To the consumer a warranty should insure that a product meets their quality expectations, and the word quality is understood to mean the absence of any defect. A warranty usually addresses the integrity of a product and the responsibility for the repair or replacement of defective parts by the supplier. So how is a defect … Read more
While the Olympic Pillage Village was under construction there were TV news clips aired nightly of short cuts being taken to complete the project in time for the athletes. Should it be any surprise that CTV News reported on March 17th, Nicholas Gao and Yoko Chen, who took possession of their $600,000 suite in … Read more
There have been some interesting local news stories over the past few months about beliefs, superstitions and sensitivities pertaining to Asians and housing in Greater Vancouver. The relevance of numerology for house numbers was one such story, and I posted about it here. More recently there were objections expressed about the cultural sensitivity of a … Read more
New regulations are finally being developed in British Columbia that will hopefully help improve accountability for the Strata Property Act and Regulations with a focus on depreciation reports and audited financial statements (if you’d like to find out more about depreciation reports give me a call: 778-878-0778). If you would like to be notified when … Read more
“If you want into the Canadian real estate market with the lowest possible entry-level lending terms and conditions available then I believe your time could be running out.” Three weeks ago I posted this. Tonight I read this online from the Globe and Mail: Ottawa to tighten mortgage rules. So now I’m taking this opportunity … Read more
Buyer Beware Seminar (free): This unique real estate seminar will provide you with insights to avoid pitfalls and ways to protect yourself as a buyer. A mortgage broker, a REALTOR®, a lawyer and a financial planner in the same room at the same time, offering a FREE seminar, and answering all of your questions about … Read more
Unraveling Real Estate in 2011… The broad brush used by ‘Talking Heads’ to paint a macro picture of real estate has little bearing on local micro markets and is worthless to the average consumer. All real estate is local and as such only local data should be considered. In fact most of the national and … Read more
Real Estate Highlights of 2010 – continued… Buyer’s Market On April 27th I posted, “Hello Buyer’s Market!” to let my clients know we were in a Buyers Market. It was four months later that the chief economist of the Real Estate Association mentioned “a summer shift to a buyers market”. Balanced Market Locally this past … Read more
Harmonized Sales Tax HST will affect all new homebuyers. When getting pre-approved with your lender you should get a ‘Net-Sheet’ showing you all of your estimated costs. You will need to know this before you can tell your REALTOR® what your upper limit is for buying. Here is a link to a HST calculator if … Read more
If you want into the Canadian real estate market with the lowest possible entry-level lending terms and conditions available then I believe your time could be running out. In October 2008 the federal government bailed out the Canadian banks with a $25-billion takeover of bank-held mortgages to ease a growing credit crunch, and Finance Minister, … Read more