Kirsten Mason, Author at Kamloops Real Estate Blog

Savona & Tobiano, Kamloops, B.C. Real Estate

March 19, 2009 Kirsten Mason Kamloops Neighbourhoods, Surrounding Communities

For the latest Tobiano, Savona and Kamloops real estate for sale click here.

Neighbourhood: Savona & Tobiano, Kamloops, B.C. Real Estate. Savona and Tobiano are located south west of the city of Kamloops at the western end of Kamloops Lake. From Kamloops it’s approximately a 15 to 35 minute drive depending on the destination. This is rural living with few shopping areas and amenities.

Properties & Real Estate: Savona

Many of the properties that are located in Savona sit on large parcels of land often over 20 acres in size. Parts of Savona are classified as ALR land, or Agricultural Land Reserve. This means that the land is specifically defined as land designated for agriculture. This was done because of the region’s dwindling agricultural land.

There are also smaller properties on much smaller lots, some of these properties can be found on Savona Access Road, Watson Drive, Buie Street and Ernest Street. There are often a few mobiles or modular homes for sale in the Savona area.

Tobiano is also located in this region.

Thompson River Estates area has numerous waterfront acreages that sit on the Thompson River. There are also riverfront properties on Savona Access Road which are smaller often 1/4 acre lots. This area is also known as Walhachin.

To view homes for sale in Savona click here.

Properties & Real Estate: Tobiano

Tobiano is a developing community in the Kamloops region and is home to a beautiful golf course. Previously six mile Ranch, Tobiano is set on a 1,000 acres overlooking Kamloops lake and surrounded by 17,000 acres of wilderness area. Tobiano is still a developing community and some of the amenities are in the process of being built or in the planning stages.

There are numerous homes in Tobiano bordering the beautiful golf course. Summers Landing is a single family home and townhouse development that sits along seven of the golf course fairways. Lake Star at Tobiano is a townhouse development perched on the bluffs above Kamloops Lake. There are 52 homes in total in this town house development. Bluff, golf and resort lots are available for building your dream home at Tobiano. They range in size from 6,000 to 20,000 square feet. Golf bay and equestrian lots at Tobiano. These lots are some of Tobiano’s largest single family home lots.

Tobiano is rural living at it’s best. If you need something away from the city but not too far it’s a beautiful place to call home. The most recent addition to the Tobiano community is the marina where boats can be moored and visitors can rent many different types of equipment and boats.

To view homes for sale in Tobiano click here

Recreation

Savona has a variety of outdoor activities to enjoy year round. Swimming, hiking, dirt biking, ATV riding, snowmobiling and boating. Savona is home to Steelhead Provincial Park which is located on the south west shore of Kamloops Lake. Visitors to this park can enjoy camping, picnicking, fishing, paddling, swimming and hiking.

Tobiano has an 18 hole golf course, numerous hiking and back country biking trails, cross country skiing and snow shoeing are a few of the recreational activities available in and around Tobiano.

Due to Tobiano’s close proximity to Kamloops many city amenities are within a 20 minute drive.

Schools

Savona has it’s own elementary school called Savona Elementary School. Secondary students take a school bus to the city of Kamloops and attend school there. Visit School District 73’s website fore more information about schools.

Transportation

There is not any public transportation in these areas.

To view home and property listings in Tobiano and Savona click here.

To read more about other neighbourhoods click the link below:

Aberdeen Barnhartvale Batchelor Heights

Brocklehurst Campbell Creek Dallas

Deloro/South Thompson Valley Cherry Creek Dufferin/Southgate

Heffley Knutsford Juniper Heights

North Kamloops Paul Lake/Pinantan Lake Pineview

Pritchard Rayleigh Sahali

South Kamloops/Downtown Sun Rivers Sun Peaks/Whitecroft

Valleyview/Rose Hill Westmount Westsyde

Surrounding Communities

Barriere Mclure/Vinsula Savona/Tobiano

Thinking Of Listing You Home For Sale? What You Should Do Before, During And After Listing It.

March 18, 2009 Kirsten Mason Information For Sellers

Many home owners in the Kamloops area are thinking about selling their home but are unsure about where to start. There are numerous real estate companies in Kamloops with even more Realtors at each company. Here is a guide to help home owners prepare and understand the steps before, during and after selling your home.

1. De-clutter, clean up and touch up: Ensure your home is in good condition and will “show” well. This means that all unnecessary items that clutter a room should be removed and stored or donated. The tidier a room, the larger it feels. Buyers will not be distracted by clutter and untidiness when viewing your home. Touch up the paint in your home. This includes re-painting rooms with neutral light colors. Dark colors tend to make rooms feel dark and small. Remember, any strong odors need to be eliminated as well. It is important to have buyers imagine themselves in a home, strong smells, bold colors and cluttered spaces impede a buyers ability to do so. It is important to put your best foot forward from the start.

