Information for Buyers

First Things First: Determine What You Can Afford

A Mortgage Specialist can arrange a pre-approved mortgage that will provide you with an idea of the price of home you can afford.  I highly recommend you undertake this step.  While looking for a home, your pre-approval will guarantee the interest rate quoted by the lender for a specific period of time, usually 90 days.

Your Mortgage Specialist helps you to determine which financing terms and options are most beneficial to you.

Understanding Market Conditions

Your position as a buyer is affected by market conditions and market conditions are always changing.  Market conditions generally fall into three categories:  the buyer’s market, the seller’s market and the balanced market.   I will provide information on prevailing market conditions, the key features of that market and explain how it will affect you as a buyer.

Viewing Properties

Once you have determined what you can afford to buy, I will create search engine(s) that will provide information (listings) on homes that match the preferences you’ve outlined for me.  As those preferred homes come online, I will arrange for you to view them with me.   Where possible, I will pre-inspect the homes, eliminating those properties that I feel are unsuitable.

How To Make An Offer

Once we have found the property you’d like to purchase, I will prepare an ‘offer to purchase’.  An Offer to Purchase is a legal document which specifies the terms and conditions under which you’d like to purchase the home.   The actual document is called An Agreement of Purchase and Sale.  Your offer might be ‘firm’ or ‘conditional’.

Firm offers contain no conditions.  If the offer is accepted by the seller, the home is yours.

Conditional offers means that you have placed one or more conditions on the purchase, such as “subject to home inspection”,” subject to financing” or “subject to sale of buyer’s existing home”.  The home is not sold until all the conditions have been met.

The Major Elements of an Offer

1. Price. The offer price should reflect what similar homes in the area are selling for.  That price is affected by area market conditions and available financing.
2. Deposit. The deposit, known as ‘the consideration’ demonstrates your good faith and will be applied to the purchase price on closing.   Deposit amounts generally vary according to the purchase price.
3. Terms. The price offered, the closing date and financing details number among a myriad of terms on an offer.   Offers contain a number standard terms that accompany most residential offers on Ontario.
4. Conditions. Conditions may include “subject to home inspection”, “subject to financing” or “subject to the sale of your own property”.
5. Inclusions and Exclusions. These might include certain fixtures, appliances, pool accessories or decorative items such as window coverings.
6. Closing or Possession Date. This date is generally the day the title of the property is legally transferred and the transaction of funds is finalized.   Normally it is the date agreed upon in the offer.

Hire a Legal Professional

The legal professional represents your interests and will process the legal documentation required. It is imperative you have a legal representative.   If you don’t have a lawyer, I can provide you with names of legal professionals in the area who specialize in real estate.

Need More Information?   Please contact me and I’d be happy to meet with you to answer any additional questions you have.

“HELPING YOU IS WHAT WE DO”.