24 Aug Understanding the Real Estate Language
What is a home evaluation and how can it help you?
Home inspections, home evaluations and home appraisals all sound like the same word, but they are very different.
Home evaluation: Your real estate agent will compare your property to other similar properties that have been listed for sale and sold in your local market, creating a comparative market analysis (CMA). This takes all of the guesswork out of how much your home is really worth. A CMA will cover things like listing prices for homes similar to yours, how many days it has been on the market, how many price reductions there have been, and what the final selling price was compared to the asking price. It should include detailed dollar adjustments for features in the home being evaluated vs. other comparable homes. Simply looking at a sold list doesn’t tell the whole story regarding what upgrades have been done, ie; finished basement, extra bathrooms, size of the lot, is the home on a busy street or backing onto a commercial property, who is the builder, what is the neighbourhood like.
What criteria is used to evaluate your home?
Active Listings: Active listings can be very helpful information if there is a home on the market that is in direct comparison with your home, but remember some sellers list their home for whatever they want not taking the advice of their sales representative.
Sold Listings: Sold listings show comparable sales to determine the market value of your home. This is one of the key factors when doing a home evaluation, as you can see what people are willing to pay in your local market.
Price Changes: The most action on a listing occurs within the first 2 weeks of being on MLS. Price changes show you the impact of pricing a property accurately. Listing your home at a higher price thinking you can lower it later, might not work in your favour.
Cancelled and/or Expired Listings: A common reason why sellers take their properties off of the market is that their asking price is too high, but there can be many other reasons why. An important note to remember is that this information is available for realtors to view in MLS history.
If you would like to see how much your home is worth, please reach out to us and we would be happy to provide you with a complimentary home evaluation.
The ins and Outs of Co-Habitation Agreements
Whether you are living as a couple or just sharing a home together as a way to make real estate more affordable, co-habitation agreements are not only a good idea but they also make you ask and answer some tough questions.
- What happens if something goes wrong? What if one person wants to sell before the other person?
- What happens if one of you gets sick and or incapacitated for a long period of time or permanently?
Of course you don’t want to have to think about drafting a document that deals with issues around sickness, break-ups or even death during one of the most exciting and happiest times of your life but the reality is that hard things happen in life and you will be thankful you put everything in writing when things are going well.
Many couples don’t discuss finances or their thoughts on what’s equitable in a home until it comes time to make a decision, and by then there are too many emotions to be able to be rational about the situation. Its equally as important to have a co-habitation agreement when the people who are buying are not romantically involved. Whether it’s because of a disagreement or life change and someone wants to sell their share, having an agreement in place makes things simpler.