2. Interview Realtors: Every Realtor is different, the marketing techniques and level of service varies between agents. Interviewing a few Realtors for the job of selling your home is essential. Ensure you find a Realtor who will:
– Keep you informed on a regular basis about progress made towards selling your home.
– Promptly return all of your calls or emails (find out what tools are in place to ensure good communication).
– Actively market your home (ask about the marketing techniques used ie. internet advertising).
– Give you honest, accurate market information.
Developing a relationship with your Realtor is essential. You will feel comfortable asking questions or sharing concerns as they arise.

3. Signing a listing agreement: Once you have chosen a Realtor to represent you, you will then sign a listing contract. You will find the following in a listing contract:
– Contract period: You will specify the period of time that you will commit to listing your home with your Realtor. This time period can range and can be from one month to numerous months.
– Physical and legal description of the property to be sold.
– Listing Price: you and your Realtor will come up with a suitable list price to put your home on the market. You have to ensure that you are not over pricing your home. Price it at a competitively so it will sell. Your Realtor will show you comparable sales that directly compare your property to other similar properties. These comparable properties must be SOLD, not current homes on the market, because homes on the market will not necessarily sell for the asking price.
– Listing Service & Cooperation: Your Realtor commits to placing your home on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and will cooperate with all real estate brokerages.
– Commission rate: There is no “standard” commission rate, every Realtor is different. This is an important question to bring up during the interview stage so that you know what to expect. The most important thing you can do is offer a strong buyer agent commission, otherwise it is much more difficult to sell your home. Commission is paid by you, the seller and covers both the selling agent’s commission and the buyer’s agent commission.
– Commitment to Confidentiality: Your Realtor is agreeing contractually that your personal and confidential information will not be shared with any outside parties, this includes your motivation to sell or current financial situation.
– Limited Dual Agency: Sometimes a situation arises in the sale of a property where the listing Realtor sells your home to their own buyer or the listing Realtor and buyer’s agent are from the same office. This is called limited dual agency and in this case the Realtors involved have to stay neutral and not advise either party.
– As the seller you would agree to: refer any inquiry about the sale of your property to your Realtor and accept an offer made during the contract that fulfills your selling requirements. As a seller you have the power to accept an offer that is acceptable to you, your Realtor should not force you to accept any offer that you are not comfortable accepting.
– By signing the complete document you as a seller have committed to working towards the sale of your property with the Realtor you have chosen.
– If you are not satisfied with your Realtors service, some agents will allow you to cancel your contract at any time. This is also something you should discuss during the interview process.

4. Yard Sign, Pictures, Lockbox & Advertising: Your Realtor will arrange to have a yard sign placed on your property to advertise your home for sale. Pictures will be taken of your home to place on MLS and other advertising media. Some agents will take video profiles of your home to use on websites for further advertising. A lockbox will be placed on your front door or other accessible location. A lockbox is important, it allows other agents to access your property (with an appointment of course). Only Realtors and licensed home inspectors have lock box keys.

5. Showings: Your Realtor will call you with any requests to show your home. You will be given a date and time when either your Realtor or another agent would like to show your home to their client. The showing agent will leave a card behind after showing your home. During these showings you should vacate the home in order to ensure that the potential buyers feel comfortable searching through cupboards and closets.

6. MLS Tour: If your home is close to the Kamloops city core it will be included in the MLS tour. This is where Realtors tour new listings in Kamloops and preview them for potential clients. MLS tours happen every Tuesday in Kamloops and alternates between the North and South shores.

7. Open Houses: Some agents will hold open houses at your home. This allows for your home to be exposed to potential buyers as well as allow your Realtor to network with potential buyers.

8. Price Adjustment: There may come a time where you will have to consider adjusting your list price. This market adjustment or price reduction will help refresh your listing and create more excitement about your property with buyers. With the current market, it is important to revisit price adjustments regularly in order to remain competitive.

9. Contract to Purchase: Once a buyer makes an offer. Your Realtor will assist you in negotiating the terms and conditions reagrding the sale of your home. For full details about how a Contract of Purchase and Sale works from initial offer to completion click here.

10. What do you do if your listing expires off of the Kamloops real estate market.

11. Accepted Offer, Subject Removal, Completion & Possession: Once an offer is accepted, the buyer starts to remove subjects such as a home inspection, financing etc. Once the subjects have been removed the offer is considered ‘firm’ and the next step is completion and possession. Completion is the date negotiated in the contract to purchase where the monies and legal documentation is completed and transferred. Possession is the date that the buyer gets the keys to their new home.

As stated earlier, Realtors use a variety of techniques to sell a home. This is why it is important to interview a couple of agents to find the right one for you. Go with your gut feeling, it is often right! If you have any questions please give me a call. I would be happy to help you.

