Are Your Ready To Buy?
Congratulations on your decision to become a homeowner! Buying a home is one of the most exciting and important moments of your life. Your home is not just a roof over your head; It’s where you live, eat, sleep, play, and raise a family. This is one of the most important investments you will ever make.
Choosing Your Real Estate Agent
Buying your first home is one of the most important investments in your life. It can also be one of the most complex transactions you may ever undertake – which is why Tish is here to help you every step of the way! The first step involves deciding how you will approach your home search. Who will you work with throughout this process and how will they benefit you? Ask yourself – “Do I want my agent working with me or for me?” There is a difference!
As a buyer, you have a choice in representation. For first-time buyers, it’s important that you find someone you feel completely comfortable with. Someone you can trust, who listens to you, and respects your views. Tish has the market knowledge and expertise, but at the end of the day it’s YOUR home and YOUR investment, so you need to find an agent that you will work well with. Right At Home agents are experienced, professional, understanding, and excel at meeting their clients’ needs. To find out more about how Tish can work with you, contact her today!
Use Tish Faith For Selling or Buying Your Next Home
What Tish Faith Will Do For You
As a Right At Home agent, Tish has set a higher standard in order to please her clients. In your business relationship with Tish you can expect her to:
- Provide you with the highest standard of care and loyalty to you as a client.
- Understand your specific needs and wants as well as locating the perfect property for you.
- Assist you in determining how much you can afford.
- Help you get pre-approved for your mortgage.
- Preview and/or accompany you in viewing properties.
Ownership Costs
Costs of Home Ownership
- Deposit – You might need to put down a deposit; the amount depends on your area, the purchase price of the home, and your situation. If a deposit is required, it will be held in trust and will be deducted from your total purchase price and is considered part of your down payment.
- Down Payment – Generally speaking, the larger a down payment you are able to make, the better. This means you can borrow less. But you also do not want to leave yourself so cash-poor you can’t cover all of the other costs that come with closing a sale. The minimum amount you can put down is 5% of the purchase price, assuming that you have made an offer to purchase and all conditions have been met.
- Mortgage Loan Insurance – If your down payment is less than 20% of the purchase price of your home, you are required to have mortgage loan insurance. It protects your lender in case you default on your mortgage.
- Land Transfer Tax – Ontario uses a tiered Land Transfer Tax system. In the tiered systems, the rate varies depending on the purchase price of the house.
- Appraisal Fee – Your mortgage lender will likely require an appraisal, it prevents you from borrowing more than a property is actually worth.
- Home Inspection – Don’t even think about buying a home without first having a proper inspection done. In fact, your lender may insist on one to verify the condition of the home.
- Property Insurance – Your mortgage lender will require you to have property insurance in place on closing day, since the property is actually the security against the loan amount.
- Mortgage Life Insurance – Mortgage life insurance protects you in the event something happens to you. Obtaining life insurance instead of mortgage life insurance is the best bet.
- Legal Fees – Legal fees for buying real estate range in price and must be paid upon closing. When purchasing brand new condos, since such deals can involve more paperwork, the cost might be higher.
- Title Insurance – Insures you against any defects of title to the property. For example, if the previous owners undertook major renovations without proper permitting, you would be protected against any costs required to bring the house up to code. Typically, this one-time premium costs less than $500.
- Moving Expenses and Service Connections – When you’re totalling up all the costs of buying your first home, don’t forget to include moving expenses and connection fees or deposits for services, such as phone, electricity, and other utilities. Moving expenses vary widely, depending on your personal circumstances and possessions.
Mortgages
The Importance of Pre-approval
Fixed or Variable
Long Versus Short Term
Open Versus Closed
Amortization
Making an Offer You Can Afford
This is where the rubber meets the road — and where your Right At Home agent earns his or her stripes. After weeks or months of planning, preparing and searching, you’ve finally found a home on which you’re ready to make an offer. It’s an exciting time but also one where emotions can easily come into play, particularly if you’ve found a home you love and really want. Your Right At Home agent will help you keep your emotions in check, balancing against the realities of the market. Think of it as a game of poker — you don’t want to be so excited that you tip your hand to the seller. Nor do you want to be too conservative and bid so low that you lose out. If you’ve taken the important step of getting pre-approved for a mortgage, you know exactly how much you can afford, and are less likely to get caught up in a bidding war that will carry you above your price point.
