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Small Changes – Big Impact
Over the past decade prices for homes have spiked. The average detached home in Durham Region was selling for $444,000 a decade ago and currently the same homes are selling for $991.000. When values increase as dramatically as they have the results are damaging to Buyers. Add to this mortgage rules that lessen the borrowing…
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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 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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Are we in a Buyer’s Market or a Seller’s Market?
I had a conversation with a newer agent over the weekend who did their best to convince me that we are in a full-on Buyer’s market. The number of homes for sale is up, prices are flat, and the selling times have increased. I simply nodded thinking to myself, “this agent may have never seen a true Buyer’s market.”…
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What is a parking spot worth?
I took a look at what developers are charging for parking spots on newly built condos locally. Tribute has several towers on Simcoe and the lowest priced unit with a parking space is listed for $714,000. This unit is 828 sq feet. Another unit with no parking and at 482 sq ft is priced at…
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Understanding Real Estate by Reading Trends
One thing I love to do is to make predictions. In December 2023 I made some predictions about where the values in Oshawa, Whitby and Clarington would be in May 2024. Let’s review my thoughts and see how accurate I was.The 4th quarter of 2023 was challenging time for Sellers, with values declining and sluggish sales. For…
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Another Federal Real Estate Incentive Disappears
It came, it went and honestly very few people had any idea what it was. I am talking about the “First Time Home Buyers Incentive” program. This complex program seemed doomed from the beginning, with the gain in equity shared by the Federal Government. The maximum a first time Buyer could spend to qualify for…
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Real Estate Investors Love Durham Region
With investors returning to Real Estate many have chosen Durham Region as the best place to invest in. There are many reasons for Durham being their first choice and I felt it would be best to share why so many investors look east of Toronto when considering purchasing a rental. Let’s begin with rents. When…
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