PRO’S AND CON’S OF BUYING A PRE-SALE HOME

Pro’s Brand New Home 2-5-10 Year Warranty Customization Time to Save/ No mortgage payment until completion Upside of a Rising market Con’s GST is payable on New Construction Some developers are better than others Developers can make substitutions and alterations Delays on possession Deposit money is tied up Financing may change What this all Means Brand New home with WarrantyAll new construction in BC done by a licensed builder has to have 2-5-10 year warranty or something that exceeds that coverage. So, when you are buying a pre-sale home you will have this coverage when you take possession. Customization If you put your deposit down on a pre-sale home in the early stages you can usually choose color schemes, types of flooring and usually some upgrades like AC or higher end appliances etc. Time to save Most developers take the total deposit in increments, so you can save up more money before the full deposit is due from the time of signing the purchase agreement. If the total deposit is less than 20% you can also use this time to save for a bigger down-payment. If you can save up enough to have 20% down-payment before completion you will save thousands on mortgage insurance. GST Payable 5% GST is payable on the purchase of brand new homes. You must pay this at completion as stated in the Purchase and Sale contract. There is a rebate of 36% of the GST payable on properties that are $350,000 or under. There is also a scaling rebate for properties that are between $350,000 – $450,000 Rising or Falling market Buying a pre-sale means you are agreeing to buy a piece of real estate at todays market value, but you aren’t paying for it (except for your deposit) until completion which could be 1, 2, or even 3 years away. No one has a crystal ball to predict where the market will be when you take possession of your new home. If the market has gone up since you initially bought, then you have already made money on the home without paying a penny in mortgage payments. If the market goes the other way, then unfortunately you will be over paying for your home in comparison to the market at that time. That being said if you are talking long term, real estate has always increased in value. Developers When buying a pre-sale home, you want to do your due diligence on the developer or use a REALTOR who will do this. Things you want to know about the developer are: How long have they been in business? What is their reputation for quality of work? Do they pay their subtrades on time? Have their past projects completed on schedule or were they delayed? Substitutions, Alterations and Delays The sale contracts are written by the Developers lawyers and written in their favour and allows for them to make changes within certain parameters during the construction of the project. During construction, alterations may be necessary that may make changes to your floorplan. Usually the contract will have a variance allowance of the unit size (usually +/- 3%) without compensation. The Developer may also have the contractual right to substitute appliances and building materials at their option and as necessary. It’s highly advisable to have your Lawyer read both the pre-sale contract and the disclosure statement. Also, in the contract they will have an estimated completion/possession time, this can and most likely will change from delays in the construction of the project. This can be a problem if you have a tight timeline for switching homes, from your current home to your new home. Deposit money is tied up Your deposit money is tied up until completion when it makes up part of the purchase price, until then you usually aren’t earning any interest on it. Financing may change Financing can change because of two things, property values and interest rates. If the interest rates rise your payment amount could rise, or the amount you can qualify will go down, which would mean you need a bigger down-payment. If property values decreases, the amount the bank will loan against a property will decrease, which again means a bigger down-payment will be required. There is a lot to know when it comes to buying a pre-sale home, if you have any more questions or are interested in buying a pre-sale you can contact me.