Keeping Your Emotions In Check
If you’ve done your research, received mortgage pre-approval, and looked at a good selection of houses with your Right At Home agent, you’re going to feel well prepared and in control. Sure, you may really love this one house and desperately want it, but you should also remember that there are others just like it, or better, out there. And if that voice of reason doesn’t pop into your head at negotiation time, your Right At Home agent will help caution you against letting your emotions get carried away. Of course, the interest and potential competition for a property depends on market conditions. If it’s a buyer’s market, you hold the cards and you’ll be confident in knowing there are other options out there. If, however, it’s a seller’s market, acting fast to make an offer that you can afford and is acceptable to the seller is a combination of instinct, preparation, and the experience of your Right At Home agent.
Avoiding Bidding Wars
Several factors are at play during offer time: price, which speaks for itself; inclusions, which cover exactly what is included in the deal, such as appliances; and other conditions such as closing date. You want the best combination of those items that suit you, as does the seller. Then there are human relations. If you make an offer the seller deems insultingly low, for example, there may be nothing you can do to bring them to the negotiating table. After all, this is their home you’re buying, and quite often sellers still have emotional attachments to their home, even though they’ve decided to sell. It’s the job of your Right At Home agent — as well as the seller’s agent — to navigate these often complex issues for both parties.
One of the most important tools you have when it comes time to make an offer is the comparables your Right At Home agent generates from the Multiple Listings Service, or MLS. These are excellent snapshot reports into the recent sales activity of similar — comparable — properties in the same neighbourhood. You can see important information such as original and adjusted asking prices, number of days properties were on the market, listing agent history, and actual selling prices. Once you have this information, weighed against the details of the home you’re making an offer for, you will feel tremendously empowered to make an informed decision, and less likely to enter into a bidding war.
Closing
So you’ve made a successful offer to purchase with your Right At Home agent on the home of your dreams — or at least taken that important first step toward home ownership. Now what? Well, there’s usually a bit of waiting, as closing periods typically take anywhere from several weeks to a few months. But there are some important things that need to happen right away.
Legal Obligations
Once your offer has been accepted, there’s usually a 10-day conditional period, during which you take all the necessary steps with regard to financing, home inspection, and everything else that needs to happen before you officially seal the deal. Your mortgage lender will need a copy of the offer to make sure everything is still in order and in keeping with your pre-approved level of financing.
And as we discussed in Costs from A to Z, this is when the home inspection takes place. You should accompany the inspector throughout this process, which takes about three hours, so you can learn as much as you can about the various systems in the home, from heating and plumbing to electrical and roofing. Importantly, the inspection may identify some repairs that need to be made, which may allow your Right At Home agent to negotiate a lower purchase price or insist that the repairs be made at the seller’s expense before you proceed with the deal.
At the completion of the conditional period, with any adjustments or repairs made to your satisfaction, your Right At Home agent will finalize the deal and your lawyer will process the paperwork, including the mortgage documents with your lender. All of this would point to a final date of actual legal possession — the real closing day, when:
- Your mortgage lender will provide the funds to your lawyer
- You pay all the remaining closing costs
- Your lawyer pays the seller and registers the home in your name
- You have all your insurance in place
Whether it’s weeks or months between finalizing the deal and actually moving in, it’s just a matter of planning your move: hiring a mover or renting a truck and doing it yourself, arranging services such as electricity and cable, rerouting your mail, and other moving essentials.
After that? Congratulations! You’ve done it! Welcome home!
Tish Faith, Sales Representative
Right at Home Realty Inc.,
5111 New Street, Suite 104
Burlington, ON L7L1V2
Office Phone: 905.637.1700
Mobile: 905.691.4733
Email: tish@tishfaith.com
Learn More About Tish
Tish Faith, Sales Representative
Right at Home Realty Inc.,
5111 New Street, Suite 104
Burlington, ON L7L1V2
Office Phone: 905.637.1700
Mobile: 905.691.4733
Email: tish@tishfaith.com