Real Estate

Spacious South Burlington Freehold Townhouse within walking distance to the lake! Located on a quiet family friendly crescent. Large renovated master bedroom. Finished basement with walk-out to backyard and 2 tiered deck. Eat-in kitchen. Air Con and Furnace 3 years old. Conveniently located. Close to QEW, public transportation, schools and shopping.

ALL FOR UNDER 300K!!!

For more photos and property details, CLICK HERE

If you have any questions about Real Estate in Burlington, Oakville, Hamilton or Toronto, please don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email.

You may also want to take advantage of my latest service I am providing clients! A no obligation, over the net OR phone, property and neighbourhood evaluation. If you are interested to know the current market value of your home and what property is selling for in your neighbourhood, I would be happy to send you a report to an email address or chat to you about it over the phone. NO in-person meeting is required!

Hope to hear from you soon.

Buying a home today…at today’s prices, would have a home owner paying less per month than if that home owner bought a home 25 years ago…at 1987 prices!

I was recently at a real estate symposium and we were discussing the affordability of homeownership in today’s market. We were talking about current purchase prices vs. historic low interest rates and it took us back to a time when interest rates were not so favourable for the average home owner.

I told a client the other day that if he bought a home today at today’s housing prices, he would still be paying a lower monthly amount than if he bought a home 25 years ago at 1987 prices. Reluctant to trust my math skills, I had to prove it to him on a scrap piece of paper.

Bought a home in 1987
$250,000 – Purchase price
20% down payment ($50,000)
$200,000 – Mortgage amount
10% – 1987 interest rate
25 year amortization

Monthly payments = $1788.98

Bought a home in 2012
$500,000 – Purchase price
20% down payment ($100,000)
$400,000 – Mortgage amount
3% – 2012 interest rate
30 year amortization

Monthly payments = $1682.42

As I finished writing $1682.42 on the paper and he glanced back at the 1987 figure, he asked me to check my math.

If you are contemplating whether to stay in your rental or jumping on the housing ladder, you should look at these numbers again. We have never seen interest rates like this in history and may never see them again. Your opportunity is now!

If you live in the Burlington, Oakville, Hamilton or Toronto areas and would like to talk about housing affordability, I would be happy to meet with you to discuss your options. We can see how affordable homeownership can be. Be sure to ask about my First Time Home Buyer AIR MILE Promotion.

The Hamilton‐Burlington real estate board has just reported 819 property sales through the MLS for the month of January. This represents almost an 11 per cent increase in sales over the same month last year. They have also reported that 7.7 per cent fewer listings were taken in January 2012 compared to January of last year. The average sale price of a property has also risen 4.2% over last year’s average, yet the inventory of available properties has dropped by almost 12%

“The story for the month of January,” said RAHB President Cameron Nolan, “is that while sales have edged up compared to last year, we are seeing significantly fewer listings than normal. Our listing inventory is the lowest it has been in some time.”

What does this mean for you?

I hate to sound cliché, but now is a great time to sell. We are seeing a flood of buyers hitting the market right now. The most obvious reason would be the record low mortgage rates lenders are able to offer, but I think the weather also has something to do with it. Historically, people didn’t buy in January/February because who wants to go running from home to home in 3 feet of snow with temps in the minuses. The grass is green and the temps are up causing an early start to the spring market.

Buyers are out and ready to purchase, but there isn’t anything to buy right now. Everything that is in relatively good condition and priced well is selling after only a few days on the market. This has resulted in an upward pressure on prices. If you are considering selling your home this year, you may want to do it sooner than later. Once the spring hits and everybody starts putting their homes up for sale, the market will become more balanced causing a downward pressure on pricing.

Get into the market while inventory is low and you will get more money for your home.

Considering Buying or Selling Your Home?
For more information on buying or selling real estate in Burlington, Hamilton, Oakville, or Toronto, or if you have questions about current market trends, staging properties or mortgage interest rate information, I’d be happy to answer all of your questions to accommodate all of your real estate needs.

Sean Kavanagh
Sales Representative

For more information on my Home Buying or Home Selling System, contact me at
Email: sean.kavanagh@century21.ca
Web: www.seansells.ca
Facebook page: SeanKavanaghC21

Building Lasting Relationships and Exceeding Expectations
Masters Diamond Award Winner – 2010 & 2011, Masters Ruby Award Winner – 2009

Oakville Real Estate – CENTURY 21 Miller –TOP TEN Office*
______________________________________________________________________________
Office: 905.845.9180 | Fax: 905.845.7674 | millerrealestate@century21.ca
Oakville Real Estate, Burlington Real Estate, Milton Real Estate, Mississauga
*For CENTURY 21 Canada in 2010 and 2011, Based on Gross Closed Commission

The last time you sold or bought a house, what did you get from your Realtor to say ‘Thanks for your business’? A bottle of wine, a bouquet of flowers, a gift card? How would you like to earn enough Airmiles for a return flight to Montreal, Chicago or New York City!

