Your First Home: A Buyer's Kit - For Condos and Houses!

by Kimberley Marr

Overview

Buying Your First Home: whether a condominium, townhouse, single family dwelling, or other type of abode, is often the single largest purchase in a person’s life. But just how confident do you feel that you know what you’re getting into? When you're looking to buy your first home, who can you trust? Brokers, bankers, realtors ... everyone's biased in their own way. How do you understand what you should look for in these professionals, and what you can or should do yourself? How do you understand how much a mortgage will actually cost, how it works, and how to pay it off quickly? Why do you need a notary or a lawyer? Is mortgage insurance worth it? This multitude of questions can be overwhelming for first-time purchasers, even for people who’ve purchased property in the past. Your First Home: A Buyer’s Kit alleviates some of the stress of buying a home by explaining what you need to know about buying your first (or second) place.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770408845
Publisher:	Self-Counsel Press, Inc.
Publication date:	07/01/2012
Series:	Reference / Real Estate Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	168
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Kimberley Marr, CAAP, ABR®, is a real estate broker with over 23 years’ experience. Throughout her career she has assisted many buyers and sellers in fulfilling their real estate goals and dreams. Marr has developed and taught real estate buyers’ programs for the last 17 years with a focus on first-time home buyers. She has made television appearances and has been a speaker at national and international real estate, mortgage financing, and industry related conferences.

Table of Contents

Introduction xv 1 Renting versus Home Ownership: Do the Math 1 1. Renting Is Paying Someone Else’s Mortgage 2 2. Build Your Own Equity 2 3. Creating Your Home Buyer Plan 3 2 Mortgage: How Much Can You Afford? 7 1. U nderstanding Mortgage Products 8 1.1 Conventional mortgage 8 1.2 High-ratio mortgage 9 1.3 Second mortgage 9 1.4 Vendor Take Back (VTB) 10 1.5 Builder’s mortgage 10 1.6 Closed mortgage 10 1.7 Open mortgage 11 1.8 Fixed rate mortgage 11 1.9 Variable or adjustable rate mortgage 12 1.10 Convertible mortgage 13 2. Getting Pre-Approved for a Mortgage 13 2.1 Obtain your credit report 14 2.2 U nderstanding the difference between pre-qualify and pre-approval 16 2.3 Determine how much you can spend on a home 18 3. How to Shop for a Mortgage and Get the Best Deal 21 3.1 U sing the services of a mortgage broker 23 3.2 Mortgage term and interest rates 24 4. Plan Your Budget 25 3 Eliminate Your Mortgage Fast 29 1. Principal versus Interest 29 2. How to Pay off Your Mortgage Quickly 30 3. Your Mortgage Term 32 vi Your First Home: A Buyer’s Kit 4. Begin with a Starter Home 35 5. Pay off Your Mortgage Faster 35 4 Government Programs 47 1. The 5 Percent Down Payment Program 47 2. Home Buyers’ Plan 51 2.1 How to withdraw and repay your RRSP funds 53 3. Moving Expenses 55 4. Land Transfer Tax Programs 55 4.1 Ontario land transfer tax rebate 56 4.2 British Columbia property transfer tax exemption 58 4.3 Prince Edward Island first-time buyer land transfer tax rebate 59 5. First-Time Home Buyers’ Tax Credit (HBTC) 60 6. Green Home Program 61 7. New Immigrant and Self-Employed Program 62 5 Deciding What to Buy 65 1. Buying a Newly Built Home 65 1.1 Functionally modern layout, features, and current technology 66 1.2 Green standards 67 1.3 New home warranties 67 1.3a Ontario’s Tarion Warranty Corporation 68 1.3b British Columbia New Home Warranty 69 1.3c A lberta New Home Warranty Program 69 1.3d Québec 70 1.3e A tlantic Home Warranty 70 1.4 Long closing 70 1.5 Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) and Goods and Services Tax (GST) 71 1.6 New home builder’s agreement of purchase and sale 71 2. Buying a Resale Home 73 2.1 Home warranty on a resale home 74 Contents vii 2.2 The resale agreement of purchase and sale contract 75 3. Freeholds and Condominiums 75 6 Understanding the Relationship between You and Your Real Estate Broker 79 1. U nderstanding What Your Real Estate Agent Does 79 1.1 Tasks of a real estate broker 80 1.1a Determining your plan 80 1.1b Financing plan 80 1.1c Researching properties to view 80 1.1d Booking showing appointments 81 1.1e Discussing the viewed homes 81 1.1f Completing the agreement of purchase and sale 81 1.1g Connecting you to other relevant professionals 81 1.2 How to find a real estate broker 82 1.2a Interviewing real estate brokers 82 2. Who Is Working for You? 83 2.1 Buyer representation 84 2.2 Seller representation 85 2.3 Multiple representation 85 2.4 Customer service 85 3. Individual Identification Record 86 7 The Search for Your New Home 87 1. Make a List of What You Want and Don’t Want 87 2. The Different Types of Homes 88 3. The Search Is On! 89 3.1 Do a search 89 3.2 Viewing properties 91 3.3 How long will it take to find a home? 92 3.4 Market data 95 viii Your First Home: A Buyer’s Kit 4. What Type of Economic Market Cycle Is the Real Estate Market Experiencing? 95 4.1 Seller’s market 96 4.2 Buyer’s market 96 4.3 Balanced market 96 4.4 What type of marketplace are you currently experiencing? 97 4.5 Seasonal cycles 97 8 The Agreement of Purchase and Sale 99 1. What Is Included in an Agreement of Purchase and Sale 101 2. Negotiating the Offer 104 9 The Home Inspection 107 1. What Is Covered in a Home Inspection? 108 2. What Is the Role of the Home Inspector? 109 2.1 Insulation 111 2.2 Marijuana grow operations 112 2.3 A ccessory apartments 113 2.4 A ttend the home inspection 113 2.5 The home inspection report 114 3. Is an Inspection Needed for a Newly Constructed Home? 115 10 The Role of Your Lawyer 117 1. How to Find the Right Lawyer 119 2. What Is the Lawyer’s Role When Closing Your Deal? 120 3. Closing Costs 124 3.1 Ontario land transfer tax 126 3.2 British Columbia property transfer tax 127 3.3 Prince Edward Island first-time buyer land transfer tax 127 3.4 A lberta and Saskatchewan land transfer fees 128 3.5 Manitoba land transfer tax 128 3.6 Québec land transfer tax 128 Contents ix 3.7 New Brunswick real property transfer tax 128 3.8 Nova Scotia land transfer tax 128 3.9 Newfoundland registration of deeds 129 3.10 Northwest Territories land transfer tax 129 3.11 Yukon Territory land title 129 3.12 Nunavut 130 4. Closing Tasks 130 5. Will and Powers of Attorney 131 11 Title Insurance 133 1. Title Insurance and How It Protects the Buyer 135 2. Title Insurance and What It Doesn’t Cover 137 3. How Do You Choose a Title Insurance Company? 138 4. What Does Title Insurance Cost? 139 5. How Do I Obtain a Title Policy? 139 12 Home and Property Insurance 141 1. Property and Contents Insurance 141 2. Mortgage Insurance 144 13 Moving forward 147 Samples 1 Mortgage for 25 Years 39 2 Mortgage with Monthly and Biweekly Payments for 25 Years 41 3 Mortgage with Biweekly Payments Plus $50 for 25 Years 42 4 Mortgage with Biweekly Payments Plus $100 for 25 Years 44 Worksheets 1 Monthly Budget 27 2 Home-Buyer Profile 90 3 Home-Buyer Checklist 93 4 Closing Tasks 131