5 Tips That will Help Any Home Buyer

Below are 5 tips that will help you as a home buyer in your search. Unlike other advice such as the Hidden Costs of Buying a Home, this article is focused on having a better home buying experience. Also be sure to download my latest home buyer book, “The 4 Common Home Buyer Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.”

1. Google The Address of the Property

This tip is pretty strait forward, but can really help you to find out more background information. Start by entering the address of the home you’re interested in into google and see what comes up. Next do a search by community name and be sure to select the ‘news tab’.

When searching by community make sure to select the ‘news’ tab.

Hopefully there will be nothing of concern, but isn’t it worth spending a few minutes just to make sure?

2. Google Maps

When it comes to home searching, I use google maps on a daily basis. It’s good to get a birds eye view of the property and see if there are any undesirable features in the community that you might not catch by driving the streets. I also use it to look at the street view of the home, to see what the neighbourhood looks like and to also see how the exterior has changed over the years.

3. Check Out the Schools

For many home buyers, quality of schools has become an important factor in choosing what neighbourhood to live in. An easy way to see how the schools in the neighbourhood are performing is to go to the Fraser Report on Schools and the EQAO website for school standardized testing scores.

Even if you don’t have children, having a home in a school area will make it more in demand, which is always good when you go to sell your home.

4. Check Out the Demographics of the Neighbourhood

You can find out a lot about the community by looking at the demographics of the area. Websites such as realtor.ca have some really good statistics that are good for both home buyers and investors. Factors I look at include:

• Population Growth
• Languages Spoken
• Average House Hold Income
• Amount of Properties Owned Versus Rented

We also offer more detailed information for clients we work with.

I highly recommend checking the community demographics out, especially if you are moving to Mississauga from out of town.

5. Check Out the Tax Assessments

One of the biggest mistakes I see home buyers and even realtors making is not using the proper comparable properties when determining a price.

One way to better protect yourself and ensure a property you’re looking is a good comparable is to compare the tax assessments. Even if two properties look similar, if there’s a big difference in taxes that’s a sign that you should investigate further.

Just because 2 houses look the same, doesn’t mean they are. It only takes a few minutes to do and it can help you save thousands of dollars when buying a home. We use a proprietary formula for assessing value that has made out buyers and sellers thousands over the years.

For all of our clients we do a detailed assessment based on our proprietary system. This protects our buyers and sellers.

When it comes to real estate, always buy on logic, not emotion.  Ask me about it.

Did these Home Buyer Tips Help?

Buying a home is a big deal, so why wouldn’t you want to be armed with all the tips and tricks to help make your experience a better one. Obviously there’s much more we do with our clients, but hopefully this will give you a good start in home search.

Also, if you want to know more, be sure to download my Home Buyer Booklet that gives even more pro tips on buying a home.

As always, if you have any questions or want to work together, be sure to contact me!