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By admin, July 10, 2009 3:58 pm

Your credit score is used by most companies to see if you are a good credit risk or not. A credit score of over 680 is considered excellent.

What Can You Do to Improve Your Score?

1. Order a copy of your credit report from www.equifax.com or www.transunion.com to review it and make sure there are no errors.
2. Pay your bills on time.
3. If your credit history is questionable, open a few new accounts and use them responsibly.
4. Don’t open accounts and not use them. Having 6 or 7 of the same type of credit does not work in your favour.
5. Keep your balances low relative to your amount of credit available.
6. Pay off credit card debts!

What Does This Mean to Home Buyer’s?

The better your credit score the higher you buying power (income dependent as well). You will also qualify for the best mortgage products at the best rates.

To see what your credit score is and how much of a home you can afford, make sure to talk to your Real Estate Agent and Mortgage Broker before shopping for your Toronto Home.

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By Lisa Collins, May 1, 2009 10:07 pm

When I meet with prospective sellers, one of the components of my presentation is the sellers net sheet.  The seller net sheet simply anticipates the money you will receive from the home sale, once all fees and charges are settled.

The seller net sheet calculates your closing proceeds after you enter variables such as your mortgage payoff, sales price, sales commission, pending real estate taxes, and closing costs.

Why is this tool so important.  First of all it show you, the seller, what costs are involved in selling their home. Not everyone realizes all the costs associated with selling a home. Secondly it shows whether there will be money left over at the end of the day.  If not then a short sale would have to be negotiated if defaulting on a mortgage was likely.

Don’t put your home on the market without knowing where you stand.

To book a Free Market Evaluation of your Toronto Real Estate, give me a call at 416-518-8188.

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By Lisa Collins, January 20, 2009 5:47 pm

Have you ever signed up for buyer information on a Realtor’s website only to never hear from them?  Did you ask for a market evaluation and never receive it?

Many Internet users expect a very quick response to their inquiry because that is the level of service they have found from the big success on the Internet.  And this expectation carries over to a response from a Realtor.  Last year I worked with some clients from Brazil.  They had sent e-mails to 4 Realtors, I was the only one they heard from.  So who got their business, I did, of course.  They bought a condominium and after it closed I helped them lease it out.

I pride myself in responding to all inquiries within 0 to 6 hours.  It all depends if I am sitting in front of the computer or out workign with my clients.  With Blackberry’s and wi-fi access becoming more commonly available, there is no excuse for tardiness.

So if you want a responsive agent who will be in contact with you when you want them to, give me a call 416.518.8188.

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By Lisa Collins, July 25, 2008 4:11 pm

Some people feel that real estate agents are greedy and find it hard to justify paying a large commission to them.  Here is how it breaks down for an average real estate agent in the real world.

Let’s take an even $1,000 just to simplfy the math.

From that $1,000’s 30-40% goes to the agent’s broker, training, board licensing, and insurance.

From that $600 20% goes to their car expenses.

From that $480 about 25% goes to the tax man.

From that $360 about 5% goes to advertising and marketing.

So the agent is left with $280 per $1,000.

That leaves only 28% for their famly and everything else.

Now let’s paint a picture, we take your average family of 4 like my own and the average family needs about 60,000 after tax dollars each year to pay for the mortgage, clothes, utlitlies, food, and everyting else. $376,000 is the average price for a home in Toronto.  If you calculate a 2.5% commission on one end of either selling or buyers agent for this home $9400.  The agent ends up at the end of the day with only $2632 in their pocket for their family expenses.  The agent would have to sell 23 average homes in a year to support their family.

In the last 12 months 93,375 homes have sold in the GTA.  There are 27,944 agents.  Each transaction has 2 sides so on average an agent is only selling 6 homes a year.  If you do the math here you will see that most agents are living below the poverty line.  Yikes!