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Buy Canadian – Buy a Resale Home!
I read a fascinating article over the weekend in the New York TImes over the weekend titled “Building Homes Under the Trump Agenda.” This is not intended to be a political blog entry, just a breakdown on how new home construction will change under the tariffs and counter-tariffs. The article reviewed a home being built…
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Stress Test or a Test that Causes Stress?
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…
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Have we ‘Progued’ the Real Estate Market?
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……
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What Realtors Actually Do
I read an online comment from someone who had a bit of a “grudge” against Real Estate brokers. His comment was, “All they do is put the home on MLS, and it sells itself.” I thought I would do a timeline on a home we recently sold to share some of the tasks involved in…
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Should you choose Real Estate or the Stock Market in 2025?
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…
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Can Real Estate Pay for a Retirement Community?
I was humming a song recently and I was surprised such an old tune would be floating around in my head. Here are a few of the lyrics: Come and listen to my story about a man named JedA poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed,And then one day he was shootin’ at some food,And…
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How Realtors Establish Market Value for a Home
At a house party on the weekend, I was asked a question I tend to get now, and then when people find out, I am a Real Estate broker. “How do you determine a property’s market value?” When asked this question, I usually ask the person what they feel an agent does to determine what…
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Homeowners in March Become Homesellers in August
Recently, we chatted with a client planning a move, and I think I shocked them with the “timeline” from start to finish when planning a move. Before our chat, I found out they felt they would wait until May or June and get the home on the market with a sale in mid-summer. One of…
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Tariffs and Real Estate Sales: Playing the Long Game
It has been quite a year. The administration in the USA changed on January 20th. Immediately there was a threat of tariffs on all Canadian products that was slated to begin on February 1st. As we approached the first of February, the tariffs were paused until the beginning of March. You would have to live…
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Making Sense of a Shifting World
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…
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