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Are you planning to sell your home in the near future? Regardless of season or market conditions, remember that you only have one chance to make a good first impression. Make it memorable for all the right reasons. Before listing your home, commit to these five New Year’s Resolutions to help ensure the quickest sale for the highest price.

Repair And Replace

When planning to sell your home, assess its condition and make repairs before listing. Cracked drywall, stained carpets, burned-out light bulbs and other minor damage is easy to fix and won’t break the bank, but left unrepaired, could impact offers. TIP: It can be tough to evaluate your own home. Have your For Sale On Georgian Bay agent or a friend tour your home and offer constructive criticism.

Get Comparable’s

Three to six months before your home hits the market, ask your For Sale On Georgian Bay agent to start scanning comparable listings to get a ballpark price estimate. Keep in mind that a variety of factors may affect your home’s selling price, like lot size; landscaping and interior finishes; proximity to busy streets, public transit, schools and parks; or supply and demand in the marketplace. Your For Sale On Georgian Bay agent will assess your home just prior to listing, to ensure you set the right price to attract serious buyers.

Cut The Clutter

A cluttered home can suggest lack of space, which can impact offers. Depending on lifestyle and length of time spent in the home, this can be a big undertaking. Take it step by step, room by room, and you’ll get through it. Be honest about what you want, need and love, and what you can do without. The bonus? You won’t have to pack, move and clutter your new home with stuff you don’t want.

Stage To Sell

When it’s time to sell your home, stage it to show it in the best possible light. This includes packing up family photos and personal items (prospective buyers want to picture themselves in the home, not you!), putting the non-essential items into storage (or the donation bin!). Your For Sale On Georgian Bay agent may offer Digital Staging staging as part of their suite of services, or will be able to put you in touch with a professional stager to help get the job done.

The New Year always brings around feelings of change and new beginnings – are you thinking about making a move in 2023? If so, here are 4 tips to help you. These New Year’s resolutions all relate to finances because a Home is the biggest investment most of us will make in our lifetime. 

Check Your Credit Rating

This is one of the most important initial steps you can take because you can guarantee that your potential mortgage lender will be doing the same. A credit score is a number between 300 and 900 that rates your credit-worthiness. According to credit-rating company Equifax, a score of 690 or higher is considered “good”. Lenders will use this score in tandem with other factors, such as your debt-to-income ratio, to determine mortgage eligibility. 

Credit Clean-Up

Remember that phone bill you forgot to pay a couple of years ago? It can come back to haunt you. Even a one-day-late payment is still considered “late,” and can negatively affect your credit rating – and your potential to qualify for a favourable mortgage. If you’re not happy with your credit score, take some time to bring it up to par before you start the pre-qualification process.

Get Pre-Approved For A Mortgage

It’s no secret that there was a lot of media attention surrounding the rising interest rates of 2022. As we move into 2023 we hope to see some reductions over the course of the year. It’s imperative to get expert advice to understand the changes and how the mortgage horizon looks. A mortgage pre-approval is not an obligation to purchase in this time frame, nor are you committed to that particular lender. It’s just a written confirmation of the approved amount and the promised rate, so you can shop with confidence within a budget you know you can afford.

Start Shopping

Online is a good place to start your search, but nothing beats first-hand experience. With budget in mind, bundle up and hit the streets to explore different neighbourhoods and the amenities you’ll have access to. Do you rely on public transit? Is an active nightlife important to you? Daycares and schools? Parks and rec? Highway access? How close (or far!) do you want to be from family and your workplace? Think about your day-to-day needs, and anticipate how they might change over time.

Most importantly, work with a For Sale On Georgian Bay Agent who has experience in the area and the type of home you plan to purchase. They will make setting up viewings easy and be ready and on your side to negotiate the best price when it comes to finally making an offer.

Have you been thinking about listing your property during the Holidays? Sometimes, your circumstances dictate when you have to sell – perhaps you’re relocating in the New Year for a new job. Or you found your dream home and need to sell the current home you live in.

While the thought of selling your home during the winter months may dampen your holiday spirit, the season does have its advantages: holiday buyers tend to be more serious and competition is less fierce with fewer homes being actively marketed.

So, if you’re in the position of having to sell, here are some tips you should consider:

Hire a For Sale On Georgian Bay Agent

Using For Sale On Georgian Bay means your agent will work hard for you and won’t disappear during Christmas or New Year’s. We love listing homes during the holidays – it allows us to do some great marketing work that’s unlike any other time of the year. Having a good agent will ease your stress and give you more time to enjoy the season.

Deck the Halls, but Don’t Go Overboard

Homes often look their best during the holidays, but sellers should be careful not to overdo it on the decor. Adornments that are too large or too many can crowd your home and distract buyers. Also, avoid offending buyers by opting for general fall and winter decorations rather than items with religious themes.

We’ll Seek Out Motivated Buyers

Anyone house hunting during the holidays must have a good reason for doing so. Our agents will be using strategies to target buyers on a deadline, including people relocating for jobs in your area, investors on tax deadlines, and first time buyers. 

