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Parents Helping Kids Buy Homes Today
With a career spanning almost 4 decades I have worked with clients as young as 18 and as old as 98. One thing I have experienced, is when a homeowner is in the 65+ range, they start to look at where they will direct their assets. These can be their personal residence, rental properties or…
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Should you Consider a Power of Sale Property?
Looking back at the history of Real Estate in Ontario, I remember a time when there were more homes being sold under power of sale than by happy homeowners. We had a boom in the late 1980’s that ended in 1989. From 1990 – 1991 the market values dropped about 30% which caused homes to…
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Turn Renters into Homeowners
How does a young person get ahead with Real Estate prices as high as they are? Surprisingly, it may be simpler than you think. Let’s sidestep the high cost of homes for a minute and review what it costs to rent an apartment in 2024. A quick search showed a 1-bedroom basement apartment was recently…
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Small Changes – Big Impact
Over the past decade prices for homes have spiked. The average detached home in Durham Region was selling for $444,000 a decade ago and currently the same homes are selling for $991.000. When values increase as dramatically as they have the results are damaging to Buyers. Add to this mortgage rules that lessen the borrowing…
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The September numbers are out and are all over the place.
When I review the previous month’s selling statistics, I do my best to use the KISS principles. (Keep it simple, stupid) It is easy to go down a rabbit hole trying to find nuanced changes; however, I feel when many people do that, they are looking to prove a point rather than interpret what is…
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Home Inspections – Yay or Nay?
Over the years I have heard clients swear they would never buy a home without an inspection and other people share that they think inspections are a waste of money. What is the truth about home inspections? Let’s start with the good and bad. I will surmise that 95% of home inspections end up with…
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How to Hire… Anyone
Recently I was in need of a local company to install some eavestroughing at my home and started my search by asking a few friends who they may know that I could trust. Before we go any further, trust is a big word when hiring anyone… a plumber, electrician, contractor, financial advisor or heck even…
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How Low Can Rates Go?
Several things happened in 2022. The beginning of the slowdown in the economy started when the Bank of Canada (BOC) raised interest rates 10 times over 10 months. In 2022 we started the year with the BOC lending rate set at .25%. When lenders offered a variable rate mortgage they would add 1 or 1.5%…
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How does a 145% return sound?
The kids are (finally) back to school and the parents are looking at this yearly event as a bittersweet one. It means that summer is coming to an end and their time can be spent more focused on work and in many cases planning a change of addresses. The times people plan to move seem…
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5 Hacks on Winning in a Real Estate Bidding War
Picture this, a home hits the market and the agent is holding off on offers to a Sunday at 6 hoping to create a bidding contest. Within 24 hours a “bully offer” was submitted on the property. (Bully offers are offers where a Buyer submits an offer before the presentation date hoping to get in…
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