Shopping! 

Shopping for a new home can be lots of fun!   

Once you have your money organized and you have a known budget, your next step is to decide where you want to live.  There are many ways to do this, but the best way is to first sit down with me to determine what areas you can afford to live in.  You may be able to afford a townhouse in one area or a detached home in another.  I can help you get an overview of different areas and the advantages and disadvantages of each area and style of home.  

You may find that you are happy to accept a smaller home in order to live in an area that is more convenient for commuting to work, or that you think has better schools, etc.  You may be happy to go a little further afield in order to gain privacy, a more rural atmosphere or a newer home.   

We can then make appointments to view some homes at a time that best suits you. If you are not in a hurry, I may suggest that you visit some open houses as a way to get an idea how much home you can buy in particular areas.  I will show you how to use the Homeguide, newspaper notices, and give you some suggestions.  Don’t worry about being pressured by the host agent – simply tell them that you are already working with an agent.  They will usually just ask who your agent is and then encourage you to have a look around. 

Caution!  The Realtor who is hosting the open house is usually the listing agent or may be another Realtor who works with the listing agent.  Because home purchasing is a negotiation process, you do not want to give out any information to your host that could later compromise your negotiating position if you do decide to make an offer.  Your host is representing the seller.  Any information he or she knows about you, for example what your motivation is (are you absolutely in love with it and no other home would do?), whether you feel the asking price is fair, what your price limit is, etc., could jeopardize your bargaining position later.  So, be pleasant, ask questions about the house, but don’t volunteer information about yourself to your host. 

Another source of information for buyers is the public website:  www.mls.ca .  The information on the website is put there by the Nova Scotia Association of Realtors.  When a new listing comes on the market, it is added to our Realtor database.  This database is only accessible by licensed realtors and is continuously updated throughout every day.  All listings new on the market show up in the “hotsheets” and most realtors who are working with buyers will review the hotsheets regularly so that their clients get first chance to view any new inventory that comes on the market.  About a week later, these same listings show up on the www.mls.ca site.  In a very active market such as we have here in HRM at this time, this means that if you are only using this website to do your shopping and do not have a realtor working for you, the best homes will be sold before you even see them.  The site is a very good tool for giving you an idea of the style, age and price of homes in various neighbourhoods and well worth looking at. 

Once we have done our research on what is available and determined your needs and wants, we should be able to find your home fairly quickly.  Viewing about 6-12 homes overall would be a reasonable expectation to find the one for you. You should expect to visit a maximum of four or five homes in each outing - more than that and you become confused about what each has to offer. We will need to allow about half an hour for each home we view, so to see four or five would take about three hours including travel.

I will give you a detailed listing for each home, and you should take notes and use a checklist of your wants and needs. (See Appendix “I” for a list of  mls abbreviations and what they mean.)   Many people buy homes based on how comfortable they feel when they go into them.  This is a good thing because you will probably always feel that comfortable feeling, but balancing this emotional impact with a logical evaluation of whether the home meets your needs and budget is very important. 

When you have narrowed your choices down to two or three, we can then go back to those ones and have a more detailed look. 

Offer time 

Relax – take a deep breath - I’ll be right there to guide you along. My job at this point is to make sure you know the process, understand your responsibilities and to make sure that your interests are represented.   

We will discuss price and what an appropriate offer would be in the circumstances.  If need be, we will do a comparative market analysis to find out what similar homes have sold for in the area.  If we will be a competing offer, we will have to move quickly and consider a stronger offer.  We will discuss what extras may be included in the price or that we would like to be included and, as importantly as the price, what closing date you and the seller might be able to work with.   

I will explain in detail the forms, the fine print, the law, timing and strategy involved in making an offer, dealing with a counter-offer, following through to satisfy the conditions of the offer and get a firm deal.    

Once the offer is made and accepted, the main things we will have to deal with are the inspection, finalizing approval of financing, reviewing and signing the Property Condition Disclosure Statement (PCDS), and arranging fire insurance. I will be with you all the way, making sure you are on schedule and that everything goes smoothly right up to closing.   

Remember you are looking for a good home – not necessarily perfection.  And don’t be discouraged if the first home you try to buy doesn’t work out – there will be another one for you!