Calgary Moving Information

INFORMATION TO HELP YOU WITH THE BUYING PROCESS

THE BUYING PROCESS

Buying a home should be an exciting process and it is my intention to keep it fun while educating you to our market place.

The process of buying a home starts with a meeting between you and myself. I would like to get information from you regarding your specific needs and confirm all your requirements. At this time we will choose a number of homes for you to view that meet your criteria. We will confirm districts, prices, home specifications, etc. If you have provided me with all this information beforehand, I will have previewed and selected 5-10 homes for you to see. And when we finally get started, you will be well informed about Calgary’s market.

Remember to dress comfortably and to wear slip-on shoes if possible.

Of the 5 - 10 homes that I will have ready for you to see, sometimes you will find the right home immediately. But you may have to adjust your requirements once you’ve started to look, so you may need to see more choices. No matter what kind of buyer you are, I will be there to guide you through.

This may be a good time to mention Threshold Rights. In Alberta the Real Estate Associations have confirmed the person who is entitled to the commission on a sale. The commissions earned by a Real Estate Agent are established by the realtor® who brings the client across the threshold. This means that if you see a sign, call the listing realtor, and go to view this house with him or her, I am not able to negotiate for you on the offer and I cannot claim any payment even if you tell the other realtor® that you are working with me.! Please, call me even if it is in the evening or the weekend. I want your call! My job is to help find you a home and negotiate any contract for you. That’s what I get paid for.

We will try to keep the number of houses viewed from becoming a mish-mash in your mind. With a few games and tricks, we will be able to remember the best of them.

You might want to go back to your favorites. Through a process of plus and minus, we generally will narrow it down to one or two. You may find your dream home or you might have to make a compromise or two. Either way, we will then be ready to write than offer.

It is important at this point to find out everything we can about your choices. We have access through the M.L.S. history to pull an area statistics report, any previous history on the specific home, street or district. With this information we will be able to decide what kind of offer you will submit. Everybody has their specific ways of writing an offer, so we can discuss it at this time.

Remember, a deposit cheque needs to accompany your offer, and it generally is approximately 5% of the selling price and will be deposited within 48 hours after acceptance of your offer. And the higher your deposit cheque is, the stronger your offer will be to the seller.

Some questions you may have while writing the offer have to do with conditions of the offer, possession, inclusions and motivation.

The conditions most often seen in our offers are:

1. Home Inspection: usually within 72 hours of acceptance, the home inspection will be done. The results of this inspection must be acceptable to you. This inspection is used to make sure that there are no major problems with the home and to give you a list of the minor repairs that you may want to do. Think of it as protection against any major problems.

2. Financial Condition: Within 5 to 10 working days you will be able to have confirmation that your bank is prepared to lend you the mortgage for your new home purchase. It would be advisable for you to be pre-approved at the lending institution of your choice. That way, only the house has to be approved, and they can do this with an appraisal within 5 days.

If you will be going high ratio - that is anything more than 75% of the purchase price - the time frame for approval may be longer.

INCLUSIONS

Generally in Calgary the sellers will stipulate what they will leave behind in the home and what they will take. In negotiating it is important to decide what we would like to stay and what doesn’t matter.

Some choices may be:

• window coverings

• garage door opener and controls

• vacu-flo and attachments

• alarm system

• fridge, stove, built in dishwasher

• trash compactor

• soft water system

• microwave

• washer and/or dryer

EXCLUSIONS

Sometimes people have sentimental attachments to certain items that are attached to the home, such as a chandelier, and they will exclude it in the offer, and remove it when they leave.

POSSESSION

What is your ideal possession date? It is not wise to close on a weekend, especially a long one, so check your dates before writing an offer.

PRESENTING THE OFFER

Once we have written the offer, it is customary for me to accompany the listing Realtor® to meet with the sellers. At this time, I will introduce your offer to them, and explain the reasons for our offer and tell them a little about you. They will usually ask me to wait outside while they discuss your offer with their Realtor®. When they have decided either to accept, reject or counter our offer, they will call me back so we can make the changes, if any. I will then call you with the news, so please let me know where you’ll be. If the offer is countered by the seller, this means that they have made changes to our offer and it is now up to you to either accept those changes, reject them or make further changes. Once all the changes have been accepted by both parties, the offer becomes “accepted”.

