How to Pick a Neighborhood to Live In

The process of buying a home can be incredibly exciting. Imagining you and your family living in a new, better space where you can all enjoy yourselves is motivation enough to work through all the challenges of finding and buying a house. Let’s face it – knowing how to pick a neighborhood is important!

When you buy a home, you are buying more than just a building. You are purchasing a lifestyle. Where your home is located, the neighborhood that it is located will influence the lives of you and your family for as long as you live in that house. This makes choosing the right neighborhood an integral part of choosing the right home. So how do you pick a neighborhood?

When looking for a home, most people will

A first-time home buyer falls in love with a property: afraid to lose out, any & all helpful advice gets thrown out the window, an offer gets put in and accepted.

This first-time home buyer has now spent more than he/she can afford on less of a house that he/she wanted.

Does this sound familiar? How can you avoid these mistakes

This is but one of the common mistakes first-time home buyers make when plunging into one of life’s most exciting, exhilarating and exhausting times: buying your first property.

At this point, there’s a lot that comes into play that you need to be aware of as you’re going through the different stages of buying your first property. Buying a home is quite different to what you’ve ever purchased before, which is why it’s

Millions of immigrants come to Canada and quickly discover that getting established financially isn’t easy

Overview

Last year, Canada welcomed more than half a million newcomers to our country as immigrants, international students and temporary foreign workers. The number one source for new permanent residents is now the Philippines, followed by India, China, the U.K. and the States. Canada may be the best country in the world to live in, but that doesn’t mean that it’s easy to get established. People come to Canada dreaming of obtaining greater financial security and opportunities for themselves and their families, but they often spend years struggling to build up credit, find a decent job and grow their wealth.

In the pages that follow, we

The open house is one of the best resources a home buyer can take advantage of

It’s a great way to go check out a house that you might be interested, ask some questions and inspect both the interior and exterior in person without feeling any kind of pressure or obligation from the seller or their agent. The following are a few tips that will help you get the most out of an open house:

1. Use an Agent to hold the houses open exclusively to you

The best open houses are the ones you choose, based on your price, your criteria, and  a selection you have made with an agent. Instead of following open house signs that go on forever that lead you to a home way out of your price range, or not in the right school zone, or without the right number of

Downsizing to a condo in Kamloops

There’s a big trend in real estate right now, and it will continue for the foreseeable future. This trend is for empty-nesters and baby-boomers to sell the large home with the goal of downsizing to a condo. Many owners are finding themselves in 3, 4 and more bedroom homes, the kids have moved out, and they no longer have the desire to maintain a large home where they are only using a small part of.

But condo living can be a major lifestyle change, both an extremely positive change for most but can also be a huge disappointment for some. Before taking the decision on downsizing to a condo, you owe it to yourself to answer these 4 questions to see if condo living makes sense for you.

See our search box for condos

Many first-time buyers are debating whether they should continue to rent or should they buy. It’s also a consideration for those entering retirement age that are thinking of downsizing out of their home to a condo or apartment. But what makes more sense to rent or to buy? There are some big advantages to rent in certain situations and some even bigger advantages to buy a home.

Answer these 7 questions to know for sure if you should buy or if you should rent.

 See our First Time Buyers page for more info including Government incentives for first time buyers

1. Do You Have Enough Cash Saved Up?

The first question we need to look at is the financial implications of buying or renting. In order to purchase a home or condo, the banks will generally

When a Seller decides to move, the house isn’t new anymore; but to a new Buyer, the house is new.

Expectations can be different, depending on who’s the Buyer; and who’s the Seller. So how does this work in practice? Most Buyers and Sellers are cooperative, but there can be some who are more of a challenge than others. A lot of the buying/selling experience can be traced back to the attitude of the buyers and sellers. For example:

FROM THE BUYER’S PERSPECTIVE WITH A POSITIVE ATTITUDE

• The Buyer is moving to a new location.
• The Buyer may be a new/first-time Home Buyer.
• The Buyer will tell everyone he/she bought a new house.
• To the Buyer, the experience of buying a home is new.

FROM THE SELLER’S PERSPECTIVE WITH A NEGATIVE

Did you know there are more cats in Canada than dogs?

According to an Ipsos Reid poll, 35% of Canadian households have a dog, whereas 38% have a cat. As with real estate in Toronto and the Hamilton real estate market, it seems like the downtown cores have gone to the dogs. However, stats show that people love their feline friends even more.

Cats offer a bunch of benefits, from warm companionship to pest control. There are studies that show that cats reduce stress and even your risk for heart attack. And there are enough YouTube videos showing cats acting strange to know how entertaining they can be.

But is owning a cat actually depreciating your home? Or will owning a cat limit your possible buyers when you go to sell?

Short answer: yes. While

You have many choices when it comes time to get your mortgage.

Not only do the different types, terms, and options for the mortgage vary, but you also have options when it comes to choosing the lender for your home loan. It’s important that your lender offers you a competitive rate, but there are other things to take into consideration, such as flexibility, customer service, and the fact that not all lenders offer all types of mortgages.
 
Banks
 
The biggest players in the mortgage market by far are the commercial banks. Big banks provide the majority of home loans to consumers. The general public knows and recognizes their brands, and there’s also some brand loyalty for consumers who already make use of the bank’s other financial products. These

You’ve made up your mind to purchase a new home.

You have started looking at online listings to get a feel for the types of houses that are currently available. Before you give into those real estate temptations, there are a few crucial tips you need to bear in mind.

1. Know your Purchase Power
Before you even start looking at houses know how much your lender will pre-approve you for. Getting your heart set on a listing you can’t afford will taint your entire home buying journey. Keep in mind that there is usually negotiating room on a listing price, but try not to look at homes more than 10% above your pre-approved mortgage amount.

See our article on pre-approval/qualification

2. Decide what you are looking for
Know exactly what you are