Let me send you on a vacation with my 2011 Airmiles Giveaway Program.

BONUS Air Miles Giveaway!!!! From now until January 2012, earn DOUBLE the Air Miles on all full service listings

Selling Side = $300,000
Buying Side = $500,000
= 1500 Airmiles

1500 Airmiles can earn you a round trip ticket to Montreal, Chicago and New York City. If you aren’t planning on flying anywhere soon, use those points to buy yourself a new iPod Nano, Bose speaker system or Blue Ray disk player. For more details on the Airmiles rewards, visit www.airmiles.ca.

My wife and I recently bought and sold with Sean, and we were absolutely blown away by his top notch service, dedication, accessibility, and responsiveness. His marketing of our town house was great and very in tune with the current technology being used by many buyers. He found the perfect home for us to buy, with all of the features we were looking for. Sean provided us with great service, and helped us into our perfect home. Thanks, Sean for your great work!

Scott and Lindsay Kirkwood

If you are thinking of buying or selling in the near future, please give me a call so you can receive this same great service. Be sure to click on the testimonials section so you can see what other satisfied clients have to say about my service.

The Canadian housing market will grow at a much slower pace compared to the surge seen in the past decade. Home resales are expected to grow by 0.9 per cent this year and remain unchanged in 2012, while home prices will increase by 4.4 per cent this year and 0.4 per cent in 2012.

Garth Turner will have you believe that the federal government’s policy to allow 40 year amortized mortgages with no money down was the root cause in the recent market instability and skyrocketing pricing, but other economists look at a few more contributing factors to paint a broader picture. These factors include a global recession and domestic policy changes — such as a sharp drop in interest rates, three rounds of mortgage rule changes and the introduction of the HST in Ontario and British Columbia. The view by many is that less turbulent economic and policy environments will support a smoother process going forward.

Interest rates will remain low well into next year but the growth rate will continue to slow. We will see a steady increase in prices, just not escalating at the pace we have seen in the past few years.

For more information on market activity, please do not hesitate to write or call. I am also offering FREE home evaluations for anyone interested in know what properties are selling for in their neighbourhood.

If you are preparing your home for sale and want to help your realtor sell your home quickly for maximum dollars, start with setting up for the photo shoot. Today’s buyers are very visual and will look at photos before they will even read the wonderfully written description full of details and dynamic adjectives.

The first step in this process begins with hiring a realtor that provides professional photography services to showcase your home online. When you are choosing a realtor, ask to see other homes they have, or had, listed so you can see the quality of photography. Many real estate boards allow realtors to use up to 20 or more photos on each MLS listing. Be sure your realtor maximizes the amount of quality photos they are able to use.

Click here for an example of what you should be looking for!

Here are a few hints on what you can do to get ready for your real estate photo shoot:
1) Be sure the photo shoot is scheduled when the sun is in front of the home. Sun coming from the back will make the front look too dark.
2) Ensure the windows are closed and window coverings are open.
3) Remove vehicles from the driveway, kid’s toys, garbage cans, garden hoses, etc..so the exterior shots are clean and uncluttered.
4) Trim all trees, bushes, hedges and grass (and don’t forget to rake and sweep up after!)
5) If you have patio furniture, create a comfortable living space. People will want to envision themselves sitting out in the yard…..so make it feel welcoming.
6) Be sure to have the photographer take photos of all the special featured of the home. If you just remodelled the powder room, or installed a new back splash in the kitchen, be sure you get photos of it.
7) Less is more! Declutter and remove all items that do not add to the beauty of the room.
8) Replace all light bulbs that have burned out. Small details like this can reflect on how a buyer feels the seller looks after their home.
9) Depersonalize your home. If you have a photo collection of little Timmy covering the entire refrigerator, take them down for the photos.
10) And whatever you do…….make sure all the toilet seats are down!

These are just a few hints of what you can do to help present your home in the best light. If you have any questions about staging your home and photography, please feel free to call me at 905-220-9198.

