Select your team of professionals.

Purchasing a home is a significant investment and a team of professionals can help navigate you through this process  smoothly.  Here are a few key players you’ll need on your journey:

Real Estate Agent: working exclusively with the right agent will literally save you thousands of dollars during negotiations.  When selecting an agent, make sure they have all the resources to help you and are able to provide you with;

• Exclusive sales
• Bank owned properties
• Private sales
• Foreclosures
• Distressed sales
• Essentially any on and off market properties.

You don’t want to miss out on any of your options, the right agent can make a big difference.

Professional Home Inspector: make sure the Inspector
you’re hiring is certified, insured and reliable. Ask your Real Estate Agent for Referral.

Real Estate Lawyer: hiring a lawyer who specialize in Real Estate is a must. There is a lot of due diligence that’s done by the lawyer and you need the right expert on your side.  A competent Lawyer is certainly worth their weight in gold.

VIP Buyers will have exclusive access to our  Concierge Team which provides our buyers with a vetted list of experts they’ll need in a successful home purchase.

1. Emotional Readiness

Purchasing a home will take you on an emotional roller coaster like nothing else.

Therefore, when deciding to buy a home, it’s important to prepare mentally and emotionally before taking any other steps.

You may fall prey to a number of common home buyer mistakes if you allow those emotions to get the best of you.

Keep your emotions in check to help you in making the most rational decision possible.

No one likes the feeling of buyers remorse and a good agent will be able to recognize when you’re making an emotional decision rather than a logical one.  At this point, they should step in and advise you properly so you’ll be able to buy with complete confidence.

2. Organize your finances.

• Do you have a pre-approval ready? 
• Are you happy with the terms, conditions and interest rate of your mortgage?
• Is your down payment ready?
• Have you set aside closing costs?  
• Are you aware of ALL your options including Government of Canada incentive programs to help with your purchase?

If you answered “YES” to all of these, then congratulations you’re ready to buy a home.  

3.  Define your wants and needs.

Shopping for the right home while keeping your budget in mind can sometimes mean differentiating between
your wants and needs.

Your real estate agent will help you  distinguish between the needs (Must have) and the wants (It would be lovely to have).

You might find yourself piling up a list of features you want to see in your new home, keep in mind, our goal is
to help you buy the Right Home for the Right Price with all of your needs and all/some of your wants.

To identify the needs from the wants, ask yourself these questions:

• What are the features that are absolutely a deal breaker?
• How long will you live in the home you’re buying?
• What areas and neighborhoods do you love?
• What sort of lifestyle do you imagine having in your new home?

Get our Home Buying Checklist to help you organize this process.

Whether it’s been a while since you last bought a home or you’re new to the buying process, the best place to start is by getting registered to receive daily listings to your inbox for the areas and style of homes you’re interested in.

Start by looking at the homes, their prices, styles, features…etc, you will be surprised how much you’ll learn by studying the inventory of homes.

The daily listing alerts will help you understand the price points, market trends and the different styles of homes available.  This will help you budget for the right type of home you desire for you and your family!

When touring homes, always remember:

• If the seller and/or listing agent are present during the showing, don’t disclose any information that may later harm you during negotiations, such as; how long you have  been looking for a home, what your price range is, by when do you need to move, why are you moving…
• If the seller and/or listing agent are present stay neutral to the home, don’t love it or hate it.
• Before putting an offer on any property, we recommend that our buyers view the home at least twice.  It’s natural to miss something the first time plus seeing the home the second time gives you a better perspective.
• Don’t tour homes that are way out of your budget.  Your mind will always compare the homes that are within your budget to these and you will end up unsatisfied.
• Look beyond the furniture, if they’re unpleasant but also, don’t fall in love with the beautiful staging furniture, it won’t come with the home.
• Make sure you document your thoughts about each home you see and write down your questions, otherwise, by the fifth home, they’ll all look the same. Use our House Hunting Checklist to help.
• Don’t tour the home while distracted, leave the kids with babysitter.

Hiring a Negotiations expert can make a world of difference when it comes to buying a home at the right price, terms and conditions.

There are three stages where a negotiation can occur:

1. Before placing an offer, find out:

• What kind of development plans are in the works for
  the neighborhood?
• Is the street likely to become a major street or a
  popular rush-hour shortcut?
• Is there a lot of undeveloped land? What is likely to get
  built there?
• Have home values in the area been declining or rising?
• Research the property history and find the number of times the home has been
  listed.

All of this information is handy during the first stage of negotiations.

2. During an offer.

This is where the emotions ride high and a lot of mistakes are made.  Hopefully you’ve selected an excellent negotiator to represent you and your interest.  Consider the following strategies:

• If there’s an offer date, ask if the seller will accept a preemptive offer, you’ll be surprised to see how many actually will.
• Don’t jump too fast and don’t drag your feet.  If you see a great property that you absolutely love, move fast because, if you don’t, another buyer will.  Have all the offer documents and a negotiating plan ready ahead of time to deal with these sort of properties.
• EVERYTHING is negotiable, not just the price.  With the proper investigative work, you can find the sellers motives and use that to help craft a great deal.
• Make a reasonable offer.  There’s no problem with offering less as long as it’s not insulting.
• Put strategic conditions in your offer.  These conditions can be used later to re-open negotiations.

3. After an offer is accepted.

Make sure you drop off the deposit cheque as soon as you can to secure the deal.

Arrange for inspection date and book it quickly.

If you find some minor problems with the home and still want to purchase it, don’t be afraid to re-open the negotiations. The seller already mentally sold the home and moved out, you would be surprised to know how many of our buyers saved on the price at this stage.

White Glove Service for our VIP Buyers 

The day leading up to the closing are extremely important and can feel very stressful and overwhelming.

Our Concierge Team members are literally Genies in a bottle.  Just ask a member of our Concierge team what you want and they will arrange it for you.

Anything from:

• Moving arrangements
• Boxes
• House cleaning
• Picking up keys
• Updateing your address and ID with the Government
• Changing your utility service
• Forwarding your mail
• Researching local doctors or schools
• Babysitting and daycare arrangements

This Concierge Team was specifically created to make this a stress free process for our buyers.

As VIP Buyers, we will :

• Assist you in securing the BEST financing.
• Provide you with regular updates from our Buyer Profile Service of new properties that match your home buying criteria.
• We will arrange private showings for any properties you want to see, including off market properties, bank foreclosures, new constructions, fixer uppers and private sales.
• You will receive our Exclusive Smart Home Buyers Report on any property you like.  This report will include demographics, inspection reports, neighborhood data, walk scores, crime watch report and more.
• We will put together a detailed plan for offer presentation and negotiate on your behalf.
• You will receive exclusive access to our Concierge Team

Learn more about our Exclusive VIP Buyers program.

BONUS:  Find out, how we will literally put thousands of dollars back in your pocket with our Loyal Buyer Cashback Bonus.