Federal Government to help finance greener homes
Posted on May 27, 2021 in Energy efficiency
The Federal Government’s Canada Greener Homes Grants program was barely announced when its popularity was evident. The “applications page” was down because it was overwhelmed with such a high demand.
The grants — up to $5,000 — are to help home owners retrofit their primary residence to make it more efficient. The first step in the application proce...
Competitive bidding fuels ‘skip the inspection’
Posted on May 25, 2021 in Home inspections
Often, Vancouver and Toronto are connected when the discussion turns to real estate, mainly because they frequently experience similar trends when it comes to house prices. That being said, there’s a current trend in Toronto that could be foreboding for buyers in the Lower Mainland.
It has to do with inspections.
In Toronto (or GTA as Torontonians sa...
CMHC’s incentive for first-time home buyers
Posted on May 22, 2021 in Buying a house
With all the real estate activity there is, somewhere in the mix there are likely many first-time buyers, or perhaps first-time-buyers-to-be. If you’re among them, or you know somebody who is, you might find this blog particularly interesting.
To help first-time buyers qualify for a mortgage, the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation makes it eas...
Buy new? Buy pre-owned? Always an interesting question
Posted on May 18, 2021 in Buying a house
There are always advantages to buying something new or something “pre-owned” whether you’re talking about cars, homes, computers or lawn mowers.
In terms of real estate, these days the choices between “new” and “pre-owned” probably applies more to condos or townhomes than it applies to single family dwellings that are not being built at the same pac...
Home maintenance: a reason to schedule those jobs
Posted on May 14, 2021
The snooze-you-lose cliche can apply to many things, among them the maintenance chores around your home. Putting off today what you can do tomorrow is sometimes a costly process, because it’s easy to overlook repairs that you should do…until you must do them.
Realtors like to help clients, potential and real ones, recognize how important it is to ke...
Floating homes a niche market
Posted on May 10, 2021 in Buying a house
In the Lower Mainland, real estate and water go hand-in-hand. Really estate with views of the water, or better yet situated on the water’s edge, is always more desirable…or at least it costs more.
Some British Columbians even live on the water.
Living in a floating home has been a way of life in B.C. for well over a century. The concept was conceived...