Here’s my theory on why our market has been so hot lately.

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Why, exactly, is our real estate market so crazy right now? By now, you’ve likely heard me mention there was some pent-up demand from the lockdown back in April, but that’s largely already come to pass. There’s something bigger fueling our market right now, and I believe it’s a full-on behavioral shift.

If you look back at the last 10 to 15 years, there’s been a trend away from so-called ‘McMansions’—giant homes that require lots of maintenance—toward downsizing and getting rid of unnecessary aspects. There was a sort of urban densification occurring, as people moved to city hot spots where they could walk to their favorite…

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The last thing a seller wants is to be left out of the loop, or feeling that they didn’t get as much money as they could have. Here’s how we at Vantage avoid these disappointments.

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Here are the top three reasons people report being disappointed with their last real estate agent:

The agent communicated poorly. Just as in every other aspect of business and life relationships, a failure to consistently and clearly communicate can be disruptive. For sellers, there’s nothing worse than being left in the dark; we’ve found that sellers need to be very connected to the process. Here’s how we accomplish that:

  1. Lightning-fast feedback — as soon as we know, we let you know
  2. Market updates —…

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There are three approaches to pricing a property. Learn what they are right here.

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There are ultimately three different strategies we can use to price a property to sell on the market. Whenever we meet with our sellers, we ask them to think about which one is most applicable to their situations.

First, we could underprice the property anywhere from 3% to 5% below the comparable homes that have sold in your area. This would help to sell your home quickly, and you’ll often get top dollar; lower asking prices typically generate multiple-offer situations. There are some risks involved in this strategy, however. If there isn’t a multiple-offer situation, you might end up selling your home for…

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Here’s what to know about the most popular and effective ways to come up with a down payment on your first home—or your dream home.

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Many folks have a misguided notion of what’s required of them for a down payment, so I’m going to share some options that exist for homebuyers.

The high ratio program does not change the requirement of down payment over 500 entirely, the down payment is stepped. Ie: 5% on the first 500k and 10% on the remainder.

Another option is the government's homebuyer plan, which allows you to tap into any Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) contributions you’ve made over the years—up to $35,000 tax-free. You’d then have the next 15 years to put that money…

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I’m discussing why selling your home in the winter can be a great idea, and waiting for the spring market may not be in your best interest.

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Many people think that the real estate market is dead in the wintertime. The spring and summer months are notoriously busier so people naturally think those are better times to sell their homes. In reality, that's a misconception about how the market truly works.

It has been statistically shown that some properties will sell for a higher price per square foot in January and February. There’s a definitive reason for that: The people who are shopping for homes during the winter are very motivated. These are people who need to move here, they have a…

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I'm sharing what I think the real estate market will do in 2020.

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Here we are at the start of a new decade, 2020! Today I’m going to share some market intel, and then make some market predictions for this new year. In my opinion, this year’s market looks reasonably good.

Cited below for your convenience are timestamps that will direct you to various points in the video. Feel free to watch the full message or use these timestamps to browse specific topics at your leisure:

0:00: Introduction to today’s topic

0:30: Comparing 2018 and 2019 total sales

1:05: 2019 inventory

1:50: The Rein growth arrow

2:55: What the headlines have been saying about the market

3:40: My eight…

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Today I’m sharing how you can improve yourself in the coming decade and how you can help us give to families in need this holiday season.

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Can you believe this will be our last blog of the decade? I was looking back at 2009 and thinking about where I was in my life, business, and relationships, and thinking about how far we’ve come. Have you reflected on how far you’ve come in the past 10 years? They say that people will often overestimate what they can do in a year but will almost always underestimate what they can do in a decade.

If you adopt what’s called a Kaizen approach, which is slow, incremental improvement over time, you can better your situation whether it’s income, net worth,…

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What is an iBuyer and how can Canadians take advantage? Find out here.

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Today we’re going to discuss something you’re going to hear much more about in the coming years: iBuyers. What’s an iBuyer? The “i” stands for institution. iBuyers are institutional buyers that are popping up in the U.S. like Opendoor, Offerpad, and now Zillow Offers. These are publicly traded, Wall Street-backed companies with billions of dollars that are looking to provide a new option to home sellers and hopefully grab market share.

As you can see by the graph at 0:35 in the video above, their growth in the marketplace has been exponential. In 2019, pardon the pun, the numbers have been off the charts! Big…

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The Purchase Plus Improvements Program could help you make improvements to your new home.

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Today I’m discussing a program that I love and one that many people don’t know much about. It’s called the Purchase Plus Improvements Program. It’s offered through CMHC, the government insurance company that insures high ratio mortgages. This is a tremendous product for people who have saved up for a down payment for a home, but if you’ve just drawn your down payment together, that doesn’t leave you with much room to improve the home once you own it. This program especially works for this particular type of buyer.

One thing we regularly find when working with buyers, especially those working with a…

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Here’s what you need to know about the government’s new first-time homebuyer incentive program.

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What do you need to know about the government’s new first-time homebuyer incentive program? Is it something you should take advantage of?

Before I answer that question, I first want to say that I think it’s wonderful that our government is trying to stimulate the first-time homebuyer’s market. This market is critical to the health of our market overall because it’s the start of an important domino effect—entry-level homes need to sell so everything else can sell.

However, in order to qualify for this incentive program, you have to fall within certain parameters.

First, you must be a…

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