Wayne Cochrane’s Real Estate Insider

INSIDER WAYNE COCHRANE’S REAL ESTATE

March 2013

Your Neighbourhood Real Estate Professional

Wayne Cochrane...www.mooving.ca

Inside this Issue:

Don’t Let House-Hunting Break Your Heart

Five Top Mistakes Sellers Make

Canadian Home Ownership Trends Point To Smaller Houses

Can You Smell That?

Ready For Action Instead of Re-acting?

Food Waste Contributes To Canada’s Garbage Problem

This time of year love is on the minds of many. For those who are house-hunting, it can be a whirlwind romance that's hot from the minute you see the home's curb appeal. But don't let the seduction of a good-looking landscape make you want to tie the knot without a bit of courtship.

House-hunting for the "perfect" home in many ways is like looking for that perfect romance - very seldom does everything about your proposed mate match your desires. Things you love at first may later get on your nerves and become what you don't like so much later on. Does that mean the house is wrong for you? Not necessarily. It could be, but if you understand your tolerance level–what's most important to you in a home, and what you can't deal with at all - you are less likely to want to buy the wrong home.

Keeping these terms clearly defined and always on your mind will help you make smart choices even when some areas of the home tug at your heartstrings and say "buy me!".

House-hunting should be like dating. Take your time. Understand the critical must-haves, the not-so-important-but-I-kind-of-want-it, and the no-way, not-going-to-happen-in-this-lifetime.

One thing you can do to help streamline the process is to start making a list about the things you like

about your current home. If you're renting, there may be features about the home,

apartment, or planned-living development that you want to find again in the neighborhood where you're going to buy your home.

For instance, you might want a gated community or a townhouse that has certain luxury amenities. Moving to an isolated home that doesn't have the same type of amenities could be a real turn-off. Also, it might mean you have to pay more to get those same amenities that used to come with your rent. While this might not be a deal-breaker, it can certainly change the way you're used to living your life. So, be sure to take it into consideration. Walking a short distance down the street to go to the gym, the pool, the steam room will be different from having to drive 20 minutes or more to go to a gym/spa that you also have to first pay an extra monthly membership.

Another thing to consider is how many times you've seen the home. Just like dating, you might have an instant attraction, but the more times you see your date, the more you discover. With a home, (just like with a prospective mate!) you need to see it a few times and at different times of the day. This way you'll discover which rooms are dark and when or how loud the traffic is during rush hour. You might notice that

Don’t Let House-Hunting Break Your Heart Written by Phoebe Chongchua

One potential land mine that FSBOs face is the flood of people popping in to see their home. It sounds great that there's so much traffic, but the problem is that many times the people who pop into FSBO properties aren't actually qualified for a mortgage or may not be serious buyers. Instead they're just looking and satisfying their curiosity at your expense. Agents know to ask the right questions to make certain the lookers are truly potential home buyers.

Not interviewing agents: If you have kids, chances are you interviewed the nanny or babysitter. Take the time to seek out top real estate agents in your area. Setting up interviews with them is equally important. Choosing the wrong agent for the job will be a headache and slow the process down. There must be a connection, an understanding, and good communication between the seller and the agent. There are many things that go on during the sale of a home. Communicating with the agent should be one of the easier tasks.

Pricing a home incorrectly: This could be the worst mistake sellers make. Yet, this is where so much help can be found. Real estate agents see homes every single day. They know the neighborhoods and the comps. They are there to help you understand what homes have sold for in the recent past and what they'll likely sell for during the

Condominiums and Townhouses

on the Halifax Common

92% SOLD

MARCH ISSUE

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there's a lot of commotion around the neighborhood because of near-by schools. Does this work with your lifestyle? Viewing a home and the surrounding neighborhood at various times of the day can be an eye-opener and can reveal just how much this home is a match with your lifestyle.

Just as you wrote down the things you like in your present residence, you should also make lists of things you want to avoid in the future and new things you hope to gain.

Remember, courtship doesn't have to last forever. Just as with ro-mance, "the good ones will be gone if you wait too long!" So put a ring on... or rather, put an offer on that house!

