February 23, 2015

FREEThe Key toREALESTATE

What you need to know to make good decisions for your greatest asset.

2015

Buying, Selling, Mortgages, Realtors,

Decorating, Landscaping,

Home Improvement

2 The Key to REAL ESTATE 2015

The Key to REAL ESTATE 2015 3

Located in the central region of Vancouver Island on the picturesque

eastern coastline, Nanaimo is a small-sized city with big-sized benefits.

Nearly 90,000 people make it their home and according to the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board’s 2013 Buyer’s Profile, more than 50 per cent of the buyers that year came from outside the area. So word is getting out.

What makes Nanaimo so desirable?

There is something for every-one in Nanaimo, from ocean-front apartment-style condos, family homes in neighbour-hoods with access to excellent schools and recreation, char-acter homes in the downtown

area, to large acreages and waterfront residences.

Nanaimo is home to excellent public and private schools and Vancouver Island University offers a wide selection of pro-grams, attracting both local and international students.

Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, our state-of-the-art facility, is second to none.

Nanaimo, with its temperate climate, is known as the Medi-terranean of Canada.

How would you like to be able to golf year round? Skiing is only an hour’s drive away. Nanaimo is home to three lakes and more than 880 hect-ares of parkland.

Did you know we have the best cold water diving?

For those looking for the finer attractions, Nanaimo is home to a professional sym-phony and theatre company, as well as a plethora of other arts and cultural groups.

Nanaimo is a city with a healthy and varied population, attracting young families to

seniors. With a diversified economy

of more than 5,400 businesses, Nanaimo services a trading area of more than 350,000 peo-ple.

With all these wonderful things going for it, how does Nanaimo’s housing market compare pricewise?

The following represents the benchmark prices for Decem-ber 2014, from the various real estate boards.

Victoria’s average single family home was valued at $558,500, which seems a great deal compared to Vancouver, whose benchmark hit an all-time record high of $1,002,200.

And Nanaimo? The average single family home’s bench-mark price was $338,000.

If you are looking for an affordable home in a safe and dynamic community, come see what Nanaimo has to offer. You won’t be disappointed.

◆Rosanna Duffy is a Realtor with

Coast Realty Group.

ROSANNA DUFFY

REAL ESTATE

If you are looking for an affordable home in a safe and dynamic community, come see what Nanaimo

has to offer.

“Word is out about Nanaimo


LET US HELP YOU FIND YOUR TRUE

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VICTORIA1581 Hillside Ave.250-592-1058

NANAIMO424 N. Terminal Ave.250-754-4248

LANGFORD109-2924 Jacklin Rd.250-915-1016

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It is possible that you have heard the terms “buyer’s market” and “seller’s mar-

ket,” but do you know what they really mean and how they are determined?

The Nanaimo real estate mar-ket is cyclical, which is why you may have heard the term, “real estate cycle.” Several key fac-tors influence this cycle, includ-ing interest rates, employment growth, investment growth, construction and even immi-gration. All influence whether there is a buyer’s market,

seller’s market or a balanced market.

A buyer’s market is when there are many more homes for sale than there are buyers. As a result, prices might drop over time as home owners become eager to sell their property.

A seller’s market is when interest rates are low so there are many qualified buyers and not many homes for sale. Buy-

ers must make quick decisions and may face multiple offers on the home they have chosen to buy.

A balanced market occurs when interest rates are afford-able and the number of buyers and sellers in the marketplace are equalized. The scales don’t tip in either direction, meaning the market is normal without experiencing volatile swings.

LYNN DONN

REAL ESTATE

Key factors influence real estate cycle

Single family homes 60 per cent Balanced to sellers’ market

Condos (apartments) 44 per cent Balanced

Condos (patio homes) 79 per cent Sellers’ market

Townhouses 56 per cent Balanced

Lots 43 per cent Balanced

Sales to list ratio by property types in 2014.Source: VIREB


West Coast REALTOR®

Your

EXPERIENCE • INTEGRITY • RESULTS

Lori [email protected]

Home Staging, Renovation Consultation & Successfully Helping Buyers & Sellers Since 1993.

To determine what kind of market we are experienc-ing we use a statistical measure called the sales-to-list-ing ratio.

According to Canadian Real Estate Association, a sales-to-new listings ratio between 40 and 60 per cent is generally consistent with balanced housing market conditions, with readings above and below this range indicating sellers’ and buyers’ markets respectively.

