You need to de-clutter your Vancouver condo. It will put money in your pockets. Seriously. I can’t stress enough the importance of de-cluttering your Vancouver condo before selling. Forget doing a bunch of renovations. De-Cluttering will cost you nothing and is hands down the best return on your investment. It costs you nothing and is a sure way to put more money in your pockets. I can guarantee you will get a higher sale price if you take the extra time to de clutter. I tell all of my clients this before we put their home on the market. So where do you start? Start cleaning, anything you no longer need or anticipate will not be coming with you to your next home needs to go. It’s important to de personalize your home. Think about it through a potential buyers eyes. You walk into the home, you’re trying to picture yourself living here and all you can see is the sellers face, pictures of his family plastered everywhere. The buyer needs to be able to immerse himself in the condo unit, he needs to picture himself living there, what it would be like, where he would put his belongings. This

How Does a Back Up Offer Work in Real Estate? Want to know how back up offers work in real estate? You’ve come to the right place. Many times a back up offer happens after you lose in a multiple offer situation. Or sometimes, in slower markets, somebody just beat you to writing an offer before you got the chance to. Well good news, you have the option of being a back up offer. So how do back up offers work? Here’s what you need to know. Back up offers come into play as soon as the initial offer falls apart. Yes, initial offers do fall apart. Unless an offer is subject free, offers can and do fall apart sometimes. The most common reasons for offers falling apart are because the first buyer couldn’t get financing or perhaps a building inspection doesn’t go as expected and the buyer chooses to walk away. Therefor, if you have a back up offer in place then you are next in line. A  back up offer looks the same as any other offer except it will contain a subject that looks something like “Subject to the Seller ceasing to be obligated in any way

Subject to Sale is a Bad Idea in This Market Are you a buyer or a seller? Regardless this post will help you navigate a subject to sale offer. Firstly, in this hot sellers market there should be no reason for any seller to accept a subject to sale offer. However, I am still seeing it from time to time, usually on the poor advice of the selling Realtor. The only time in my opinion to be accepting a subject to sale offer should be in a buyers market when the home has been sitting on the market for a long time. Basically a subject to sale offer is a buyer will make an offer on your property but the offer will be subject to that buyer being able to sell his home in order to purchase your home. This subject locks up your property under contract and you could be in a situation where it takes months for that buyer to sell his home. Generally there is a date set out in the contract when the buyer needs to have their house sold by. For example here’s what the subject to sale would look like on a contract: ‘Subject

Selling your Vancouver revenue property? There are some extremely important things to note, especially if you’re new to the whole investment thing. The market is extremely hot, investing in real estate is becoming a huge trend. What many don’t know are the tax implications regarding investment properties. Let’s break them down here. First off, any investment property, where it’s not your primary residence you will need to pay what’s called a capital gains tax. Basically, when you go to sell your investment property you will need to pay tax on the profit you made. So let’s say you purchased a Vancouver condo in 2010 and now you are selling it. You sell it and you made $100,000 profit. Capital gains are taxed at 50%. Let’s say your tax bracket is 46%. This would mean you owe $23,000 on that $100,000 profit. However, if you’re in the business of flipping properties it falls under a different tax law. If you’re flipping properties you would have to pay the full tax on it. Therefor you would be taxed the full amount, which means on the $100,000 you made by flipping it you would end up paying $46,000 since your tax bracket is

Owning vs renting? Which one makes the most sense for you? Firstly, everyones situation is different. As a Realtor of course I strongly believe in owning. However, I also see the flip side and will agree not everyone should own or for that matter deserves to own. I want to talk about the pros and cons and offer you some advice on what you should do depending on your situation. For most, owning a home is the dream. It’s part of the plan growing up and it’s what we are told by our friends and family that we must do. However, it’s not the only reason you should be considering ownership. If you look at historical prices in Vancouver, Real estate has always appreciated over time. Sure there are dips and down years but time shows that if you hold on to that asset, it will appreciate over time. There are times though, when renting makes more sense. If you don’t have enough money to put a down payment down or mortgage payments will put you in over your head then of course it makes more sense to rent. If you’re uncertain of your future and not sure where you’ll

Does a full price offer mean you have to sell? Don’t accept that full price offer. You don’t have to. Despite what you may think, just because somebody offered you full price does not mean you have to take it. Whether that offer is subject free or not, you have a choice! Every time I sit down with my clients to list their home I go through the whole listing contract and explain everything to them. It’s funny because they are always surprised when I tell them terms of sale are “acceptable to seller.” Which means, full price, over asking price with no subjects, whatever it is, unless the terms are acceptable to you then you don’t need to accept. So, before you put ink to paper just because you got full asking price, ask yourself, are these terms acceptable? Many times I see sellers take the very first offer that comes their way. They’ve only been on the market one day, they’ve hardly had any showings and very minimal exposure to the market, yet they accept an offer. I cringe because I see it all the time. Many times had they waited the extra 2-3 days, allowed themselves that

What are the down payment requirements? Are you wondering what the down payment requirements are when trying to get a loan for Vancouver real estate? First off, wherever your funds are coming from you must provide a 3 month history on those bank accounts. You must show ownership of said accounts. If your bank statements show any large deposits then they will ask for details on that as well if any money is coming as a gift you must also provide proper documentation for that. Should you be using funds from your RRSP then you will also be asked to show statements from your RRSP of the past 3 months. For the full list of down payment requirements please watch the video blow courtesy of Vancouver mortgage broker Mark Fidgett.

