What's related?
Someone has estimated that there
are now about four million real estate websites!
Whatever the truth to it, you'll
benefit by visiting at least the following ones -- plus
the others they can take you to.
Location, location, location
The Niagara Falls,
St. Catharines, and Welland Real Estate Boards are
now amalgamated as a single Niagara Association of Realtors
and have a combined Regional
MLS website. It allows you to do a Quick Search for
a list of available properties in a choice of locations
and within a selected price range. Or you can
choose an Advanced Search, which narrows things down to the
number of bedrooms and other features you wish to have.
It's updated regularly and provides a one stop source of
information about the entire Niagara Peninsula real estate
market and all the people involved in it.
For searches further
afield, the Canadian
Real Estate Association can help you learn
what's available almost anywhere from coast to coast
and from just about any real estate company or agent.
Its site begins with a map of the whole country that you
can narrow down, one step at a time, to whichever location
you're interested in.
Mortgage information
One of the consequences of the current economic downturn is that
up to the minute online information has become somewhat sparse. Interest
rates and mortgage terms are changing every month. Thus, making
sense out of how easily (or not!) you can finance the purchase of a
home or any other property has become more difficult than it used to be.
Nevertheless, the basics of applying and getting approval for
a mortgage haven't changed, even though each lender has its own "special
differences." It therefore does no harm to browse the websites
of the various main Canadian banks. At the same time, however, it's
probably useful to get a general overview by visiting the webpages put
together by one of the well known and recognized mortgage brokerage firms.
Home inspection
Today's buyers
are showing an increasing interest in having someone
go over a house before they buy it. An outlay of
a few hundred dollars can pay dividends in avoiding surprises
or, at least, knowing what to expect in the years ahead.
There are several firms specializing in this field, but the
undoubted leader is Carson
Dunlop who, as it's said, "wrote the book on it."
Their site is well worth a visit.
Legal costs and concerns
Although real estate
people are expected, to an increasing degree, to
be aware of the legal problems that can arise in selling
and buying a home, it usually requires a lawyer's services
to bring everything to a successful and rightful conclusion,
and you are, on the whole, ill advised to forego them.
Unfortunately, websites that deal with the different issues
are invariably U.S. based, with the terminology and processes often
being inapplicable to the somewhat different legal situation in
Canada. Thus, the lawyer you choose to look after things for you
is the obvious contact for answers to your questions, as well as
for a more exact idea of your costs. However, there used to be a
Canadian website that included a decent enough explanation of things and
you can reach a couple of relevant extracts from it by clicking here.
Regional Niagara
Several municipalities
in the peninsula have their own sites, but the
grandaddy of
them all is the Region's own. The information it makes
available, on its own pages and through the innumerable
links from it, is unquestionably exhaustive. A
visit to it -- let alone the mass of facts and figures it can
give you or lead you to -- is worth every penny, if only to
give you an idea of where your taxes are going!
Recently, the Region introduced a Tax
Calculation program that allows you to determine the tax on any
property hereabouts. You do need to know the current assessment
and you're well advised to increase the amount by 5% to allow for urban
sewer and hospital charges that aren't included in the calculation.
However, the information will give you a good enough idea of
the municipal cost of living here.
Industrial, commercial, and investment real
estate
This highly specialized
field has some different business practices, some
extremely knowledgable participants, and a host of reasons for
thinking of alternatives to buying and selling single family
homes. There's a growing number of sites dealing with
it, but ICI World is probably
the one that's best known and most used, because it greatly
facilitates connections between would-be sellers and could-be
buyers. Some public access is possible, but you need
to contact one of its executive members to get the most out
of it. On this point, however, I'll be only too pleased to help
you, as I'm registered with the site in that capacity myself.
In turn -- if you'll
forgive me for some self-promotion -- you may find
it useful to visit an additional
website that I've recently being given an
invitation to create. It includes a number of
(relatively) short pages that deal with various factors
that impinge on successful involvement in the non-residential
real estate market.
Royal LePage website
One of the most
comprehensive corporate real estate websites is the
one put together by the Royal
LePage marketing people -- and, although I'm now operating
on my own, I have no hesitation in recommending it. It anticipates
just about every question anyone could ask, and it provides answers
that are noticeably free from hype. Whether you're interested
in selling, buying, seeking background information on a host of related
topics, or just plain looking for property anywhere in
Canada, it's well worth a look.
Back to the beginning
Getting the most for your money
What a Buyer Agent does
The Buyer Agency Agreement
Who am I?
Of this, that, and the other
...
A collection of websites
I've run across at various times. Most
are real estate related. A few are not.
However, they all contain information
you may find interesting and helpful.
Any questions? Something not clear?
Need to know more? Just click
here to e-mail me.
You can add yourself to my mailing
list if you wish.
I send a newsletter
out each month that deals with a variety of issues
related to the process of buying property.
There's nothing
hard sell involved, I can assure you.
Rather, the idea
is to share my thoughts with you about how I believe
buyers can be better served by the real estate industry.
And to get a sense
of the contents, you can take a look at some of my
previous mailings by clicking here.
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Note:
If you have an interest in buying or leasing
industrial, commercial, or investment property, you may find
it useful to browse an alternative website that I was
recently encouraged to create. It explains my role in
offering exclusive buyer representation for purchasers and lessees
of ICI properties and deals with a number of factors that call
for attention when you're involved with the non-residential
real estate market.
It also provides
links to several databases of currently available
broker and private listings of industrial, commercial,
and investment properties. Together, they cover an extensive
range of property types and locations throughout North America
and in different countries around the world.
You'll find the
site at http://www.iciniagara.com
and you can use its pages to directly e-mail me
for complete details and/or to arrange a viewing
of any listing that appeals to you.
And now for something entirely different ...
It helps to have a sense of humour if you're in
the real estate business -- and
if you're involved in developing and maintaining a website.
As a complete change
from all you've seen/read so far, you can, if you
wish, take a look at My In Tray.
Acknowledgements, permission, and disclaimer
-
A number of the photos used in this website
are the copyright (and used with the permission) of WebGraphicsZone.com
and iStockPhoto.com.
- The copyright to
this web site as a whole is claimed and retained by
me as its author, but permission is hereby granted
for you to print out and/or distribute the site in its entirety
or in part(s), provided that due acknowledgement of my authorship
is included.
- The opinions expressed
in this web site are primarily mine and, to a large degree,
reflect conditions in the Niagara Peninsula -- at least as
I see them -- rather than elsewhere. They do not, however,
necessarily conform with the views held by some of my
colleagues in the real estate industry.
