Archive for the 'Tips for Sellers' Category
Central Toronto Has More Home Buyers Than Sellers
We are enjoying our mildest Winter in a long time, we have seriously low mortgage rates, a very healthy Sellers’ market, and yet……where have all the Sellers gone?
Traditionally, Sellers are not enthused about having their home for sale in the frigid winter winds. Why are they not delighted to take advantage of the lack of snow and take advantage of those more-than-eager Buyers right now?
More important than the weather to Buyers is the availability of super-low mortgage rates. This is why they are most eager to find their new home right now.
We are constantly being reminded that these low mortgage rates are unsustainable. So why wait until this happens? Those Sellers who decide to get ahead of this will reap the benefit. It’s an obvious case of “supply and demand”.
I’d be happy to give you an accurate opinion of what your home is worth.
Drop me an email at rsmithcarr@sympatico.ca or call me at 416-482-8330 ext 3519
Superb Leaside Neighbourhood Four Bedroom Home Now Available
Superb Leaside Neighbourhood
This detached home on a generous 33’ foot lot offers abundant space for a growing family. The well proportioned dining and living room with cozy fireplace allow for easy entertaining.
The galley kitchen opens into the family room with its view overlooking the private south rear garden .. delightful for a quiet BBQ.
The current owners enjoy the easy access to downtown, highly regarded schools and the much-enjoyed stores, boutiques and restaurants on Bayview and Mt Pleasant.
Leaside is one of the most popular neighbourhoods in Toronto and is in especially high demand with upper middle income families who value this neighbourhood as an ideal place to raise children.
Leaside’s Tudor-style houses were built largely in the 1930’s and 1940’s and most of the houses contain beautiful wood trim, hardwood floors, and a working fireplace. The typical Leaside house is situated on a generous size lot with a private drive and a garage.
There is a good mix of two-story detached homes, bungalows, and semi-detached houses.
Looking for your dream home? Click here to find all Leaside homes for sale.
This home has been sold.
Renovation Leads to Separation – Staying Together After All the Work is Done
If you’re thinking about moving ahead with a home remodelling project, the following are some factors to consider. This is tried and true advice gleaned from over 25 years of consulting with clients in Toronto on home buying, moving, selling and renovating. It will not only save you financially, but emotionally as well. Speaking of emotions . . .
Toronto Home Remodelling: Can Your Family Afford the Emotional Cost?
There is an old idiomatic expression in the real estate industry that goes, “Renovation leads to separation.” This is especially true if the family inhabits the home while the renovation is taking place. Noise, dust, cramped quarters and dealing with unreliable contractors take a huge toll on even the most stable relationship.
This is added stress on top of professional responsibilities, child rearing and other day-to-day pressures. This is why I have always found that the most important factor to consider when deciding whether or not to renovate is not the financial cost, but the emotional cost.
After all, what good is a newly renovated home when there is no family left intact to enjoy it?
Toronto Home Remodelling: When It Makes Sense to Move Forward
If your family is prepared to weather the emotional toll, following is when it makes sense to move forward with a home remodelling project.
You Love Your Home: This is probably the best reason. If you love the basic bones of your house, its location, and the feel of the neighbourhood, then remodelling makes sense – if it’s within reason (which we’ll discuss in just a bit).
The Costs are in Line with the Neighbourhood: You can easily spend too much on a home renovation project. Following are two questions to ask that will help you keep costs in line with your desires.
The first question you need to ask – and answer – before proceeding is, “Does it make sense to spend this amount of money, on this home, in this area?” You want to be able to answer “yes” emphatically. The second question is, “When all the work is done, will my home be the most expensive home on the street?” The answer to this question should be “no.”
The reason is, any improvements you make should be those that a future buyer will be willing to pay for.
Remember, potential homebuyers pay relative to what other homes in that vicinity have sold for. So no matter how much that slate tile in the master bath costs or how great it looks, if it puts your home in the “most expensive” category, it’s unlikely you’ll recoup what you spent.
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Warning! Why Building That Large Home May Be Dangerous to Your Wallet
While the title of this article may sound a bit dramatic, it is intended to catch your attention to discuss why building a large house may not be the best financial move you can make.
Weighing Today’s Large Home Needs in Prime Toronto Neighbourhoods against Tomorrow’s Finances
Chances are, you’re planning to have that four or five-bedroom home built because your family is growing. This is perfectly logical.
