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.

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.

Top 10 Secondary Schools in Mississauga

Top 10 Secondary Schools

The following is the list of top 10 secondary schools in Mississauga as reported by the Fraser Institute. To see the list of TOP 10 Elementary Schools in Mississauga click here.

Order	Secondary School name/Address	Ranking out of 718	Fraser Institute Rating out of 10	Average House prices
1	Lorne Park Secondary School 1324 Lorne Park Rd, Mississauga, ON L5H3B1 Phone Number: 905-278-6177	31	8.5	$1.3 M (Low: $580,000)
2	Cawthra Park Secondary School 1305 Cawthra Rd, Mississauga, ON L5G4L1 Phone Number: 905-274-1271	43	8.3	$600,000 (Low: $400,000)
3	John Fraser Secondary School 2665 Erin Centre Blvd, Mississauga, ON L5M5H6 Phone Number: 905-858-5910	50	8.2	$1.2 M (Low: $700,000)
4	Glenforest Secondary School 3575 Fieldgate Dr, Mississauga, ON L4X2J6 Phone Number: 905-625-7731	74	7.9	$700,000 (Low: $500,000)
5	Gordon Graydon Memorial Secondary School 1490 Ogden Ave, Mississauga, ON L5E2H8 Phone Number: 905-274-2391	74	7.9	$500,000 (Low: $350,000)
6	Streetsville Secondary School 72 Joymar Dr, Mississauga, ON L5M1G3 Phone Number: 905-826-1195	112	7.6	$900,000 (Low: $500,000)
7	Stephen Lewis Secondary School 3675 Thomas Street, Mississauga, ON L5M7E6 Phone Number: 905-363-0289	129	7.5	$600,000 (Low: $400,000)
8	Rick Hansen Secondary School 1150 Dream Crest Road, Mississauga, ON L5V1N6 Phone Number: 905-567-4260	144	7.4	$550,000 (Low: $440,000)
9	Port Credit Secondary School 70 Mineola Rd E, Mississauga, ON L5G2E5 Phone Number: 905-278-3382	161	7.3	$900,000 (Low: $400,000)
10	The Woodlands Secondary School 3225 Erindale Station Rd, Mississauga, ON L5C1Y5 Phone Number: 905-279-0575	175	7.2	$480,000 (Low: $400,000)

Disclaimer: The information is believed to be correct. The article is provided just for the sake of research and information.  However, caution is advised and the reader is requested to make independent inquiry to his/her satisfaction.

Social Media Fraud- Must read this

With a 13% increase in identity fraud between 2010 and 2011, a study conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research showed that consumers may be putting themselves at a higher risk for identity theft as a result of their increasingly intimate social media behaviors. Sixty-eight percent of people with public social media profiles on platforms such as Facebook or Twitter shared their birthday information with 45% of them getting into specifics about the exact month, day, and year. Sixty-three percent shared where exactly they attended high school. Eighteen percent shared their phone number and 12% shared their pet’s name. Not only are all of these details typically asked when verifying an identity, but people also frequently use them in passwords. The statistics are clear — people are giving away far too much personal information on social networking sites, allowing for fraudsters to easily steal their identities.

Source: Identity Theft 911 blog (http://s.tt/1bcsI)

Protecting your privacy

Guard your information

Information on you is very important for many things in live like buying a home, creating a good credit profile, hunting for jobs etc. There are people in this world who find an adventure in stealing such an information. This probably satisfies the detective in them or the need to know for ulterior motives. The information may be stole for many reason: Fun sake, Making prank calls, or any other ulterior motives. As per the data published by Canadian Anti-fraud centre and mass marketing fraud (ref.below) the loss in September 2011 was close to $3.275 Millions

Most of the people are unaware on how to make sure their privacy is kept under guard. The result; some unscurpulous elements take advantage of this ignorance. We are in an era of internet marketing and commerce, where we have to leave our information for the vendor or service provider to know that he is interacting with a live human being and not with a robotic program. When you are submitting information online, be careful to read the privacy regulations of the information seeking page and make sure you are not submitting your data to a spam site or a phising website. The spam site floods your mail inbox with all those silly messages from pharmacies, surveys, product informations, and much more while the phising websites are designed to steal your personal information to be used either for hacking your computer system, or operate your accounts for their own ulterior motives. This doesn't mean that you stay scared and obstruct your online business.  Use of a reputed internet monitoring program and anti-virus is a solution to such spam and phising websites.  I have been using a program that effectively removes all such online threats and I am enjoying all net commerce and share information online.