Interestingly, the average sale prices increased in 2014 over 2013 in all property types except for condo apartments.

Buyer’s and seller’s markets fluctuate. It is not unheard of to have more than one market type in the span of 12 months. When deciding whether it is time to buy or sell real estate it is important to review cur-rent market stats with your Realtor.

◆Lynn Donn is a Realtor with Royal Lepage Nanaimo

Realty.

PROPERTY TYPEPER CENT CHANGE IN SALE PRICE FROM 2013

AVERAGE SALE PRICE AT END OF

2014

Single family homes +5 $370,760

Lots +7 $165,832

Condo (apt.) –2 $214,974

Condo (townhouse) +5 $261,047

Condo (patio) +5 $285,487

Source: VIREB


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Today’s mortgage market is a highly competitive one and record-low

interest rates are only fuelling the fire.

One thing that seems to confuse consumers is why a bank would advertise a low five-year rate of 2.99 per cent, but post on its website the fixed five-year rate at 4.79-4.99 per cent.

The confusion is under-standable and the answer is that the higher rate is the ‘posted’ rate and the lower

rate is the ‘discounted’ rate. Which leads to another ques-tion: why the two different rates?

The posted rate has been what the banks and credit unions have traditionally used for their mortgage rates. It is the rate you will see ‘posted’ on most bank and credit union websites and in their branches.

For many years, it was the rate that they would offer their customers at renewal before the competition of non-bank lenders forced them to begin discounting their mort-gages. The non-bank lenders were willing to reduce their profit margin by lending at a lower rate to earn market share, and thus the ‘dis-counted rate’ was born.

The catch with the dis-

counted rate when using a bank lender is that the amount the rate was reduced from the posted rate is later taken into account when doing a penalty calculation for breaking term early, and can often inflate the penalty.

The non-bank lenders don’t add this into their penalty calculation as they tend not to use posted rates and offer only discounted rates.

With the changing landscape of the mortgage industry, dis-counted rates have become the predominant rate adver-tised and offered to consum-ers, making the posted rate less relevant.

The one area where the posted rate is still quite rele-vant is the Bank of Canada’s weekly calculation of the ‘qualifying’ rate.

CAROLINE ROACH& JOHN WOODS

MORTGAGES

Discounted mortgage rates dominate


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This is a rate that reflects the posted five year rates of all Cana-dian chartered banks and must be used to qualify a borrower for a variable rate mortgage or a term of less than five years.

This is because borrowers with one- to four-year terms and vari-able rates are more exposed to rate increases and must be able to prove they could weather a sud-den rise in rate.

The qualifying rate at the time of writing this was 4.79 per cent which is quite a bit higher than current discounted fixed or vari-able rates for any term.

There are a number of websites dedicated solely to comparing the discounted rates of various lenders and they can be a good tool when researching mortgage financing.

However, it is easy to get caught up in the interest rate and forget that there is much more to a mort-gage.

Terms such as portability, pre-payment policies and penalty

calculations can be just as import-ant, depending on the amount of flexibility you need in your mort-gage.

◆Caroline Roach and John Woods

own Fitzwilliam Mortgage Corporation.

ant, depending on the amount of flexibility you need in your mort-

◆Caroline Roach and John Woods

own Fitzwilliam Mortgage


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BUYING OR SELLING?

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A new program allows Realtors to provide a home energy evaluation as part of the

home buying or selling process.The Real Estate Energy Efficiency

Program, launched in August 2013, features a certified energy advisor who does the home assessment and provides a report to homeowners with suggestions on where to make improvements and the opportunity for energy savings.

Real estate is a highly competitive environment. Seeing an opportunity to support his industry, Realtor Rob Grey with Re/Max of Nanaimo orig-inally floated the idea of a Realtor lead energy efficiency program back in 2011.

The idea quickly gained momen-tum with founding partners Regional District of Nanaimo, City of Nanaimo, B.C. Real Estate Foun-dation, B.C. Hydro PowerSmart and Vancouver Island Real Estate Board all providing support.

“[Real Estate Energy Efficiency] is truly designed by Realtors for Realtors and is changing the home buying and selling conversation,” says Grey. “The relationship Real-tors have with clients is deeply enhanced around the importance of energy efficiency in the real estate sales process.”

Navigating the ever-changing home energy landscape is difficult.

