The Real Estate Professional

There are a lot of great reasons for Canadians to buy right now. Low home prices and interest rates are the most obvious ones, but did you know about the First Time Home Buyers tax credit and the increase in the withdrawal ceiling on the RRSP Home Buyers Plan? The 2009 federal budget is making home ownership easier than ever.

Home prices and interest rates are dropping in most Canadian cities, making it a great time to buy from a basic financial standpoint – if you can own instead of rent for a comparable amount of money, why not? Lower home prices mean that you have more options and more buying power.

Interest rates have dropped along with home prices. Interest rates are what really determine what your home payment will be. Right now, you can get an interest rate for below 5%. This can bring your mortgage payment down hundreds of dollars a month.

The 2009 federal budget allows you to make more money tax-free. The tax free amount used to be $9,600; now it’s $10,320. The ceiling on the first two tax brackets has also risen. An income of up to $40,726 is only taxed 15%. The next bracket of 22% income taxation applies to incomes of up to $81,452.

Right now, the government is offering tax credit towards home renovation from $1000-10000, which ends up being around 15% cash back when you tally up your savings. Buy that fixer-upper and put some work into it, knowing that a good chunk will come back to you in tax read more

“Today, being a professional salesperson is just that – sell homes and move on. Running a business where you have all the costs is running a business. ” (Lee Woodward, CEO Real Estate Academy). In other words, the two should not be confused.

 

If there were an award for the most controversial and widely debated topic in real estate today, that award would arguably go to the topic of pay structures in this industry.

 

In an attempt to gain direction and understanding of this issue, a number of prominent industry leaders gathered together in one room recently at The Complete Leader Conference, hosted by renowned sales coach and business visionary, Lee Woodward. Lee was joined at the conference by a unique line-up of leadership professionals, who, over two days, tackled head-on, a number of crucial issues facing real estate industry leaders today. In this way, it wasn’t so much about being given the answers, but more an open forum where participants were encouraged to contribute and be open to a variety of views on many thought-provoking leadership issues.

 

Extensive research was undertaken prior to the conference in order to develop an interactive survey that formed a key part of the day. The purpose of the survey was to anonymously extract information about the delegates as a broad representative sample of our industry leaders. The findings of the survey highlighted that, in terms read more

Strategy 1: Only spend time with qualified sellers who have both motivation and condition. Motivation: a compelling reason to sell with a time crunch to do it in Condition: there is a way to structure a profitable deal – either the seller has the equity to take a deep discount in price or the financing is such that you can structure terms for you to make your profit that way. Strategy 2: A deal is only a deal once you have signed contracts in hand. And even then, you might not. I just made an offer on an awesome house in a high appreciating area. There was a cash offer in ahead of me for full price. I made my offer higher. The seller rejected my offer because it was not a cash offer, and accepted the cash offer. Within 24 hours the cash offer pulled out. Apparently he made offers on several properties, tying them up, and picking which ones were best, and pulling out of the rest. Strategy 3: Use “standardized” forms and contracts that you know how to use fast. Have your attorney review contracts you have, and have a standard version of them legally approved. Then make changes to them for each transaction by using an addendum. Strategy 4: Perform your due diligence before; during and after you have the property under contract. I need comparables and a rough idea of repair expenses before making my offer. The title report is not essential until I have my offer accepted because I have a contingency clause allowing me to cancel if I don’t read more