Bill John­ston – Toronto Star

Accord­ing to the most recent Cen­sus, more Cana­di­ans are now home­own­ers than ever before.  While finan­cial advi­sors may tout the gains offered through stocks and bonds, there’s only one invest­ment in which you can live as it appre­ci­ates.  One com­mon denom­i­na­tor that both routes to wealth share though is the advan­tage that can be gained by obtain­ing pro­fes­sional guid­ance along the way.

Regard­less of whether you’re a first-timer or a sea­soned home­buyer, by work­ing with a real estate agent you’ll gain impor­tant infor­ma­tion and advice to help achieve an accepted offer at a rea­son­able price.

As a first step in the house-hunting process you will be asked to sign a Buyer Agency Agree­ment. It out­lines your real estate agent’s com­mit­ment to rep­re­sent your best inter­ests by work­ing exclu­sively on your behalf for a des­ig­nated period of time.

After obtain­ing a list of your must-haves, your real estate agent can begin search­ing for avail­able prop­er­ties on the Mul­ti­ple List­ing Ser­vice. Infor­ma­tion on the MLS is dis­played instantly, giv­ing your real estate agent up-to-the minute access to data that can affect your deci­sions. You can also reg­u­larly receive email noti­fi­ca­tions of list­ings that match your criteria.

Using the MLS, your real estate agent can com­pare ask­ing prices to recent sold prices in the area and explore a num­ber of other vari­ables as well, like the num­ber of days a prop­erty has been on the mar­ket and any price changes that have been undertaken.

Greater Toronto real estate agents also have access to an impor­tant tool called the Buyer Reg­istry Ser­vice (BRS), a password-protected data­base in which your real estate agent can reg­is­ter your hous­ing cri­te­ria.  As a pri­vacy pre­cau­tion, your per­sonal infor­ma­tion is only acces­si­ble to your real estate agent, whose name is dis­played for mak­ing contact.

Real estate agents who rep­re­sent sell­ers can check the BRS to deter­mine whether buy­ers’ pref­er­ences match their clients’ prop­er­ties. While you can still depend on a reg­u­lar email of homes that match your cri­te­ria, com­mu­ni­ca­tion between real estate agents using the BRS can occur even faster.

Be sure to visit www​.BRAFirst​.ca for more infor­ma­tion on the Buyer Rep­re­sen­ta­tion Agreement.

Given your real estate agent’s exten­sive net­work of con­tacts in the com­mu­nity, they may even be aware of a home’s avail­abil­ity prior to it being listed on MLS.

If you’re inter­ested in explor­ing new home options, your real estate agent can also search Real­Net Canada’s exten­sive data­base of con­struc­tion devel­op­ments by hous­ing type, loca­tion, price range and many other spe­cific criteria.

After these avenues have helped you iden­tify a pre­ferred prop­erty, your real estate agent can use their direct access to even more data­bases to help you arrive at an appro­pri­ate offer.

Teranet’s land reg­istry sys­tem for exam­ple, offers key data like neigh­bour­hood demo­graphic pro­files, aer­ial views and land sur­veys. It can even pro­vide infor­ma­tion on the sold prices of prop­er­ties not listed on MLS.

The Munic­i­pal Prop­erty Assess­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (MPAC) data­base also pro­vides infor­ma­tion, on a property’s value, square footage, year of con­struc­tion and more.

Equipped with all of this infor­ma­tion, sound advice and pro­fes­sional nego­ti­at­ing skills at your side, you’ll soon be plac­ing they keys in the door of your per­fect home.

For more infor­ma­tion on the home buy­ing process and regard­less of whether you choose new or resale, every mar­ket is dif­fer­ent be sure to con­tact a real estate agent. Their skills and exper­tise can give you a win­ning advantage.

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Con­tact the Jef­frey Team for more infor­ma­tion  -  416−388−1960

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buyer reg­is­ter ser­vices — brs

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