Often, when people go house hunting, they think about what they need or want in a house, or what the neighbourhood is like, or how close they will be to a particular school or to family. Something else that you should always consider is how much house you can afford,...

A few years ago, a friend of mine was planning to look for a home. He was initially focused on condos, until we had a long conversation about what he ideally would love in a home. Digging a bit deeper, I helped him to realize that the main thing he truly wanted was to...

Last week, I talked about what I do on a purchase. This week, it’s about sales. Some of the work is similar between a purchase and a sale. I will still review an offer if the seller wishes to have that done, and we open the file in the same manner and start working on...

Most of the time, for most people, what I do on your real estate deal is a bit mysterious. You send over your agreement, and a few weeks or months later, you go in to sign paperwork. So, what exactly have I been doing that whole time? The first thing I do, if it’s in...

In very circular logic, title insurance protects your title. There are a number of things that title insurance actually protects against. From a neighbour’s fence encroaching onto your property, to the seller not actually getting a permit to rewire the house, to there...

What do you do if the listing says one thing, and it turns out to be different? It’s not uncommon to see a lot of grand claims in listings. Usually, they’re not demonstrably false. However, you do need to be careful if you want them to be true. If the seller has said...

A long time ago, I wrote a post on the two systems of property ownership in Ontario. I thought it was probably time to revisit this. Originally, most of northern Ontario was in the Land Titles system, while southern Ontario was in Land Registry. About 20 years ago,...

This happens more often than you would think: your purchase offer states that the seller has to do certain repairs before closing, and they aren’t done. There are a few options when this happens. One is extending the closing until the work is done, which is usually...

In our office, whenever we open a new sale file, the first thing we do is a quick title search on the property. While this isn’t legally necessary, as the buyer’s lawyer will eventually do a full title search, we have found it to be extremely useful because sometimes,...

The Ontario and Toronto governments have very clear rebates for first-time buyers on land transfer tax, which can save buyers thousands on each tax if they are truly first-time buyers and if they qualify. I have had several buyers recently who expected the rebate and...