Summer is bringing the (housing) heat across the Metro Vancouver property market with competition heating up amongst many buyers.
While the year started off slower than usual, the increase in buyer demand sees further price increases for the sixth consecutive month.
Read more...
https://stilhavn.com/metro-vancouver-housing-update-may-2023/
You’ve heard the term curb appeal, and during the sunnier months this is your chance to really show off your home in quite literally, the best light!
During spring your gardens would have bloomed with new growth and colour while your grass would have turned from dry to luscious green. You may have had time to give your home’s interior (and/or exterior) a spruce up with renovations to the front entranceway (think first impressions!), a new paint colour for the kitchen (neutrals are a great way for potential buyers to envision themselves and their belongings there while also making your spaces seem larger), while also undergoing a de-clutter to also keep your spaces looking clean and spacious.
Read on...
https://stilhavn.com/why-summer-is-a-great-time-to-sell-your-home/
Residential home sales across Metro Vancouver started showing a comeback last month, with levels rising near to those seen last spring.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential home sales in the region totalled 2,741* last month, and although rising, were still down (16.5%) from the 3,281 sales recorded back in April of last year. When looking at the 10-year seasonal average, April 2023 sales were down 15.6%.
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https://stilhavn.com/metro-vancouver-housing-update-april-2023/
BC Financial Services Authority is the Crown Agency that regulates British Columbia’s financial services sector, including credit unions, trust companies, insurance companies, pension plans, mortgage brokers, real estate service providers, and the Credit Union Deposit Insurance Corporation.
For Real Estate, they provide guidelines for many of the processes in the sale and purchase of real estate such as multiple offer situations.
"If more than one written offer on a specific property is made before the seller has accepted an offer, all written offers must be presented to the seller. The only exception would be if the listing real estate professional has specific written instructions from the seller on the listing not to present particular types of offers. Unless otherwise instructed by the seller, the listing real estate professional should ensure that any other representative involved knows there will be competitive offers.
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A deposit, in the form of a bank draft or a direct wire, is the initial cash required to secure a purchase of real estate once you have removed your subjects (Eg. Subject to financing, a Home Inspection, approving documents) or immediately upon acceptance of your offer. A deposit is generally 5% of the purchase price ($50,000 for a million dollar property).
Those funds are held in a trust account of your realtor's brokerage and go towards the amount owing for the purchase. It is part of the down payment
A down payment is the TOTAL amount of funds that the buyer puts forward themselves to go towards purchasing a property. The rest of the funds come from the mortgage, the amount you borrow from a lender/bank. So if you buy a property for $1,000,000, the deposit, the rest of the down payment (cash you have saved) and the mortgage (money borrowed from the bank) all add up to the purchase price.
As a residential property owner in B.C., you may qualify for a Home Owner Grant.
Available to homeowners who pay property taxes to a municipality (or to the province if they live in a rural area), this grant helps to reduce the amount of property tax you pay for your principal residence.
For the purposes of this grant, you can have only one principal residence, which is considered the place you occupy, or essentially where you ‘make your home’. It’s where you carry out day-to-day life, and the location which the Government records you as living for things like income tax, your driver’s license, and so on.
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Begin this process with one simple idea:"This is not my home, it is a house for sale."
This allows you to look at your home through the lense of a Buyer. When you are looking at property to purchase, what is important to you?
Recommended TO DO LIST:
Level 1: The Basics
De-clutter, De-personalize, Deep-clean
Level 2: Beyond the Basics
Paint the walls neutral colours, make minor repairs, re-arrange furniture/art
Level 3: Way Beyond the Basics
Major renovations, complete unfinished basements, consider professional staging
Helpful Tips
*Think of this process as a head start to packing
* Even though some repairs seem minor, they can be a major factor in determining whether the Buyer will actually buy.
* Pay attention to rooms that smell - this is can be very off putting to Buyers.
* Don't forget about the outside - curb appeal is very important!