It can be a tough market for selling a home, but those conditions can get even worse if sellers aren't careful. While a seller doesn't control the real estate market, his actions can significantly contribute to how long and how much their home is sold for.

Underestimating Cleaning Up: It may seem obvious, but real estate agents everywhere are nodding their heads in agreement as they read this. Inviting potential buyers in to see an unkempt home is like going on a job interview without freshening up after you cleaned your garage. How can the employer notice your fantastic talents and skills if they're hidden underneath a sloppy exterior? How you show your home tells the buyer what type of care you, the seller, has put into the home?

If you can't take the time to wipe the grime off the refrigerator doors, tidy up the kids' rooms, take out the messy diapers, put away the food, and take the dogs out of the house for a while, then you'll likely find buyers will quickly move on to the next home on their list.

Lingering During Showings: Yes, we all want to know how the open house or showing went, but hanging around during either of those events is not a good idea. Sellers who tend to linger during showings often make the buyers uncomfortable. Buyers like to have time to explore

the home at their own pace and without feeling any pressure. Sometimes buyers want to sit on the porch or out in the backyard as they discuss the home's possibilities. And if buyers are willing to sit for a bit and talk about the home, that's a great sign. However, the chances of their doing that with the seller present is unlikely. Many times buyers will say, "Let's skip the home if the sellers are there."

If you're selling your home, do yourself a favor and hit the road. Take a walk or head to the coffee shop. As soon as the showing is over, you can get all the details from your agent. That's why you're paying your agent! Let him do his job. Just make sure that your agent has all the home's selling points and any additional features that make this home standout.

For Sale By Owner (FSBO) Trap: Some people are convinced that they can do it on their own. Maybe they can sell their own home, but it likely won't happen without some headaches. Trained specialists are called "experts" for a reason. An expert real estate agent knows the market, has connections, guides you through the process, negotiates on your behalf, and will make the process of selling your home simpler.

Five Top Mistakes Sellers Make Written by Phoebe Chongchua

Give me a call...

Wayne Cochrane EXIT Realty Metro

[email protected] (902) 830-4761

WAYNE COCHRANE’S REAL ESTATE INSIDER

One potential land mine that FSBOs face is the flood of people popping in to see their home. It sounds great that there's so much traffic, but the problem is that many times the people who pop into FSBO properties aren't actu-ally qualified for a mortgage or may not be serious buyers. In-stead they're just looking and sat-isfying their curiosity at your ex-pense. Agents know to ask the right questions to make certain the lookers are truly potential home buyers.

Not interviewing agents: If you have kids, chances are you inter-viewed the nanny or babysitter. Take the time to seek out top real estate agents in your area. Set-ting up interviews with them is equally important. Choosing the wrong agent for the job will be a headache and slow the process down. There must be a connec-tion, an understanding, and good communication between the seller and the agent. There are many things that go on during the sale of a home. Communicating with the agent should be one of the easier tasks.

Pricing a home incorrectly: This could be the worst mistake sellers make. Yet, this is where so much help can be found. Real estate agents see homes every single day. They know the neighbor-hoods and the comps. They are there to help you understand what homes have sold for in the recent past and what they'll likely sell for during the current market condi-tions. Get a market evaluation from your agent and understand what is a fair price for your home in today's market.

Canadian Home Ownership Trends Point To Smaller Houses

Written by Jim Adair

MARCH ISSUE

For the last decade there’s been an unprecedented condominium boom in Canada’s major cities. There has been lots of concern that the condo market is overbuilt, particularly in Van-couver and Toronto.

"Who is going to live in all of these condos?" is a common question. A new study from Statistics Canada may provide that answer.

John Andrew, director of the Queen’s Real Estate Roundtable and a profes-sor in the School of Urban and Re-gional Planning at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., says:

"What’s most noteworthy about the findings of this study is that the likeli-hood of someone owning a home seems to depend as much on their family status (single, married, chil-dren) as it does on their income level. A lot of the research to date has sug-gested that as people get older, their income rises and they are more likely to own rather than rent their home, and that people in their twenties are much less likely to own their own home today than in previous decades.

