7 STEP FALL HOME CHECKLIST

16 October 2015

Source:Homelife.ca

7 STEP FALL HOME CHECKLIST

16
OCT2015

As the hot summer months start to fade into a pleasant memory and the clean crisp air provides that yearly reminder that the deep freeze will soon be upon us; it’s once again time to prepare our homes for winter.

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The following FALL HOME CHECKLIST can serve as a reminder of some of the more critical things that need to be taken care of.

1. Windows and Doors: Take a walk around your home and take a close look at all the doors and windows. Look for damaged caulking, gaps between cases and frames and missing weather stripping. Also take note of any peeling paint and consider repairing before winter weather impacts the integrity the components beneath.

2. Roof & Shingles: It’s always a good idea to have a professional climb a ladder and closely inspect the shingles and the overall seal. This is especially important after serve weather that may have removed shingles. The freeze and thaw of fall will wreak havoc on your roof so make sure it is in prime condition.

3. Gutters: Fall is synonymous with falling leaves and leaves can clog your gutters which frequently result in overflow of water. Many a home has suffered extensive damage when this occurs. Put on some water proof gloves, climb a ladder and make sure the gutters are clean and dry.

4. Smoke Alarms and Carbon Monoxide Detectors: Use the changing of the season as a reminder to check your batteries and to test your devices to ensure they are all in good working order.

5. Thermostat: To conserve energy through the winter months consider using this time to install a programmable thermostat. Turning the heat down automatically every night can have a huge positive impact on the size of your heating bill.

6. Your Lawn: To keep your lawn healthy; don’t let it suffocate under a thick layer of leaves.  Be sure to either move the lawn to mulch the leaves or to rake the lawns up. If left on the ground for prolonged period of time you could result in dead spots in the spring.

7. Lawnmower: Once you have moved for the final time of the year; empty the lawnmower of any left-over gas, cover it up or store in a safe drive area until needed again in the spring.

When buying or selling a home with a HomeLife Sales Representative ask about the HomeLife Home Warranty TM Program. Expensive Home Systems or appliance repairs can be a major concern to buyers. The HomeLife Home Warranty TM Program provides peace of mind during the home buying and selling process. The HomeLife Home Warranty TM Program protects you from the high cost of repairs due to unexpected breakdowns of covered home systems and appliances arising from normal wear and tear. 

How to create instant curb appeal this fall

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(NC) We all know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, however when it comes to real estate, first impressions go a long way.

“Home buyers tend to use the exterior of a home and its yard as a gauge on what the inside looks like,” says Patricia Verge, president of the Ontario Real Estate Association. “Buyers will often do a 'drive-by' before deciding whether or not to request a showing. First impressions are critical to capture the attention of home buyers and send the message that the home has been well cared for, inside and out.”

To ensure your home stands out and gets noticed for the right reasons this fall, Verge recommends taking care of these simple steps before listing:

• Cut: Make sure trees and bushes are neatly trimmed.

• Clear: Remove leaves and sticks from gutters. Make sure the lawn is mowed, leaves are raked and weeds are removed.

• Clean: Wash windows, pressure-wash dirty siding and decks, and kill mould and mildew on the house, sidewalks, roof and driveway.

• Paint: If you can't afford to do the whole house, a fresh coat of paint will transform your front door and provide a more welcoming entrance.

• Primp: Add a boost of color to your garden with fall bloomers like mums and pansies.

• Upgrade: Change outdated locks and handles on your front door, replace rusty fixtures and add lighting to the front porch and yard.

“Preparing the exterior is one of the most important things sellers can do to ready a home for sale,” says Verge. “With a little creativity and care, you can rest assured that your home looks its best without breaking the bank.”

Talk to your Realtor about what potential buyers in your area are looking for.

More information is available at www.wedothehomework.ca.

Finance

Will Getting Pre-Approved for a Mortgage Hurt My Credit?

By
Credit.com

4:42 pm ET
September 24, 2015

Courtney Keating/iStock

Shopping for a home loan means getting your credit pulled. There’s no way around it.
Without taking a look at your credit report, most lenders won’t be able to complete your pre-qualification, much less pre-approve you to purchase a home.
Granting lenders permission to pull your scores—yes, they need your permission—constitutes what’s known as a “hard inquiry.” To be sure, a hard inquiry can ding your credit.
But if there is a hit, it’s typically just a handful of points. Hard inquiries on your credit can be a troublesome sign. But the major credit bureaus also see the value of comparison shopping—and that’s why they cut home buyers some slack.
Let’s take a closer look at how shopping around for a mortgage will affect your credit and the smartest ways to limit the impact.

Hard vs. soft inquiries

Your credit report isn’t just a measure of your financial health. It’s also a powerful identity verification tool, which is in part why employers and insurance providers might also want a peek.
For consumers, that means the reason behind the inquiry plays a role. There are always exceptions, but the big difference between hard and soft inquiries generally lies in their potential to result in new debt obligations.
Hard inquiries can include:

• Mortgage applications
• Auto financing
• Credit cards
• Retail credit accounts

Soft inquiries can include:

• Checking your own credit. You can get your free annual credit reports from AnnualCreditReport.com without dinging your credit, for example. And you can check your credit scores for free on Credit.com without a hard inquiry as well.
• Services that check and monitor your credit (Be careful: Paid credit repair services generally don’t fall under this category and can be detrimental to your credit scores.)
• Insurance providers
• Employers

Other types of inquiries toe the line between the two. To be safe, you should ask about what type of credit inquiry will be made if you’re thinking about:

• Signing a mobile phone contract
• Setting up cable, Internet, or utility service
• Opening a bank account
• Increasing an existing line of credit

Creditors want to look at your hard inquiries, and for good reason: Every new debt takes a bite out of your monthly budget. If it looks like you’re making sudden, desperate attempts to borrow money, this can raise a red flag for creditors who may be worried about your ability to repay the credit they extend to you.
But don’t panic: Seeking loan pre-approval from multiple mortgage lenders isn’t going to kill your scores.