WHEN WE HAVE AN ACCEPTED OFFER

Remember, your deposit cheque will be cashed within 48 hours of acceptance. You will then meet any conditions, if any. That is when the home inspection will be done, you will apply for financing, and satisfy any other conditions that were made. When we are satisfied with the results, we will complete a Waiver of Conditions and we will have a FIRM SALE.

Once you have a firm contract, I will provide all parties to the contract with a copy. I will also provide your lawyer with a copy of the contract as well as any related documents pertaining to the purchase agreement. If you do not have a lawyer in the city, I can recommend one to you.

Your lawyer will need a Real Property Report which is supplied by the seller. This just verifies that all the buildings on the property comply with the city’s bylaws.

Your lawyer will take the legal steps to complete the sale and transfer of the property to you. Among these steps are transferring the title to your name; preparing any necessary mortgage adjustments to taxes and other applicable charges according to your purchase agreement.

As we get close to the time of possession, about 10-14 days before your possession date, your lawyer will have you come in and complete the paperwork. You will also be required to provide a certified cheque or bank draft for the cash difference between the deposit you gave with the initial offer, and the mortgage proceeds. This money will be deposited in your lawyer’s trust account and will be transferred over to the seller’s lawyer . When this takes place you will receive permission to take possession of your new home.

Contact the utility companies well in advance of your actual possession date so that all services you need will be operating on that day. If you have sold an existing home in conjunction with the buying of your new home, remember to coordinate the cancellation of services for this property with your purchaser to avoid future billing complications. I will supply a list of some companies you need to inform regarding your move prior to possession date.

Try to allow yourself several days to make your move if at all possible. You will find your move will go more smoothly if you don’t have to move out of your present home and into your new one all on the same day.

ON POSSESSION

We will arrange with you to do a “walk through” where we will confirm that all of the chattels we bought are there and in good working order. We will also confirm that any special arrangements, such as painting, cleaning of rugs, etc., that were agreed to by the seller, are done to your satisfaction. This walk through generally takes place on the morning of possession, but it could be sooner if agreed to between yourself and the seller.

CLOSING COSTS

Closing costs are dollars in addition to your down payment which must be paid to complete your purchase. True closing costs are those which appear on the Statement of Adjustments which your lawyer will prepare for you. Shown on this statement will be:

A TAX ADJUSTMENT which is your share of the current year’s taxes.

DISBURSEMENTS which are specific charges incurred, including a fee paid to the Land Titles Office to register the property in your name and to register the mortgage. These charges are normally as follow: TRANSFER FEE is $35.00 plus $1.00 per $1000. of the purchase price; MORTGAGE REGISTRATION is $15.00 plus $1.00 per $1000. of mortgage value.

LEGAL FEES are commonly referred to as closing costs. Your lawyer will charge a fee to search the title and convey the title of the property to your name. You will also have legal fees for the preparation and placement of a mortgage. If you use the same lawyer for both placing the mortgage and conveyance , you will usually save some legal costs.

There is a charge for mortgage insurance. Most loans which are insured go through CMHC and the fee charged is based on how high the mortgage ratio is. A loan representing 90% financing (10% down) would be charged 2.5% of the loan amount. This fee is usually added to the mortgage amount, so is not an “up front” cost.

But there are some other costs that you should allow for. Fire and Liability Insurance is always required for mortgage purposes and important to protect your own investment in the property. If you are buying a condominium you will find that your condo fees will include fire and liability insurance. Remember to insure your belongings and contents which, in the case of condominium blanket insurance, will not be covered.

Banks and trust companies require an appraisal to determine the lending value of the property you are purchasing. The approximate cost is $125 to $150. If your loan has CMHC insurance, the usual fee including appraisal is $200 to $235. In addition, if an up to date survey certificate and Real Property Report is not available, the costs could range from $200 to $400. These are Mortgage Arranging Fees.