"This study contradicts this to some extent, in its finding that regardless of income level, home ownership rates of single people have risen significant-ly. If you have children, on the other hand, you are much less likely to own your own home now than 25 years ago. Combined with a huge growth in the percentage of household units now consisting of single people, this finding has large implications for the demand for different forms and sizes of homes."

Andrew says it suggests that demand will increase for smaller homes and condominiums in downtown areas, and there will be less demand for tra-ditional three- or four-bedroom homes in the suburbs. "Could the developers of the huge number of high-rise con-dos being built in cities like Toronto be right after all?" asks Andrew.

According to the latest census, popu-lation growth has been strongest in the single-parent, one-person and couples without children categories in Toronto. These are also the most like-ly categories to live in an apartment.

"Between 1981 and 2006, Canadians increasingly chose to own, rather than rent, their homes," says the Statistics Canada report. "Over this period, home ownership in Canada increased by seven percentage points, from 62 per cent to 69 per cent."

"Non-family individuals have turned progressively towards owning," says the report. "This is true of both lower- and higher-income households in this group. Young non-family individuals aged 20 to 39 in the bottom income quintile saw their rate of home owner-ship rise from nine per cent to 17 per cent, while the same type of house-hold in the top income quintile saw the rate of home ownership rise from 38 per cent to 60 per cent."

Couples in that age group with chil-dren in the bottom income quintile saw their home ownership rate fall from 47 per cent to 35 per cent, de-spite the fact that renting was general-ly more expensive than owning during that period. Home ownership rates for couples aged 20 to 39 with children in the top income quintile rose from 88 per cent to 94 per cent.

A report by TD economics says that the growth in the echo-boom popula-tion (born between 1972 and 1992) has fuelled the boom in Toronto’s downtown core, tripling the pace of growth in the 2006-2011 census peri-od relative to previous censuses. It says the median age in Toronto’s downtown core is in the mid-30s, compared to above 40 in the rest of Ontario.

"While the previous generation fled towards the outer-suburbs for larger (at the time) more affordable housing, this new generation of Torontonians is

being pulled back to the core, attract-ed by shorter commute times and access to the core’s transit hub," says the TD report. "The desire to live in the core has gone hand-in-hand with an increase in housing choices. The gentrification of formerly deteriorating industrial and commercial areas has led to a massive development of con-dominiums hoping to ride the wave of increased housing demand.

"According to a recent report prepared for the City of Toronto, just under 50,000 condo units have been built, sold and occupied in the downtown core south of Bloor Street since 2000. As of the end of 2011, more than 90,000 additional condo units have been approved...the majority of which are planned for the downtown core."

The TD report says this trend has not been lost on employers, who are also moving back to the downtown core to attract the highly educated, highly skilled labour force.

While the trend represents a "substantial turning point" for the city, can it last?

"The echo boomer segment could begin demanding larger homes as they begin having children, leading them back to the surrounding sub-urbs," says the TD Economics report. "Conversely, they may decide to raise families in the downtown core. Or their flight to the suburbs could be offset by aging baby boomers downsizing from their current homes and relocating to the downtown core as well." .

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Can You Smell That? Written by Phoebe Chongchua

Before you spend your afternoon lighting sugar-cookie-fragranced can-dles or baking for hours to have an inviting aroma wafting throughout your newly listed home for sale, read this.

A new study by Eric Spangenberg, dean of the college of business at Washington State University, shows that home aromas may not always produce the expected desire.

It seems that some aromas can have a direct impact on people's tenden-cies to spend. The professor studied responses of 402 people browsing in a home-decor store in Switzerland over a nearly 20-day period two years ago. When an aroma consist-ing simply of orange filled the store, shoppers spent 31.8 percent more. But add scents like green tea, basil, and complex blends of orange and the shopping spree decreased.

Whether it's a store or a home for sale, the study makes the argument that fragrances may affect cognitive functions in the same areas of the brain that are responsible for deci-sion-making.

The study found that while complex scents may be pleasant, they can still be a distraction. It seems they have an effect on some people that caus-es them to subconsciously spend time trying to identify the aroma.

