Addressing a dilemma: Want to know your home's worth but are afraid to give details?

Addressing a dilemma: Want to know your home's worth but are afraid to give details?

10 questions for the builder of your energy efficient home

Do you want to know if your new home is energy-efficient? Here are some questions to ask your builder:
1. How do I know your homes are truly energy efficient?
2. Since all builders must meet the requirements of the building code, what makes your homes different from other builders' homes?
3. How do your building techniques reflect the latest developments in housing technology?
4. What steps do you take to improve the energy efficiency of the homes you build?
5. Can you predict what my energy costs will be?
6. What makes your homes more environmentally friendly than others?
7. Do you participate in the Government's energy efficiency initiatives for new homes?
8. Do you affix a government-backed energy label to your home?
9. Do independent, licensed professionals inspect the energy efficiency of your homes?
10. Do you build homes that receive an EnerGuide rating of 83 or higher or its equivalent?
If you aren't getting the answers you want, then you better think twice about your builder.

Breaking News! Free Gas for All Canadians for one day. Seriously!

Free Gas

Free gas is a dream come true for many Canadians. Yes, this is not a fiasco. This is true. 

How do you get free gas for one day?

If you are a Canadian citizen or Permanent immigrant, and are a qualified home buyer, then you are eligible for getting full tank of gas for up to 4 cars in a household. 

Here's how.

1. You will be an active buyer client of Paul Cheema, Sales Representative, RE/MAX Professionals Inc., Brokerage (Independently owned and operated).
2. The term 'Qualified buyer' applies to one who is pre-approved for mortgage and has requisite down payment.
3. The term 'Active Buyer Client' refers to one who has signed Buyer Representation Form with RE/MAX Professionals Inc. Brokerage through Paul Cheema, Sales Representative only. Any BRA signed with any other agent of aforementioned company doesn't qualify for this offer.
4. The brokerage RE/MAX Professionals Inc. is in no way associated with this offer which is being offered solely by Paul Cheema, Sales Representative.
5. Purchase price to be between $200,000 onwards and any kind of property.
6. The offer shall begin on the day of waiver of all conditions and firming up the offer of purchase and sale.
7. Married Children excluded from the offer.
8. Ownership documents and photo IDs shall be requested.
9. Ownership documents and photo IDs must show same municipal address.
10. The gas will be filled in the presence of Paul Cheema or his representatives/team members.
11. No restriction on quantity of gas that your car tank can take.
12. The offer is for passenger cars/trucks only. Commercial vehicles excluded from this offer.
13. This is not a solicitation of active clients with other brokerages/companies.
14. This is not redeemable for cash.
15. The day of filling can be chosen by the clients at their own convenience.
16. The buyer undertakes to return the cost of gas if for any reason the transaction is not closed.
17. The offer is valid from Jan 12, 2013 to September 30, 2013.

Come for a joyful driving after your home purchase.

Not intended to solicit buyers already under Buyer Representation Agreements with other brokerages. It will be the buyer's own obligation to disclose the existence of any such valid and existing contract with any brokerage. Paul Cheema's obligation shall only be to verify if someone is registered client on the Toronto MLS's BRS system.

Dilemma of having friend/relatives as realtors! Confused?!

Do you feel blindfolded by your realtor friend?

Buying a home where your family can live happily ever after and which meets your basic needs is something that every homebuyer dreams of. In buying a home a homebuyer is assisted, for no cost, by a professional in real estate industry.  The homebuyer feels confident that his agent will provide him with the most professional service and ensure the followings:

1. Understand their needs
2. Subject home is as per their needs and wants
3. The price is right and the offered price is a fair market value
4. Home has potential to appreciate in near future
5. The demographics suit them
6. The appliances and home systems are in good order

Sometimes, a homebuyer loses the right of free expression and end up buying a home under undue influence of his/her friend or relative who happened to be a real estate agent. In certain communities the fear of turning away their friends and relatives is so strong that either the buyers backout of buying a home because they had 3-4 relatives/friends who are realtors or they end up annoying a few of them at the cost of their own freedom of choice and expression. A sense of being blindfolded.

What to do?

Actually the decision is all upon you. Over the period of my real estate practice, I got the following responses from some of the people I interviewed:

For those who go with their friends/relatives:

1. Our friend/relative understands us well. We are comfortable with him
2. We are afraid of social remifications if we don't buy through our relative/friend
3. Our friend is very professional, he discusses everything in details and shows his strategy
4. Our friend/relative ensures the personal information is not rumoured in the family circle
5. The relative was my spouse's brother/sister/mom/dad
6. He was with a reputed Real Estate Company like RE/MAX and we were sure of his professional ethics

For those who don't want to go with their friends/relatives:

1. We don't want to discuss our financials with close relatives
2. If we use one friend/relative as our agent, others will get angry
3. We will lose right to criticise or argue during offer
4. Bad experience as our relative pushed us to buy a home we never wanted in the first place. So we quit him
5. Relative/friend is a part-timer agent. We don't get to see many homes when we want to
6. We want to keep business and friendship/relationship separate
7. He worked in a no name brokerage with no backhand support. We couldn't trust him.

