Frequent Questions

Q: How do I find out about starting a career in real estate?A: For information on becoming a REALTOR, you can visit www.orea.com the website of the Ontario Real Estate Association.

What should I do if I have a complaint about my REALTOR?

A: It is important to begin by discussing your concerns with your salesperson or their broker of record. If unable to resolve your concerns and depending on the nature, the following options are available:
The Real Estate Council of Ontario regulates real estate salespeople and brokers . As the regulatory body, RECO receives and responds to written complaints surrounding the ethical behaviour of a registered salesperson and broker. For further details contact RECO by visiting www.reco.on.ca, calling 416-207-4847 or toll free at 1-888-296-8755.
The Toronto Real Estate Board is restricted tin handling concerns relating to the Multiple Listing Service only. For further details please contact 416-443-8100 or fax your concern to 416-443-0028.All concerns must be in writing and complainant must be identifiable.
Where a concern involves a monetary value , please contact a lawyer, RECO or TREB have no jurisdiction.
Q: How can I find out about the most current real estate market conditions?

A: The Toronto Real Estate Board issues news releases twice a month, including a full statistical update on market conditions at the beginning of each month. Click on the ‘Consumer Info’ tab on this site, then click on ‘Market Watch’ to view the most recent release, as well as all archived releases.

Q: Can the Toronto Real Estate Board recommend a REALTOR to use?

A: TREB is not able to recommend a particular REALTOR to anyone, nor do we have any knowledge of specific fee or commission structures offered by our Members. There is a wide variety of programs and services in the marketplace to meet your needs. click on ‘Find a REALTOR.’

Q: What is the difference between the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and the consumer website REALTOR.ca?

A: The Multiple Listing Service is a cooperative system used only by REALTOR Members of Canada’s real estate boards. It is accessible to any REALTOR Member who has agreed to represent your interests and share remuneration from the transaction with a cooperating REALTOR Member. The MLS contains detailed information and numerous search tools, all designed to match people with the properties that fit their exact requirements. REALTOR.ca is a website operated by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) that displays an abbreviated version of most listings uploaded to the MLS system.

mls.ca

MLS.ca is a fantastic way to start yourself into the Real Estate market. You get to see whats new and available on the market, check out photos and neat virtual tours.You are able to get information on different locations and neighbourhoods. Find out whats close by and what are all the hot attractions and entertainment hot spots.

The downside of the system is that is not updated on a regular basis.Some homes you may be viewing may have sold 3 months ago. Or a home you have your heart set on may have a had price reduction and you had no idea. This is why its a good thing to hook up with a REALTOR in your local area. They have there own mls system that is updated every minute of the day, if there a price reduction or any status change they will be the first to know!

Another great feature is the “prospect match” your REALTOR can set you up on this system where you will get a report almost everyday at midnight with all the new listings, and updated information, this will also save you lots of time instead of sitting on the computer looking through 20 pages of listings that are all outdated. All you need to do is sit down with your representative and outline your buying criteria( price range, # of bedrooms, parking,square footage, balcony etc). He/she will then input this into the system and you too will be the first to know of any changes. Its really easy and if you come across a listing you are interested in viewing, all you need to do is contact your real estate salesperson and give them the “MLS number”, they can pull this listing in a flash and book you a private viewing right away. This will also give you a good sense to what is out there in market and any activity.

So if your looking to purchase, find a REALTOR in local area and ask them to put you on a prospect match! With the help of a REALTOR you will be well on your way finding that dream home!

Spring Up Your Home For The Spring Market

One thing that is often overlooked is the landscaping. The exterior appearance of your home should be the first thing that is addressed prior to selling your home . The curb appeal is of the utmost importance. Once that FOR SALE sign goes up, what will make a potential buyer stop and inquiry about your home. Obviously curb appeal.
Now is a great time to start seeding and de thatching your lawn. Also planting shrubs, trees and even perennials as well as annuals to brighten up the exterior of your home.
You want your house to look warm and inviting so people can think of it as their future home.
Proper care of the lawn exterior painting and general maintenance will ensure a quick speedy sale and put a smile not only on your face but the buyers as well .

