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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 We Help Out-of-Town Buyers and Sellers
A friend who lives in downtown Toronto called recently asking for Real Estate advice. She lived on a very popular street minutes from Trinity-Bellwoods park. She was experiencing some health concerns and we discussed her selling and moving to the country. Of course, as we chatted she asked if I could represent her in her…
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How to Downsize Your Home and Upsize Your Income.
I had a great conversation with clients recently who were planning for their retirement. We chatted about their timelines and ways of planning in advance to set things up for their future. This ranged from selling their existing home and renting or buying, weighing the benefits of homeownership or getting out of the housing market…
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Real Estate Hacks- Increasing value by $50,000
Is it possible to increase your home value by up to $50,000 by investing as little as $5,000? Let’s take a look and see if it is possible. I have narrowed down a few items that Buyers will pay for when they are looking at resale homes, but first how about we tour a model…
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How Low Can Mortgage Rates Go?
Another month, another Bank of Canada rate drop. Unless you missed it, the rates were cut by ¼% last week. This followed a rate reduction last month, adding to a drop of ½%. The impact of these two rate cuts will reduce a $100,000 variable rate mortgage by $28/month. This may not seem like a…
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How Big of a Deal is a 1/4% Rate Cut?
Let’s be frank – given the fact that rates jumped about 6% in 10 increases, how much will a ¼ or 1/2% rate cut do for Real Estate Buyers and Sellers? In a nutshell…. a lot! If we look at the average home in Oshawa, Whitby and Clarington and given the average selling prices, we…
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Show Me the Money
It seems like chat around the office water cooler or photocopier always seems to revolve around Real Estate. A question that commonly comes up is that given the state of our economy in Canada, “Where is all of the money coming from for people to buy houses?” Mortgage, loans and lines of credit rates are…
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Homes in Durham Region — Where are the Buyers Coming From?
It has been 3 weeks since the Bank of Canada decreased their lending rate by ¼ percent and thought it would be a good exercise to see how the market has reacted. From Whitby to Clarington there are currently 888 detached homes for sale. At the beginning of June, the inventory was 725, an increase…
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What Upgrades Pay off?
I met with 2 groups last week, one a potential Seller and the other a Buyer I had been working with. After meeting with them, I reflected on how different the two experiences were when it came to valuing Real Estate. The first was a Buyer who I had been working with for the past…
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