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Durham Region Open Houses – Why Agents ask Buyers to Sign in
We hosted an open house recently and had a flurry of Buyers tour the home. There is always a mix of open house attendees; curiosity seekers, neighbours, and “professional” open house tourists. In this case, we had some very serious prospects looking at the home. One of the elements of hosting an open house is…
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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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When Neighbours are not your Best Friends
A client over the past few weeks had an interesting experience with their property. The home was a bungalow in need of some work and the Seller decided to list it with us and get the property on the market and sold. Prior to getting the paperwork signed and getting the home listed for sale,…
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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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Tortoise and Hare
Sometimes by slowing down, you get more than you dreamed of. Last week we had a very interesting story unfold. We placed a property on the market at an asking price of $850,000. The same model had sold for $820,000 at the end of 2022, so with the market a bit higher currently our target…
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Revisiting Predictions – Facts vs. Headlines
I spoke with a Buyer last fall, and they shared with me that they were holding off buying until the market bottomed out. If they gathered information from headlines of the major news media outlets, the Buyer may feel they were relying on accurate information or predictions. Alas, that individual would currently be paying about…
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Deconstructing Shocking Real Estate Headlines
Have things really changed over the past 6 months? Here is a “shocking” headline from the Toronto Star, “New report predicts that Canadian home prices could drop by 30%- or more.” This is a juicy, sensational newsflash. When people see headlines like this, they tend to fall into several camps. My favourite reply is “looks…
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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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Durham Region Real Estate Deja-Vu
Here is my recollection of the timeline we saw with Real Estate sales over the past few years. In 2017 we saw a drop in values after our Provincial Government implemented a foreign buyer tax. The reaction to the market was swift and brutal. From April until July 2017, values plummeted 25% in Oshawa alone.…
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Euphoria, Panic and Hope. Durham Real Estate in 2023.
Most people know what the 5 stages of grief are: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. In real estate cycles there are also a set of emotions people experience during the ups and downs. Here is what the stages might look like. When it comes to Real Estate cycles there are a few parts of…
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