Toronto Realtor

Student Loans

For over two decades, tuition fees in Canada have been on a rise. Currently, their growth is roughly double our inflation and increases the financial burden of education all of us keen on learning.

Indebting oneself as a teenager is a serious burden to bring upon oneself. This means that all your outlooks, your future as far as you can see, will have you pay back what you’ve spent in no time in order to improve your life.

The need of paying your debt decreases your discretionary earnings – what’s left in your pocket when you’ve settled your other recurring bills. If this sounds familiar, getting approved for a sufficient mortgage may be difficult if not impossible

Statistics Canada states the mean period of indebtedness is more than 7 years past they leave school. This is a pretty extensive timespan, and there are definitely ones that take even longer. Thus, many educated people aren’t capable of taking out a new loan commitment until they are thirty.

To improve the circumstances as best as possible, it is crucial that the young graduate handle her or his monthly budget methodically to maintain a solid credit rating. Good rating will make it easier for one to apply for more financing going forward.

Well, you seriously want to buy a real estate property? Fortunately, taking out a mortgage and purchasing a house means that rent ceases to be an expense, so these funds can go to the mortgage payment. This in fact makes it not that difficult to switch the model from renting to “buying”. Additionally, there is no need to purchase life insurance until one has dependants. Let’s also hope that the earned degree will grant the aspiring young person better chances of working at a higher-paying vocation and let her or him reach financial autonomy faster.

Organizing People - From Properties to Lives

We say change is good for you, luckily for the community volunteers made a big change; from organising properties to lives.Volunteers started out as a Personal Organizer with her own company called Artful Organizers and made the move into assisting the poor around 2006.

The Sanctuary is a healthy or wealthy community that is there for the rejected and abused. The Sanctuary wants to help and support everyone regardless of the colour of your skin or your beliefs. There are members from a big age range and both men as well as women. Each year the Sanctuary helps thousands of individuals, seeing about 500 different people each week.

The street outreach team does an exceptional job, going out to the community on their own turf, offering and supplying support such as meals and Children's Aid. The aid does not stop there, the Sanctuary also has health clinics, support for those who are abusing drugs and rehab for the mind and body. Another thing the mission does is organise employment training, which can only mean more relevant employment for people.

Each year events are arranged to support the Sanctuary and give a sense of belonging to its members with Xmas being a great time for a big feast. This feast is made more momentous with a play, a talent show and from the church donation, a gift bag is given out. Other events are organised throughout the year, with September seeing a music concert in the park with a corn roast, a 5k walk for poverty in the summer and a spring play. The events are not just for the people who rely on the organisation for support, anyone that contributes is welcome, this way they can see their money is put to good use. One of the primary objectives is to break down the barriers between those individuals who are rich and those that are poor. People, who have been stripped of their dignity, will be given back their pride. To really help these people, time, a feeling of camaraderie and friendship are just a couple of things that make a difference to a person previously rejected by society.

The mission is not a replacement for social services but an added service set up to help. The Sanctuary have friends who were living on the street and they are now living with a roof over their head. These people could not do it by themselves, so the charity has helped them find a home and furnish it.

To give you an idea on one of the success stories of this organisation, is one of a woman born in Toronto and grew up there. Not too soon after this child was born, she was placed into foster care. The maltreatment she suffered included her aunt setting light to her cot. Cockroaches covered her small body when her grandmother looked in on her one day. Physical abuse did not end there, this little child was also sexually abused. Over the years she went through the homes of many foster parents, no relationship seemed to last and this woman was an addict. For four years this woman has been attending the Sanctuary, a testimonial to the guidance and help she has been receiving.

Julie Kinnear is Toronto MLS Listings specialist and environmental activist.

Real Estate FAQ Summary

I've been told I may need a building permit for some work I am doing on my house.

A building permit is written permission from the City of Toronto to begin construction, demolition, addition or renovation on your house. There are quite a few regulations that your plans must comply too, as well as the Ontario Building Code and local Zoning By-laws. There are lots of instances when you will need one, here are some of them: You may want to structurally alter your property or even knock some of it down or add to it, along with doors and windows, modifying the heating, plumbing and air-conditioning or even add a new bathroom, as a result you need to check to find out if you need this permit.

My insurance business is asking a multitude of questions about the property I bought, can my realtor help?

If your house has been changed in any way, the amount of land the property sits on, when the property was put up are some of the questions asked. We will contact the listing agent for your new house to get as many answers as we can from the sellers, who will know the most about the house. Most insurance companies realize that the precise details are not always available, as a result they normally accept approximate details.

Which is the better investment opportunity, a house or a condominium?

I orient on houses for sale Toronto but I believe that this all depends on your personal situation, how you see the future and what you are expecting out of the investment. When looking at average Toronto rental prices for a decent apartment it pays for itself, on the downside the value doesn't go up very much, but part of a house can be rented out while you are still living in it. We will give assistance and advise you which is the right type of property based on your lifestyle and situation.

Why do prices for the same type of condo vary so much in the same complex?

