If you're thinking about putting your home on the market during our active Spring season I suggest you take the advice of all the major financial publications and experts and interview several Realtors for the job. Not all Realtors are created equal and when it comes to selling the most valuable asset you own it pays to do your due diligence on selecting the Realtor who you feel is best qualified for the job.One of the key things you want to ask prospective Realtors during the interview is what marketing initiatives will they use to get exposure and interest in your property. Selling Real estate is all about exposure. A professional Real Estate marketer should be able to show you samples of their recent sales and outline in about 5 ...

I get emails every month from people who want to know the basic first steps involved in buying an investment property. How much money will they need for a down payment? What are the mortgage requirements? etc. Many of these people have never bought RE before. If that's the case the best way to start is to simply buy your principal residence first. Move into it and start saving for the down payment for your second property. There are a number of advantages to buying your principal residence first and then renting it out down the road. With the current mortgage qualification criteria that we have for investment properties it's the only route to take for most would be investors. 

Anyone who is in the market for a home or who has just bought in the last few years will tell you that getting qualified for a mortgage these days is more difficult than it was just a few years ago. The Federal Government seems to be doing everything in its power to slow our housing market. That means making no less than 4 major changes to the mortgage qualify rules since 2008. It's important before you start looking at a home that you sit down with your bank or mortgage broker and get Pre- Approved for that mortgage. That way you will know exactly what you’re able to comfortably buy and qualify for. The Pre-approval will also lock in your rate for 90 days.

Every now and again I will have a client go to what I call a 3rd tier or no name lender because they want to save a few dollars each month on their mortgage.  The mortgage market is very competitive. Usually the only way a small credit union or trust company can beat one of the big banks is by offering a mortgage that has a lot of hidden fees and restrictions tied to it. My advice is to be careful, read the fine print and ask what the penalties will be if you need to make any changes to it down the road. The big banks also offer these no frills restrictive type mortgages and can usually match or beat what a no name lender can offer if the lowest rock bottom rate is your top priority. Nothing wrong with these no frills/ ...

Any Investor / Landlord who rents a Strata property in BC must have their tenant fill in a Form K. The Form K is a simple 1 page document that states the tenant’s full legal name and contact information. It also acknowledges that the tenant has received an up to date copy of the Strata Bylaws as well as the Rules and regulations for the complex and that the tenant agrees to abide by them. A Form K is then mailed into the property management company and kept on file. A new Form K must be submitted with each new tenant.

Part 2 on my 2014 BC property assessments which just arrived in the mail. Many times people will ask me if having my property value go down this year as well as the previous 2 years then should I not be seeing my property taxes going down as well? Unfortunately it's rare that we will ever see our property taxes go down. A city like Vancouver and Richmond calculates our 2014 property taxes by taking the assessed value of your home multiplied by the Mil rate (tax rate). They base this Mil rate on the estimated costs and funds they will require to operate and maintain the city for the coming year. The cost to operate a city like Richmond keeps going up every year by at least the rate of inflation plus 2 or 3%. So if the a ...

It's that time of year again when all BC home owners start receiving there 2014 BC Assessments in the mail. Most Lower Mainland homeowners are going to see another drop in their assessed home values for 2014. This will mark the 3rd years in a row that the majority of us have seen our home values go down. Every year at this time I get flooded with calls from my clients asking me questions on how BC Assessments works and how they come up with these numbers. So in this video I will explain the process and address a problem that I see getting worse every year. Next week I will post a second video on the correlation between assessed home values and property taxes.

I had an email from a viewer who was frustrated at the amount of special levies he had been getting on his townhouse to replace many of the major components on his unit. Being on a fixed income he was thinking about selling to avoid getting hit with more unforeseen expenses down the road. Unexpected special levies and assessments can happen. However, they can be greatly reduced by simply doing some due diligence on the unit you are thinking of buying. You and your Realtor should be able to determine with a fair bit of accuracy the current condition of the major components of the home (Roof, Windows, Siding, Balconies, Heating system), the current life expectancy of these components and what they will cost to fix or replace. Most of ...

The Globe & Mail published an article last week entitled. "There's No Shame In Renting, Rather Than Owning". It asked the question, ‘will a person be less financially successful if they rent as opposed to owning their principal residence’. They sent me a tweet to my twitter account twitter.com/owenbigland asking me for my opinion. While I agree there should be no shame in renting and for some people renting makes more sense than owning. Especially if you think you may need to move sooner rather than later and don't have the ability to hold onto your home for the long run. My simple reply back to them was Yes... chances are you will be less financially successful later in life by renting for long periods of time.  Wat ...

It really is amazing how some condo units and buildings in Downtown Vancouver can garner multiple offers and sell well above asking price in a matter of days. While similar units in the same neighbourhood languish on the market for months with little or no interest and sell well below asking when they finally do sell. Tilting the odds in your favour iseasy, just ask yourself a few simple questions before you buy. Is the building I'm buying into a desirable one and what kind of owners have bought into it? Is there sufficient interest in this building and neighbourhood and will I have any problems selling in a timely manner when the time comes to move on? How long does it normally take to sell a unit in this building and ...