Apart from online privacy protection here are a few tips to keep your self safe:

Remove and damage sticker
with your information on it

1. Don't throw out any letter or envelope with your addess on it. Try shredding all such matter.
2. Don't discard used prescription containers without removing your information on the stickers. Remember, these stickers carry your patient ID/your date of birth and medication. These can be used for getting some fake cards/debits cards or unimaginable motives.
3. When you receive a call from an agency you never heard of before, be cautious. Don't disclose your vital information over the phone. If they say that they are calling from reputed companies like Rogers, Bell, Telus, or any other service provider you have an account with, ask for their associate number and telephone number. It is better to call them back so that you are sure you are speaking with a bonafide person or customer service representative.
4. Password protect your cellphone. A friend of mine suggested me that I change the contact for my home to something different so that if it goes in some bad hands they can't trace your home. some people use like Ghar or base or ground zero.  It could be any thing unidentifiable.  Also it is not wise to have your family members appear as contact with their relations like, Spouse, or better half, or my love etc. Please keep it indescript.
5. Faxing your credit card information to a service provider is better than emailing it or saying it over the phone.
6. Always check for encryption or make sure the server is secured when you divulge your information. The encryption and securd server scramble your information which is not readable in transit.

The list is endless and not exclusive in any sense.

Example telephonic spamming 

Someone calls you and pretends to be calling from a credit card company saying that a suspicious activity has taken place on your card. You are given all information and you have only to say yes or no to that question. This is how the convo goes on:

Caller: Hello sir, am I speaking with Mr. human being?
You: Yes
Caller: Do you remember having shopped within last 2 hours?
You: yes/no
Caller: <if yes> Did you shop for over $800? <if no> We suspect a fraudulent transaction has taken place sir.
You: Yes/no
Caller: To make sure you are not charged for this expense and that we do proper investigation let me verify a few things with you sir. Sir, my name is _________________ and my associate number is 123456 (whatever). Should you need to call me again or if the call drops you can call me at 123-456-7890. Your call will be recorded for quality purpose (to make it look authentic). Are you okay to go ahead now?
You: Yes, yes (eager to get out of this issue)
Caller: Is your name Mr. human being?
You:Yes
Caller: Do you have a visa with CIBC?
You: yes
Caller: Are the last four digits 9999? (Can be from stolen card statement from your mailbox)
You: yes
Caller: Expiry date: 01/13?
You: No it is 01/14
Caller: Thanks. That was intentional sir. Now to maker sure you have the card in your possession, can you read out the last three digits on the other side beside the magnetic strip?
You:123
Caller: Thank you sir. Your credentials have been verified and we will proceed with our investigation. You will soon hear from us. Good bye.

And that's when you see something purchased on your card for $900. As far as I know, no investigation is launched if the theft is less than $1,000 (sick)!


Hope this helps you understand how your innocence or ignorance could be taken advantage of. Therefore the keyword is: BEWARE! BEWARE! & BEWARE!

Important links:

1. Tougher Law targetting Identity Thefts
2. RCMP- Identity theft
3. Safely buy and sell homes
4. Statistics of Mass Marketing Frauds and Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre

For more information or discussion you can always call me or email me.

Thanks for your time.

Housing affordability dips slightly in the first quarter of 2012

It became a little tougher, budget-wise, for many Canadians to carry the costs of owning a home in the first quarter of 2012, according to the Housing Trends and Affordability Report from RBC Economics. This dip in affordability was an effect of vigorous housing demand in the early stages of 2012, rather than the cause of any kind of slowdown in the market and was largely taken in stride by homebuyers.

Mild winter weather in most of Canada and time-limited mortgage rate ‘sales’ by financial institutions likely motivated homebuyers. Because the mortgage sales took place during only a few weeks, however, average mortgage rates during the entire first quarter fell just slightly, thereby providing only a small direct benefit to affordability for the second straight quarter.

All housing types saw a small erosion in affordability
At the national level, housing affordability eroded modestly for all three categories that we track. The RBC® Housing Affordability Measures rose by 0.8 percentage points to 43.1% for detached bungalows, by 0.5 percentage points to 48.7% for two-storey homes, and by 0.3 percentage points to 28.8% for condominium apartments (an increase represents a deterioration in affordability). The measures stand slightly above historical averages in all cases, indicating that there is only modest affordability stress being exerted on Canadian homebuyers at the moment.

Rising interest rates will pose further affordability challenges
Looking ahead, further challenges on the housing affordability front in Canada are expected once the Bank of Canada begins returning interest rates to more “normal” levels in the fourth quarter of this year, assuming that the European situation does not become more problematic.
RBC mortgage specialists understand the challenge of balancing lifestyle needs and housing affordability. Whatever your client’s specific circumstances or concerns, I provide tailored advice on all aspects of financing a home purchase and will give your clients the confidence to take the next step in their goal of home ownership.