Realtors are always looking for tools and information to help clients make informed home improvement decisions. The training and subse-quent home energy assessments provide valuable information to both buyers, sellers and those considering more efficient home upgrades.

Forty-two Realtors from Duncan to Campbell River have participated in a comprehensive, three-hour train-ing program. Ten case studies and 62 home energy assessments have been completed throughout Vancou-ver Island.

The data from these home assess-ments will provide the basis for additional case studies, providing a database to learn from for Realtors and homeowners alike.

Additional tools such as a Return on Investment calculator are planned in the coming months.

For more information, please visit www.vireb.com/reep.

The relationship Realtors have with clients is

deeply enhanced around the importance of energy

efficiency in the real estate sales process.

“Program provides efficiency information


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JAN LAURIE Certified Home Stager 250.751.1885 [email protected] janlaurie.com Nanaimo-based

Styling for Living, Staging for Selling

...using what you already own!

Home staging is the task of preparing and pre-senting your house for

selling. As a seller you want your house to make the stron-gest first impression to the greatest number of buyers.

Many people today hire cer-tified Home Stagers to guide them through the preparation process.

The earlier they hire the stager the better. In fact, some people have a consultation a year ahead of time in order to

have extra time to prepare. It is more common, however, that people call a stager as soon as they decide to sell.

Selling your home can be an overwhelming process. We live with our ‘stuff’ everyday so it can be difficult to know how and where to begin.

Stagers bring fresh eyes and think like the buyer, which is hard to do when you live in the house.

This process is more than decorating as there are also emotional and psychological layers a stager thoughtfully considers when preparing a house for the market.

Stagers are trained to help you maximize the best presen-tation possible for your home.

Good presentation also results in top-notch MLS pho-tos. Buyers looking for a house

today rely on the MLS photos for choosing which houses they want to tour. It is also likely there will be more show-ings, a quicker sale and better price.

To the buying public, a well-staged house helps them visu-alize how their furnishings can fit into each room.

Staging a home is usually a two-step process.

The first step is a two-hour consultation where you walk together through your house and yard.

The stager will guide you with verbal suggestions, answer your questions and leave a helpful list of priorities for you to follow.

Many clients say this list and ‘coaching’ helps lessen the stress involved in preparing to show their house.

JAN LAURIE

HOME STAGING

Make strong first impression with buyers


Sell Your Home

Advice & Tips on Selling Your Home

nanaimohomes4sale.com

Thinking of selling your home? Free Guide for Home sellers

...and much more! Call or email for your FREE copy

Here’s what you will find inside!

• Ways to decide if it is time for you to sell your house

• How to prepare yourself financially• Why it makes sense

to hire a Realtor

• How to price your home

• How to prepare your home so it will sell for top dollar

• How to make your home show well• What to expect when

listing your property

A date will be set for the stager to return for the hands-on work of Step 2.

This important stage involves final placement and arrangement, inside and out.

Attention outside is paid to the curb appeal that provides the first impression of a home. Inside details such as precise furniture placement for optimal balance, sight lines, focal points and traffic flow for each room are covered.

Placing lights and hanging art also makes a subtle but powerful difference.

Cost and services may vary from one company to another. It is wise to select a staging company that suits the outcomes you are hoping to achieve.

Many furnished houses will cost less than half a per cent of the asking price, to be ready to put on the market.

◆

Jan Laurie is a certified home stager.

As a seller you want your house to make

the strongest first impression to the

greatest number of buyers.

“

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For more information on advertising and rates for the Nanaimo Real Estate Review, please contact Lesley Livingstone-Gray at our office,250-734-4614.

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TYLER ANKERSTEIN

RENOVATION

If you and your family are con-sidering a move – either buy-ing or selling a home – don’t

overlook the importance of a functional, attractive and up-to-date kitchen.

The kitchen can make or break the sale of a home and renovat-ing your kitchen could give you the edge in a competitive real estate market.

Deciding how much to spend on a kitchen renovation can be difficult. How much return on investment are you hoping for? What is the time frame that you

have for the project? How do you update a kitchen yet remain true to the style of the rest of the home? Will there be design changes in your kitchen update or are you happy with the cur-rent layout of the kitchen space?

Selling your home Most homeowners want to

present their home to potential homebuyers as clean, attractive and updated while staying within a reasonable budget.

Additionally, the real estate process should be as quick and painless as possible.

