Preparing For An Open House

Hello Bloggers,
Here are some helpful tips when getting ready for your next open house! Enjoy!

Want to Live in a Green House?

Have you been inspired by the recent trend of living an eco-friendly life? Do you want to take it one step further, why not make your home an eco-friendly one? Good news is Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) Mortgage Loan Insurance enables approved lenders to offer borrowers (you) more affordable financing choices when buying an energy efficient home or improving your current home with items such as energy efficient furnaces, roofs, and windows.

Features include a 10% refund of the CMHC mortgage loan insurance premium and extended amortization periods without surcharge. Which means you can use 10% of the cost of your mortgage to either put toward building an energy efficient home or making improvements to your current home. This offer also includes competitive interest rates and is available across Canada.

I’d also like to give you some tips on a smaller scale that you can implement in your household to help make your home the green one you’ve been wanting. Change your light bulbs to the energy saving ones which use on average 80% less energy compared to a standard light bulb. Turn off your electronic devices at the wall, live digitally and you can save some trees by cutting out the paper, use electric blankets instead of space heaters, these small changes can make a big impact not only on our environment, but also on your wallet.
This information is also available on CMHC's website
-Ashley Ross
Sales Representative

The Importance of Pricing Right

We listed a home on Wednesday and by Friday morning there was an offer on the house. People may argue we priced the house too low, and we assert that we did our job right! Now I know the age old saying “to assume is to make an ass out of you and me”, but I feel its okay to assume when a home is listed the owner is looking to sell.
When we do list your home there are two routes we can take 1) we list your house for the market value by comparing it to similar homes in the area that have SOLD. The key to this statement is the ones that have sold. Anyone can put any price on a house/property, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to sell, therefore we look at SOLD homes/properties when coming up with a price for your home/property. Or 2) we can go with an inflated price set out by the client, have open houses, have lots of people through, have showings, have it in the paper and have no offers. Then after a few weeks we lower the price with your approval and slowly the price keeps coming down, making the selling process dragged out and you start to resent your realtor. One thing clients and potential clients must know is that even if you have an odd property, or your home is dated, needs some improvements, there is nothing that price can’t fix.
The reason it is crucial to start off with a proper listing price is once a buyer views a home that is well priced, they are excited and willing to make a good offer on it before anyone else gets to see the property. The seller is then in the position of only having their home on the market for a short period of time and is in the stronger negotiating position. Consequently, the buyer will usually pay top price to ensure the deal before anyone else gets in to see it.
For those who price their home way too high miss their market entirely and actually sell other homes that are in that price range, because those homes offer more space, improvements, etc. and people see there is more value in the properly priced home, and the over priced home just helped make a sale. This is not to say that an overprice home will not receive any offers, but it will take some time, people do become suspicious if a home has been on the market for months, and their offer will not be as high because they the buyers now have the advantage in the negotiating process.
Therefore our advice as professionals in this business is listen to your realtor: This is what they do for a living, they know the market, they aren’t emotionally attached to the home and know how to price it properly, that is of course only if you want to sell it in a reasonable amount of time.
Many people who are thinking of pricing their house should know the market, the graph located above will help you understand the extent of the diminished prices due to the recession. Prices are down from last year at this time, take a look and remember this graph when you and your realtor (hopefully us) decide on a listing price.
Happy Blogging!
-Ashley Ross, sales representative

Questions, Comments, Concerns? Ask a Professional...US!

It’s been a busy few weeks I apologize for the lack of activity on the blog; I just finished my real property law course. It was a very interesting course, I learned a lot about what to do in various and sometimes unique situations when dealing with real estate transactions and the law. Who owns what and when, ways to get out of a deal, or hold someone to it, and what happens when the Government wants to expropriate your land, well now I can tell you! I took the exam today and felt it went really well.
That’s one of the many things I am enjoying about my career in real estate, everyday I learn something new, meet someone new, brainstorm new marketing ideas or see something new. If you have any new ideas for me to try out in any aspect could be marketing ideas, new topics for articles, any videos you want to see (although I do have a few upcoming ones that I think you’ll get a kick out of) or any questions pertaining to real estate, I’d love to hear what you want to know more about. Until we meet again bloggers, keep on surfing!

What Are Our Clients REALLY Saying?

I can say we are hardworkers, I can say we'll try our best to get you top dollar, I can even say I know all there is to know about Peterborough's current real estate market, but I'd rather you hear what past clients have said...

Donna and Clint Van Gorder writes, "The Ross' went beyond our expectations. We felt very comfortable and trusted them completely, like family. I can not think of any improvements to be honest, our agents were wonderful and caring!"

Robert and Mary McMahon write, "Very satisfied with service. Agents stayed on top of sale and also provided options on other properties even at long distances."

K. Jeans writes, "Very thorough knowledge of today's real estate market and concerned for the buyer's situation as to suitable accommodations."

Lee and Rick Peters write, "John and Jane listened very well. They worked hard not only to sell our home, but also to find the home of our future"

F. Woodbeck writes, "John and Jane very friendly and efficient, highly recommend."

Now I hope you can see that word on the street is our clients are satisfied customers, hope to be working with you soon!
-Ashley Ross, sales representative

Where Does All Your Money Go?

It is a common belief that realtors make too much money per sale, so I thought I'd make a short video to demonstrate where your money is actually going. Hopefully this can give some insight to what that 5% commission pays for, believe me, it's not just the realtor.
Ashley Ross, sales representative

Flying By The Seat of My Pants and Loving It!

This week was an exciting one, we had not one, but two offers to prepare. One was accepted, and the other on a different property was signed back which could not be accepted by our client. The clients with the second offer that inevitably did not work out for them were disappointed but, they did appreciate our attempt and were thankful that they were able to see just how fast the process of buying a house can be. We were looking at the house at 3pm and by 5:15pm presenting an offer on behalf of the client. The job of a real estate agent truly is one where you fly by the seat of your pants, which I find very exciting. Seeing how fast offers take shape proves that it is important to have a competent, capable realtor working on your behalf. Decisions often need to be made quickly and the more experience and practice one has, the easier it is to confidently represent your client.
Ashley Ross, sales representative