In 2016 our federal government implemented a policy that was met with mixed reviews. Called the “stress test,” the policy required borrowers to qualify for a mortgage at a rate of 5.25% or 2% higher than the rate they were applying for. (Whichever was greater.) When this policy was introduced, the Bank of Canada lending…

Have we “Progued” the Real Estate Market? Prorogue is a word that has been bouncing around over the past few months here in Canada. If you are unaware what it means here is a definition; To terminate a session of something (such as Canadian parliament) by Royal prerogative. (BTW this is not a political blog……

The stock market is declining, and the Dow Jones is currently at 42,500, effectively the same as at the beginning of the year. The high was in November, and stocks have been unreliable since. The real estate market is currently building inventory, which usually indicates that the values will slip. So, the question I was…

We here at Buy Sell Love Durham, Lindsay Smith and Wendy Starr have had the best start to a year than any in the past decade. We hit the ground running in early January and it paid off. However, and I mean a big, however, here we are at the first of February with a…

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…

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…

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…

Looking into what we consider “luxury homes” in 2024 I find it fascinating to review what is luxury today and what was luxury just a few years ago. Let’s revisit the past. It was February 2022, and we were in the midst of a heated market. Coming out of the pandemic, people were taking advantage…

There is a joke between realtors when it comes to a home that is listed for sale dramatically higher than it’s market value. We joke that is must have “gold nails.” Even in a market when most of what is listed for sale is selling there is always that one home, and we ran into…

I understand why many people are confused about Real Estate in Ontario. A quick Google search titled “Real Estate News Ontario 2024” returned a list of responses, and as confusing as they are here are some of the top picks. It is apparent that finding information about the Real Estate market is a challenge, especially…