Blog.ByTheOwner.com

ByTheOwner.com recently passed 5,000 SOLD properties so far in 2008. This is an increase of 25% over 2007. ByTheOwner.com’s SOLD homes are increasing while Agent’s MLS sold homes have decreased so far in 2008. This is an indication that For Sale By Owner properties are able to offer buyers a better price because their are no commissions involved.

For example a home listed with an agent for $300,000 means that the seller will only receive approximately $284,000 from the sale of the home (assuming a 5% agent’s commission+GST). However, the same home being sold for $300,000 with no agents and no commission means that the seller is able to accept $295,000 for their home and still save $10,000 in commissions. This is one of the main reasons why ByTheOwner.com’s sold homes are increasing while real estate agent’s sold homes are decreasing.

ByTheOwner.com is set to break more private sale records in 2008. We are on pace to have more than 6,300 properties sell this year. This would place us close to 2% of all the homes sold in Canada (Last year we accounted for 1% of all the homes sold in Canada).

Congratulations to all our customers that sold and saved!

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More than 300 ByTheOwner.com customers opened their doors last weekend as part of our OPEN HOUSE MONTH on ByTheOwner.com. There are another 300 open houses scheduled for this weekend. Open houses are a great way to make it easy for buyers to visit a property. It`s going to be a great weekend. As the leaves start to change colour, all the ByTheOwner.com homes look their best!

Buyers are able to set up their open house intineray and even get driving directions to all the open houses they want. Buyers can click here: OPEN HOUSE ITINERARY

Good luck to all the buyers and sellers this weekend!

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ByTheOwner.com just reached 600 SOLD homes in the Barrie/Muskoka area. Real estate agents can charge 5% commission to sell a home, this means ByTheOwner.com has helped save our Barrie/Muskoka customers approximately $7,200,000 in real estate commissions. Congratulations to all our customers that sold and saved! Here are some testimonials from recent sold homes in the Barrie/Muskoka Area:

“I highly recommend selling your house using ByTheOwner.com. Thirty minutes after my house was uploaded I received my first phone call for a viewing. The exposure your property receives is unbelievable. 17 days later I accepted an offer which saved me over $8000.00 in realtor fees. I had to wait 8 days for the conditions to be waived. Why pay a realtor when-you can do it yourself (with your lawyer of course!) Thank you John Babic and the ByTheOwner.com team.”

“We had originally listed our home with real estate for six months. It didn’t sell. We decided to try BTO. The house has been listed for a little more than 6 months. As it turns out, we showed it double the number of times that the real estate agent did. At times we were quite discouraged. We made the decision to hang in there and are very glad that we did. The negotiation process went smoothly for both ourselves and the buyer. Once we had hammered out the details between us, we each went to our lawyer and it was a done deal within a very short length of time. We will no doubt sell with BTO again in the future. Bill & Jan Hilliard - Parry Sound,ON”

“We had a great experience selling our home with ByTheOwner.com and I will recommend it to anyone that is willing to put some effort into selling their home. We had a conditional offer within 5 days and a firm deal after 10 days! My only recommendation is to not over-price your house. If it is priced right it only takes one buyer to put in an offer. We saved lots of money that we can put towards our next house. Thanks and good luck to all! A happy ByTheOwner.com customer”

“Our Father passed away in April and his wish was not to keep the house but sell it.Thanks to ByTheOwner.It feels good to know that you can sell privately.It makes us proud that we sold it on our own.It would have made our father proud.The challenge was welcome but now,all seven of us children can say our last good byes.Sincerely Steven Marion on behalf of the Marion Family.”

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The very first step after deciding to buy a home needs to be a mortgage pre-approval. No matter how much you think you can afford, you need to seek out professional services to analyze your financial position in order to get confirmation from a financial institution on the exact amount that you can get approved for a mortgage. With your mortgage pre approval in hand, you now know what you can afford so you don’t waste any time (yours or the buyer’s time) looking at houses outside of your price range.

You are not locked into a mortgage if you can’t find anything suitable but you are locked into the rate mentioned in the pre approval letter. By being locked into a rate, you are protected if interest rates rise during the process of looking for your next home and you are free to seek a new pre approval if rates drop.

When you do find the home that you are looking for you may have increased bargaining power during negotiation or at the very least instill confidence in the buyer that you have already been approved for the price of the property and any conditions in the offer placed on financing should be waived with ease. You will also be able to act swiftly with out hesitation or doubt upon finding the home that suits you preventing other buyers from scooping it up while you are trying to make an appointment with your mortgage broker to see if you can afford it.