Welcome back Mark Fidgett here with www.Notapennydown.com. A great way to start off 2016 with a few mortgage tips on how to become mortgage free FASTER. Firstly, always choose accelerated bi-weekly payments, do not go monthly. Everybody chooses monthly by default and it does not help you pay down your mortgage sooner. By choosing accelerated bi-weekly mortgage payments you’re actually making two extra payments a year that go strictly towards principle and helps reduce your amortization. As we all know, the majority of your mortgage payments, especially in the early stages, go primarily towards interest. Next, Make lump sum mortgage payments once a year. If you have any extra cash, maybe a tax refund, throw it towards your mortgage. Unless of course, you’re carrying higher interest rate debt. In that case, use the extra cash to pay off the high interest rate debt. Another simple option, round up your mortgage payment. If you mortgage payment is 775, make it $800 And lastly, here’s a secret mortgage strategy that’s super important. Not only does it help make you mortgage free FASTER, but it also reduces any future mortgage interest rate shock…. Pay your mortgage as if mortgage rates were already higher,

First Time Home Buyers Save Little So many of my clients are first time home buyers. I love working with them because I love helping people and they are usually the ones who need it most. So how much is the first time home buyer rebate? So how it currently works is the BC government offers a full rebate of the property transfer tax to qualifying home buyers up to a price of $475,000. Here’s the major flaw. There is only a full rebate up to a purchase of $475,000. It goes on a sliding scale for anything over that but only up to $500,000. So basically if you buy something for $475,000 you pay no tax. Buy something for 480 you pay $1500, buy something for 490,000 you pay $4680 in tax. Buy something over $500,000 you get zero rebate and you pay the full property transfer tax which is $8020. In a market that is so hot, where we’ve seen average prices for the condo market in Downtown Vancouver increase by 16% over 1 year, this benchmark number of $475,000 is ridiculous. The average price of a 1 bedroom condo in Downtown Vancouver over the last 60 days

Buyers can’t do renovations before moving in. Many buyers want to know if they can do renovations before moving in. They want to know if they can do the renovation before the property closes so the new home is all neat and tidy for move in day.  I want to take you through a scenario that I encountered a few weeks back. I was the listing agent for a tenant occupied condo in Vancouver. So because it was tenant occupied, naturally it wasn’t in the best shape, the walls were a little scuffed up and needed re painting. It’s impressive what a fresh coat of paint can do to a place. So anyways, we get an accepted offer on the condo unit based on the condition that the buyer would be allowed to paint the place before they moved in. Now obviously it would be a lot easier for the buyer to be able to paint the place before having their stuff all moved in. But there’s a huge problem with this. If a buyer was to re paint the place before closing on the property and something should happen, say, a paint can falls over and ruins the flooring.

The One Mistake That Can Cost You Thousands When Hiring a Realtor What’s the one biggest mistake you can’t afford to make when hiring a Realtor? Well, it’s your lucky day, i’m about to give you maybe the best advice I can offer when it comes to selling real estate. It’s a little piece of info that most Realtors won’t tell you. So here’s the story, a prospective seller calls a couple Realtors and asks them to come by and evaluate their home. The Realtor comes in does his walk through pulls out the compareables gives his price and walks out the door, never to be seen again. As i’m chatting with that Realtor a couple days later at the office, I ask, “How did that evaluation go? Did you get the listing?” No he replies. They went with someone else who had a higher price. This is without a doubt the biggest mistake a seller can make when hiring a Realtor. Never hire a Realtor because they had the highest list price! There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly you should hire a Realtor because you know them, like them, and trust them. When a Realtor comes

Why price per square foot is misleading. Stop obsessing over price per square foot. You’re getting it all wrong! I see it everyday, people asking me what’s the average price per square foot. It doesn’t matter. I know immediately i’ve just ticked off a few fellow Realtors. Before you get too upset let me explain. Price per square footage matters, yes it’s something to look at when buying or selling but only if used very specifically, like very specifically. What I mean is; every condo building in Vancouver is different. Some are tall, some are small, some have pools and gyms and some don’t. Factor in location, some near the water, while others are located on busy streets with no views. So when a prospective buyer or another Realtor comes to one of my listings and says “Your listing is over priced the price per square foot in downtown Vancouver is X. X times Y equals over priced.” Not everything is a numbers game. Pricing condos is not math, it’s not science, it’s an art. There are variables to consider and factor in such as view, what floor it’s on, area, location, amenities, building age and condition. You can’t generalize