How mortgage pre-approval & hard inquiries work

Normally, a hard inquiry is a hard inquiry. Where things can change is if you’re rate shopping among multiple mortgage lenders.
First, it’s important to understand that pre-approval isn’t a binding step. You can work toward a pre-approval letter from as many lenders as you like.
Second, the credit bureaus have come to expect rate shopping. Rather than count every mortgage credit pull against you, most scoring formulas treat all of these hard inquiries within a certain time period as one, big credit pull.

The time frame varies depending on the scoring firm. For example, the newest FICO scoring models consider all inquiries within a 45-day window as a single hard credit pull. The older versions of the FICO scores work off a 14-day span, so ask the lender what scoring model it’ll be using.
That gives consumers a solid period of time to work toward pre-approval among multiple lenders. You’ll get a good look at their rates, terms, and estimated closing costs without worrying about your credit score taking a nosedive.
Also, FICO scores will ignore any hard mortgage inquiries in the 30 days preceding your scoring, so if you go to a second lender a week after getting pre-approved by the first, your hard inquiry from the first lender won’t be factored into your scores already.
Don’t let the fear of losing a couple of points from an inquiry keep you from starting the mortgage-shopping process. You can always have a chat with a mortgage lender about affordability and loan terms without having a hard inquiry, especially if you’ve checked your credit scores recently and know where you stand. Just keep in mind that different lenders use different credit scoring models to get you approved, so their estimates will be just that—estimates—until you ask for a hard inquiry to be done. The key to minimizing the impact of hard credit inquiries is to understand what they are and how they can affect you. Information is your best protection.

———

This article was written by Chris Birk and originally published on Credit.com.

GTA REALTORS® RELEASE MONTHLY RESALE HOUSING FIGURES

NEWS RELEASE

 GTA REALTORS^® RELEASE MONTHLY RESALE HOUSING FIGURES

TORONTO, October 5, 2015 -- Toronto Real Estate Board President Mark McLean announced that Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported a record number of transactions for the month of September through TREB’s MLS® System.  There was a combined 8,200 home sales reported for September 2015.  This result was up 2.5 per cent compared to September 2014.
TREB MLS® sales through the first nine months of 2015 amounted to 80,331, which also represented a record result and a 9.5 per cent increase compared to the first three quarters of 2014.
“We are on track for record home sales reported through TREB’s MLS® System this year.  Barring a drastic shift in the economy over the next three months, total transactions reported by TREB Members in 2015 are expected to be at or near the 100,000 mark.  This is a testament to the importance that GTA households put on home ownership as a long-term investment,” said Mr. McLean.
The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) Composite Benchmark Price was up by 10.5 per cent year over year.  The average selling price for all home types combined was also up by 9.2 per cent annually to $627,395.  Growth in the MLS® HPI Composite Benchmark and the average price was driven by the low-rise market segments, including detached and semi-detached houses and townhouses.
“While September was the second straight month where annual growth in new listings outstripped annual growth sales, total active listings at the end of the month still remained below last year’s level.  This, coupled with the record pace of sales experienced so far this year, suggests that competition between buyers will remain strong as we move into the fourth quarter.  Expect strong rates of price growth to continue through the remainder of 2015 and into 2016,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis.

Summary of TorontoMLS Sales and Average Price
September 1 - 30, 2015
	2015			2014
	Sales	Average Price	New Listings	Sales	Average Price	New Listings
City of Toronto ("416")	3,137	674,922	6,816	3,051	625,971	6,571
Rest of GTA ("905")	5,063	597,947	9,261	4,950	542,653	9,000
GTA	8,200	627,395	16,077	8,001	574,424	15,571

TorontoMLS Sales & Average Price  By Home Type
September 1 - 30, 2015
	Sales			Average Price
	416	905	Total	416	905	Total
Detached	1,051	2,827	3,878	1,053,871	732,852	819,853
Yr./Yr. % Change	0.0%	0.9%	0.7%	10.7%	11.6%	11.2%
Semi-Detached	318	523	841	740,373	497,775	589,506
Yr./Yr. % Change	1.9%	2.5%	2.3%	7.3%	11.1%	9.2%
Townhouse	300	984	1,284	527,257	448,930	467,231
Yr./Yr. % Change	2.0%	6.3%	5.2%	10.8%	9.6%	9.7%
Condo Apartment	1,444	608	2,052	418,603	307,295	385,623
Yr./Yr. % Change	5.6%	2.4%	4.6%	5.6%	2.2%	5.0%

	Composite (All Types)	Single-Family Detached	Single-Family Attached	Townhouse	Apartment
TREB Total	10.46%	12.01%	11.20%	9.85%	5.65%
Halton Region	9.39%	9.66%	9.77%	6.86%	-
Peel Region	9.68%	10.46%	10.94%	10.04%	3.26%
City of Toronto	8.62%	10.88%	8.54%	8.84%	5.95%
York Region	13.95%	14.73%	14.70%	12.30%	5.52%
Durham Region	13.51%	13.26%	14.71%	11.59%	11.58%
Orangeville	10.44%	11.24%	10.37%	-	-
South Simcoe County1	13.31%	12.54%	14.53%	-	-
Source: Toronto Real Estate Board
1South Simcoe includes Adjala-Tosorontio, Bradford West Gwillimbury, Essa, Innisfil and New Tecumseth  If you are looking for buying, selling or investing real estate in Greater Toronto area, look no further. Your search for real estate agent ends here. www.realtorpankajpatel.com