It is important to know your limits and buying a home is no exception. Looking for homes with out a pre approval can be frustrating, time consuming and might not produce any results. A pre approval will make the house hunting experience much more focused and pleasurable.

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When buying a home people are often more concerned about the appearance of the home than the major components. As a buyer you should be diligent when looking at a home and not easily persuaded by nice decor and well painted rooms. You should make sure you are taking in everything the home has to offer like room sizes, condition/age of major components like the roof, furnace, windows, bathroom and kitchen fixtures. If you don’t feel qualified to judge the age or quality of some of the components you should have a friend or family member with you that can help. Remember if you rely on a home inspector to tell you that the shingles are falling off the roof and the furnace is 25 years old you have already spent $350 for him to be there and the home owner may not be willing to compensate you anything forcing you to find another home or absord the entire cost yourself.

Cost Comparison:

A new high efficiency gas furnace will cost around $5,000 installed

Painting done yourself costs at most $100 per regular size room (10×12) or $250 per room done by a professional.

Constants of a Property:

If the rooms are too small for your furniture or your family they may not be able to be expanded.

Make sure you are happy with the lot size as well because that is non negotiable during your stay at the specific property.

Conclusion:

You might not find a home that has everything and you might need to make some changes when you move in. Although a nicely painted and well decorated home has great appeal you should be more concerned with the overall condition of the house and the fixtures with in it. Remember the décor does not stay! This seems like common knowledge and every buyer says that they aren’t concerned with paint and decor but usually they end up in the most cosmetically appealing option in their price range. Just make sure you look deeper than the designer paint on the surface and if you have to sacrifice something make sure you are aware of the costs involved or if you can remedy it if you wanted to.

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Whether you are looking to move up , scale down or buying for the first time choosing who or where you obtain a mortgage from could save you thousands.

The major difference between a Mortgage broker and your Mortgage specialist at your local bank it that a Broker has several companies competing for your business. Although the right person at a bank can sometimes have more authority to offer lower rates a Mortgage broker will be shopping your information around to different lending institutions trying to find you the best rate. In most scenarios a mortgage broker has more flexibility in obtaining low rates as well as offering a larger variety of lenders if your application has complications like poor credit, no credit, or self employed.

How much can you save?

Example: A $300,000 mortgage amortized over 25 years at 5.25% compared to the same mortgage at 5.50% .

At 5.50% your monthly payments would be $1831.18 with a total obligation of $77,432.92 for the 5 year term.

At 5.25% your monthly payments would be $1787.86 with a total obligation of $73,819.32
for the 5 year term.

For a difference of $43.32 a month and $3613.60 over 5 years.

As you can see even a difference of .25% in rates can save you thousands over a five year term. Often this is the difference between a Mortgage broker and a your current bank however regardless of who offers you a mortgage your payments can be deducted electronically from any bank account from any institution providing the same convenience that your bank might make you believe that only they can offer you.

Another important note is that your local bank will conduct a “hard hit” viewing your credit report and it will show up on your credit history as a application for a mortgage. A mortgage broker will create an anonymous profile based on your financial information and a “soft hit” checking your credit score only to attach to your file which will be then sent to potential lenders using only a number system for the lending institution to decide if they would offer you a mortgage and at what rate. For example, if you are shopping for the best rate and you go to 3 banks and they all do a credit check, by the time you get to the 4th bank for a quote, you could have a flag on your credit and have difficulties getting a mortgage!

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September is a great month for an Open House: Children are back in school, the long weekends are over, and buyers can further concentrate their search for their next dream home. It’s the perfect time for an OPEN HOUSE!

SEPTEMBER IS OPEN HOUSE MONTH ON ByTheOwner.com

Open Houses are a great way for private buyers and private sellers to connect. Private Buyers spend the week looking at homes online and then spend their weekends going to see homes in the neighbourhood’s of their choice. Private Sellers are also able to use open houses to get their house in tip-top shape and invite all the buyers to come in at a convenient time.

ByTheOwner.com is inviting all our sellers and all our buyers to come together during OPEN HOUSE MONTH on ByTheOwner.com. You can check out some of the Open House success stories here:

More Open Houses and More Sold Homes

Our OPEN HOUSE promotion follows our May OPEN HOUSE PROMOTION when ByTheOwner.com set a record with 653 SOLD HOMES during the month of May. ByTheOwner.com`s open house section includes options where Buyers are able to choose their OPEN HOUSES, plan their itineary, and get instant driving directions to all the homes they want to see. Check it out:

www.bytheowner.com/openhouses

Here is a links to:

Open House Tips

and

Advantages of having an open house

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