Mississauga Real Estate Market in May continues to be strong

The Canadian market is currently very strong with the Loonie reaching a 30-year high of 92 cents on Friday. The strong Canadian market is fueled by strong prices for oil, energy and other commodities, strong retail sales, low unemployment rate and foreign investors has kept the market buoyant. Also the number of first-time buyers and new immigrants who are looking for their first home continue to be strong.

Builders of new condominiums and houses are being challenged with increased material and labour costs and labour shortages, resulting in projects being extended and new projects delayed, has helped to make the inventory low and demand high.

The Mississauga Real Estate market continues to remain healthy and active with new listings not able to keep pace with sales activity. This is a great time for buyers to list and get top dollar for their home.

Planning to put your property on the market? – Call Leif Kalaas today

Tips for selling your home this spring in Mississauga

Spring is a primetime for selling and buying a home since there are more homes listed, bought and sold than any other time of year. If you are planning to sell your home in Mississauga this spring, how can you set your house apart from the competition and have it sell quickly for top dollar?

List with a Realtor
The best thing that will help your house or condo to sell quickly is to list with a good realtor. The realtor will not only advertise your property, for example in the Mississauga News, have it added to MLS.ca and to their personal web sites featured listings area, but they have access to many prospective buyers in their contact lists that are looking for a particular property … just like yours.

Remove Access Clutter
As a homeowner, there are some additional things you can do to improve the attractiveness and curb appeal of your home you are selling. Make it presentable. Tidy up and remove access clutter in your home. Tidy rooms, closets, storage rooms, garage and basement areas. This will make your home look bigger and cleaner. Also clean carpets, flooring, windows and wall-coverings and make everything sparkle.

Fresh Paint
Have the carpets and flooring seen better days? Are they the wrong color? Maybe fresh flooring in a neutral color is needed. Is the same is true for the walls. A fresh coat of paint in an easy-to-live-with neutral hue, consistent throughout the house, is a good way to make your home look fresh. The expense and time you put into the new flooring and paint may payoff in a faster sale and possibly get you a higher price.

Neutral Hues
When you are trying to sell your home, it’s not time to experiment with trendy decorating and colors. The unique colored walls may look great with your furniture, but might clash with a perspective buyer’s. If the buyer is deciding between buying your home or another, the fact that they have to repaint or change the floor or window coverings from funky colors, could be the difference between your house selling or sitting a long time on the market.

Window coverings
As mentioned, window coverings and window treatments can also affect your home’s sale-ability. It’s a real plus to a potential homebuyer to find a home with attractive and quality window coverings. However, again, neutral colors are essential. Even basic window treatments simply for privacy, such as mini-binds or shades, still represents a savings to a buyer who can then put more money into other areas of the house.

First Impressions
When its time to show your home, remember that the first impression is a lasting impression. Since the front door and porch greets the prospective buyer, make sure its tidy, clean and welcoming. Keep the front walkway to your door, and driveway clean and respectable (shoveled and salted in the wintertime). Also keep the lawn trimmed, free from trash and have flowerbeds maintained.

Keep It Bright
Illumination is extremely important when you home is being shown to buyers. Dark rooms are unappealing. Open drapes, blinds and shades and turn on the lights even in the daytime.

Cozy and Comfortable
Remember to make your home appealing. Perhaps playing soft background music will make the home inviting. Baking cookies, or lighting a fire in the wintertime before a buyer comes through will provide a cozy feeling. In the warmer months, open windows or turn on the air conditioner will make you home cool and comfortable.

Be Invisible
When a realtor is showing your home while you are present, remain courteous but invisible. Don’t engage the potential homebuyer in conversation. Let your realtor do the talking. The buyer is there to inspect you home and not there for social conversation. Be sure to remove any pets during a showing. Some pets may become aggressive if they feel that their home is being invaded by strangers. A vicious animal might scare and chase off potential homebuyers.

