Blog.ByTheOwner.com

A recent Toronto Star article has some useful information on home inspections. The article can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/living/article/309881

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The Canadian Real Estate Association has begun to air TV commercials trying to promote using a real estate agent over selling your home privately. You can view the commericals here:

http://www.realtor.ca/commercials.htm

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A recent Toronto Star article talks about the different financing options now available to home buyers. The article discusses:

- You can now pay off your mortgage over 30 to 40 years, instead of up to 25 years as before.

- You can now get a conventional mortgage by putting down 20 per cent of the purchase price.

- You can now qualify for a low-down-payment mortgage if you’re self-employed or work on commissions.

- You can now qualify for a mortgage if your total debt load is more than 40 per cent.

- You can now put down only 3 per cent of the purchase price.

Here is a link to the article written by Ellen Roseman:

40-year mortgages have arrived

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MLS is changing the rules in order to “protect their MLS trademark”. Here is a recent Real Estate Article from an Ottawa based writer for Canadian Business Magazine.

The author also posted some info on his blog about his own experiences selling For-Sale-By-Owner.

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ByTheOwner.com’s properties for sale can now take advantage of the 30 Million Facebook users!

On June 14th, ByTheOwner.com released our exclusive Facebook application. The application was built by our programmers and it allows our properties (Front photo and info) to be uploaded to Facebook.

Facebook is on it’s way to becoming the most visited website in the world. Currently there are 30 million users and there will be 50 million by the end of 2007. Here are the number of Facebook users in specific Canadian cities as of June 13th:

Toronto, ON - 641,221 (about 15% of the population)
Vancouver, BC - 281,030 (about 10% of the population)
Barrie, ON - 50,515 (about 40% of the population)
Kitchener, ON- 77,369 (about 20% of the population)
London, ON - 90,734 (about 25% of the population)
Ottawa, ON - 147,212
Hamilton, ON - 68,054
Kingston, ON - 35,285
Montreal, QC - 129,216

The ByTheOwner.com Facebook Application can be activated by clicking on the Facebook button in any listing.

After the listing has been uploaded, you can share the listing with your friends (and their friends) and you can place the home in the Facebook Marketplace and advertise it to everyone in your city.

Thanks to our ByTheOwner.com programmers who have worked very hard to get this up and running so quickly!

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HGTV has great tips on how to get ready to sell your home and how to stage your home.

Their Designed to Sell program is all about staging your home and making appeal to buyers so that you can make the best impact and get the most money for your home. There is no doubt that having a clean, uncluttered, and fresh smelling home makes an enormace difference in helping you sell. At ByTheOwner.com we list more than 200 homes per week, and we can see the difference it makes. If a home is well prepared when we come to take the photos, and the owner is ready for showings, it is more than likely that the home will sell in 2-6 weeks. Of couse the home also needs to be priced according to similar properties in the area, but the fact is that if your home looks great, then buyers will choose your home over the unprepared house down the street. If your home IS unprepared, you can expect buyer to bring in lower offers or not even bother to out in an offer at all.

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CMHC, Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corportation, has designed at worksheet to help buyers compare 3 different houses. The worksheet can be a great tool to make sure that, as a buyer, you did not overlook any aspect of the home(s) that you are considering purchasing.

The worksheet can be found by clicking here

The worksheet lets you examine the

1) Annual costs

2) Neighbourhood

3) Chattels incuded with the home

4) Exterior attributes

5) Interior attributes

If buyers are using this form to compare potential homes, and you are looking at a home on ByTheOwner.com, be sure to write “OWNER” in the real estate rep section!

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The Royal Bank of Canada’s Mortgage website has tips for selling your own home. They do point out all the money that can be saved selling privately and they also mention “pitfalls” to selling your own home.

ByTheOwner.com thinks it’s great that Canada’s Largest Bank has discussed selling privately on their website. However, we do have some suggestions on how they can improve this section of their site…

1) They mention that you “probably want to engage the expertise of a notary or real estate lawyer”. ByTheOwner would suggest that this is a “definite” as opposed to a “probably”. Calling a lawyer is the first step in our guide.

2) The Royal Bank’s second point is “Designing a real estate marketing plan” which links to a section about “Using a real estate agent”. While we agree that a Marketing Plan is very important, we know that you don’t need an agent to do this! More help on creating a Marketing Plan can be found on page 14 of our guide.

3) One of the “pitfalls” that they mention is “Limited Marketing Exposure”. We agree that we do not yet have the exposure of mls, however, 40% of home on mls do not sell! Our success rate ranges from 50-60% depending on the area, so we have a similar success rate to homes on mls! So obviously mls is not a big factor in selling your home.

4) The other pitfall they mention is and “Attracting Serious Buyers”. This is where we feel that the Royal Bank needs to improve or at least back their statements up with facts! They mention “Typically, people who visit FSBO properties are either “just looking” or bargain hunters”. What source did they get this from? ByTheOwner.com has not had this comment often in our testimonials or feedback. People can “look” at mls or bytheowner.com so we are not sure how this applies to for sale by owner homes. Having the photos and info easily available for buyers eliminates most of the “lookers”, but anyone who has a house for sale or an open house with or without an agent will get “lookers”.

All in all, the Royal Bank’s Website on selling your home is quite good, with lots of good tips and advice. Perhaps a few small changes and perhaps mentioning ByTheOwner.com when selling your home privately and their website would be even better!

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There was a fantastic article entitled “When selling home, truth is best policy” in the Toronto Star on Saturday, May 12, 2007.

The article is written by a Real Estate Lawyer and it discusses the importance of being honest when selling a home. The article also questions a form, which real estate agents give to their clients to complete, that offers protection only for the agent, and also leaves the seller open to legal repercussions!

The article discusses a document which real estate agents use called a “Property Condition Disclosure Statement” (PCDS). This is a form which agents give to their clients to complete. At the bottom of the form is a disclaimer that states the real estate agents involved assume no liability or responsibility for the accuracy of the disclosure. This disclaimer is for “the benefit of the realtor only and not for the vendor”. The article describes an example where the owner filled out the PCDS and stated that a well was in good working order, but when the new buyers moved in, the well was dry. The sellers had to pay $46,393 to replace the well.
The author offers some lessons at the end of the article:

1) Sellers should never sign a Sellers Property Information Statement. (If you do sign one, you “should keep the name of a good litigation lawyer handy.”)

2) Buyers should always make their own investigations. These include home inspection and where there is no municipal water service, a well driller’s certificate and potability test.

3) Both buyers and sellers should bear in mind that the disclaimer “is for the benefit of the realtor only”

4) It’s always a good idea to have an agreement of purchase and sale reviewed by a real estate lawyer before it is signed. There is no such thing as a simple real estate deal”.

Why would Realtor’s provide their clients with a document which protects the Realtor, and at the same time leaves the seller open to litigation? Real Estate Agents often advertise that they have the “Legal know-how”. Here is a quote from the Canadian Real Estate Association’s website (howrealtorshelp.ca): “A mishandled document can ruin a sale, or lead to legal action. Your Realtor has the experience to recognize potential hurltes early…”. Based on the article above, you have to wonder who’s interest is protected if you use an agent?

As mentioned by the author, “It is always a good idea to have the agreement of purchase and sale reviewed by a real estate lawyer before it is signed”. This is what ByTheOwner.com recommends in our guide to selling privately. Our advice is to not sign anything until your lawyer has reviewed the contract and your lawyer has answered all your questions. After all, who is more educated on Real Estate Law, Realtors or Lawyers?
The full article can be seen at :

http://www.thestar.com/Athome/article/212301

http://www.bytheowner.com