Canada was officially created on July 1st, 1867. Since then, each July 1st has been a celebration of everything Canadian! ByTheOwner.com is a Canadian company that was created in 1997. We also join in this yearly celebration and so our head office will be closed July 1st and it will reopen on July 2nd.
We hope that everyone has a safe and happy Canada Day.
ByTheOwner.com
Mortgage rates are hovering at all time lows and it looks like their may be some increases to interest rates in the future. But what does that mean to the average home buyer and home seller? What is the difference between a 4% mortgage and a 5% mortgage? What if you think that home prices will decrease in the future and you are waiting to buy your next home?
Using the Royal Bank mortgage calculator, we came up with some interesting numbers when looking at different mortgage rates. Based on a $250,000 mortgage, it looks like a 1% increase in mortgage rates equals approximately $40,000 in interest over the life of a 25 year mortgage (Although mortgages are for 1-10 years, and rates change everytime a mortgage is renewed, for this example we will show the effects of mortgage rate changes on a 25 year term).
So these numbers mean that if you have a mortgage for $250,000 at an interest rate of 4%, and you take 25 years to pay it off, then you will have paid $144,513 in interest to the bank. But if you have a mortgage rate at 6%, and you take 25 years to pay it off, then you will have paid $229, 853 in interest to the bank.
So the difference between a 4% mortgage and a 6% mortgage is approximately $85,000 more in interest payments.
EXAMPLE: If you are a buyer and you are considering purchasing a $300,000 home with $50,000 down, then you will need a $250,000 mortgage. If you purchase now, you can obtain a mortgage at 5% and (all things equal) you will pay $186,201 in interest for that mortgage. If you think that home prices will come down and you want to wait, and then mortgage rates go up to 7%, then you could be paying $275, 311 in interest payments. This is close to $90,000 more that the 5% rate. This means that the home would need to drop in value to $210,000 in order to pay the same amount.
There are a lot of numbers to evaluate when purchasing a home, however, mortgage rates (and the interest on the mortgage) are often overlooked by buyers. Buyers are sometimes more concerned with getting the seller to drop their price by $10,000 instead of negotiating a good mortgage rate with their bank. Asking the home seller to accept $10,000 less for the home could result in losing the home, but negotiating a 1% drop in interest rates with your bank, could save you $40,000.
ByTheOwner.com
This month, ByTheOwner.com has received more than 50 testimonials from our customers who SOLD and SAVED.
Perhaps if Paul Simon can have a number 1 hit song with “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” then there could be another hit song based on “50 Ways To Sell Your Home and Save”?
Paul Simon sings that you can Just slip out the back, Jack / Make a new plan, Stan / Drop off the key, Lee / You don’t need to be coy, Roy. Well how about some lyrics using the names of some of the ByTheOwner.com customers that sold and saved this month:
Saving 20K is dandy, Andy
Selling privately is something to fancy, Nancy
No agents needed on my street, Marguerite
Accepted that offer, Arthur
That would be a number 1 hit song for sure!
Now it is not that easy to rhyme every name with a good way to sell privately and save, but our testimonials are filled with useful advice about how our customers SOLD and SAVED. Customers just like you and me. Customers who realized that they did not need to pay an agent to sell their home.
ByTheOwner.com
Some representatives of ByTheOwner.com and Investor’s Group were recently invited to take part in the Walter Gretzky CNIB Golf Classic in London.
We are very thankful for the opportunity to join and we are pleased to help raise money to support CNIB. As mentioned at the tournament, only 1/3 of CNIB funding comes from public sources. The other 2/3 is raised by private sources.
ByTheOwner.com and Investors Group, are hosting a golf tournament on July 27th to help raise money for CNIB. The event is 60% sold out, so please hurry to book your round of golf. Click here for more details.
Many thanks also go to Walter Gretzky for providing signed Gretzky items to help raise money and also for giving an uplifting speech at the dinner. In addition to some great Wayne Gretzky jokes, Mr. Gretzky pointed out in his speech that most Canadians live in the top 8% of the world’s wealth and we have a great opportunity to share with people who are less fortunate. Great advice from a great man!
Thanks,
ByTheOwner.com
This week’s increase in mortgage rates has raised a lot of questions. Will they go up? How fast? Variable or fixed? Should I break my mortgage and get a lower rate?
Here are some links to recent newspaper articles.
How high will mortgage rates go?
Have you missed the great Canadian mortgage sale?
Is it time to lock in your mortgage?
ByTheOwner.com
The media is beginning to report the positive signs in the real estate market. Here are some links to a few recent articles:
Globe and Mail: Real Estate Recovering
London Free Press: Affordability drives rebound in real estate
Calgary Herald: Canada’s Housing Rebound Led By Expensive Communities
Vancouver Providence: New numbers suggest Metro Vancouver real estate market is heating up
ByTheOwner.com’s customers have also experienced this resurgence. We have received more than 30 testimonials in the past 12 days!
It is easier to sell in a hot market, but it still takes a good price, a good home, and a little bit of effort.
Sell and Save!
ByTheOwner.com
ByTheOwner.com recently had 2 different homes sell within 24 hours! Both customers chose the Premium Plus package, which includes a complete comparative market analysis completed by a licensed real estate professional. These customers received pricing information from their neighbourhood, and they were fully informed and educated about their local real estate market.
At 5% + GST, the approximate savings by the Barrie owner was more than $20,000. Not many people make $20,000 a day!
The London customer saved close to $15,000 by not using a real estate agent.
Why do homes sell in 1 day? Typically it means that there were buyer’s ready to buy and if they feel that the home was priced right, they were ready to act! There are many homes that sell in 1 day on ByTheOwner.com and homes that sell in 1 day with a real estate agent. The main difference is that when you use an agent, there is a lot of money to pay! The thought of using an agent and paying $20,000 in commissions, when there was already a buyer ready to purchase your home, is a scary thought! Why not try ByTheOwner.com and see how much you can save?
ByTheOwner.com
The London Free Press reported that the London Region experienced a 15% drop in sold homes in May (from 1021 in 2008 to 864 in 2009).
ByTheOwner.com had 27 sales in the London Region in May. This is a 92% increase above our London Sold homes in May 2008. In May we accounted for more than 3% of the homes sold in London. Not bad considering that there are more than 1,400 agents in London and we have 1 representative! (Great work Shawn!).
Here is a link to our London Testimonials from May!
ByTheOwner.com
When looking at a recent sold listing, I came across this photo:
There is a park across the street that is clearly visible thanks to the HDR photos. Having a young family of my own, this photo really jumped out and made me take notice. I am sure that other buyers took notice as well.
There are many factors that go into successfully selling a home (price, location, home’s condition, timing, hard work, patience, the right buyer, supply, demand …) but the goal of our ByTheOwner.com HDR photos is to take the best photo we can, and to make our customer’s homes stand out and look the best they can!
Here is an example of the photos that we took before we switched to HDR photos:
Yikes! There is no way to see if there was a nice view out that window! Thanks to our switch to HDR photos, we know that we have the best real estate photos in Canada!
PS - The home that sold across from the park was asking $509,000. That’s more than $25,000 in commissions that the seller did not have to give to an agent! I almost forgot to mention that!
William
Frontdoor.com is HGTV’s home listing website. It’s a new site that has 3.5 million homes advertised in the USA. What I thought was interesting about their site is how they also talk about FSBO, in addition to mentioning agents.
Here is their For Sale By Owner Section: Click Here
I also thought that this was an interesting article on the important of the photos when advertising your home for sale: Click Here
ByTheOwner.com
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