Price it to Sell

No matter what time of year, a home that’s priced well for the market will make buyers feel merry. Rather than gradually making small price reductions, we recommend our clients selling at this time to draw attention of serious buyers. There is no need to price at under-market value, but rather than starting high and making small reductions, price strategically and watch your home sell quickly.

Make Curb Appeal a Top Priority

When selling your home during the holidays, maintaining the exterior of your home becomes even more important. Bare trees equal a more exposed home, so touch up the paint, clean the gutters and spruce up the yard. Keep buyers’ safety in mind as well by making sure stairs and walkways are free of snow, ice and leaves.

Give House Hunters a Place to Escape from the Cold

Make your home feel cozy and inviting during showings by cranking up the heat, playing soft classical music and offering homemade holiday treats. When you encourage buyers to spend more time in your home, you also give them more time to admire its best features. 

Relax — the New Year is Just Around the Corner

The holidays are stressful enough with gifts to buy, dinners to prepare and relatives to entertain. So, don’t stress too much about selling your home during the holidays. With your For Sale On Georgian Bay agent in place and the right marketing strategies, you’ll be in good hands to ensure a quick sale at the right price for you.

If you want to learn more about how we can help you sell your home stress-free during the holidays or winter months, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Everyone loves to talk Real Estate! Whether it’s with your trusty For Sale On Georgian Bay Agent or your neighbour, co-worker or even a friend there’s a lot of terminology used. Many of these terms and phrases are often not common knowledge and might leave you wondering. We’ve collected some of the most used terms so that you will be well on your way to understanding what is going on when you purchase a new home. 

These are the best terms to know. 

Adjustable-rate mortgage – There are two main types of mortgages. An adjustable-rate mortgage has an interest rate and mortgage payment that vary according to market conditions. It is less predictable than a fixed-rate mortgage but can potentially have very low interest rates at times.

Fixed-rate mortgage – Fixed-rate mortgages are more predictable. They have an interest rate and mortgage payment that remain the same throughout the term, and does not fluctuate according to market conditions.

Mortgage pre-approval – A mortgage pre-approval is a process that involves you as the homebuyer and the bank as the lender. Homebuyers will fill out an application detailing various aspects of their finances, including income, assets, and credit history. The lender will then review it to determine the debt-to-income ratio and the amount they are willing to lend to the homebuyer. This is not the same as a mortgage approval.

Appraisal – An appraisal is a process of determining the value of a particular property, so that a lending institution can determine how much they are willing to loan. In Canada, an appraisal can only be done by a member of the Appraisal Institute of Canada or the Canadian National Association of Real Estate Appraisers. An appraisal is different than a market evaluation, which is what a real estate agent will give you as an idea of the property’s worth.

Offer/Counteroffer/Backup offer – Here’s where we get to the nitty-gritty. An offer to purchase sets out the terms with which you agree to buy the home and is a legally binding contract between the seller and the buyer. However, there are different kinds of offers.

A counteroffer occurs when the seller of the property does not accept the offer you extend and makes changes to it, such as the price or the date, making the original offer invalid. A counteroffer will have a time limit within which a buyer may accept or reject it.

A backup offer happens when a buyer is interested in purchasing a property that already has another offer in process with someone else. If the original offer falls through for any reason, the backup offer will be next in line to purchase the property. There can only be one backup offer on a property at any time.

Principal – The principal is the amount you borrow from a lending institution. It does not include the down payment that you would have contributed, and it does not include interest. Your mortgage payments will always be applied toward the interest first, so you need to consider that when budgeting for a mortgage payment. The interest is typically calculated on a daily basis, but you will pay it with your monthly mortgage payment.

Debt-to-income ratio – Also known as DTI, the debt-to-income ratio is a number that is determined by the buyer’s total debt, plus the monthly house payment, divided by the gross monthly income and multiplied by 100. The resulting number helps lenders determine the amount of risk they are taking with a particular buyer. Lenders typically look for less than 28 per cent of the total monthly income spent on housing, and less than 36 per cent contributed to debt payments.

Mortgage loan insurance – If your equity or down payment on the property is below 20 per cent, you will be required to purchase mortgage loan insurance. Offered by CMHC, Genworth and Canada Guaranty, mortgage insurance protects the lender against losses if you fail to pay your mortgage.

Equity – Equity is the difference between the market value of your property and what you still owe on it. If you sell a property at a profit, then equity is the amount you will receive after paying off the mortgage.

Closing Costs – Closing costs are those associated with the actual purchase of the home and not with the value of the house itself. They can include legal fees, realtor commissions, lawyer fees and land transfer fees. These are all due on the closing date once the purchase of the property is finalised.

Real estate lingo can be confusing sometimes, but if you look up some of the terms ahead of time, you will be well on your way to understanding what is going on when you purchase your home. Still have questions?… Let us know!