Lock Boxes Are Safe

Never in these many years listing and selling homes in Mississauga, Oakville, Brampton or Milton, I have across people fiddling with lock box. They are thief proof (sometime even with the correct combination, it is difficult to open one of those alphabetic lock boxes) I have heard few ladies complaint that they feel insecure with keys in the lock box all the time. They feel that anybody can walk right into a private family moment, awkwardly for all(whatever that means). The answer to that is to remove key from the lock box. Ask your agent for the lock box combination (most agents give this to the sellers anyways, though I not sure what the rule on this is. Remove the key when you know you do not have an appointment and place it when you do.
The purpose of the lock box is to allow agents easy access to the house when the seller is not there. The agent does not reveal the lock box combination to anyone. This protects the agent, the seller and listing agent. A record is maintain in the listing agents brokerage office of all the agents to whom the lock box combinations were revealed.
Most of the houses for sale in Mississauga, Oakville, Milton and Brampton carry a lock box. I have never heard of any reported break ins due to the lock box.

US Realtors putting up a brave face

This is a interesting news items. I hope Conservatives are listening. The saving grace here in Canada is that we never had such hot speculative, investment oriented market.

Housing: What the Realtors Are Saying - Newsweek Business - MSNBC.com

But the one thing that strikes me in this articles is planning and strategy over there. Either we are far different markets or those tools do not work here to that extent.
The housing market in Mississauga, Oakville, Brampton and Milton are actually in good shape overall. Homes sellers are coming forth and people visiting to buy Homes is still at a healthy level.
In tougher time Home Selling Agents or Listing agent will need to use more innovative approach to get the home its due share of exposure.

Closing- What time to call the movers? Noon

'Closing' as we call it in the industry and otherwise known as completing the deal with handing over the key. That little ceremony where the lawyers calls the new owners to pick up the keys to their new home. Timing the Closing, getting the keys to the new home, is still a mystery. Sellers are nervous, Buyers are anxious, beyond that circle, everyone else involved in the deal pray the deal to close. Mostly the Movers are hopeing to make a quick buck if things go wrong. Not that many closes or hand overs go awry right at the end. But it has happened. When and at time to begin shifting is not easy answer. Families, children, pets luggage, boxes and all the stuff that movers wouldn't touch have to be moved in cars. Frayed tempers and unnecessary irritation It would make it easier for everybody involved in the moving process to get a sense of the more narrower time frame.

In Ontario, the seller and buyer of a home are aware that keys will be handed over no later than 6pm on the Closing date. Talk to different people and there will be a standard response.

Real Estate Agent: “Talk to the lawyer.”

Movers: “Talk to the lawyer”

Banker: “Talk to the lawyer”

Lawyer: “I will talk with the other lawyer”.

Here is a heads up on behind the door look at the closing process itself. A few days before actual closing all the paper work, monies adjustment and modalities are done. On the morning of the Closing date, the title of ownership is e transferred in presence of both the lawyers (hopefully both make it there on time and their turn comes soon). Takes a minute (hopefully, if the computer system is not down). The bank recieves the go ahead from Re Insuers (who hopefully are not caught with something else), the buyers bank (if they are not busy and caught up in something urgent) makes a cheque on behalf of the buyer to the Seller's lawyer. When the Seller's lawyer recives it (hopefully in time) and check if everything is alrighty. Then the Buyer's lawyer calls to confirm with the Sellers lawyer (if avialable, on a busy day both can be leaving messages for each another before speaking) if everything the cheque is spot on. Only after confirming with the other lawyer (hopefully it is not lunch or dinner time by now), the lawyers secretary will call the buyers to come and pick up the keys. Now you see where the ambguity sets in.

My advise to buyers would be starting packing around noon and to sellers would be to leave the premises by noon.

Selling Vacant Homes

Do Vacant Homes Sell Faster

Most buyers when entering a vacant home have difficulty judging the
size and space in a room. When faced with mulitiple rooms and a
somewhat unique floorplan, some buyers are simply lost and may consider
these rooms “wasted space”.

