11 Important Points to Consider When Shopping for Your Mortgage

How many hours do you have to work to make $40,000? If every month you had an extra $162 could you find something useful or fun to do with it? Do you realize the difference in total interest you pay to your mortgage lender on a 20 year mortgage between a 4% loan and a 5% loan is just a hair under $40,000… WOW huh? The difference in monthly payments is $162… YES that’s EVERY month. Do I have your attention? As you can see from the example above the right or wrong decision when signing your home mortgage can equate to a difference of thousands of dollars in interest paid from your hard earned money. There are very important considerations to evaluate before you commit to a 25, 30 or 35 year…

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Does Home Staging Work? Is it Worth the Additional Effort and Cost? The technical definition of home staging is the design process of de-personalizing a private residence prior to putting it up for sale. This is often achieved by reducing clutter, visually creating more space and hiding/eliminating negative challenges in the home. The practical definition is a method of giving your home that “WOW” factor to potential buyers who view your home. Come on… be honest… look at the 2 pictures below and tell me which one draws you in? A picture is worth a 1000 words so… what 1000 words does your home have to say? Whether it’s the home you’re currently living in or a vacant home, staging is a great way to engage the average buyer helping them to envision the use…

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Seasonal Shut Down If you are shutting down a property for several months you should always shut off the water supply and drain the plumbing system.

  • Insulate Exposed Piping If you have exposed water or drain piping in uninsulated spaces such as in a crawlspace, attic, outside walls; ideally you should wrap them with electrical heating tape, then insulate them.
  • Exterior Faucets The exterior faucets need to have its water supply turned off inside the house, and you also need to drain water from it by opening up the exterior faucet.
  • Remember to disconnect your garden hoses from the faucets to prevent the faucets from freezing and leaking.

Roof

  • Check roof for missing or damaged shingles and have them replaced.
  • Check flashing around…

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One good way to investigate dampness is by walking around the home during a rain storm. Check the following:

  • Gutters should be clear and drain properly. Overflowing gutters are a common problem.
  • Downspouts should not flood water next to the house. Add an extension (leader) to discharge the water well away from the home.
  • Downspouts that discharge below grade should be checked very carefully. Make sure water is not leaking into the soil or backing up into the basement through the floor drain. In some cases it is prudent to disconnect downspouts that discharge below grade and redirect the water away from the house instead. Ask a Pillar To Post inspector for advice on this.
  • Land around the house should shed water away from the house for at…

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Anyone that has been reading my articles knows I love a regular home with a suite or a duplex property, and for over a decade I’ve been pretty faithful to these residential investments, but recently I have had my attention fixated on a more alluring beast, and that is multi-family investing (apartment buildings) and I have to say, I have a new obsession. It combines my favourite two aspects of real estate, Cash-flow and Value-adding, except it puts both on steroids. Now before I start, many people may have already checked out after reading the headline. Apartment buildings? That’s out of our league, or that’s too risky! I’m here to challenge that limiting belief. For starters, obtaining a mortgage on a building that has been run like a business for years…

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1. Take Pets – It always amazes me how few landlords are willing to take tenants with pets. There are two main reasons why ALL my rentals are pet friendly and full for that matter. For starters, tenants with pets have very few choices so not only does your phone ring off the hook from a carefully crafted ad with “Pet Friendly” in the headline, but they are way less likely to try and brow beat you on price when they come out. Tenants with pets also tend to stay longer for the same reason. Secondly, you get twice the deposit. BC tenancy laws say you can only ask for half a month’s rent as a security deposit. Welcoming “Spot” sweetens the pot with an additional half month. My experience with tenants is it’s not the pets we need to worry about damaging the…

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I had a great question from a client recently, and wanted to share it with you today. Currently we are experiencing a nice upswing in the market, but our client wants to know if they can expect the same type of growth we saw 10-15 years ago when the market surged. Although I don’t expect to see home values increase that dramatically, I do expect the market to come out better on the other side of this cycle. To get all the details about what I predict housing prices to do over the next 10-15 years, watch this short video!

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Today we are answering a common question we get about preparing a home for sale and the role photography can play in it. Back in 2008, we started experimenting with using professional photographs on our listings, but the results were mixed. In some cases, the photos were “too good” and caused a bit of a letdown for buyers when they saw the home in person. To find out how we corrected and perfected the home photography process just a few years later, watch this short video!

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I get a lot of questions about real estate from my clients in Kelowna. Today I wanted to take the time to answer two questions. One of them is about whether or not this spring will be a good time to flip properties. This is a great question, and the answer is more complex than a simple 'yes' or 'no'. Watch this video to hear the answer!

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We love it when people send us their Kelowna real estate questions, as it gives us a chance to discuss topics that many people in the area are curious about. Today, we answer two more user-submitted questions: What are the rules about putting in a carriage home? How are low oil prices affecting our market? Today, we answer both of these great questions! To see our answers to these pressing topics, watch this short video!

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