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Dealing with the February Blahs in January
Here we are at the beginning of January and looking back to last year, the opening of 2023 was bleak. Bleak from a weather standpoint. A headline from the Toronto Star stated: “It wasn’t your imagination: Ontario experienced it’s darkest winter in more than 80 years.” When prolonged darkness happens many feel the desire to…
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Bank-Owned Power Of Sale Properties: What you should know
The inventory of homes for sale is building. At the end of August, we had 1,065 homes for sale in Durham Region, and as of today, we have 1,771 homes for sale. That is an increase of 66%! This is a good thing for Buyers, right? Well, in some cases, yes and in others, no.…
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Can you Buy a Home Making $90,000/year?
Sometimes it happens to the best of Realtors. I hosted an open house 45 minutes from my office on the weekend and when I got home, I realized I had the key in my pocket. Early this morning you would have found me zipping up north to put the key back into the lockbox. On…
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Is Real Estate still a sound investment?
The average Canadian family income is around $80,000/year. Let’s assume a family can save 10% of their income yearly, they would have a nest egg of about $80,000 in a decade of savings. Now let’s assume they averaged a 5% return over that time. Their investment would have grown to somewhere between $84,000 and $100,000. …
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What is a Latent Defect? Or a Patent Defect?
Now that I have grabbed your attention with this sexy headline, let’s begin with a story from a few years ago to identify the difference between defects. I had a Seller I was working with who shared with me that he had a small amount of water seep into his basement. The home was about…
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Sales Storytime: 2 Homes, Same Street, Different Results
The story of two homes that were sold on the same street, and how the results were 180 degrees different. I listed a home for sale that had been owned by the same family for over 60 years. It was in original shape, not in poor condition however it needed upgrading throughout. My guess was…
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Deposits: Go big to get the home
If you were looking for advice about a medical issue, you would ask a doctor. With questions about taxes, you would go to an accountant and for issues with your car, you would no doubt ask a car mechanic. (Only after asking Ms. Google for her input.) Stick with me, I am going somewhere with…
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Musings of a Durham Region Mortgage Broker
I had lunch with the mortgage broker I have known for years this past Friday understanding that when people think of business lunches, visions of swanky restaurants, multiple martinis and expense accounts are easy to conjure up. Alas, when you are self-employed, these lunches tend to be all about business and packed with loads of…
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Things to Avoid after a Bank gives you a Mortgage Commitment
I had the opportunity to chat with a realtor friend over the holiday. She mentioned a Buyer she was working with and how their situation changed course after they were pre-approved by a lender. They were pre-approved and had a guaranteed low mortgage rate commitment however as they were looking for homes with their broker, on a…
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Buy High, Sell Low – Is that the Saying?
I noticed a property come on the market over the weekend and looked into its sales history. The home is currently listed for $899,900 and the current owners purchased the property in May/21 for $918,000. Taking costs to sell into consideration the Seller will walk away with a loss somewhere in the range of $50,000.…
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