Years ago I bought a very charming mid-century modern rancher with post and beam ceilings. Off the living room was a large space with tall windows on three sides and a plastic corrugated roof - so it was full of light which was great, but unheated so freezing in the winter.
The house was built in the 1960's and it appeared that some owner had enclosed a covered porch in order to have more interior space. I had dreams of redoing the badly done reno by installing a proper roof, updating windows and putting in a new heating system - all to be done by a professional contractor. Now some contractors may do a great job without obtaining permits (permits can take months to obtain from your local municipality).
However there are risks to not obtaining the appropriate paperwork. Firstly, when you go to sell your property, you must disclose that alterations were made without permits because that is considered a material latent defect. Often unpermitted work will affect the sale of your home in some way. Secondly, if you are not selling but are planning to do further renos that require permits and you apply for the permits, the city will come to inspect the work and may notice the non-permitted work, which MAY have to be undone or redone at a considerable cost.
For more details on permits, visit:
There are many great reasons to buy a condo in an older building - larger rooms, no GST, lots of inventory. It is now 2023. Any condo built in the 1990's is now 23-33 years old and with age comes the end of the life span for many elements like roofs, windows and balconies, parking membranes, exterior cladding and more.
When you write an offer for a unit in a building from this decade, you have access to the strata documents which you absolutely should read. What should you be looking for? A newish Depreciation Report which is a 30 Year maintenance plan/guide to assist the strata owners in maintaining their building. In the minutes, specifically Annual General Meeting minutes, you want to see that maintenance projects are being voted on and not postponed continually. You may fall in love with a particular suite but you are also buying the building!
As you may have heard, many of the Vancouver apartments built in the nineties were improperly built which resulted in leaky condos - water infiltrating into the exterior building envelope (walls and roofs). Many of the buildings have been repaired, at great cost to the owners, by way of a rainscreening process. When shopping for a home built in the nineties as well as the eighties, I would recommend looking for buildings already rainscreened. They are a better investment!
Change is inevitable.
We change things almost daily, from our wardrobe to our meal choices to the activities we to enjoy on the weekend. But how about where we live and spend most of our time?
Your home was the perfect space when you bought it. But how about now?
We’ve listed our five key areas that are worth considering to check if your home is still right for you…
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https://stilhavn.com/top-5-checklist-does-your-home-still-match-your-lifestyle/
Buying a home can take time.
For current buyers, there’s even more inventory to consider, a housing pool that is continuing to inch upwards across Metro Vancouver*. Although residential options have risen, February’s home sales were down 33% on the 10-year February sales average.
Andrew Lis, Director of Economics and Data Analytics at the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) commented on recent activity by saying, “It’s hard to sell what you don’t have, and with new listing activity remaining among the lowest in recent history, sales are struggling to hit typical levels for this point in the year. On the plus side for prospective buyers, the below-average sales activity is allowing inventory to accumulate, which is keeping market conditions from straying too deeply into sellers’ market territory, particularly in the more affordably priced segments.”
Read more...
https://stilhavn.com/metro-vancouver-housing-update-february-2023/
As we head into the second month of 2023, we move further past the holiday season and start picking up more of our regular routines. Housing activity across Metro Vancouver* last month moved in a similar fashion with inventory remaining on the “lower side” but still surpassing the number of listings recorded back in December. Home sales remained slow (as to be seasonally expected), but both listings and sales grew as the weeks went on.
Read more...
https://stilhavn.com/metro-vancouver-housing-update-january-2023/
The data relating to real estate on this website comes in part from the MLS® Reciprocity program of either the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV), the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB) or the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board (CADREB). Real estate listings held by participating real estate firms are marked with the MLS® logo and detailed information about the listing includes the name of the listing agent. This representation is based in whole or part on data generated by either the REBGV, the FVREB or the CADREB which assumes no responsibility for its accuracy. The materials contained on this page may not be reproduced without the express written consent of either the REBGV, the FVREB or the CADREB.
