The Home Buying Process

GETTING A TEAM TOGETHER 

The essential team for ensuring you have a successful buying process consists of a Realtor, Mortgage Realtor, Accountant and Home inspector. 

Having a good team of people in your corner will give you confidence in your decision. I am happy to make the introduction of our team if you do not have one yet.

Get a Mortgage Pre Approval

Knowing what you can afford or what you want to spend on mortgage monthly is pivotal in ensuring you can be confident going into your purchase and it takes away the stress of thinking about it so you can shop happily. It allows us to narrow your search for options you can consider to prevent disappointment. 

Mortgage rates are constantly fluctuating and the market is flooded with different terms and options, getting a mortgage pre-approval or essentially "locking" the rates could be beneficial to you. If you manage to lock on a good rate for four months and the rates fluctuate upwards, you know you can still look back on the better rate, should the rate decrease at that point, you can explore those lower rates. First things first: Before anything else, you need to have your finances in line. Getting pre-approved for a mortgage is a key part of showing sellers that you’re serious and ready. You can read all about the differences between mortgage pre-qualifying, pre-approval and approval in this REW article, (https://www.rew.ca/news/mortgage-pre-qualification-vspre-approval-vs-mortgage-approval) but when it comes to making an offer, you’ll want to be at least pre-approved. Pre-approval is a necessary step in the home buying process anyway, but if you do it before you make an offer it can make it much easier for a buyer to negotiate with a seller. At the very worst, getting your mortgage situation squared away is a clear indicator to the seller that you’re serious. 

We have Ben Huang from BMO who is experienced and a true go-getter. He fights hard to get my clients the mortgage they need and this is needed in the ever more stringent framework for mortgage lending. 

Consulting an Accountant

Consulting an accountant on tax relieves or GST status could help you make the sale more tax-efficient. Knowing whether GST is applicable or GST can be deferred could affect your buying power too. Should you require an accountant, Mike Lam of LLN Partners is an upfront and honest guy to go to.

Finding out what you want to realize (ROI - return on investment)

Now we are making a list of properties we want to consider and knowing what you hope to realize will help us narrow your list down. As all investments go, every investor seeks to make the best returns possible. ROI is an assessment of an investment's cash flow. Experienced investors know that calculating the ROI from their properties is vital to determining how well their investment is performing overall.

The ROI of a property can be equal to its annual profits after expenses divided by the cost of investment.

ROI = net income (gross income – costs) ÷ costs

Now let's go shopping

With websites like realtor.ca, many savvy shoppers are looking for houses on their own, I like it when you do that because it allows us to narrow down your searches better as you get to have an idea on what you prefer as well as acquire insights on how much it cost to get into that area. It’s great if you have the time and desire to do a little “Hunting” yourself but I will also be hunting with you! I will prepare the list of houses currently on the market that fit your desired needs.  I will be able to give you the insight on the houses you like and show you some more great ones that you may have missed or newly listed and include a brief rental evaluation.  We are generally able to find out about houses before they are even on MLS due to the network we have! 

Once you have selected the ones you are interested in, we will start the tours. Most of our clients find their desired home by about the second or third trip out. 

Offer negotiation

Another benefit of having us in your corner is the fact that we are experts at negotiation. We do this daily to help our purchasers get the best deal they can find. We will offer guidance on what price and terms is likely to close the deal, what possible repairs may come up and how to tabulate that into the offer price or strengthen the offer based on your situation. We will be adding subjects in this stage to ensure your interest is protected. You can download the guide here.

Accepted Offer

Once the seller accepts your offer, you are almost at a home run. If you have subjects, (added by us to protect your interest) we will need to do due diligence to remove them. These subjects often include confirmation on the mortgage, reading of strata documents and home inspection. It may sound overwhelming but we are there to break down these steps into bite-size for you.

Congratulations subjects are removed

You are now an investment homeowner and we are ready to place a tenant. This is when we start advertising and we provide FREE tenant placement for investment homes.

How will you like knowing your investment property is rented from the day you take possession of it? This is possible with us as we start marketing once the purchase agreement is firm and binding. Our specialty is buying and selling investment homes, we are able to line up prospective tenants paying the highest rental amount as we were given the opportunity to market it early, this allows us to try different rates and set a precedent price for the building. Hiring someone you can trust and has a pulse on the current Real Estate Market will give you a competitive edge in getting the best price for your home.