I practice real estate law right near cottage country, where a lot of homes have septic systems, wells, or both. It is fairly common to have a separate septic and well inspection in addition to the general home inspection before the agreement goes firm, to make sure...
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Real Estate
Get it in writing
I can’t tell you how many times I have had clients ask me how they can enforce something the seller said that they would do. Ultimately, if the seller refuses, it is much more difficult to enforce a verbal agreement. My best advice? Get it in writing. If the agreement...
When do I sign?
Here is one of the most frequent questions we get asked: when do we come in to sign everything? Technically, you only need to sign just before closing, but some banks want to have signed documents back several days ahead of closing so they can review them. If the bank...
Keeping things hidden
Let’s say you are buying a house, but you are an extremely private person. Can you hide the price you paid for the house so that no one can find out? The short answer is, yes. If you truly do not want to show your purchase price, you can pay your Land Transfer Tax in...
Helping out your children
Most parents work hard to protect and help their children as they grow, and continue to do so when their children become adults. One aspect of helping is often assisting their children in buying a home, often through co-signing a mortgage. Acting as a co-signer or...
Breaking up isn’t hard to do
I have a client who recently got a nasty surprise: while they were still together, but after things had gotten bad, his now ex-wife changed their house from joint tenants (meaning they both owned the whole house, with rights of inheritance on death of one party) to...
How a lawyer can help when you’re buying a condo
Buying a condo is as exciting as buying a house, but there are a lot more rules that go along with it. While having a lawyer is not an option in Ontario when purchasing a property, there are even more reasons to bring your lawyer on early if you are buying a condo:...
What exactly does a real estate lawyer do?
The practice of real estate law is sometimes a bit of a mystery to the public. When people hear the word “lawyer,” they immediately think of Law & Order and courtroom work. What happens on the transactional end isn’t as exciting to the outsider, but there are a...
Buying a condo? Start here.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is Canada’s national housing agency. The primary reason the average person would come into contact with CMHC is because they offer mortgage insurance on many high-ratio mortgages for Canadians; if you are buying a house with...
Rent or buy?
Here’s a really cool new site: using a complex calculation system, Trulia will calculate whether it is better for you to rent or buy. The system is currently only available for major American cities, but could be hugely helpful to people living there to be able to...