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Louisa Baumander Toronto Real Estate
Louisa Baumander
Sales Representative

Toronto Real Estate
Homes & Condos For Sale

Louisa Baumander Toronto Real EstateSotheby's International Realty Canada, Brokerage
1867 Yonge St. #100
Toronto ON M4S 1Y5

416-960-9995

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May 21, 2014
Posted by: louisa
Wow! Middle of May already. Come on sun, give us a bit of warmth! Never seen Toronto looking so green.

Toronto MLS Home Sales and Average Price May 1-14, 2014The stats are in for the middle of the month. No surprises. It’s an untenable situation with new listings down and sales up (+19.6% over the same period last year) ....prices have risen by an average of 8.9% across the board.

Not all areas are created equal. In the hot spots (North Riverdale, Davisville Village, North Toronto to name a few) the rise in prices has been dramatically more, fuelled by multiple offers. Click here for the Home Price Index - this gives comprehensive statistics comparing actual type of house, actual area this year to last...comparing oranges to oranges.

The higher prices are commensurate with the low interest rates. The lowest five year fixed I have seen is 2.35% with Safebridge Financial Group.

Toronto Mortgage Rates

TORONTO REAL ESTATE BOARD PUBLISHES SOLD STATISTICS FOR MID MAY

5,185 homes sold across in the first two weeks of May. Compared to the same time period last year, this is an increase of a whopping 19.6%. Where are all these buyers coming from?

The average sale price was up by 8.9% to $590,132 from the $542,074 recorded mid May 2013. Although the price growth was greatest for the single detached home, semis (especially), townhomes and condos all did well.

“While tight market conditions continue to prompt strong year-over-year increases in the average selling price, it is important to point out that the monthly cost of home ownership – mortgage principal and interest, property taxes and utilities – has not trended upward as strongly. Strong price growth has been mitigated to a large degree by low borrowing costs,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis”. Click here to see last month’s Housing Charts.

In this age of multiple offers, a lot of safeguards for the buyer go out of the window in an attempt to present the seller with the most enticing offer. These can include clauses for a home inspection, financing, closing quicker than you had thought in order to give the sellers the closing date they want.

If at all possible, give yourself a couple of days to close your old home later so that the move is not fraught. Bridge financing is not hard to get once you have qualified for your mortgage. This will ensure that you are not waiting across the road with your movers, and their clock ticking, waiting for the sellers to vacate. By contract, the sellers have until 6 pm on the date due for closing to move out. And sellers, be out by 3 p m so that you truly can leave the home in a broom swept condition.

Make sure that if you are closing at the end of the month you don’t pick a Friday! Lawyers are always very busy then. If there is a long weekend and you close on a Friday, good luck!

Selling a Tenanted Home

Do you have a tenant and you are putting your home on the market? I hope you have a very good relationship and can work out a plan for showings. Your Tenant will need to inform their insurance company and make sure all valuables and personal items are locked away or removed for safe storage. You can add a monetary incentive...or have an agreement that you will have the apartment professionally cleaned as long as the home is being shown.

A decent tenant in the basement can be a good selling feature to a first time buyer who needs help paying the mortgage.

Here are the actual rules:

Your tenant must be given 24 hours’ notice that there is to be a showing.

Understand the term “vacant possession”. A seller is responsible for giving the tenant who goes month to month 60 days to vacate. And that notice is served from the first of the month. The tenant has to give written proof that he/she will vacate

There must be a provision in the offer stating that the buyer accepts the tenant until such and such a date.

If your tenant is on a lease, they can stay until the end of the lease even if the buyer plans to extensively renovate or move in yourself.

If the tenant is month to month, there are two forms from the Landlord and Tenant Board that can be used by the seller to obtain vacant possession:

Form N12: “Terminate a tenancy at the end of the Term for the Landlord’s or Purchaser’s own use”

Form N13: “Terminate a tenancy at the end of a Term for conversion, Demolition or Repairs”

Buying a New Condo

I am often asked advice regarding buying a new condo. The best I can give is use the 10 day rescind period to have your real estate lawyer review your Agreement of Purchase and Sale and go over it with you. That way you will be under no illusions as to what is going on. Understand too, that what the builder promises you is not necessarily what you will get! They are able to change the layout, finishes and square footage and provided there is no hardship incurred by the buyer with these changes, they can get away with it. Very important to pick a well-reviewed builder who doesn’t use daily jobbers picked up at the unemployment line. Find out what else they have built and check these buildings out, talking to the residents about their experience.

Louisa