HOWEVER, as anyone who has children knows, they grow up and move out quicker than you ever imagine. Then, what you’re left with is a house that is too big for just the two of you.
Why Large Homes in Prime Toronto Neighbourhoods May Be Harder to Sell Than You Think
“So,” you may be thinking, “I’ll just downsize. I’ll sell my house and move to a smaller home or perhaps a condominium.” But, this may not work out the way you think. There are several factors at play that will conspire to drag down the value of large homes in the future, making them harder to sell. Specifically:
Retiring Baby Boomers: Since the late seventies, baby boomers have been the driving force in the housing market. And, with millions of them in the U.S. and Canada set to retire, the housing market is set to change dramatically. This group will be downsizing to smaller dwellings – not larger ones.
The New Homebuyers: Young adults will make up the bulk of new demand for housing. And with the shift towards a greener economy and environment, efficiency, lower maintenance and lower taxes are their priorities – not massive amounts of space.
Immigration: Immigration to Canada has slowed considerably, especially to cities like Vancouver. This is important to know because the first wave of immigrants tends not to be homebuyers. They struggle and sacrifice in order to give their children a better life. And many of them succeed, producing a second generation who has the buying power to afford larger, more expensive homes in prime Toronto neighbourhoods.
If the predictions for lower housing demand by population experts such as Boom, Bust and Echo author David Foot unfold, you may find yourself owning the home equivalent of a gas-guzzling SUV.
On the other hand, if your financial situation is such that money is no object, then by all means go ahead and build your large home in a prime Toronto neighbourhood – and live happily ever after in your Casa Loma!
Looking for no-strings-attached advice about buying or selling in central Toronto? Write to me at rsmithcarr@sympatico.ca or call me at 416-482-8360 ext. 3519
Canadian Home Values Better Than U.S.
A recent real estate survey reveals that home values in Canada are, on average, higher than in the United States. Cities such as Toronto and Winnipeg, though similar in economy and size to Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul, boast much stronger and more stable housing markets.
The results are almost the same for Halifax, though its prices are slightly lower than in its counterpart, Boston.
As of the end of March, prices were significantly higher north of the 49th parallel. For instance, in Toronto, the average housing price fell only four percent to $394,099, while in Chicago, the average price plummeted 34 per cent to US$249,901.
Likewise, Toronto homes were on the market for only about three weeks before being sold, substantially shorter than the Chicago homes’ 168-day (or 24-week) turnover.
In Winnipeg, the average selling price rose three per cent to $209,628, while in Minneapolis the average price fell 24 per cent to US$148,317. In St. Paul, the selling price dropped even further (36 per cent), to US$105,858.
Meanwhile, Halifax continues to buck recent real estate trends, posting a notable seven per cent increase in the average selling price (to $282,499), compared to Boston, which posted a 28 per cent plunge (to US$394,550). However, homes in both cities remained on the market for almost the same number of days.
In the nations’ capitals, prices inched upward one percent in Ottawa, while prices in Washington fell three per cent. It also took more than twice as long to sell a home in Washington.
But things are different for Calgary and its “twin”, Houston.
In Calgary, where the prices are significantly higher and selling times much shorter than in Houston, the Stampede city still posted a hefty 11 per cent price drop compared to its American counterpart. Average home prices in Calgary were $380,737 and US$200,233 in Houston.
Woman Uses Children to Steal Valuables at Open House
I have never been fond of doing open houses because the person who benefits most is your agent, not you the seller. And now I have that much less incentive to do them. A 36-year-old woman was arrested recently in connection with thefts at seven open houses in the Toronto area. But even more appalling than the thefts themselves was the woman’s modus operandi.
She would arrive at the open houses with a fashionably large black purse and two cute little boys. The younger boy, around eight, would cling to the woman as she toured the house.
Meanwhile, the older boy, around ten, would linger in a particular area with the realtor, making the kind of charming small-talk any ten-year-old might make.
But while the boy was keeping the agent’s attention fixed on baseball and the latest Disney movie, the woman was beyond viewing range, stuffing digital cameras, Wii video-game consoles, jewellery and even cash into her purse, as reported in the Toronto Star.
In one instance, the two boys started screaming and running around. The woman explained to the startled realtor that they were terrified of cats (there was a small tabby at the home) and the agent did what he could to calm them down.
While he was tending to the children, the woman stashed over $1,000 worth of items into her bag.
