne, & Saturna Islands are the ferry accessed options, in the Southern Gulf Islands grouping), with a year round lifestyle, and with all the amenities required in the 21st Century.   

Scenic Gulf Island photo

 One doesn't "have to" leave Salt Spring Island for anything, but it's easy to go to Vancouver or to Victoria or to mid-Vancouver Island locations, on day trips.     There are three separate ferries that service the Island, plus three regularly scheduled (year round) floatplane services, so it's very simple to do daytrips to major centres, and to return easily to the Island's charm.    In the "season", there's also a floatplane service from Seattle to Salt Spring Island.

Scenic Gulf Island photo

Low supply coupled with high demand, though, often result in price escalation.     The internet erased geography, and so the buyer profile for this area is mainly from out of province now, and often from out of country.   

Although the Islands Trust wasn't set up to create an expensive "enclave" area, it has had this result.    As soon as one "caps" growth, for whatever reason (in this case, for environmental protection reasons), and the buyer profile is a global one (post-internet), which means more buyers than inventory, regardless of real estate market trends at any given time, one has a more expensive buy-in locale.

Property Photo

 

Sellers and realtors do not set a market; only buyers do that.    The Islands Trust, however, is responsible for a "cap" on growth policy that guarantees an escalating price point, over time, in the Gulf Islands and the Salt Spring Island real estate marketplaces.

Property Photo

My knowledge (of both inventory and trends), expertise, and strong negotiating skills will help you to have a pleasing experience, whether selling or buying.  

Property Photo

This is a magical Island, and I look forward to introducing it to you.   

Property Photo

Please ask for me, by name, when you visit Salt Spring Island.   

Li Read's Salt Spring Island Office in Ganges

I have an office in "downtown Ganges", in a pleasing yellow character building, with a Harbour view.   

Li Read's Salt Spring Island Office in Ganges

A quick call to my cell (250-537-7647) will allow us to connect.     My office is located at: # 4 - 105 Rainbow Road, in Ganges Village, at the corner of Lower Ganges and Rainbow Roads, across from the Ganges Marina.   Easy parking behind my office (off Rainbow).

Property Photo

P.S.   "Li" rhymes with "see"!      

"See Li for Successful Solutions" is my promise to my clients.

Look forward to meeting you!

Property Photo

How may I help you to buy your special Salt Spring Island

or Southern Gulf Islands property?

Cell: 250-537-7647

liread33@gmail.com



 

Certifications

 Property Photo

 It's definitely different than selling in a city enviroment.   

For one thing, I work in what is known

as a secondary home

or discretionary market.   

No one "has to" move to Salt Spring Island

or another Southern Gulf

Island -- it's all by choice!   

In a primary residence (city) area, there might

actually be

"comparables".    

In a discretionary/secondary home marketplace,

though, it's

full of "custom" homes and even undeveloped

land will be its unique

self, without any "comparable".   

Property Photo

 

Difficult for an appraiser, then, as there is so

much that is specific

to each property, with no real equivalent

anywhere else on the

Island, plus, with a limited inventory "ever"

(there's that Islands

Trust, and its cap on growth), it means the

listing inventory is

never very large, and so the "solds"

statistics aren't very

informative.  

Several Gulf Islands are serviced by seaplane companies, these signs on Salt Spring Island. 

Time lags are a part of all sales, too.    

First, the prospective

buyer has to hear about this area

and then they make plans to

travel here, to view.    

The entire Pacific Northwest Coast is very appealing,

and so often the Island gets "interviewed", and

then so do other coastal communities.    

One has to sell the Island, first, thus, before

one can get around

to selling a particular property on it.    

Two visits, if not three, become the

pattern, and since the

buyers aren't "local", the time between

trips can be as long as

5 to 7 months!    

Ganges Harbour

  It can take, then, between one and four years to sell any property on a Gulf Island, including on Salt Spring Island (the largest & best serviced of the Southern Gulf Islands), and the main reason for this is because the buyer isn't "local", and the decision to purchase is a "choice", both in the "where" and in the "when".  

This time lag feature makes a "days on market" tag on an mls listing irrelevant.   