Smells that are subtle go, more or less, unnoticed. So people don't ac-tually concentrate on what they're smelling. They don't ask their signifi-cant other, "Can you smell that?"

It makes perfect sense. Actually, this principle applies to many things in and around the home that's listed for sale. For instance, if you have lots of personal pictures displayed, it's likely they will distract potential buyers. They'll get a little curious and start exploring your photos and comment-ing on them to the agent or whoever they are with while viewing your home.

Yet another no-no is to have many medications out or even in your pre-scription cabinet. Yes, just like the home's aroma and the photos on your counter, this can be a distrac-tion. Even if the medicine is tucked away in drawers or cabinets, chanc-es are it will be discovered. When buyers pass through a home, they open closets, cabinets, little almost-hidden drawers. It's what they're sup-posed to do. They're thinking of put-ting their own "stuff" where your stuff currently is. So they need to check out all the spaces available. If they stumble upon unusual or private medications, they may stop and look them over instead of the house.

The best policy when showing a home is to show it as if you don't live in it. Okay, stop your laughing. How's that possible? Get your home staged or at least consult with experts who can give you a few pointers. A few weeks of living in a model home will make you remember what is was like when you first moved in–spacious–free of clutter.

So pack up your private belongings. Tone down the scent--especially of pets. And find a way to clear the clut-ter. You'll be glad you did because it

may mean a faster sale of your home and for more money.

Are you "on pause" until interest rates start to rise?

When rates begin to nudge up, will you scramble to gain every 1/4% you can when renewing your existing mortgage? Or, will you hit the open-house circuit at a run, searching for a new home or your first real estate, so you can squeeze into the largest-possible mortgage before rate increases shut you out?

"Last minute" is how we do many things financial - income tax, registered retirement savings plans, investing, credit card debt, student loans, wills, succession planning….

How's that "don't think ahead" strategy working for you? Has it saved you money, gotten you the best deals, and kept you out of the 164%-household debt category?

The business of life is a reality.

Your choice:

Either invest time and effort learning how to beat the system that feeds off consumers, so you can consistently come out ahead and enjoy life, or

Suffer the consequences as part of the 99% of income earners who matter less and less to governments, corporations, banks, and other groups that are expensive to deal with.

Are you really too busy with your smartphone, reality shows, Facebook, or your home theatre to invest time in your financial future? This is not about being filthy rich - just having enough money to give you choice, whatever the future throws at you. Leave this 'til the last minute and you may have a future focused on searching for enough money.

So, back to mortgage renewal… This is a great example of how to think smart and keep more of what you make and spend less of what you don't have.

Interest rates have been low for ages, and can't get much lower. But they can and will go up. Banks can, and have, raised mortgage rates before the Bank of Canada has made a move. Expect more of this as there is just too much proft-driving mortgage debt and potential mortgage debt from first-time buyers for lenders to hold off raising rates, adding fees, and cashing in.

Mortgage borrowing rules keep changing, but not in favour of consumers. Yes, the government makes changes "for our own good" - to protect us from our selves we're told - but scrape the surface and benefits seem directed elsewhere.

Contributions from Financial Literacy initiatives are not evident on a grand scale yet, but there's an ongoing consumer-protection theme in media, online and off, that is encouraging. For example, the Friday, January 25, 2013 episode #15 of CBC's Marketplace concentrated on "Busting the Banks" and included a segment - "collateral damage" - on the more-restrictive collateral mortgages and stirred up some controversy. (The other items in the program may be eye-openers for you, too.) My suggestions? Watch this episode. Then learn what mortgage brokers say to each other about this Marketplace episode and how consumers are treated when it comes to renewal rights and related issues. The comments and candour of CanadianMortgageTrends.com bloggers and mortgage brokers Melanie & Rob McLister and their contributors makes captivating reading for "outsiders" like most consumers. Let us know what you think.

Check your mortgage document (or have the lender show you where the explanations are) and find out what restrictions and advantages exist for you on renewal. Can you shop around for the best rate and terms, or do you have a collateral mortgage which restricts your choices?

the not

Ready For Action Instead od Re-acting? By Jim Adair

MARCH ISSUE

range of choices across a variety of lenders. They are trained to analyze alternatives and demonstrate benefits and pitfalls, so you can make informed choices. Disclosure of conflict of inter-est is an essential standard.