MORE

WHAT IT TAKES TO LIST A HOME FOR SALE

Normally I would say step one is call me and I’ll take care of the rest. But for I will expand today on what the steps I do when listing a property. Home EvaluationThis where I present the recently sold listing’s and current listing and advise on the listing price. Then we sign the paperwork, Disclosures and Listing contract Build Social Media marketing campaignThis means making the templates for the ad’s you will read about below, but also to find the target audience for your property, the most ones likely to be interested in your home. This done by targeting location and interests. I use this info to make this a seamless process to maximize the exposure of your property. Coming soon Ads & flyersSocial media ad & flyers containing brief details about your property and one picture of the outside. This is to build up the anticipation and curiosity for when your property does hit the market. Professional Photos“You never get a second chance to make a first Impression” – The photos of your home are going to be one of the first things potential buyers are going to see, so they need to be top of line to keep their interest. 4K walk-through video & 4K Drone video & picturesThis also falls into the category of making good first impressions. The walk-through video also shows the potential buyers the house beyond the just the pictures. This will help eliminate people “Just looking” which means when you do have to make your home available for showings it will be more qualified buyers. Just listed Ads/flyersThese digital ad’s and flyers will have the professional photo’s and the listing description high-lighting all the selling features of your home, as well as an invite to the first open house(s). Digital advertising on multiple websitesPlacing your home listed for sale on the following websites:– www.AustinTowne.ca– www.realtor.ca– www.remax.ca– www.remaxresultsrealty.com– www.rew.ca Office & MLS tour’sA tour is when us realtor’s go look at newly listed homes as a group, my office does one internally on Tuesdays and depending on where your property is there is another tour called “MLS Tour” which is when realtors from all the different offices tour new listings in a market area. Tours accomplish two things, the first is that your listing gets more exposure to local Realtors and the Second is you get the opinion of all the realtors on tour on what your property will sell for. Open HousesHolding an open house is your decision, after all it is your home. Some people may say open house are only good for the agents holding them to pick up new clients. That being said, do you think more people seeing your home will be good or bad for the sale of your home? Holding an open house in my opinion is good because it increases the number of potential buyers that see your home. We also get to pick the time and this means we have time to set the scene, to present the home in the best way possible. Showing requests can come last minute and its hard to live in your home and keep it “show ready”. OutcomeFollowing all these steps will maximize the sale potential of your home. To explain what happens when we get an offer, the negotiating & closing process will need its own news-letter. So stay tuned! If you know someone who would like this high-level service when it comes to real estate, I am never to busy for your referrals!

MORE

6 TIPS TO CREATE MORE VALUE IN YOUR HOME

Here are some Ideas to help increase the Value of your home! Keep Your Home Clean Yes this is pretty obvious, but not everyone does this perfectly. Properties thatare spotless will stand out to buyers after looking at multiple homes.Keeping your home clean will also extend the life of things, like flooring, paintand help you maintain the value of your home.Get rid of your junk now to help profit later. Curb Appeal Counts Ask yourself, does my home have a certain appeal to it? Does it lookstructurally sound, and attractive?Try and get rid of the negative and work on the positive things about yourhome. Making those more noticeable and attractive to the eye, will no doubthelp bring more appeal to potential buyers when you do decide to put yourhome on the market. Take some time to talk to your neighbors because this affects them to. Curbappeal doesn’t just stop at your property line. If everyone pays attention tothis then your home will have more value because of it and so will yourneighborhood. Small improvements can pay off Have you thought about the differences between improving your homes decor,versus making upgrades you know will increase your home’s resale value?Doing a little bit of both can pay off.Make a list of upgrades for your home and upgrades for yourself. Then gothrough the list and try and even out how many you do of each. This takesaway from picking a random project and doing it. This gives you morestructure to what your doing and making yourself more happy in theprocess and bringing more value to your home. One room at a time Having trouble dating on task with a project or not knowing where to start?Make a list of what each room needs to have done and then break it down intocategories of how much time you need and cost.The more planning you have around it the more likely you are to get it done. Ifyou know how much time and money it will cost to paint your bathroom thisSaturday, you’re more likely to get it done then if you are still deciding whatproject to tackle at noon.Get your dreams for your house started today by making list of theimprovements you want done Hire a certified home inspector Don’t know where to start with a list? Hire a reputable home inspector to doan inspection report. They will tell you what needs to be fixed and you mightget some tips to fix small things yourself and save some cash.If you end up selling you will know what a potential buyer might find whenthey do their own due diligence on your home. If you fix any problems beforeselling, it will help prevent a deal coming apart at the last minute. Staging your home If you do decide to sell your home, before putting your home on the marketconsider having a consultation with a professional home stager. They will givesome tips on how to stage the property for modern tastes and if you chooseto hire them, they will do all the work to make your home the most appealingto buyers in today’s market.

MORE