Fulford Village

 In my area, there's a weekly local paper,

and two real

estate supplements (one comes out 5 times a year,.

and the other six times a year...they are never

up-to-date.   I do a weekly driveby list of all listings,

to help buyers know "what's what").

 

Neither of these supplements are seen until the buyer

arrives on Island, and so they do

not offer an advertising vehicle

that "brings" a buyer.   It's rare that one googles

Salt Spring Island, or

the Southern Gulf Islands, unless  encouraged to do so.   

Property Photo

 Print ads, then, in targeted venues,

where the buyer profile lives,

are still important in a

non-local/discretionary

marketplace.    

If you think you saw an ad by me,

in your area, you probably did!   

I hope you responded, and

went onto my original website!

Property Photo

 Open houses don't work here,

as the buyer isn't local.      

No local t.v.   Just those supplements,

and a weekly newspaper. Signage on a lawn

(or up on a tree, if you're going by a property

in a boat, and

would see that more easily) is apparent,

but, again, not viewed

until the buyer physically arrives

on Island.    

People don't usually move around on the Island;

they arrive, they're here,

then, if they have to leave (usually only

for personal reasons), they

list.     Then comes the search for the

buyer, who lives somewhere

else in the world!     More time lags!

Property Photo

 

This non-local aspect to the buyer profile

means that a realtor

has to keep an eye on market conditions

in the buyers areas, as

the B.C. market outlook won't necessarily have

much relevance.    Events in

the home areas of our non-local buyer,

then, have an impact on our

discretionary/secondary home marketplace.

I wouldn't live anywhere else, though!  

This is an exceptional

lifestyle choice!

Property Photo

If you drop into Salt Spring, please ask for me by name -- I'm the Managing Broker, of Sea to Sky Premier Properties (Salt Spring), and I have an office in "downtown" Ganges Village (at the corner of the main road (Lower Ganges Road) & Rainbow Road. There's parking behind, off Rainbow Road.. 

Property Photo

My office (# 4 - 105 Rainbow Road) faces onto the main street, is across from the Ganges Marina, and enjoys a Harbour view.  A quick call to my cell (250-537-7647) will connect us, too. I look forward to meeting you, and to offering my proven expertise and my superlative market knowledge (of both inventory & trends), and my strong negotiating skills, all for your benefit, during your search for your special Island gem.

Property Photo

Looking forward to your call!

Property Photo

 

 P.S. Here's one of those "differences":  Selling real estate on Salt Spring Island & the Southern Gulf Islands is not like it would be in a city or a town marketplace. I was driving up a roughed in roadway, on a heavily forested acreage, recently, and there, at the side of the roughed in driveway, were two baby racoons.  We looked around for mom, but nothing...we bundled them into my dog's car bed, wrapped in towels that I keep for wiping off a muddy dog on rainy days, so that we could deliver them to the Salt Spring Wildlife Rescue Centre. That was an interesting visit, too! Looking for a place to give a charitable donation? Think of the Wildlife Centre --  it's not open to the public, and they have a unique project there. Saving abandoned wildlife is one of them. (Yes, we did check with the Wildlife Centre before we brought the babies in. Sometimes the mother is just off foraging for food, but in the case of these racoons, they really were abandoned). It was an adventure!

 

Property Photo

 

liread33@gmail.com

www.liread.com

 

Awards

MLS Silver Awards

MLS Gold Awards

MLS President's Award

MLS Medallion Club Award

NRS Diamond Club Awards

RE/MAX Chairman's Club Awards

RE/MAX Hall of Fame Award

RE/MAX Lifetime Achievement Award

Skills

Testimonial

Testimonials
Buyers of an oceanfront property on Salt Spring Island....
08/03/2013
Please see hand-written letter to me, under Skills section on this profile. I did not solicit the buyers input...they left this note at my office, before leaving the Island. I can supply other similar (and up-to-date) references to my service, upon request.
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How may I help you to buy your Salt Spring Island or Southern Gulf Islands or Vancouver Island property? Benefit from my expertise & knowledge (of inventory & of trends). Awaiting your call...