- Selecting a realtor® ®
- Determining your needs and wants
- Financing options and pre-approvals
- Property tours
- Offer - the contract of purchase and sale
- Firm deal
- Completion, Possession and Adjustment
- Additional costs
Let's take a look at a brief outline of each of these steps...
Selecting a realtor®®
As with all major financial decisions, seeking sound professional advice is certainly prudent. Selecting a competent realtor® is an important part of this process. Simon Hudson is a licensed real estate professional adhering to a strict ethical code and committed to representing and promoting your best interests. Simon can provide you with excellent services backed by a list of solid references.
Determining your needs and wants
What do you need versus what you want? By determining your needs from the outset, this will provide a focus to make efficient use of both your time and the time of our team helping you find the right home. Simon's Team will help you identify your priorities such as price, location, accommodation and other needs or preferences you may have through discussions and tours. Our experience will then lead the way.
Financing options and pre-approvals
It is important early on in the home buying process to schedule an appointment with your mortgage broker or banker. Your mortgage broker or financial institution will discuss financing options and provide you with a mortgage amount and rate guaranteed for a certain period of time. Pre-approval is advantageous for the following reasons:
- it may help you refine your search parameters;
- the guaranteed interest rate lock in period protects you from interest rate fluctuations; and
- it will allow you to act more quickly when you find a property you would like to make an offer on.
- Eileen Craitg (Garibaldi Mortgage) 604-905-1414 / 877-932-2688
- Michelle Mooney (TD Canada Trust) 604-892-4647 / 604-905-9063
Looking for Properties
By now you should have your requirements and your financing in place. Now you're ready to start looking at properties! Of course, you may have already been looking at homes advertised in the newspaper or on the internet. However, Simon's Team has access to the database of all properties for sale on the Multiple Listing Service ® and can provide you with specific information you may not have access to. Furthermore, they may also have access to listings on the MLS® ® that may not have been advertised yet.
In many cases, once you've looked at some properties, it may be necessary to redefine your search criteria. Depending on availability and market value, Simon will help you juggle your "wants" and "needs" and find you that perfect home!
Making an offer: the Contract of Purchase and Sale
You've found the right home for you! This is when your Simon's knowledge and training becomes invaluable - he will construct a legally enforceable contract containing terms that suit your needs and protect your interests. Consideration will be taken here to identify market value, the condition of the property, a reasonable offer price, size of deposit, an appropriate closing date, expiration of the offer, and a proposed set of conditions. Further to this, Simon will negotiate on your behalf under the terms of the agency outlined in the contract; explain the legal process, and your level of commitment.
Typical conditions may include a subject to financing, subject to inspection, subject to title search, subject to pre-approval of fire/property insurance, subject to approval of the Property Condition Disclosure Statement and so on. Simon's Team is trained to use the appropriate legal terminology to represent and protect you throughout the contract stage of your purchase. The issues can be complex - for example, knowledge of the Strata Properties Act as it pertains to strata-titled properties, oil tank issues relating to single-family homes, and so on. If any issues arise that require legal counsel, we have a great relationship with many of the top Lawyers in town.
The offering process often involves making or receiving counter-offers which we will negotiate with you to attain your mist desirable outcome...
Firming Up The Purchase
The process of removing subjects usually takes between one to three weeks depending on the complexity of the purchase. Simon's Team will help guide you through this process which includes reviewing and approving all paperwork and documentation on the property, completing and approving a property inspection, confirming your financing and fire insurance pre-approval, and satisfying any other conditions that exist in the contract.
Completion, Possession and Adjustment
When an Offer has been accepted and all subject clauses removed, a deposit as stated in the Contract of Purchase and Sale is held in Trust in accordance with the Real Estate Act. This amount forms part of the purchase price upon Completion. Completion may be any date in the future as stipulated in the contract, and is typically 60-90 days between Acceptance and Completion. As Completion approaches, you will need legal representation. There will usually be one to two days between Completion dates, and Possession / Adjustment dates. The reason for this one to two day gap is that your legal representative will need that time to arrange to transfer title of the property from the seller to you by having the mortgage financing transferred to your legal representative's trust account, then to the seller in order for the seller to provide you with a clean non-financially encumbered title. The financial closing details will be recorded on a statement of adjustments and presented to you by your legal representative. You then take possession of the property, as set out in the Contract of Purchase and Sale.
Additional Costs
In addition to the purchase price, you will need to take into account additional or extra closing costs that may be involved in the purchase.
For example:
- property purchase tax of 1% on the first $200,000 and 2% on the balance will be applicable;
- G.S.T. is applicable on all new home purchases (which will be covered in your Contract of Purchase and Sale);
- if you have high ratio financing , a mortgage insurance premium of up to 2.5% may apply;
- moving expenses;
- home insurance;
- appraisal fees;
- surveying costs;
- your share of property taxes and utilities as outlined in the statement of adjustments; and
- legal costs and disbursements;
For a complete first time home buyers package, please contact us