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney’s plans to raise interest rates this fall have been put on hold as a result of the continued financial struggles in both the U.S. and Europe. It was originally believed that the bank would be raising rates this September, but recent indications suggest that we could be looking at rates dropping again before we begin to see increases. Home owners concerned about mortgage rate increases will be happy as it now looks like we can expect to see low rates possibly into 2012.

“I think it’s clear that there are a lot of serious problems still in the world and it’s more likely that we’re setting the stage for a sustainably low level of interest rates for a very long time. In fact, the possibility of rates being lowered is now more realistic than before.”

What does this mean for you?

If you have a variable mortgage on your existing property, you can expect to see the rates remain low for at least the rest of this year and probably into next year. If you have a mortgage that will need to be renewed soon, discuss your options with your lender. It may be in your best interests to look at variable interest rate mortgages. If you are looking for a new home or plan on upgrading in the near future, this might be the time to look a little more closely at your options.

For any questions you may have about mortgage rates, current market trends or neighbourhood property values, please don’t hesitate to give me a call.

Hot real estate markets will always result in the emergence of alternative methods to buy and sell property. However, even in the hottest markets, more than 90% of Canadians still choose to enlist the services of a professional real estate agent to sell their homes.

‘For Sale By Owner’ companies promote a unique system for selling real estate. A system that makes potential clients believe it is easy, stress-free and will save clients thousands of dollars as commissions will not have to be paid.

If it was that easy, wouldn’t more people be doing it? What if I told you that even the owner and founder of ‘ForSaleByOwner.com’ couldn’t sell his property on his own and had to list with an agent? Not only could this guy not sell it on his own, when he enlisted the services of a real estate professional, he sold for $150,000 over what he originally listed it for. The ‘unique selling system’ they are selling you is unique in the fact that you will most likely end up hiring a real estate professional to do the selling for you.

Also, a large portion of the 10% who attempt it on their own, end up hiring a real estate professional as it is not as easy as they had originally thought, considerably more stress then they had expected, and finally found the value in hiring a real estate professional to get the job done.

It should also be noted that these companies that help people sell properties on their own are not regulated and not licensed to sell real estate. Ask yourself if you would hire someone with no experience and hire a company that is not regulated to manage the sale of your largest financial investment? Would you take your car to a mechanic that wasn’t licensed to fix your car? Would you hold your life savings in an unregulated bank? Would you seek legal advice from your cousin Billy Jim Bob who has not passed his bar exam but has ‘a pretty good idea of how this law stuff works’? It is often attractive to look at the cheaper option, but as in most cases, people always know that you get what you pay for.

Real estate professionals are far from perfect, but if you do your research and interview carefully, you will find one that will help guide you through the difficult process of drafting a contract and negotiating a contract. You will have someone on your side who will answer your phone calls when everyone else is gone for the day. You will have a trusted partner who is obligated by law to serve your best interests. You will have an expert who is qualified, educated and regulated to help protect the largest investment your family will ever make. And if you are still not sure about the benefits of hiring a realtor, just ask the owner of ‘ForSaleByOwner.com’.

Colby Sambrotto, founder of the website ForSaleByOwner.com, which lets people sell their own properties, has sold his two-bedroom apartment with the help of a real-estate broker at a 6% commission.

“At first he wouldn’t let me increase the price,” [the broker] said. “I told him I know what I am doing-the market is picking up.”

Not only could the For Sale By Owner guy not sell his own apartment, but a broker was able to sell it for more money. When you see the ‘For Sale By Owner’ guys using a Realtor, what does that tell you?

It should tell you:
1) It is not as easy to sell your home as ‘For Sale By Owner’ companies tell you it is.
2) It’s tough to set a price for your home when you don’t know what your neighbours have sold for.
3) Some people don’t have experience in negotiating legal contracts and don’t want to be negotiating legal contracts with people who are professionally trained to do so.
4) Real Estate professionals know how to market real estate and get properties sold for top dollar.
5) Real Estate professionals know how to protect you from liability and misrepresentation.
6) A Realtor will always have the upper hand in negotiations with a ‘For sale by Owner’ as they will have more knowledge concerning neighbourhood sales, current market trends, and market values.
7) Real Estate professionals understand how to read and write an offer with numerous conditions and clauses so savvy buyers and their Realtors can’t take advantage of you.
8) It takes time…lots and lots of time to sell a home. How much is your time worth to you?

These are just some of the factors you should consider before you decide to sell on your own. With a significant number of ‘For Sale By Owners’ ending up enlisting the services of a realtor, why not do it right from the beginning.

If you have any other questions about what we do, feel free to give me a call and I can help you decide if selling on your own is something you are prepared for.