Buyer Tips

Most mortgages have the option to allow payments to be made on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. This option may be desirable for two reasons. The first is it can save you money as you can expect to pay off your mortgage about 4 years sooner. This can save you dramatically over the life of your mortgage. The other reason why these options are so popular is that if your employer pays you on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, you can simplify your budgeting by making the payment line up with the way you paid.

Making Extra payments

Paying extra amounts on your mortgage can make a big interest saving over time. When we select a mortgage company, privilege payments options are something that we look for. A 20% privilege payment will allow you to pay off up to $20,000 per year on a $100 000 mortgage. It is important that the privilege payment also be flexible to allow you to pay smaller payments on the mortgage and as often as you wish. An extra $1000 periodically paid on a mortgage can help you become mortgage free faster.

Reducing the CMHC fees on your purchase

When you require a mortgage for more than 80% of the purchase price of a property, that mortgage must be insured by Canada Mortgage and Housing (CMHC) or GE Mortgage insurance. The premium charged by these company`s decreases as the down payment increases. When you finance your property at 95%, a premium of 3.75% is added to the mortgage. By increasing the down payment to 10% of the purchase price the premium can be reduced to 2.5%. If you can put down 20%, you can avoid any additional insurance fee. Depending on your situation there are ways that you can structure this financing to avoid the CMHC or GE insurance premium.

Advantages of Bigger Down Payments

As mentioned above, when you put a 25% down payment on your purchase you can avoid the CMHC premium. More importantly the larger the down payment, the lower the amount of interest you will pay over the life of your mortgage. It is important to note that it may not be wise to stretch yourself to increase your down payment and end up borrowing on credit cards or a line of credit at a higher rate.

Short Term Rates vs. Long Term Rates

The options for mortgages available can be very confusing for most mortgage shoppers. Terms for mortgages vary between variable and fixed rate, 6-month terms to 10 year terms. Taking a variable or floating rate mortgage can have savings. Typically the shorter the term or guarantee of the rate, the lower the rate will be. This does not always happen, depending on the market place and the economy, but history has shown that short-term rates tend to be lower than long-term rates.The up side of variable rate is the strong potential for interest rate savings. The down side is the fact that you are accepting the interest rate risk without a guarantee. If you are considering a variable rate mortgage you need to look at your own risk tolerance, and your cash flow available to deal with potential increased payment. Considering projections of rates and where we see interest rates heading can also be important in this decision. Make sure you talk to an expert when you are making this decision.

Where have all the condos gone?

This afternoon I had been prepared to show my client 10 properties all within the area and price range that he had asked for.  We’d now seen just shy of 15 units, and almost made a move on one specifically but didn’t want to be trigger happy, after all it is a Buyer’s market, right?? No kidding!!

By the time we met up he sat in my car and I turned to him and said, “Well, looks like we’re down to 3 now, the others have sold virtually over night”.  Just the other day an agent from my office was 1 of 20 offers submitted on a property!! Ok, now someone please tell me what is going on here, could it have been the shortest slow down in real estate history?

Hey, I’m not complaining but, if things continue and buyers don’t get out there and act fast, we maybe headed back into a multiple offer situation once again.  Interest rates are an insane 3.69%, OMG variable rate 2.85% to rent in this market if you have a stable job and at least 5% to put down, would be crazy! Now is the time to increase your wealth, and take advantage of this great time to Buy!  

Especially HOT areas, like King West, Liberty Village, St. Lawrence Market, these areas have  minimal inventory and everyone wants in.  The most popular layout as it has always been the case, is the infamous 1 bedroom and den condo, with parking and locker of course, between $275,000 to $300,000.  

If that is the space that you see yourself purchasing, stand in line because over 65% of the Buyer’s in the condo/loft market are looking for just that and there simply aren’t that many good options to choose from in these areas.  Tomorrow I’ll list for you the top 5 condos in these 3 areas and over the course of MCNN’s May edition we’ll be profiling some of these areas and buildings.