Staging a vacant home
defines the room’s use and puts on display the possibilties they
offer. Buyers walk in and get excited about the spaces they see - not
confused. Staging a home creates the vision of the lifestyle that
awaits should a person choose to make your house their home. Don’t let
buyers mistake any room in your home as “wasted space”. Have your home
professionally Staged so that each area is showcased to highlight its potential.

Often with vacant homes, the buyers are
more interested to know why it is vacant. Many buyers assume that
vacant home has been in the market for a longer time. Therefore they
could land a bargain if negotiated well. That is hardly the case. The
seller has removed everything to do up the place so that they can get
the best price. I guess that all depends on location, market
sensitivity and how the home shows.

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Ontario's Economy Slow Down may not hurt Real Estate market

Life at a 3.5-per-cent growth rate is good for pretty much everyone, economist Rick Egelton says. At 2 per cent, he adds, some sectors are doing well, but others are struggling. At below 2 per cent, the picture starts to get ugly -- more people are struggling and many are just getting by, although some are still doing well.

That's where Ontario's economy is hovering right now. In the second quarter of this year, the provincial accounts show Canada's biggest province hardly moved.

The provincial government and most economists have dramatically scaled back their expectations for the rest of this year. And the slowdown in economic activity is widely expected to persist well into 2007.

And yet, the signs are hard to see. Retailers are not boarding up their shops, the ranks of the unemployed are not swelling and homeowners are not missing their mortgage payments. True, the provincial government's deficit will be larger than initially announced, but no one is talking about spending cuts.

The pain seems to be concentrated in a single, albeit important, sector: manufacturing. "The economy in Ontario is still expanding. You have one sector that is being hit very hard," says Mr. Egelton, chief economist at Bank of Montreal.

The secret to containing the pain is not obvious, and economists offer a variety of theories and factors about how the slowdown has been contained: low inflation, spillover demand from the West, and fiscal stimulus are the leading contenders.

Low inflation, and its corollary, low interest rates, have meant that consumers and businesses can continue to borrow, shop, invest and buy houses at a low cost.

In the past, sectoral slowdowns have been quick to spread to other sectors, because they've come at times of high inflation and high interest rates, economists say.

But this time, while the real estate market isn't booming in Ontario as it was two years ago, it is still lively. Consumer spending and retail sales have taken a bit of a breather in recent months, but they remain at high levels. Business investment, beyond the manufacturing sector, appears to be strong.

And governments are also providing support to Ontarians, points out Marie-Christine Bernard, an economist with the Conference Board of Canada. Tax cuts from Ottawa, combined with strong fiscal positions at both the federal and provincial levels, have stimulated consumer spending and kept government spending and hiring strong, she says.

Mr. Wright floats a theory: Canada may be experiencing a "rolling recession" -- a series of sectoral recessions starting with the tech-wreck in 2001 that has turned to manufacturing and the auto sector.

Since the sectoral recessions occur at a time when other economic fundamentals are solid, the overall economy "doesn't look too bad," he says.

And there's no doubt that Ontario's large and diverse economy is benefiting from the boom in the West, economists say. The oil and gas sector's thirst for goods and services has injected some strength in Ontario. But will the weakness remain relatively limited to the manufacturing sector? Most economists are nagged by their doubts.

Manufacturing makes up about 20 per cent of Ontario's economy, but every dollar of manufacturing output in the province drives about $3.25 in economic activity. Suppliers of goods and services, retailers and governments are all dependent on manufacturing money.

Over the next few quarters, as the manufacturing sector continues its slide, the most vulnerable sectors are finance, real estate, technology services, business services, engineering, warehousing, transportation and communication, says Jayson Myers, chief economist of the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters. "I think that we will see much more significant impacts in these other sectors over the next year, given the sombre outlook in Ontario manufacturing," he says.

Because Ontario's population is growing faster than the economy, they calculate that advances in gross domestic product per capita -- a common measure of standard of living -- will slow to a crawl this year and next. That won't feel good for many Ontarians. "Ontario is very used to being at the top of the ladder," Scotiabank economist Meny Grauman says. "I don't know if there's pain now in the short term, but you can see pain coming down the road if the trend persist