Selling your home

Common Mistakes In Choosing A Real Estate Agent

You have come to that time in your life when you will be packing your bags and looking for your next housing gig. Part of this process will be picking a great Real Estate agent to work with. Unfortunately choosing the right Realtor is an area where many home sellers can make a mistake that leads to disappointment.

Your Realtor is the most important part of your team when it comes to selling or buying your home. He or she will be the link between your home and the housing market, particularly buyers and their agents. Because your Realtor can mean the difference between a quick and lucrative sale and a sale that is anything but, you should be exercising extreme discretion in your choice or Realtor. Like

Home owners who are currently selling their home or are thinking about selling their home are likely to face challenges before and during the home selling process.  

Many of the challenges that are faced during the home selling process cannot be controlled by the home owner. Things such as local market conditions, unrealistic home buyers, and low-ball offers are just a few examples.

When buying a home, there are many things that can scare away a potential buyer from a seller’s home. Keep in mind, some buyer’s can be scared away by very minimal things.  Many of the things that can scare away a potential buyer are things that a seller has complete control over.  Many of the things that can scare away a potential buyer are actually fairly minimal while

Fixed or floating?

For those taking on a mortgage or renewing one, it’s a question that can be complicated.

On one hand, interest rates are at historic lows. The Bank of Canada’s benchmark overnight lending rate is at 0.5 per cent. To some borrowers, this might suggest it’s a good time to lock in at a low rate for a long time.

On the other hand, to the surprise of almost no one, the bank suggested that it anticipates no changes. “The near-term outlook remains broadly the same as it did in January,” it said in its most recent rate-setting statement, on March 9. That suggests a floating rate might make sense. The issue becomes more complicated, though, because borrowers likely won’t find much advantage.Compared with times when interest rates were

Vancouver, BC – April 15, 2016.

The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that a record 12,560 residential unit sales were recorded by the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in March, up 38 per cent from March of last year. Home sales last month eclipsed the previous record of 11,683 unit sales in May of 2007. Total sales dollar volume was $9.69 billion
in March, up 66.9 per cent compared to the previous year. The average MLS® residential price in the province was up 20.2 per cent year-over-year, to $771,620.

“Housing demand has never been stronger in the province,” said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. “Most large population centres of the province are now experiencing record levels of housing demand.”
“Strong employment growth,

Things that can affect a home sale

Are the neighbours nice? What's the kid's favourite spot to play? What repairs have you made? What does THIS thing do? How long does it take to get to the airport? Really, that quick? Well, what about in rush hour?

No one's better able to answer those and a million other buyers' questions than you. You can be a font of wisdom and confidence and expertise, the ideal person to advocate for your biggest asset.

But there are some common mistakes, errors we see in the real estate industry every day, that could make you, let's say ... the less-than-best person.

Beautiful pictures, a thoughtful comparative market analysis, a smartly worded MLS listing, great exposure through Internet real estate sites and your own

Anyone who's ever moved can tell you how much of a hassle it is

And spring and summer are peak times for moving. Matt Guest, owner of First Rate Movers Inc. , helped compile this list of moving to-dos to take some of the stress out of the process.

RESERVATIONS

Try to book a moving company or a truck as early as you can to make sure you have what you need on the date you need it. Guest says that although the busiest times for moving companies is between April and August, it's even worse during the last week of each month. Make arrangements sooner rather than later.

NOTIFY & COLLECT DOCUMENTS

If you're moving out of the area, make sure to let all the firms you deal with know about a month before the move so they can collect your records - in

Even with lending standards tightening up following the financial crisis, there are still a number of low-down payment loan options for qualified buyers.

Unfortunately, some sellers and their Realtors are making the mistake of pushing away these buyers by demanding a higher down payment than is truly necessary.

There seems to be some confusion on the part of these sellers and their agents as to what qualifies a buyer to get a loan, and whether that no-down payment buyer will be a good person to sell to. In many cases, a buyer with a twenty percent or more down payment is no more likely to get a loan than a no or low down payment borrower but don’t make the mistake of brushing aside a qualified buyer by demanding too high a down payment when selling

For those taking on a mortgage or renewing one, it’s a question that can be complicated.

On one hand, interest rates are at historic lows. The Bank of Canada’s benchmark overnight lending rate is at 0.5 per cent. To some borrowers, this might suggest it’s a good time to lock in at a low rate for a long time.

On the other hand, to the surprise of almost no one, the bank suggested that it anticipates no changes. “The near-term outlook remains broadly the same as it did in January,” it said in its most recent rate-setting statement, on March 9. That suggests a floating rate might make sense.

See our BLOG article on interest rates HERE

The issue becomes more complicated, though, because borrowers likely won’t find much advantage.

Compared with

Things like traffic, work and dirty dishes can seem to go on forever; your mortgage doesn’t have to.

Even if you have signed on for a long mortgage, with payments scheduled to continue until you’re old, there are ways to speed everything up, experts say.

It’s a matter of knowing your options and paying attention to detail.

“Obviously there’s budgeting, where you cut back on some of your spending,” says April Dunn, a mortgage broker at Red Door Mortgage Group in Kelowna, B.C.

“But that only works if you actually take the funds to pay down the mortgage.” If you can’t bear to give up that triple skinny latte with an extra shot and some foam, “there are other things you can do.”

Some of these may seem simple but knowing more lets you make the

Sometimes your closet organizing can say a lot about your home space

If you live in a condo or house and feel that your storage isn't terrible, but the closets are crammed with everything from bags to shoes and jackets you might want to get them organised. People looking to purchase a property will open and see how closets are organized Investing in an organizer to help the spaces look more spacious can make a huge difference on first impressions.

Most buyers will certainly open up and look at cupboards for a very practical reason: they want to know whether it's realistic to think their stuff will fit in the space.

When buyers see an organized closet it calms their minds and allows them permission to say 'Yes, I can see myself living here in a