Mississauga Neighborhoods and Beyond
These are a few simple suggestions to make your property sparkle and standout from the other homes for sale in your Mississauga neighborhood, and give you edge, selling your home quickly and for top dollar.

Buying or Selling – Call Leif Kalaas today

EcoSuites – Green Condominiums in Toronto and GTA

We all want to do our part to keep our plant clean and pollution free. Thus we see many recycling programs, alternative fuel development and fuel-efficient cars and hybrids, and emission standards for industrial companies as well as many other initiatives. But what can be done to make our living space greener?

Toronto, Richmond Hill and Etobicoke have condominiums that are focused on being green. How So?

• They are using various environmentally friendly building materials.
  
• Environmentally Preferable Products (EPP) such as carpeting, wall coverings, flooring and paints.
  
• Compact fluorescent lighting.
  
• High efficiency appliances.
  
• Deep water cooling from Toronto’s Lake Ontario provides an abundant supply of icy-cold (4°C) water to cool the building.
  
• Water saving toilets, faucets and shower taps.
  
• High efficiency boilers to save on gas consumption.
  
• Heat recovery on exhaust air.
  
• High efficiency air conditioning systems.
  
• Recycling center in the building.
  
• Increased natural lighting.
  
• Energy-efficient windows (Argon gas windows and E coated windows).
  
• Dedicated parking spaces for hybrid cars and a car share programs.
  

Condos are ideal candidates for energy conservation. As they save on energy, they not only protect the environment, but this also results in lower heating and cooling bills and maintenance fees for the residents.

What about deep water cooling for other condos or individual houses? Lets hope in the future we will see this since we have such a great natural resource for all the communities along Lake Ontario including Toronto, Mississauga and Oakville to the West and The Beaches, Pickering and Whitby to the East.

In the mean time, individual homes can explore the use of groundwater heat/cooling, natural materials, solar power and solar heating. Although some technologies for you home like solar panels will have a large upfront cost, if its amortized over many years, its not as expensive as it appears to be. Lets all do our best to be green and help our environment.

If you are interested in purchasing a suite in an environmentally friendly condominium in your area, please contact me.

Cottages, Cabins and Chalets
Summer is here!!! and for some its time to think about vacation properties.
There are many names for vacation homes in Canada. They are sometimes referred to as Cottages, Cabins, Chalets or vacation or recreational properties. In Ontario, many can be found in Algonquin Highlands, Parry Sound, Haliburton Highlands, Bracebridge, Huntsville, Kawarthas, Muskoka and Georgian Bay.

They are usually the second largest financial investment after a people’s primary property and home. Since there is a lot of money on the line, its important to know as much as possible and do some homework before purchasing.

Its more likely as the Baby Boomer generation gets closer to retirement, that some might sell their principal residence and move into cottage country.

Location
Its good to do research regarding what are the current hot spots and best areas to live in cottage country. How much are the taxes in the area. Where are the hospitals located, community centers, library, stores and shopping. Do they have water and swear works, and good roads with adequate road clearing in the winter.

Is it really necessary to be right on the water? Perhaps a home that is close to a marina where a boat can be docked is sufficient. Or if you like to ski, perhaps being close to a ski resort is the right spot for your cottage.

Are there any environmental concerns in the area. Perhaps the near by lake suffering from algey proliferation, foreign plants and fish that are affecting the habitat. How much does the water level rise or drop that could affect my property. Is there something being done, a community or municipal initiative to help keep the environment clean.

Are there many cottages that are now full blown homes, where they only have a septic system that may leach into the local water source or lake?

How close can a cottage be developed beside a lake? Perhaps its 100-150 or even more to avoid waste water contamination of the water.

Is the part of the lake or water way that my property is on, a busy boat traffic lane, or perhaps a popular fishing spot where fisherman park their boat all day or is it a private and very quiet area that is very naturistic and beautiful?

