Due Diligence – How Far is Too Far?

As a real estate sales professional, you know that business isn’t always easy. The economy and market largely determines whether there will be a feast or a famine. Whether you have an abundance of prospects or deals on the go or not, you have many expenses to consider as it relates to the different aspects of your role as a real estate sales professional.

Staging of properties, advertising, gas, etc… your ongoing expenses can be sky high. This is not to mention the costs incurred if you land a client. While due diligence has always been the role of a real estate lawyer in a real estate transaction, more and more real estate sales professionals have an increased demand to perform due diligence to vet their deals. 

But how far is too far and how much should one really spend to perform due diligence? This is an ongoing source of conversation in the social stratosphere as real estate fraud is rampant and real estate sales professionals need to be able to focus their time on good deals that have a high probability of closing.  

There are many tools available to real estate sales professionals that do different things, and gather data from different sources; knowing which one offers the best source of data, and is reliable can be a daunting experience. 

When choosing a real estate tool that possesses elements that enable you to perform due diligence, here is a short list of some of the things you may want to look for:

1.      What is the source of the data and how current is it? It is very common for real estate software providers to offer solution data that is a month or so old, while others only provide access to data that can be months and even years old. A good solution will provide you with the ability to validate up-to-date data if you need it.

2.      Can you get everything in one place? Where due diligence is concerned you want to be able to validate home ownership information, sales history information, mortgage details, comparable sales in a particular neighbourhood, access condo status certificates, check if there are liens on a property, access surveys, the property’s Parcel Register, view instrument images and MPAC assessment reports and more…

3.      How reliable is the application? Is it available online? How accessible is it? Is the provider reliable? Does it often crash or produce errors?

Thanks to technology, you can’t really ever go too far where due diligence is concerned because a small investment in a good application can do wonders and make you that much more efficient. 

For more information about real estate technology and performing due diligence please visit www.geowarehouse.ca or call 1-866-237-5937.

5 Year Canadian Real Estate Trends

It comes as no surprise to most Canadians that, as the country continues to put the last few years of financial instability behind it, housing sales continue to rise. This graph, recently released by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), demonstrates this, outlining some of the different trends that have impacted both spikes and declines. As the graph illustrates, sales in 2013 have been strong and continue to increase, signaling good things for the future. Even with CMHC guideline changes, criticized by some as a bad move as far as future home sales, Canadians are still purchasing and the real estate industry continues to thrive.

Sales right now are the highest they have been in almost three years, but how can you, as a real estate sales professional, work to keep them high? It is simple. With a few real estate tools that make finding the perfect home for your clients trouble-free, you can ensure that those sales are ending up on your desk and the commissions in your wallet.

-        Property Details Report: use this tool to access information regarding MPAC data, ownership, sales history and property images.

-        Neighbourhood Sales Report: use this tool to gauge market value by comparing recent sales in a given neighbourhood.

-        Neighbourhood Demographics Report: use this tool to find out about age distribution, family statistics, average income, etc.

-        Aerial Imagery: use this tool to determine the desirable (and undesirable) features of a neighbourhood.

Get the information you need to find your clients the home they love and close the deal from the comfort of your office.

For more information about GeoWarehouse real estate tools please contact us at 1-866-237-5937 or visit www.geowarehouse.ca.

What Real Estate Tools Can You Use to Identify What is Being Portrayed by the 4 Images?

 

Take a look at these 4 pictures. Then think about finding the perfect house for your clients. What do these four images have in common with regard to that search? Noise, air pollution, unpleasant smells…how many of your clients would be happy living in an area with any of these features in their backyard? Probably not too many.

Sure, it may be possible to stumble upon these when you take your client to view a home, but do you really want to even bother taking your client somewhere that has attributes in the neighbourhood that could be deal breakers? If these issues are not identified beforehand, the entire trip to the home could be a waste of your time and theirs.

How can you determine what types of structures/features are in a given neighbourhood without having to drive around to countless areas? How can you find out the undesirable characteristics of an area without the driving and legwork? Furthermore, many of these features may not be visible when you drive down the road where the house is located, but their presence even within a few kilometers may be a big turn-off later on.

Here is where the benefits of aerial imagery come in. From within GeoWarehouse and with the click of a mouse you have the ability to view things from above, at a much wider scale than the local drive would provide. This allows you to knock those properties off the list if there are certain characteristics that you know your clients would not want.

Aerial imagery makes creating the most comprehensive list of potential homes a breeze. Even better, use it in combination with other advantageous real estate tools and save yourself time and money.

For more information about aerial imagery, or any of the GeoWarehouse real estate tools, please contact us at 1-866-237-5937 or visit www.geowarehouse.ca.

