Real Estate Blog - buyers

8 Tips for Selling in a Buyer’s Market

In a buyer’s market, getting your property to stand out form the rest will take some creative know-how. A seller’s market occurs when real estate listings outnumber the number of potential purchasers. This means sellers will have to work a little harder to attract offers to their home. Here’s how you can help tip the scales in your favour, and hopefully get that sale contract signed!

Low Down

When the amount of real-estate inventory matches the number of buyers shopping the market, people tend to be pickier about the price they’re willing to pay. Really hone in on the listing price you’re comfortable with — if you want to sell quickly, consider listing it on the lower side.

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5 Questions to Ask a Condo Board Before Buying

Doing your due diligence before buying a condo is of the utmost importance. Potential questions include: 

• What are the service terms for board members?
• Does the condo board have a reserve fund and how much money is in it? 
• Does the condo have any upcoming major repairs? 
• Are water, electricity or heating included?
• Is maintenance of common areas (garbage pickup, snow removal, etc.) covered by condo fees? 

They’re all questions you’ll want answers to before you decide to put in an offer. 

Whether you live in a big city full of condos like Toronto, Ontario, or a smaller town like Canmore, Alberta, condos are often seen as a first step in homeownership for young adults. They’re also popular among seniors looking for…

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How Do You Make a Low Ball Offer?

Could the Canadian housing market be in store for the return of the low-ball offer? While this buying strategy became all but extinct given the heated housing market in the last couple of years, rising interest rates have caused many markets to cool, and shift from strong seller’s markets to more balances, or even tilted in favour of buyers.

What is a Low-Ball Offer?

A low-ball offer is when a prospective homebuyer makes an offer to purchase a home that is below the asking price.

When Should You Make a Low-Ball offer?

Low-ball offers are more common in a buyer’s market, when there are more listings than there are buyers, and competition is not a factor. Another common scenario for low-ball offers is when looking to…

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How To Sell a Haunted House – And How To Avoid Buying One!

Superstitions, stigmas and the supernatural – whether you believe in them or not, they can have a very real impact on how long it takes to sell your home and the price you’ll get for it. As a homebuyer, even the mere thought of a haunted house can have you running for your life. With that said, there’s always an upside, and in the case of a stigmatized house, an unbothered buyer could be in store for a quick closing and a great price.

Did Someone Say *GULP* Haunted House?

Most people would agree that living in a murder house might be creepy, and it may be enough to turn buyers off, regardless of tight market conditions – which some industry observers might consider even scarier than an other-worldly house guest. Whether…

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What Is a Clean Offer?

What is a clean offer? This term actually has nothing to do with housework. Below, we answer some of important questions about what a clean offer is, how to go about presenting a clean offer, and the risks and benefits of making one.

What is a clean offer?

A clean offer is an offer to purchase a home without any conditions attached to it. Also called a contingency-free offer, a clean offer aims to entice the seller with the promise to buy a home without any caveat that might cause the deal to fall through, which can happen based on the conditions specified in the offer. Conditions, and reasons to renege, may relate to the buyer or seller, and may include conditions like an unsatisfactory home inspection, the buyer’s…

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What to Consider When Buying Land

How would you describe your dream home? You know, the one with every amenity and design feature you’ve been looking for? But finding that dream home already built and available on the market isn’t always possible. Whether it’s because of the location, size, price, or available features, it can be difficult to find this dream space without compromise. 

Rather than struggling to find something that checks all the boxes, some choose to buy land and build their own home. The process is different from buying in the resale market and can get a little complicated, so it’s best to let a REALTOR® guide you through the process, but we’re going to break things down a bit for you here first.

Why buy land?

According to REALTOR® and salesperson Peter…

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Why Fall Might Be the Best Time to Sell Your Home

About the time pumpkin spice lattes hit the menu at your local café you may want to have your house ready to hit the market. Why? Next to spring, fall is arguably the best time to sell your home. In fact, it may even have some advantages over the spring market. Read on to learn why fall might be the best time to wear plaid, indulge in everything pumpkin and sell your home.

Ready to Fall in Love with the Fall Market? Here’s Why It Could Be the Best Time to Sell Your Home:

If you missed the spring market or your intentions to move got waylaid by long weekend plans and summer days, it doesn’t mean you have to wait until next year to sell your home. Placing your home for sale in the fall market has many benefits that may…

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What Does a Buyer’s Market Mean for Sellers?

Things are changing in Canada’s real estate landscape. 

After a scorching year for real estate in 2021—a time when home prices smashed records and sales volume rose above the norm—there appears to be a slowdown in the marketplace.  

According to the latest numbers from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), home sales recorded over Canadian MLS® Systems dropped 5.6% between May and June 2022. Sales were down in three-quarters of all local markets, led by Canada’s biggest cities – the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Greater Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Hamilton, and Burlington to name a few.

The shift in the marketplace from a hot seller’s market to a balanced or more buyer-friendly one can feel uncertain, especially for people…

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The First-Time Home Buyer Incentive – 2022 Edition

Over the last two years, a new trend has formed in many parts of the Canadian real estate market: investors accounting for a considerable portion of the broader housing sector.

Indeed, with many investors purchasing single-family homes, acquiring townhomes and scooping up condominium suites, a chance at home ownership has become a challenge for many first-time homebuyers. Moreover, in an environment with little supply, the competition for residential properties was exacerbated by individuals or corporations adding to their vast inventory of homes.

Public policymakers have tried to intervene, but industry experts maintain that the only real solution is to build more housing. Until then, it seems that the Bank of Canada’s…

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Declutter Your Space With a Yard Sale

With summer in full swing, it’s time for beach days, camping vacations, road trips, and yes, yard sales. A suburban tradition virtually everywhere in the country, yard sales—or garage sales, depending on what you call them—are a great way to declutter your home and collect a few loonies to spend on summertime fun. 

If it’s been a while since your last major purge, where do you even start? We’ve got some suggestions for planning and executing a successful yard sale.

What to sell at a yard sale

Though it largely depends on your own surplus inventory, there are some proven hot-ticket items at most yard sales. Remember, the point is as much about getting rid of stuff as it is maximizing your earnings.…

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