Arnold Shuchat PREC Real Estate Blog

This is from one of my files.  I had to share it.  It is the craziest thing I have ever seen done as a do it yourself renovation.  In order to have a nice flush electric garage door installation, this chump completely cut through the main joist beam of his whole upstairs to insert the electric unit!  This is just one illustration as to why someone needs to do a home inspection prior to purchasing. 

There are usually one of two good reasons why people decide to sell their real estate: the first is an upcoming change in their family’s living arrangement , such as a downsizing, change of schools etc…;the second is about the investment merits of continuing to hold a property in light of changing market direction and the impact that has on a family’s future balance sheet. As a consequence of the rapid acceleration in real estate prices over the last decade a large amount of wealth has accumulated and many people are just now starting to think about protecting the value of these assets. 

The most frequent question I am asked is “How is the real estate market these days?”  This is a difficult question to answer on a moment’s notice as every type of product and location has a different answer.  Some neighborhoods have suffered a market correction more than others which have been buffered by the desirability of their location. For those concerned...

There is a hard way, and there is an easy way to find property in the school catchment area that you want.
The hard way, is to check every single listing that comes out every single day and to check the catchment for that listing each time to make sure that the property is in the area you want.

There are a host of simpler ways.  But the easiest is to call me to arrange for a custom property search.  This can be done by framing an area geographically using special software.  The criteria can be by street, by walking distance from the school, by yard or view exposure relative to the compass.  Once we have that configured, other criteria can be added automatically  so that for the most part, you only get listings that meet your needs or search criteria.  These listings will be sent automatically as soon as they are up on the Real Estate Board's MLS system.  The way most people try to do this on their own, the listings only show up about 48 hours later and the...