When you go to the bank, you are told what bank employees are told to tell you, and sold what the bank has to sell. Your choice really lies in where you get your information and who you decide to have work in your best inter-est.

What you don't know will come back to bite you since consumers only win when they and their independent advi-sors are vigilant. For instance, lines of credit can be easier to arrange and to manage than traditional mortgages, but the lender retains the right to end the line of credit under a set of circum-stances which may not suit your plans. Many property owners were caught off guard when their lines of credit were reduced after age 65 or after an income drop. While specified in the contract, borrowers did not know this set of lender rights existed.

Where will you go from here? Ready to push the pause button to start the real action? Remember, this is action - preparing, not waiting - to learn what your options are, not a rush to "last minute" re-action.

Most of the rest of the garbage goes to municipal landfill sites, and less than five per cent is incinerated.

Another environmental concern related to landfills is leachate. "As liquid moves through the landfill, it picks up a variety of toxic and polluting components in large or trace amounts forming leachate, which can potentially contaminate ground and surface water," says the Statistics Canada report, Human Activity and the Environment. "Sanitary landfills control the types and quantities of incoming waste and use liners and leachate collection and treatment systems to prevent water and soil contamination."

But as the Conference Board report points out, "Although there is ample space to create landfill sites in Canada, many residents are opposed to having landfills close to their communities." It outlines the problems that the City of Toronto faced when its main landfill site reached capacity. With no sites available near the city, one proposal would have shipped the garbage by rail to Kirkland Lake, Ont., some 590 km north of the city, where it would have been dumped in an abandoned mine. The Kirkland Lake residents objected and the idea was scrapped. For a couple of years Toronto trucked its garbage to a landfill site in Michigan. Finally the city purchased its own landfill site near London, Ont.

"To achieve more sustainable municipal waste management practices, the challenge will be to reduce the amount of solid waste generated, while increasing the

amount of waste diverted from landfills through recycling and other initiatives in an economically feasible way," says the Conference Board. "Canadians must also realize that economic growth cannot come at the expense of the environment."

To help cut down food waste, Canadians need to rethink the concept of buying their food in bulk to save money. Buying in bulk encourages waste because often food is left over. In the U.K., the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has encouraged retailers to initiate programs that reduce food waste.

The U.K. has also developed new food labelling guidelines, encouraging retailers to stop using "display until" and "sell by" labels because they cause consumers to throw out the food even when it is still safe to eat it. WRAP's website offers recipes for leftovers and tips about how consumers can reduce waste and save money.

The David Suzuki Foundation's Queen of Green site offers these tips for ending food waste:

Take produce out of plastic bags, which suffocate fresh produce and speed up the decay process.

Don't wash produce until you are ready to eat it. Moisture encourages decomposition and mould growth.

Don't rip off fruit stems, because once living cells are broken, microorganisms start to grow.

Food Waste Contributes to Canada’s Garbage Problem Written by Jim Adair

Keep produce whole as long as possible.

Eat the most perishable items first. "Raspberries last a few days; potatoes can hang around

for about a month," says the site.


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Note: This is not intended to solicit clients currently under contract.

The trademarks MLS®, Multiple Listing Service® and the associated logos are owned by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and identify the quality of services provided by real estate professionals who are members of CREA.

Wayne Cochrane Real Estate Professional

902-830-4761 [email protected]

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767 Parkland Drive #205

Armoury Square

2362 June St.#1

Highland Park

45 Haverstock Drive 2307 Princess Place

6490 Roslyn Road

Halifax West

157 Bishops Gate Rd.

$538,900

Whitehills

Halifax Kingswood North

12 Tradewind Court

Kingswood

361 Kingswood Dr.

$844,700

$799,800

$449,900

$469,900

$294,800

$349,800

$384,800

$ 298,900

$414,800

Armoury Square

Sold-Jan 2013

Sold-Feb 2013

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