Archives for Uncategorized

What Home Owners Can Do With a Tax Refund

  If you are a homeowner, a tax refund presents opportunities to invest for a profit that aren’t available to renters. Whether you plan to sell, stay or are undecided, there are ways to optimize the financial impact of your refund. The first step is to treat your refund check the same as you treat your paycheck. Avoid the temptation to splurge and give that refund money a purpose. Here are three home owner-only options to grow that refund:   But, Are You Withholding Too Much? Most of us enjoy getting a large tax refund every spring. But, a refund
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First Time Homebuyers Government Incentive Programs

    Thinking of buying your first home? If so, it may be time to get on with it, especially considering the possibility that interest rates will rise. Using government incentive programs that encourage first time homebuyers to enter the real estate market, you can realize additional savings. And, mortgage financing has been almost free for some time, but economic signals point to those costs rising.   Mortgage rates may increase   Several factors are threatening to push Canadian mortgage rates higher even as the Bank of Canada tries to hold its overnight lending rate down. Fixed mortgage rates are
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Income Properties: What You need to Know about Buying an Investment Property

“Don’t wait to buy land, buy land and wait” – Will Rogers     Income Properties: Are you Ready?  Owning a rental property may seem like a licence to print money.  Interest rates are low, the Ottawa Real Estate Market is stable …what could be easier?  Buy a property, lease it, collect cheques and plan your retirement.  But…before purchasing an income property, you should be aware of the benefits and drawbacks.   Advantages of Income Properties: You pay less tax. Because your secondary property is a business, you can deduct certain expenses from your income (mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance,
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Home Buyers: Working with a REALTOR®

Real estate has undoubtedly become one of the biggest industries in the world.  Buying and selling of real estate property are obviously major financial undertakings for anyone and these transactions need to be executed in a professional way. With this in mind, working with a REALTOR® is crucial in selling or buying deal of real estate property. In Ottawa, REALTORS® have their own professional association known as the Ottawa Real Estate Board. From this association, our fully trained REALTORS® have insider access to MLS statistics about real estate activity, sales of property, the median price and market conditions. Since the interpretation of these statistics is
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How Google Sunroof is Changing Homeowners’ Costs

How Google Sunroof Works Employing the high-resolution aerial mapping used by Google Earth, Project Sunroof calculates the amount of sunlight reaching your roof to assess its potential for solar power.  It takes a variety of factors into account including local weather conditions, shade from nearby trees and buildings and sun positions throughout the year.  The tool combines this information with data from your household’s monthly electricity bill, factors in panel orientation and tilt to the roof surface to calculate average monthly and annual solar radiation, recommends the size of solar installation needed and estimates the cost to purchase or lease
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Strong summer performance for Ottawa’s resale market

Check out the latest Ottawa Real Estate Statistics from the Ottawa Real Estate Board The summer real estate market has been strong in the Ottawa area, as we head into fall we’ll keep you updated on the latest Ottawa Real Estate market news!  Are you interested in a specific neighbourhood?  Please contact us! We have the latest Ottawa neighbourhood statistics available. _____________________________________________________ Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,279 residential properties in August through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® System, compared with 1,200 in August 2014, an increase of 6.6 per cent. The five-year average for August sales
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