Many factors can influence pricing, including ceiling height, finishes, accessories & upgrades, exterior access, parking and the like. Condos higher up have better views, less people around and less noise from above, so they attract the higher prices. Finally the price being asked is not a matter of course the price that you will pay, it could be greater or less than the asking price        .

Proposed Adjustments to MLS

Canadian housing agents are unhappy with the proposed changes, meaning proposed deregulation within the housing market. While MLS has proposed modifications to try and improve the real estate industry, a recent poll has shown that most of those surveyed are against it.

There are many separate types of listings within MLS and the concern surrounds which of those listings should mainly be dealt with by accredited specialists. Over three quarters of those who expressed their thoughts, were disturbed by the fact that by not regulating listings, the service and safeguards to customers could fall dramatically. Deregulation will open the market to more competition, but the majority of property agents believe the market is already extremely competitive with very few only seeing it as only competitive and even less seeing it as not competitive.

The survey also tried to see in what way real estate specialists support buyers and sellers in completing their transactions. When a client is looking to buy or sell a house, the majority of specialists gave the following as their main considerations: Arranging a full brokerage service, avoiding needless delays and taking care the consumer's financial welfare. From the poll we can see that most agents have or have in the past helped a customer avoid financial problems, with less than 1% saying they haven't. "This financial support is given frequently" stated over half of the agents, though 37.1% said they gave this support often. Marketing homes is an area were realtors were very active. Over three quarters of those agents said they often used methods including Toronto MLS, conducting an open home, websites and local advertising.

At the end, the question about experience and continued education showed that agents have been members of Royal LePage for 15.5 years on average and almost 90% of them participate on formal conferences, seminars or courses one to four times a year.

The Royal LePage Real Estate Advisors Survey was administered online in April 2010 and can be read on the official website.

Appraisals are obstacle for green homes

Developers would like to see green property projects rise rapidly. Unfortunately appraisals are slowing down the rapid advancement of the environmentally friendly property projects. Imagine you are going to build a standard $500,000 home. You decide that you want the real estate to be more environmentally friendly, therefore you ask your architect to design the new house so it makes use of the sunshine and you put in high quality insulations and solar panels. Due to these green choices, this will add another $100,000 to the cost of the property.

The appraiser from your bank or mortgage business doesn't look at it the same way. David Snook is an appraiser and associate of the real property committee on education for the American Society of Appraisers and he does doesn't think it's about the cost of the house but more about resale value.

Shall we continue with our example? Although the property cost $600,000 to build the bank or mortgage company will only accept the appraisal at $550,000. This escalates your payment by $50,000 working on a 20% down payment. For those of you that can't afford the 20% down payment and wish to take out a high-ratio mortgage, (5% down payment) then your payment will be $77,500. That is a very large amount of cash to save for upfront. This might force you to look at the cheapest green alternative, using older and cheaper technologies, or maybe you will abandon the whole green idea of the project altogether.

Still, as a green MLS expert I realize even though there is a rise in cost going green does make a big difference According to Green Work Realty statement, green homes are priced 8.5% greater on the resale market, and also sell 22% faster. This information doesn't help you though if you are dealing with bank or mortgage business appraisers who don't have much if any experience with the green home technology.

While you can give the appraiser the costing, until they have the experience then there is not a lot you can do about it. Support could be on the way for appraisers and future home owners if strong initiatives are put in place that will standardize environmental and energy efficiency. Green real estate is not only about the environment, it's also about money. When looking at purchasing a car, one of the first things you look at is its fuel consumption, how many miles to the gallon does it do. Understanding property energy consumption is the normal next step.

 

Picture by Hammer50212

Weed Farms Found - Toronto Sales Rep Put in Jail

Some realtors feel that they simply chose a wrong career and start searching for other jobs. In many of the houses he rented, Phu Nhi Trac decided to do just this, and started an additional job. Soon, he turned this venture into country's largest illegal marijuana operation.

When a landlord was regularly refused entry to her property she turned up at the rented house and Trac's 'gardening' career was discovered. It was completely empty, except of a bunch of hoses leading to the basement, which was turned into a weed jungle. When the owner was interviewed, naturally she was very distressed. I'm sure I would be distressed as well.

Just less than 30,000 plants were taken totalling $30 million when the police uncovered the other 53 businesses. Between 2000 and 2002, Mr Trac and others in his group, of which he headed, using false identification defrauded over 50 property owners. Mr Trac was no amateur at this illegal enterprise, he knew all about the growing methods, he even studied the market prices and searched for outlets to sell the crops.

Mr Trac, who's real estate license with Living Realty until it was revoked last year, was sentenced to 14 years; with some terms to be served concurrently it means he will have 5 years behind bars. He didn't just get away with a jail sentence, he also was handed out a $1 million fine, which will make a large hollow in his wallet.

"Mr Trac's prior achievements had never given anyone cause for worry and he had even won an award", Mr Chan the ex-president of Living Realty had said.

If nothing else affects you, then this should convince you to pick a property agent very carefully. Fortunately, I can assure you that gardening is not a very common hobby of a real estate agent in Toronto.