So to sum up, the decision is all yours. As long as your relative or friend shows professionalism and treats you and your information in the most ethical way, it is good to go with him.  BUSINESS SHOULD STRICTLY BE BUSINESS & NOT A FAVOR TO ANYONE. It is you who are going to commit for 25 years to pay. 

The video on RE/MAX's youtube channel is a nice watch in this context. Click here to see it.

Should you find yourself in need of some information or discussing your homebuying plans, please feel free to call me at 647-333-2273 or my office 416-232-9000 or email me at dealswithpaul@gmail.com.

Do you have a real estate purchase story to tell? You can send it to me at dealswithpaul@gmail.com.

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Disclaimer: The above article is an original text based on Paul Cheema's experience with prospects. Your agreement or disagreement is a matter of sole discretion. Not intended to solicit clients already under other brokerage contracts.

Should you rent or own a home?

First time home buyers are always skeptical and afraid of getting into a long term commitment to buy a home. For most renting is the best option as they know it is a fixed amount they pay each month and then forget about the utilities and other home ownership related costs like utilities, property taxes, landscaping, maintenance, and the like.

But is renting really a better alternative? There are no wrong answers to this question. The tenants may have some issues with their credit, job, and other personal stuff for not going to be a home owner.
There are a couple of problems which come with a tenacy. The ones that I could some up are as below:

1. The safety of your family: How well do you know your landlords? You gave all your information when you rented a home, but did you think about getting homeowners information? No, Most of us don't do that for the fear of rejection. Checking up with neighbours is not a bad thought though.
2. Interference in your life-style: The landlords seem to dictate how you should be living in their basements or homes at all the times. Exceptions are always there. You find unable to host even little parties as this may be considered as noisey by the landlord and then getting an eviction notice or harrassment.
3. Stalking: When you come back from work, you always find as if someone has been through your entire living area, a personal domain and it is a freaky feeling.
4. Instability of life: Though signed tenacies are valid for one year, but under certain circumstances the leases can be terminated. A change in your residence may change your kids' schools, your daily commute expense, and so many inter-related things.

 The following table sums up the equity realization by a home owner vis-a-vis money loss by a tenant.

Particulars	Renting	Break-up (Buying)	Buying	Remarks
Purchase price	n/a		370000	The mortgage calculations are based on full price as CMHC Insurance nullifies the down payment to a greater extent.
Down Payment	n/a		18500	5%
Monthly Mortgage Payment		1790
Monthly Utilities		300
Taxes		329
Total Monthly payments	800		2419	@3.30:% roi, 5 YRS, On $370,000
Rent increase	3.1%		n/a
Total payments in 5 years	51000		107,400
Recaptured Principal	n/a		52538
Effective expenses	51000		54862
Property appreciation @ 4% per year	n/a	14,800
Value of property after 5 years		74,000	444,000
Net return in 60 months	Nil		126,538	This is your gain in 5 years.

Should you have a credit problem and can support mortgage payment only after one year, Rent-To-Own program could very well suit you. To know more on how it works you can call me by using my contact form available here.
Your comments are most welcome.

Disclaimer: Not intended to solicit clients already under brokerage contracts. The information projected herein has been provided only for the sake of research and  no representation of any kind is implied. The user of this information is advised to seek independent legal advice (ILA) before acting thereon. The information is intended only for research purpose. The numbers or data projected herein may change with market conditions beyond the control of sales representative and brokerage.

Fake home renovations- Home buyers beware!

Exercise caution! Fake Renovations need to be figured out

We are seeing more and more of 'Extensively Renovated' homes in the market. The house looks better than a brand new home with stucco on exterior, newer roof, basement apartment with separate entrance, new light fixtures, and what not! 

Are you a first time home buyer and have decided to put an offer on such a home?

You need to read this first.

Do you really need all those renovations for which you have agreed to pay more than area price?

Most of the renovations are meant to attract the unsuspecting homebuyers. Specifically, the one, who just falls for the shiny counterstops, nice gleaming floors and doesn't know about how the electricals should be or how the structure is, and which are more critical to making an informed decision.

Remember: All that glitters is not Gold!

I routinely come across many such stories of aggrieved buyers who get stuck with the property. Even five years later they can't recover their equity as they bought a home too high in the first place. Why should a buyer be forced to pay for some renovations that one can live without?! For example stucco on the exterior. Sure it looks nice, but if the seller is looking at $30,000 hike in price because he did stucco, why should the buyer pay for it? 
Some times even the so called 'investors' end up spending too much because they were told by someone that they can sell this home later at a very high return and end up seeing their home on market forever.

