Archive for October 6, 2007

Laurin Jeffrey | October 9, 2007
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Get The Most Out Of Your Home Inspection

With thoughts of how you’re going to arrange the furniture in your new home, whether you’ll make the deadline for registering the kids for their new school and how you’ll find a mover on short notice, the home inspection process sometimes takes a back seat.

But it shouldn’t. A home inspection is perhaps the most important chapter in the home-buying saga. You’ve seen the beautiful tile floors, the new carpet and the freshly painted walls, but do you know what lurks in the bowels of the heating system, what lies in the crevices of the roof and if anything — other than water — can be found in the interior plumbing?

You should — you’re about to plop down a huge down payment and commit to a 15- or 25-year mortgage. A home’s condition is important to you. By following these pointers, you can maximize your home inspection benefits:

· Know what it includes: Heating and central air conditioning systems, interior plumbing, electrical systems, the roof, attic, visible insulation, walls, ceilings, floors, windows, foundations, and basements are among the key inspection points. Inspections may also include appliances and outdoor plumbing.

· Know what an inspection does not include. Inspections for a typical home require several hours, but they do not concern every dent and scratch. For details, speak with any inspector who you are considering hiring.

· If you’re selling, get a home inspection before you put your home on the market. This can avoid surprises down the road when potential buyers have the home inspected by their own professional. If major or potential problems are detected, they can be repaired before you try to sell.

· Hire a qualified inspector. Try to get referrals from friends or anyone you know who has had a satisfactory experience with a home inspector. Also, look for affiliations with organizations like the Canadian Association of Home Inspectors (CAHI) or the Ontario Association of Home Inspectors (OAHI). Both groups require its members to be certified, meet professional qualifications and adhere to specific business ethics.

· Be cautious about hiring someone who may have a conflict of interest, or who may not be impartial. For example, a retired roofing contractor who now does home inspections to make a few extra dollars may find a problem with — you guessed it — the roof. This person could take advantage of your need to find someone to make repairs in a hurry, leaving you to wonder if the repairs were needed.

· Include a proper home inspection contingency in your purchase agreement. This is important. If an inspector finds that the home can’t survive another rainy season without $20,000 worth of roof repairs, you’ll want to have the option of bailing out of the deal, asking the seller to make the repairs, or lopping the appropriate amount off the purchase price.

· Be there for the full inspection. Spending a few hours with the inspector could prevent headaches and save time in the future. As the home inspector examines the various systems and components of the home, ask him or her to explain what problems may be encountered down the road, what signs to look for, what repairs and replacements are likely to cost, and how to prevent big maintenance bills.

· Try to learn how things work and how to maintain systems and equipment during the inspection process. The home inspector may also point out little flaws or oddities that don’t measure up to being mentioned in the report, but may warrant watching.

· In the case of new construction, consider three inspections: At the time the foundation is first poured, when walls are up but not closed, and at the walk-through before closing. Yes, this is expensive, but in the context of a long-term investment — and a big investment — such as a home, the cost is easy to justify.

Once the inspection is complete, the home inspector will write a report. If major problems are found, then you have the knowledge to better guide your negotiations. And, if your new home receives stellar findings, then you’ll have the peace of mind that will be a welcome relief once you’re settled into your new home.

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

Category: Ajax Real Estate, Buying Real Estate, Detached Homes, General Real Estate, Miscellaneous, Pickering Real Estate, Renovation and Maintenance, Semi-Detached Homes, Townhouses | Tags: , , ,
Laurin Jeffrey | October 6, 2007
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Real Estate Stats Impress

Bob Finnigan

The I have just received the latest economic impact statistics for the homebuilding and professional renovation industry in the GTA and the super-size numbers never cease to amaze me. If you are one of more than 150,000 people working in the residential construction industry in the GTA, you already know what I’m talking about, but even if you’re not one of them, you are definitely affected by the success of the industry, for better or worse.

Before I get to the big numbers, let’s start with some percentages. The 40,611 housing starts in the GTA in 2006 represented 17.9% of total housing starts in Canada. That’s the lowest percentage in 10 years (we peaked at 28.1% of all housing starts in 2000), but all that means is that the rest of the country, particularly western Canada, is doing very well.

Super-size jobs How about the fact that one of every 17 jobs (six per cent) in the GTA is directly related to construction? Our local share of the jobs pool has been growing steadily since 2002. As with jobs, our contribution to national GDP sits at 6.3% on an Ontario-wide basis and would be no less if local statistics could be easily pulled out. That stat too, has been growing steadily since 2002.