One sensible option is to re-face your kitchen cabinets. This involves changing the doors of your current cabinets to reflect a more modern and clean style that will enhance the value and beauty of your home.

Your current cabinetry may not

need to be changed or moved unless you decide you want to make design changes to the cur-rent layout of your kitchen.

Advantages of re-facing your cabinets instead of replacing the entire kitchen include saving money and resources, (re-using the existing boxes instead of buy-ing new ones) and convenience and cleanliness (the entire pro-cess takes less time and makes less mess).

New kitchen gives market edge

Deciding how much to spend on a kitchen

renovation can be difficult. “


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It is also a great time to make other simple changes too, like adding new door handles and pulls, or making small modifications to the design that will attract the attention of the homebuyer.

Buying a HomePerhaps you have found

your dream home; it is in the right location, at the right price and the lot is per-fect for your family.

What if the kitchen just isn’t your style and you are re-considering your decision to buy the home?

Re-facing the kitchen can be a great way to keep your costs down and is often less disruptive and time consuming than having a new kitchen installed after you’ve moved into your new home.

You can change the style and color of your cabinets to reflect your personal

taste while keeping in mind the practical needs of your family.

Modern conveniences and features can often be added to existing cabinets, such as more drawers or easy access rollout shelves.

As well, soft-close mecha-nisms for doors and drawers are often able to be retrofit-ted to existing cabinets.

Every family is unique but most of us spend a consid-erable amount of time in our kitchens cooking, baking, socializing, laughing and creating memories.

Before you dismiss your potential dream home because of the color or style of the cabinet doors, con-sider re-facing and creating the kitchen that will always be the heart of your home.

◆Tyler Ankerstein manages

The Kitchen Technician in Nanaimo.

taste while keeping in mind the practical needs of your

Modern conveniences and features can often be added to existing cabinets, such

As well, soft-close mecha-nisms for doors and drawers are often able to be retrofit-

Every family is unique but most of us spend a consid-erable amount of time in our

Before you dismiss your

because of the color or style of the cabinet doors, con-sider re-facing and creating the kitchen that will always be the heart of your home.

Tyler Ankerstein manages

Your housing needs have

With your children flown from the nest, you need less square footage - but great quality.

Seemingly overnight!

Give me a call so we can find you the low-maintenance residence of your dreams so you can start living it up!

If you have a brokerage relationship with another agency, this is not intended as a solicitation

Office: (1)800-738-8808Cell: (1)250-740-0884www.MARILYNN.ca

[email protected]

changed drastically,

You want to spend less time on home maintenance and more on life maintenance.


Low-water garden plants are a smart choice as these resilient plants can keep gardens look-

ing lush and beautiful regardless of water restrictions.

In fact, low-water gardening has become a popular trend among eco-conscious gardeners and even is a cost-saving measure for home-owners.

Establishing a garden of drought-tolerant plants requires knowledge of hardiness zones and which plants will thrive in certain areas.

Native plants, in general, will be more tolerant to fluctuations in weather than plants that are imported.

Contact a garden center and speak with someone knowledgeable about plants that will do well in low-water conditions.

Butterfly bush is very hardy and requires little water. Although it is considered an invasive plant in

some areas, gardeners who keep on top of seedlings and off-shoots can keep the plant in control. This shrub will create an enormous amount of flowers that will appear in the spring and will continue to bloom throughout the summer. The

butterfly bush also attracts scores of butterflies to a landscape.

Pink evening primrose is full of delicate, pink flowers that spread on runners. It prefers dry soils, and even though it can thrive when soil quality is poor, it cannot tolerate soil that is too wet.

Gardeners who would like rela-tively low-maintenance, drought-tol-erant plants can opt for succulents. Succulents, which include aloe, cacti and jade, are characterized by thick, fleshy water-storage organs. Succulents prefer bright light and can thrive in south-facing condi-tions. It’s good to concentrate the most amount of watering for succu-lents during the spring growing sea-son. Keep soil well-drained to avoid damage to shallow roots.

Drought-tolerant plants are a good idea in those regions where weather is naturally arid or if homeowners prefer plants that can grow regard-less of seasonal water restrictions.

Low-water plants smart choice for gardens

Just Listed

Just Listed

THINKING OF SELLING YOUR HOME IN 2015?

Spring Market is just

around the corner!

To successfully market your property,call any of the Realtors in the Nanaimo

REVIEWREAL ESTATE



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February 23, 2015

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