Join @OREAinfo Oct 3 @Sheraton_Ottawa to examine the latest tools and technologies in #RealEstate today.

https://www.orea.com/About/Young-Professionals-Network/Emerge-Landing-Page/Ottawa  

3 Reasons Why a Real Estate Sales Professional Should Request a Parcel Register on Every Deal

As a Real Estate Sales Professional you know that your job involves a lot more than just helping people buy and sell homes. You are also relied upon to perform due diligence (for both yourself and your clients), investigate properties and administer contracts between you and your client and then your client and whomever they enter into a real estate transaction with.

Online real estate tools like GeoWarehouse help you to accomplish these tasks. One very popular search that Real Estate Sales Professionals make in the GeoWarehouse Store is the Parcel Register. The reason this search is so popular is because it helps Real Estate Sales Professionals acquire current, accurate information about a homeowner, their property and their financial standing. 

A Parcel Register is a part of a property title search that provides information about a property and its history. The Parcel Register contains: the property’s legal description, PIN (Property Identification Number), owner(s) name(s), type and percentage of ownership, easements and restrictions on the property, the property’s purchase history, when the property was last transferred, the transfer amount and from/to information, any mortgages registered against a property, when they were registered, the lender and the amount registered, any liens registered against the property, and more…

The top three reasons why Real Estate Sales Professionals should take advantage of a Parcel Register are:

To assess new clients. When a client comes to you to sell their property, your commission and the other agent’s commission will be paid out of the equity in the home. If a seller has no equity in their home because it is fully encumbered then paying real estate commission becomes a difficult proposition. In addition, you want to ensure that you are representing the actual legal homeowners and the Parcel Register will reveal who is on title. Alternately, when representing a buyer, if they can’t get approved for financing on a mortgage then your time spent showing them properties will have been in vain. If you represent them on the sale of their property, issues like property liens and multiple mortgages may be a signal of other underlying financial issues and presents an opportunity to ensure that they have a sufficient down payment and credit to qualify for a mortgage on their next property purchase.

Negotiate better offers. The Parcel Register will show you the registered mortgages on the property, when the seller purchased the property and what they paid. Knowing the seller’s equity position increases your negotiating power because you can assess if they have more financial room or motivation to accept less than the listed price. You can also identify properties where you may have less negotiating positioning and can set your client’s expectations accordingly.

Validate up-to-the-minute information. Because the information in the Parcel Register comes from the POLARIS database it is the most current and accurate information you can access.

The Parcel Register not only makes assessing new clients, negotiating better offers and validating information much easier, it also helps you avoid surprises upon closing. Reviewing a Parcel Register makes you aware of any title related issues that may be problematic.

For more information about GeoWarehouse or about how you can obtain a Parcel Register in the GeoWarehouse Store please visit www.geowarehouse.ca or call 1-866-237-5937.

Attn. Realtors®: 3 Real Estate Tools That You Need to Know About

As a Realtor® you know that the more information you have on your listing, or properties that you are presenting to prospective buyers, the better. More knowledge enables you to close deals faster. It provides your clients with security knowing that they have made the right decision in choosing you. This is why the real estate tools that you use, such as GeoWarehouse, are so important.

There are 3 real estate products available through the GeoWarehouse Store that are great for researching or finding out more about a property.

1.      Aerial Imagery

o   Accessing aerial imagery of a property and surrounding property is an excellent tool when representing a buyer or seller. When representing a seller it can be used to highlight parks, amenities and other features around the property. This is especially helpful, in inclement weather (winter for example) where it can be used to highlight features about a property that are otherwise difficult to view.

o   When representing a buyer it can be used to identify positive and negative attributes about a potential property. Aerial imagery can reveal structures and their proximity to the subject property, such as railways, highways, parklands and a host of other valuable information. Presenting your clients with aerial imagery when considering a property provides them with more information; this helps them to make a more informed decision while enhancing your service.

2.      MPAC Assessment Data

MPAC assessment data enables you to access information about a particular property, such as the municipal property address, with ease. This is invaluable especially when you are working on a deal where there is missing information. This data can be accessed through GeoWarehouse in the GeoWarehouse Store.

o   The Level 1 Residential Detailed Report and Level 2 Residential Detailed Report both validate: property address, municipality, current value assessment, property type, site area and unit of measure, year built, zoning, last valid sale date, last valid sale amount, heating type, air conditioning, basement total area, basement finished area, garage type, garage spaces and more…

o   The AVM Basic Residential Report, AVM Enhanced Residential Report and AVM Comparable Report all provide an automated estimated value of a subject property.

3.      Plan Images

Plan images, such as reference plans, subdivision plans and condominium plans, can be obtained in GeoWarehouse through the GeoWarehouse Store. Plan images can be used to quickly view a graphical representation of a property’s boundaries and location.

Using these 3 real estate products you can quickly identify and access missing information, see more when researching or investigating a property, validate information provided to you by a client or by another agent and more... When you meet with your clients you will be armed with all of the information necessary to help them achieve their goal.

For more information about aerial imagery, MPAC Assessment Reports, plan images and/or GeoWarehouse please visit www.geowarehouse.ca or call 1-866-237-5937.