Peel police, who are investigating several of the thefts, admitted yesterday they’d never heard before of someone using children to steal at open houses. They also warned that there are likely home owners who have had open houses and haven’t yet noticed that things are missing.
The truth is – open houses are good for agents but not necessarily for sellers. Less than one percent of buyers find their home by visiting an open house. The majority of attendees show up either out of curiosity or to kill time. And some, apparently, show up just to steal.
So, if you do decide to hold an open house, make sure you put away (or better still, lock up) your valuables. And keep an eye on anyone who arrives with a fashionably large purse!
Have You Had Enough Fear-Mongering?
It would have to happen sooner or later. Someone has already coined a term for all of this pessimistic news that we are being bombarded with daily; “pessimism porn”. Psychologists have long held the belief that it is human nature to feel a sort of magnetic attraction towards gloom and doom.
The way I see it is, the more we allow ourselves to focus on the bad news, the more we blur our perspective with negative input. In Canada we now have an unemployment rate of seven per cent, not a good number. But what we fail to focus on is that 93 percent of us have jobs. Our glass is 93 percent full!
How is this changing our buying habits? Having been involved in residential real estate for more than two decades, I naturally focus a lot of my attention on the state of the real estate market. Sales in Toronto have dropped by close to 50 percent. However, neither of the most critical components necessary to sustain a healthy housing market – employment figures or mortgage rates - justify such a dramatic decline in home sales.
I do not know how long this recession will last, nor do I know how much more home prices will decrease – if at all. However, I do know that there are individuals and families buying homes under these market conditions.
I have written about this before. We are still seeing buyers paying the full asking price and in some cases more than the asking price, even under these market conditions!
So what’s going on? Are some of those buyers aware of something which the rest of us are not? I do not believe that this is the case. Perhaps instead, most of those who are still getting into homeownership are simply taking it all in good stride and refusing to join “the negative masses”. They are simply carrying on with their lives.
The sky has not yet fallen and I humbly believe it will not fall any time soon. Yes, it is going to be a bumpy ride. We should remember that by staying out of the market and watching from the sidelines while waiting for things to get better, we are all potentially contributing to our own demise.
If we all decided to simultaneously put all of our major buying decisions on hold, we might just create our own apocalypse and then truly have the sky fall on all of us.
Would love to hear your comments. Do you agree, disagree or have no opinion. Let us know.
Are You Paying Too Much for Your Property Taxes?
When home values were going through the roof, so were real estate tax assessments. Today the value of many homes has dropped.
Therefore, the assessments on some of these homes are no longer accurate. That means that you may be overpaying for your property taxes.
If you believe the assessment you recently received from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) is inaccurate or excessive, you have the right to challenge it. Believe it or not, there is some good news these days, and this one you can take to the bank. Furthermore, this is a free service.
You can ask for a review of your property assessment through the “Request for Reconsideration (RFR) and Appeals” process. The form is available at www.mpac .ca, or you can call them at 1-866-296-6722.
Go on line and link to the MPAC web site, http://www.mpac.ca/ (then go to: About my property, at the center of the page Click here to login), check your property specifics such as lot size, room dimensions, age, etc. Your next step is to find similar houses in your community with the same specs.
You can get information on up to 24 additional properties of your choice and up to 6 properties selected by MPAC, FREE OF CHARGE. Be prepared to prove to the assessment office that your home has a lower value.
The process is simple and you are able to see the assessed values of similar houses in your neighbourhood.
Your “Request for Reconsideration” form must be filed before March 31 2009. By getting a new assessment of your home value, you could save hundreds and often thousands of dollars each year. A little bit of work on your part can help you put more than a few more loonies in your pocket.
Do you need more information to help you cut your property taxes? Send me an email. Or call me at 416-482-8330 ext. 3519.
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Saying No to a Client is Hard to Do
Yesterday I met with a client who wants to move out of town. Her plans had changed and she would like to go back to the town where she grew up. She has lived in her home for two years and has had major work done to her house.
She paid what was then market value, then put in a new kitchen and finished the basement.
We had a very pleasant chat as we examined the value of her home in today’s market. Her goal was to recover the price she paid for the house two years ago, plus the cost of renovations and some profit for her efforts.
After looking at comparable homes that have sold on her street and in her immediate neighbourhood in the last three months, it became clear to me that she would not be able to do this.
Based on my experience, I knew that in a best-case scenario she might be able to walk out with a fifty thousand dollar shortfall. We went over a few other options she could consider but none of them satisfied her.
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