Now for the really big numbers! Starting with new-home construction, the 40,611 homes we started last year were worth $7.3 billion and created just under 70,000 jobs. Our renovation activity, valued at $7.16 billion, generated another 68,664 jobs. Adding in the economic impacts of other expenditures related to residential construction and our total economic impact exceeds $16 billion and nearly 154,000 jobs – not bad, I say.

Super-size paycheques Another way to picture this story is to look at wages paid. For new homes, builders paid over $3.2 billion to workers last year. Renovators were just under $3.2 billion. Add in the “other” and the total wages paid hits a whopping $7.15 billion. As an aside, the average weekly wage for construction in Ontario is 103% of the average for all industries.

Now for the part that hurts a bit – taxes paid. Adding up all the income, sales and payroll taxes remitted by builders and renovators to the various levels of government, our industry contributed $3.75 billion in taxes last year alone – that’s not including corporate taxes paid or the development charges, permit fees and other charges paid to municipalities, nor the land transfer tax paid to the provincial government.

Super-taxed Looked at over the four years of data immediately available to me, the local homebuilding and renovation industry here in the GTA has generated nearly $60 billion in economic activity, created more than 600,000 jobs (technically speaking it’s person-years of employment) and paid out more than $27 billion in wages. I don’t have a four year tax total, but $13 to 14 billion would be a conservative estimate – OUCH!

Now, take our local numbers and multiply those by two for Ontario and more than five times for Canada, and your calculators would probably start giving you error messages, the numbers are that big. So, when I say that these numbers matter to you for better or worse, I am talking about the fact that as the health of the building industry goes up or down – so does the economy. Can you imagine if all the people we employed were unemployed? If our governments didn’t have the billions in tax revenues generated by our industry, who would pay or what would happen to education, health care and other social services?

Our governments pay a lot of lip service to the industry because they are well aware of these statistics and the implications of a reversal of fortune, but that’s pretty well where the respect ends. When it comes to taxation and regulation, our industry tends to get targeted – a real shame considering the added costs get passed onto homebuyers, through higher prices for the same home or less home for the same money.

I honestly fear that the economic impact of the residential construction industry gets taken for granted in good times and am seeing way too many examples of tax grabs and increased regulation on our industry. Our primary mandate as the Building Industry and Land Development Association is to defend the homebuyer’s interests in this environment and we gladly do so because what’s good for you is good for us. It happens to be good for everybody else too. I just hope our governments hear the message!

The Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), formally known as the Greater Toronto Home Builders’ Association and Urban Development Institute (GTHBA-UDI), is the voice of the residential land development, home building and professional renovation industry in the Greater Toronto Area. For more information, visit www.bildgta.ca.

Bob Finnigan is the 2007 President of the BILD (Building Industry and Land Development Association), and Principal and Executive Vice-President of Heathwood Homes and The Heron Group. He can be reached by e-mail at president@bildgta.ca, or by fax at 416-391-2118.

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

Category: General Real Estate, New Homes | Tags: , ,
Laurin Jeffrey | October 6, 2007
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Hottest summer ever for new-home sales

The summer of 2007 is turning out to be as hot and steamy as the weather for the Toronto new construction market in the Greater Toronto Area, Bob Finnigan, President of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), said recently.

Total new-home sales in the GTA in July surged 47% compared with July of 2006, while sales of high-rise condominium suites nearly double compared with last July, rising a whopping 90% year over year. Not to be totally outdone, low-rise (single-detached, semi-detached and townhomes) unit sales jumped 33% July 2006/July 2007.

“We’re running out of superlatives to describe the new-housing market this year,” said Finnigan, who revealed that total new-home sales through the first seven months of 2007 are running 15% ahead of the same period last year (versus forecasts of declining sales in 2007).

“The good news, is that over the last 12 months, prices have only risen by 5.6% for low-rise, homes and 4.2% for high-rise homes, and therein lays the explanation for the continued strength of the market. Healthy competition among builders is keeping affordability in check, with the benefits accruing to the home-buying public,” added Finnigan.

According to RealNet Canada Inc., BILD’s official independent source of new-home market information, this has been the hottest summer ever, by far, for new-home sales – June/July sales of 9,900 units this year compares with roughly 8,000 sales recorded in 2002 and 2003. Combined sales of nearly 6,000 high-rise units this summer compares with 3,671 last summer, which was second best-ever.

With more than 1,500 members, BILD, formed through the merger of the Greater Toronto Home Builders’ Association and Urban Development Institute/Ontario, is the voice of the residential land development, home building and professional renovation industry in the Greater Toronto Area. BILD is proudly affiliated with the Ontario and Canadian Home Builders’ Associations.

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

Category: New Homes | Tags: , , ,
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