Expenses
A good question to ask is … are you your own department of wastewater treatment, sewage treatment, road maintenance and snow clearing or is it the municipality? Can the cottage be accessed in the winter months, it the cottage winterized and thus can be used in the winter? What about road access? If there is only one back road servicing many cottages, perhaps these cross private property. So it’s good to ask if the road is accessible and can be used. Also, where are the property boundaries and limits. Perhaps some of the property that looks to be part of the cottages land actually is owned by someone else or vice versa. So its good to have a land survey to determine any encroachment.

Its important to review zoning and building codes, is the cottage meeting the current zoning and building codes, or did the cottage exist before these came into affect? Perhaps the zoning and codes have been grandfathered for that property and home, thus any new additions or renovations, will require bringing the property and building up to the new standards. This could add major cost to any renovation or building project for the property. If an addition is planned to the cottage, some municipalities have rules, regarding square footage in relation to the size of septic tank required and septic tank size limits.

If you look at the cottage on the property as a tear down and rebuild, you shouldn’t look to what the next door cottage looks like, since it could have been built before the current zoning and other municipal rules took affect. It could be a grandfathered property and thus may give and inaccurate building view. Since every lot is different is important to have a specialist help you.

Taxes
Some good questions to find out are how much are the taxes in the area? Some municipalities are changing their taxing structures and reassessing properties. There will be a big difference in the amount of tax on just a piece of land, compared to the same land with a cottage will all the services activated. Some who only visit their cottage on weekends or only in the summer will feel that they shouldn’t pay the same as someone who lives in a cottage as a permanent resident. That they are not using all the services all the time. Whereas, a permanent resident might feel that the temporary residence, benefit from their tax money, in terms of roads, garbage pickup, hospitals etc. So it’s good to find out about the tax structures and how much the tax for the property will be.


Financing
Since obtaining a mortgage for a cottage may be a second financial investment the financing may be different. The financing company will look at all the risks involved to provide financing for this property, such as will the cottage stand empty for long periods of time, risk of fire, robbery etc. Does it have all season road access or only seasonal access? Is the property on an island? How accessible is it? If the bank forecloses and takes over the property, how long will it take them to sell? If it forecloses in the autumn, will they have to hold the property until the spring or summer to resell? Also the financing company may want paperwork for the property or cottage, such as a certificate of a reliable water source or a land survey.

Mortgage companies are getting more and more competitive with each other, this things are always change regarding interest rates and how much is required to put down. Before it was required to put 25-30% down, however today, mortgage companies are much more competitive.

Research
In some areas, they have community web sites and newsletters. Why not do some reading and research as to what is going on in the area you are thinking to move to. This could provide some answers regarding tax issues, environmental issues, future development in the area, water cleanliness, problems but also improvements and new municipal initiatives in the area.

Who can help
It’s best not to assume things but ask a specialist and find out. They can help you determine total cost of ownership and stress the importance of having a land survey and home inspection.

Buying or Selling a Cottage – Call Leif Kalaas today – he can help.

Did you know Right At Home Reality Inc. is Toronto's Fastest Growing Independent Brokerage.

Based on TREB's membership Roster in 2005/06 and 2006/07 Right At Home Reality now has over 693 Agents.

With offices throughout the GTA ... including Mississauga you will be seeing more and more RAH agents, open houses, and listings in the Erin Mills, Meadowvale, Streetsville, Churchill Meadows, Sawmill Valley, Credit Mills and Credit Valley areas of Mississauga as well as in Oakville and Toronto.

Welcome to the Mississauga Real Estate Blog

Welcome to the Mississauga Real Estate Blog. This we site will focus on and discuss current real estate topics that effect buyers and sellers in the Mississauga, Oakville and Toronto areas and also in locations in Ontario Canada.

Please also view my website as it customer oriented and is easy site to navigate, Listings, Property Photos, Property Feature Sheets, Maps, Mortgage Calculator and also the Virtual Tours of selected properties.

Please feel free to add your contribution to this Blog and make it one of the best sources of Real Estate information in Mississauga, Erin Mills, Oakville, Toronto, GTA and Ontario.

Enjoy.