High prices, intense buyer competition and worries about potential market crashes makes buying a house or condo today a far more complex prospect.
Watch the promo for The Homebuyer's Bootcamp above and learn more and sign up here
While generations before have bought homes by relying on the advice of family, friends and the local agent, buying real estate in a market like Toronto's is a far more daunting prospect today.
Whether we're buying ourselves or listening to the stories of others, we know that we may have to compete in many multiple offers without a guarantee that we'll actually win a home, a very time-consuming and disappointing prospect.
And as Toronto's home prices, now averaging at $1.6 million for a house and $780,000 for a condo, continue to sky-rocket, generating anxious headline after headline about the possibility of a coming crash, it's scary to think that you might be buying just as prices start to come down.
But the prospect of owning a home in one of North America's most dynamic cities, continues to inspire many of us, whether we are life-long Torontonians or newcomers. Maybe, with interest rates rising, there might be a change that the market might start to cool off. Or perhaps there are still some ways to find value or beat out other home buyers to land the home we want to call our own.
It's this combination of hope and anxiety that spurs many of us to the market, but how many of us take the time to really unpack these notions and educate ourselves about making a decision that will have one of the biggest impacts on our finances and quality of life for years to come?
After years of helping home buyers to successful outcomes, Move Smartly lead contributor, John Pasalis, Realosophy Realty President, has put together an intensive online course to spread this critical information further.
While John focusses a lot of his time on making sure that his agents and brokers at Realosophy Realty are always training and sharing insights into how to help their clients make the best decisions, he argues that the most important factor in a successful home buying experience is a well-informed home buyer.
"The more savvy a buyer is, the less time we're wasting on talking about general strategy and the more we can focus on how to overcome a particular issue with a home or offer situation."
It's why he didn't pull any punches in putting together a course that covers key topics - like how to avoid buying in risky areas or at risky times, assess hidden home problems and be as competitive as possible in multiple offer situations - as well as some more surprising ones.
"The one lesson that surprised even our agents," he laughs, "is where I teach buyers how to tell whether the agents they are considering working with are good negotiators. I know our agents are up to it because we spend hours on this training together. But in a market like Toronto's that is oversupplied with agents, this is not always the case."
John is excited about the prospect of being able to reach more home buyers with the information and insights they need to make good home buying decisions.
"Even as we were on location and I was leading a walk-through of what to look for when you are viewing a house," John explains, "our production crew was saying that they would definitely want to watch this before they even thought of trying to buy a home in Toronto. This is what really motivates me, to make this information widely available to as many as possible."
The Homebuyer's Bootcamp online course is geared for those actively buying or planning to buy a house or condo in Toronto area, whether for the first-time or in order to upsize or downsize. Find full details and sign up info here
Move Smartly is powered by Realosophy Realty Inc. Brokerage, an innovative residential real estate brokerage in Toronto. A leader in real estate analytics, Realosophy educates consumers at Realosophy.com and MoveSmartly.com and helps clients make better decisions when buying and selling a home.
February 14, 2022
Buying |