Mortgage pre-approval is a crucial step in the home buying process. It’s an evaluation by a lender to determine how much they are willing to lend you to buy a home. Pre-approval gives you an idea of how much home you can afford and helps you shop for homes within your budget. In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at what mortgage pre-approval is, why it’s important, and how you can get pre-approved. What is mortgage pre-approval? Mortgage pre-approval [...]
Winning a Toronto real estate bidding war can be a challenging and competitive process. Here are some tips to increase your chances of success: Get pre-approved for a mortgage: Before you start looking for homes, it's important to get pre-approved for a mortgage. This will give you a better idea of what you can afford and demonstrate to sellers that you're a serious buyer. Work with a real estate agent: A knowledgeable and experienced real estate agent can help you [...]
Buying your first home is an exciting and sometimes overwhelming experience. With so many factors to consider, it can be difficult to know where to start. To help you on your journey, we've compiled some tips for a successful search Get Pre-Approved for a Mortgage Before you start looking at homes, it's important to know how much you can afford. Getting pre-approved for a mortgage will give you a better idea of your budget and can help you avoid disappointment [...]
Recently a house sold that had the industry buzzing, and it showed up on a bunch of realtors’ social media feeds. Unfortunately I can’t provide the address, owing to bureaucratic reasons that go way beyond me, but anybody can find it on House Sigma within a couple of minutes if they are so inclined. The house itself was a perfectly nondescript, dated 2 bedroom semi with no parking and an unfinished basement. It was located in the Danforth and Victoria [...]
With 2022 now in the rear view mirror, many people are uttering good riddance and breathing a sigh of relief. While 2022 did deliver the soaring heights of Andor (in my opinion the best Star Wars series by far) and the Depp vs Heard trial, it also began with yet another lockdown and ended with $10 romaine lettuce, much to the chagrin of beleaguered caesar salad lovers everywhere. The question that naturally (and inevitably) comes up then, is what to [...]
It's that glorious Fall time of the year again, when the only Halloween candy that remains are those crappy rockets, Mariah Carey is preparing for her annual “Yes I’m Still Alive Tour”, and the Hallmark Christmas movies are already in heavy rotation. What a time to be alive. Mid November also signals that we are rapidly approaching the end of the Fall real estate market, and with that in mind I want to take a dive in and share what [...]
Social media bombards us with an artificial view of the world. Everything is always perfect, and everybody's skin is always creamy smooth and acne free (don’t get me started on those ridiculous filters that literally make people look like cartoons). We get a never ending barrage of people sitting on a beach “living their best life”. The real estate social media world tends to be similar. We see posts about glowing customer testimonials, happy sold over asking stories, motivational quotes [...]
Like the oversized, hideously ugly pimple faced punk terrorizing the schoolyard and stealing milk money, bullies have always been present. Likewise, during just about my entire time in the real estate industry, bullies (ie bully offers) have been wreaking equal havoc and crushing would be buyer’s dreams and wallets. It seemed this would never change, and I even wrote an entry on the bully offer way back in 2015 in the infancy of this humble blog. In case you missed [...]
With the kids back to school, and the social media deluge of first day photos mercifully over (who started that trend anyway?), we are entering the time of the year when the real estate market typically awakens after the sleepy summer months. I stress typically because recent times have been anything but atypical, but I’m writing this entry with an eye on both the past 12 months and the 12 months to come. Looking both ways is making me dizzy, [...]
Some quick cuts and random thoughts from the cottage dock, as we sit in the dog days of August with the Fall market and sub zero temperature rapidly looming. The Real Estate Market Has Hit Rock Bottom Like the hopeless alcoholic chugging cough syrup at 7 am in the Shoppers Drug Mart parking lot, I believe the real estate market has hit rock bottom. The average GTA price came in at $1.074,000 for July, down from the peak of $1,334,000 [...]