DON’T BE A FOOL TOWARDS THE SHIMMER AND SHINE IN THE REAL ESTATE MARKET The most expensive house in the world is the one you are living in or contemplating purchasing. Owning a home becomes your world even though some people consider a roof over their heads a house and never a home. Buying the most expensive house on the block is not something I would do unless I was paying cash or was 100% certain that I could maintain it even through unforeseen circumstances. The problem is that there are people who aren’t considering what could happen which could promote a for sale sign on their property. Plus, if you think those are expensive homes now just wait and see what happens if you find major issues with the home down the road. Be ready to part with money you thought you had saved for something more than surprise home renovations. Whether you buy a cheap house or an expensive house you are now holding something expensive that could cost you even more. The hometown living vibe is slowly being lost Many families are being forced to move away from their hometown mainly Toronto and Vancouver […]
Does Your Property Listing Use Frosted Marketing Language?
BUYING A HOUSE IS MORE THAN JUST SWEET BUTTERED WORDS How confident are you about every property listing you choose to visit that the house description will be 100% accurate? Probably not that confident and I don’t blame you. A property listing may be close to accurate but it may also be buttered up just a bit to motivate you to put an offer in on the house. Real Estate trends seem to be important big-ticket accessories for buyers and sellers but even then what is being sold should be what is depicted in the property listing. Have you really fallen prey to these marketing tactics in the real estate industry? Probably because they’ve been used for years because there’s no standards apart from, “Sell that house” as fast as you can. Does granite in a bathroom or kitchen turn on your buyers excitement? Make sure the granite counter-top that you may end up owning and paying big bucks for is the real deal! Buyers remorse is a sad place to be especially when you should be excited about your new home purchase. I read an excellent blog post that every real estate agent and private seller should read- […]
Property Tax Bill-One Bill You’ll Never Burn : February 2016 Monthly Budget Review
THE TAX MAN HANGS AROUND FOR LIFE In February like clock-work we get a letter in the post from the city about our new tax rate along with payment dates for our property tax bill. Whether it’s paying for income tax, property tax, product tax or anything that says tax you know you’ll never get away with dodging it. Which is why there are two certainties in life: death and taxes Every year the property tax bill gets higher and higher but that’s expected I suppose since it goes to pay for various things in the community such as municipal services, police, fire, transit and so on. I received an email from a young couple in the process of buying their first home and they wanted to know what the best way was to pay for their property tax bill. Dear Mr.CBB, My wife and I are just finalizing the sale of our new home and were wondering how we should pay for our property tax bill in order for our budget to balance. What else is there that we need to know about our new property and our tax bill? Thanks for any tips. -Chris and Angela If […]
Why You Should Never Trust A Real Estate Listing
DON’T MISS THE OBVIOUS WHEN LOOKING TO BUY OR SELL REAL ESTATE Whether you are buying or selling a house with a real estate agent or for sale by owner (FSBO) NEVER trust a real estate listing. I’ve invested in real estate since I was 21 years old when I bought my first house and a second at age 24. I’m not in the game of real estate to become a monster property millionaire but what I do know is that not all real estate listings are created equal. Finding the best real estate agent that will work for you isn’t an easy task but when you do remember that none of us are perfect and mistakes can happen. As a homeowner or buyer beware of any errors that could cost you thousands of dollars over the long haul once you move into your new home or sell your house. The last thing you want is your house sitting on the market for months because of en error no one is catching but potential buyers. If you want to add value to your house either you lower the price to gain attention or you add renovation/unique home perks to […]
How To Find The Best Real Estate Agent For You
THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS FLOODED WITH AGENTS READY TO SERVE YOU Finding the perfect fit real estate agent to work for you and your housing needs is not a task to take lightly. You want a real estate agent that knows all about the latest real estate trends and who will guide you in the right direction. Find a real estate agent who will be just as excited as you are to see a Sold sign as they are to close a deal. A happy client who sends referrals and returns as a customer in the future means the agent went above and beyond. You want this real estate agent working for you, but how do you find them? Whether you are a first time home buyer or have had your feet dipped in the real estate market don’t rush to find a real estate agent. Taking the time to hand-pick the best real estate agent in your area that works best with you is key to your buying and selling success. Not everyone wants to hire a real estate agent as they choose to go it alone with for sale by owner or buying a house privately. […]
Buy the least expensive house in the most expensive neighbourhood
BE PICKY WHEN HOUSE SHOPPING Typically we like to buy quality when we shop which included shopping for our home. This is why we scoured every available neighbourhood around our city for the best deal. The only thing we don’t like is paying full-price which meant we had our work cut out for us. Thankfully, it worked out in our favour. When buying a house you want to make sure that if you are buying a $400,000 house that the neighbourhood matches the price tag or you might struggle to sell as fast as you’d like down the road. This is why we hear over and over not to over-renovate but then again a smaller house in a bigger neighbourhood might have more luck finding a buyer than a house that costs far more than smaller surrounding homes. Today I have an email from a guy who is a first-time home-buyer with his wife and wants to know if they should spend the money and get the biggest house they can or a smaller house but in a more expensive area. Note: If you have a question for me please send me a detailed email similar to below so […]
Young adult teaches us about being house poor in 15 minutes
DON’T GET CAUGHT SINKING YOUR SHIP Being house poor doesn’t necessarily mean that you simply have no money but it can mean that you have too much house you can’t afford. House poor can also mean you have too much stuff, no money and/or piles of consumer debt that you are struggling financially to make ends meet. The term “poor” means so many things to everyone that the only way to describe it from a financial perspective would be lack of money. Some people may not consider themselves poor until starvation kicks in and they have to go to the food bank or when they reach the point of bankruptcy. Others may take on a different view but no matter what poor means to you it’s not a place that people “dream” of. House poor is not easy living You might consider yourself house poor when you can’t pay your mortgage which could be for a variety of reasons. There are also plenty of poor people living in the ritzy part of town who are struggling to take control of their financial situation. I think there are many misconceptions of the word poor and the only person […]
How we became mortgage free in five years
THE SECRET IS…THERE IS NO SECRET! Becoming mortgage free is not an easy task so I won’t make it out to be something that it’s not. In fact many things have led to us becoming mortgage free in 5 years which I want to discuss with you today since many of you have emailed me. Ever since I blogged about wanting to pay off the mortgage early I’ve had fans email me wanting to know if there were any secrets. I thought I’d wait until we actually became mortgage free to fill you in just how we did it. No, we didn’t win the lottery or get money from family or friends we earned every last bit of it. If you read our net worth update for April last week you already know that we were excited to tell everyone that we were finally saying good-bye to the mortgage payment. I promised you I’d let you know what we did and what problems we met along the way. I thought the best way would be to get my good friend Michael Anthony Lloyd a mortgage expert who blogs at www.homehappy.ca and has blogged here before to share a bit […]