A few renos do help in longer run as they reduce the recurring costs like hydro, gas and water bills. While there may be a few frivolous upgrades as well which are more of cosmetic nature than actual use.  If I am buying a home I will least consider the following upgrades:

1. Paint in home - Won't cost a fortune and I can do it myself
2. Electrical fixtures - Great to  have them. But if the seller is looking to suck money out of my pocket, I will ask him to take them away. Why pay $200 for a fancy flush light fixture when I can get away with $35?
3. Hardwood floor- At a reasonable charge, it is okay to have it. So long as the floors are not squeeking, I will be okay with laminate or broadloom (Has to be neat though)
4. Backsplash-If I am tight on cash and there's another home at a lesser price, I will go for that house.  The backsplash is not a rocket science and I can do it later.

Renos which are advantageous

1. Furnace- A newer energy efficient furnace is the most important upgrade. It reduces gas cost and also hydro cost
2. Windows and Doors- helps conserve energy of the home and decreases the utility cost
3. Roof shingles - helps conserve energy
4. Enhanced ventilation - Roof ventilation helps avoid mold formation. Older roofs have less ventilation and are more prone to mold growth
5. Exhaust in kitchen/bathrooms - helps remove moisture, cooking vapors/smoke and minimizes the risk of mold formation
6. Bathroom renovations and plumbing- This is hygienic for occupants and avoids wastage of water. Dual flush tanks reduce a lot of water and waste water bill
7. Roof insulation - Retains heat and cold of the home
8. Copper electrical lines and breaker switches- Reduces insurance cost

Do you have a professional agent working for you?
Some homebuyers are under the impression that going direct they will get a better price from the homeseller. But who will determine the best price?  The area sales are a good starting point. But are they sure that the home being compared to the subject home is similar or that price adjustments have been made to account for the asking price.

A real estate sales representative has tools at his disposal that tell the whole history about the home under consideration. The realtor has the professional capability to make adjustment in price vis-a-vis another sold in the neighbourhood.  Why not use that expertise which, for a home buyer, is completely free? There are many cases when the homebuyer didn't know that the home is located right under the air corridor and that about 70-100 flights pass through that corridor shaking windows and that a train track just nearby shakes the entire house resulting in cracks in foundation.
Check out www.Howrealtorshelp.ca for more insight into this.

A professional realtor will negotiate for the best price and for a best home only.

I recently happened to see a house for a client a few months back which was on sale for $380,000 plus. The seller had just bought it a few months back for about $250s and after doing stucco, electricals, flooring, windows, doors is trying to cash over $ 100,000 while the renos may not be worth more than 30,000. Just for info the house is about 900 SF with one bedroom basement.The roof doesn't have soffits and I suspect poor insulation and ventilation there too.  My advice to the client was not to buy it and he understood. Wisdom prevails.

For more information on what should or should not be done when you go for purchasing your first home, don't hesitate to call me or text me or leave a voice mail. You will always be responded back promptly.

Dripping 'upgraded' light fixture in porch

An electrical shock/fire risk awaits to happen

(C) PAUL CHEEMA-2012, No part of this blog to be reproduced without attributing proper citation to the author. Protected with anti-plagiarism software.
DISCLAIMER: These are my personal thoughts based on my own experience with home buyers and home owners. You may have different experiences and yes, there are always exceptions to everything in this universe. Definitely this content is not provided with an intention to solicit clients already under contract with other brokerages.



 

Should you Buy a home now?

The market is cooling its heels after a brisk run in the past months. The inventory is there and the sellers are beating each other by lowering their asking price. Some sellers are desperate as they have another closing approaching for them. The mortgage rates are still low. Yes, under the current scenario I believe it is the right time to buy for a buyer with good credit, good job, and good down payment.

So, what you need to know to reap the benefit of fallen market?

The foremost is maintaining your credit score.  If you are really planning to buy a home, hold on to your car loan or any other consumer goods loan. This loan will immediately lower your affordability and put you in jeopardy of home purchase.

1. The next is to go for pre-approval. Though pre-approvals don't mean much, but it does one thing and that is hold on interest rate.  Rest all is conditional on this and that condition. So make sure you lock into a rate.  The benefit of pre-approval is that if the interest falls you get lower interest and if it goes higher, you are still at a lower rate. Sound good? Speak to your mortgage consultant and don't shy away.
2. The pre-approval does another great thing.  It tells you your affordability. Stick to that and you won't get into trouble.
3. Some sellers will settle for less if you can close early.  See if it is possible for you.

There are more to what can be written in this post. One must make a diligent decision to have them enjoy the home rather than getting into financial crisis.

Call me to discuss your home purchase today. I can be reached 24/7/365 at 416-232-9000 or you can drop me a line at paulsellsfaster@yahoo.com. You are encouraged to visit www.quicksellnbuy.com for many tools like mortgage calculation, affordabilty calculators and many new listings.

Happy Home buying!




Disclaimer: The information is provided as a research and information help.  Please use your best discretion when buying real estate. Though it is deemed to be reliable, no warranty of any kind is implied.