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Obtaining your dream house is quite tough process. You won the financial battle, you can offer better deal than your oponent and the house s yours. What's next? UTILITIES The solicitor will send letters to all the concerned municipal or regional utility departments, in order to verify there are no arrears or outstanding charges for gas, water or hydro expenses. The utility departments will also be informed if the equipment on the property is rented or owned, and also about the scheduled closi... Read Full Post

One of the key attributes of any large city, therefore Toronto as well, is its transportation system. Population explosion in the last four decades, multiplying almost five times since 1970, has been the main reason why our transportation system is no longer able to satisfy the demands. Only temporary solutions have been provided by a number of minor improvements in the past. Eventually, a project called The Big Move will completely change the face of the transportation of south Ontario in ne... Read Full Post

The real estate bubble in the USA exploded about two years ago. As a result, people participating in the real estate market in Canada came up with a demand: "How will the circumstances in Toronto be developing from now on?" There were two basic motives for this uncertainty. First, Canadian real estate market, as our whole economy, has powerful attachment to the situation in the USA. The second reason is originating from the progress of the property market in Canada between the years 2006 and ... Read Full Post

As a Toronto broker I have to meet number of people day by day, in various houses, homes and places. The contact is usually very close, face to face... I have to attend meetings and conferences, I have to spend lot of time in airconditioned places, in airplanes, subway...Protection against swine flu is important. I guess some of you have considered wearing a surgeon mask, although you may feel a bit strange dealing with people in such "outfit". However, it's more than possible ordinary mask h... Read Full Post

Competitve market (for buyers) is not so often seen as before, but anyway, if there is some wonderful house, no matter what's the overall market situation, you can bet everybody will go after this one. I have been in business for more than 25 years and especially the luxury homes market in Toronto remembers some very interesting deals. So what to do in order to win the offer? The very first step: Get pre-qualified It's simple - if you don't get prequalified, you will end up in much worse posi... Read Full Post

Today I’d like to present you with some pros and cons of Reverse mortgage. You surely don’t have to work with finances for you to know about this financial product: As Toronto realtor, almost every day I hear about someone who went for it. One of the home loans available is called "reverse mortgage". Using this product, you can get the money according to the value of your house. People use it quite often in the UK, where it is known under the name "Equity Release". If you are older than 6... Read Full Post

The property market has been slowing across Canada for months now, and this is now coupled by and the recent turmoil in the financial sector. Analysts predict that the financial crisis could slow things even more and this view is shared by many real estate agents. Why? Nowadays, fewer discounts are being offered on posted mortgage rates. Banks are generally toughening their lending practices, and several financial institutions have pulled out altogether for the market. The number of companies... Read Full Post

I couldn't help writing more on the subject of my previous post. While some homeowners may think that attempting to sell their homes by themselves will be advantageous and perhaps even give them an edge over those who use a realtor, the reality is that most real estate lawyers do not recommend attempting to sell one's own home in today's economy. Reasons to use a certified realtor include that you will, on average, only get one tenth of the exposure you would if you used a good real estate ag... Read Full Post

Here is a letter I would like to share with you. It was written by one of my clients. I think it is worth pondering upon. * We made a big mistake when we decided to sell our home without an agent. Our pride at seeing that “For Sale by Owner” sign on the front lawn soon turned to bitterness. Why? Simple. I am not a Toronto real estate agent. We had no idea of the complexity of a real estate transaction, how many different issues and skills we were going to confront. We were up for weeks on... Read Full Post

When selecting a realtor to represent and sell a home, it is important to choose the right candidate for the right reasons. The right realtor will use many diverse methods to market a property, ensure that the Toronto homeowner’s asking price will correspond with its actual market value and be priced competitively, give tips and suggestions to the homeowner regarding how to present a home and not oversell it to prospective buyers, assess the profitability of making improvements to the prope... Read Full Post