It’s easy to make mistakes when you’re buying or selling your home. Especially in today’s hot market because decisions have to be made even more quickly than usual and because higher prices mean mistakes are more costly. I see people make mistakes every day. Literally. But thankfully not our own clients. How do I […]
I don’t know if it’s because of the TV reality shows they’ve been watching or because they’re tired of being at a disadvantage in this long lasting sellers’ market, but lately I’ve noticed a few more buyers making demands of sellers around closing time. It’s only happening in a small number of transactions, but this […]
It never hurts to do a friend a solid, does it? That’s what good friends do, don’t they? In this market that could mean giving your friend the opportunity to buy your home before it goes to market. The overwhelming majority of homes are still sold on the MLS system, but private sales do occur […]
It doesn’t necessarily have to be your fridge. It could be any appliance or even your furnace or air conditioner. Regardless of whether it’s your fridge or your furnace, this type of situation occurs pretty often. In fact, it occurred to clients of ours just a short while ago. Here’s what happened, followed by a […]
Generally speaking, alarm systems are good things. Not only do they provide you with an additional level of security, but some alarms can be programmed to alert you when dangerous situations arise, such as when there’s carbon monoxide in your home or when your basement starts to flood. You may also save on your home […]
I was reading an article by lawyer Mark Weisleder the other day called 7 Things to Know When Building a Backyard Deck and it reminded me of something that happened very early on in my real estate career. It was the early 90s and the residential real estate market in central Toronto wasn’t anything like it […]
To pick up where we left off, it’s now about a month before closing and the buyer had just called ME, even though he wasn’t my client, to tell me that he was having trouble arranging financing. If you’d like to review all the details and all the lessons learned so far, and there were […]
So where were we? Right. Our sellers had just accepted one of the fifteen offers they received for their property. The buyer was a builder who had given a significant deposit. And the documents had been sent to the parties’ respective lawyers. (For a full recap of what happened, see It Finally Closed! A Real Life […]
It finally closed!! The deal I thought might never close. The deal that took as much of my time as 10 other deals. The deal that should be in the real estate training manual for all the things that can be learned from it. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning. […]
Residential real estate is a mine field. There are so many things that can go wrong it would be impossible to list them all. That’s why it’s important to recognize potential problems in advance and know who to call for advice so they can be avoided. You may need to speak with a plumber, an […]
How would you feel if you thought you bought a brand new home, but found out later that it wasn’t really all brand new? I know how I’d feel, but I can’t use words like that in a blog like this. In the older parts of Toronto, some builders incorporate part or all of the […]
It used to be that you could buy a house on a handshake or with a $500 deposit. You can still do that in certain places, but not in Toronto. It’s now not uncommon to see deposits of $50,000-$100,000 or more. While this could be seen as a somewhat sad comment on the morals of […]