Click here for your free home market evaluation.

Featured Property: 237 Sunhill Court, Upper Sahali, Kamloops, B.C. $499,900

March 16, 2009 Kirsten Mason Sahali

This beautiful 3,200 square foot two storey home with a full basement is located in a cul-de-sac in desirable upper Sahali. This home has three bedrooms on the top floor and one in the basement. There are two full bathrooms, one two piece bathroom and one three piece ensuite.The master bedroom is huge, boasting a large walk-in closet and a private balcony. There is oak hardwood floors throughout the main floor.

Other great features include three gas fire places, built in book cases, main floor laundry, two car attached garage and five appliances. Beautifully landscaped yard with lush gardens, underground sprinklers and numerous trees provide considerable privacy.

Located on the desirable Sunhill Court near to the popular Sahali Coach Hills and Albert McGowan water park. The elementary school is within walking distance and Sahali Secondary school is a short drive away.

The lower Sahali area has numerous places to shop as well as a variety of restaurants. Click here to find out more about upper and lower Sahali.

For further information about this property or any other homes for sale in the Kamloops area click here.

Canada’s Subprime Mortgage Secret

March 15, 2009 Kirsten Mason Foreclosure Information, National Real Estate News

The Globe and Mail recently published an article detailing what they called “Canada’s dirty subprime secret”. They looked into over 10,000 Canadian foreclosure proceedings and uncovered a subprime mortgage problem that many (including PM Stephen Harper) claimed does not exist in Canada. Here are some of the main points of the article. Some readers claim the article is fear-mongering and exaggerating the situation while other readers claim that we haven’t seen anything yet. I will let you form your own opinions. I would love to hear what you think. You can view the entire article by clicking the link at the end of this post.

– Data from both B.C. and Alberta governments and two private companies that specialize in tracking foreclosure proceedings show that lenders are foreclosing on homes at an “alarming rate”.
– More than half of foreclosures in 2008 were initiated by a number of subprime lenders who targeted riskier borrowers with poor credit histories.
– Thousands of homeowners borrowed more than they could afford and lenders lent money too easily.
– The number of unsold homes in Canadian cities is building which has ultimately depressed the value of homes of even people who haven’t overextended themselves.
– Canada does not report court ordered sales or foreclosure numbers like the USA which uses the data to gauge it’s economic health. In Canada it is hard to get these detailed numbers.
– In B.C. and Alberta private companies collect foreclosure data from the courts. Ontario handles their foreclosures through a process known as “power-of-sale which effectively removed the issue from the courts and shielded the scope of the problem”.
– Canada’s real estate sector has not suffered as much as the USA.
– It was common in the past couple years to hear companies who had relaxed lending practices state “We say yes when the banks say no” and “No income verification”.
– We do have a subprime problem in Canada, lenders significantly reduced their lending standards over the past five years.
– Vancouver courts are overwhelmed with the flood of foreclosure applications. It now takes six weeks to process an order vs. one day six months ago.
– Subprime lenders “trashed the market”. These lenders gave loans that no sound financial institution would touch.
– Many wealthy individulas offered private high-interest-rate mortgages to homeowners who already had high debt and are now foreclosing on the properties at lower values than projected.
– Canadian government agencies don’t publish numbers on the scope of high-risk lending also banks and other mortgage lenders don’t disclose details about these loans know as “non-conforming” loans.
– Until the early 2000’s: subprime mortgage lending was often done by private investors or mortgage lenders who would take a gamble and charge high interest rates to home buyers who didn’t meet conservative lending requirements. This was a very small percentage of mortgage lending.
– Mid 2000’s: this small percentage mortgage lending changed into the fastest growing segment of the country’s mortgage market. This brought aggressive U.S. mortgage lenders to the Canadian real estate market which happened predominantly in the west.
– The mentality was as long as real estate values continued to increase the lenders were not taking on a high amount of risk because they could always foreclose homes and sell at a profit.
– Aggressive U.S. mortgage insurers that were approved by the Canadian federal government in 2006. These mortgage newcomers further minimized their risk by selling mortgages to entities that sold securities backed by mortgages to investors.
– Benjamin Tal, an economist with CIBC world markets was one of the first to sound the alarm. He published a report in late 2006 that estimated subprime loans were growing at a “meteoric” annual rate of 50 per cent by the end of 2006, becoming the fastest growing segment of Canada’s mortgage market.
– In 2006, Mr. Tal estimated more than 85,000 Canadian homeowners had subprime loans.
– Late 2007 easy money and soaring real estate prices tempted many borrowers and lenders into viewing homes as cash machines. Numerous second and third mortgages at high rates of interest were taken out to fund a lifestyle that was not financially responsible.

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