Thoughts & Happenings

Once again this year, The Goodale Miller Team took part in the annual Oakville Half Marathon while raising money for and sponsoring a great cause in The Lighthouse Foundation.  

Your luxury car represents a substantial financial investment.  You need to take proper care of it.  It has a number of other important places in our lives, as well.  Day-to-day use makes us think of a car as a given, a basic, but the independent transport it represents can save a life, property, a crucial deal, or simply turn daily problems into minor errands.

Most Canadian monthly debt payments are starting to drop, especially when compared with American debt payment rates. Canadian debts may be higher than their American cousins but they’re also repaying them in record time – a 30 year mortgage for example will be paid off within 12 years of the debt being taken out. According to the Bank of Montreal the average monthly payment dropped from $1140 to $986 compared with a year ago, a major milestone. Another important thing to note is that a year ago only 74% of Canadians had debts, while this year 83% have debts. Canadians may not be becoming debt free but getting trapped in a circle of paying off revolving debts instead.

There are two kinds of appraisals when it comes to luxury real estate: the bank and your luxury realtor. Your realtor will tell you one thing, the bank sends an appraiser out and gives you a different number and won’t lend above that. Sometimes it’s a good thing, sometimes it’s not. It’s all going to boil down to which number your lender thinks is right and find the one that’s most reasonable. It’s great to know how much a home is really worth; after all you don’t want to pay too much right?

Most buyers have a very slow closing – and most buyers are willing to pay more to get it to go quickly. Most are going to have to wait about three months to close on their home, but there are things that you can do to make sure goes a lot faster than that.

Internationally renowned interior designer Brian Gluckstein recently took House and Home online on a tour of his beautifully designed, 2013 Princess Margaret luxury showhome, located right here in Oakville Ontario.

It’s never easy trying to sell luxury real estate – or any other home for that matter – but what do you do with an empty house? People have a hard time jumping to conclusions on their own and you’ll be lucky to sell it without a stick of furniture inside. Here we’re going to talk about how you can sell an empty home without any furniture (because sometimes staging is just too price) and what you can do to make sure that you’re making the most of your home. Remember, it’s all about giving them the home they want, not the home you want.

If you want to buy a home but you’re not sure how you can go about it, you’re going to have to be smart. You’re going to need to save up a big down payment before you buy real estate like luxury homes for sale. You’re going to have to take time to build strong credit that will tempt lenders into working with you, and work on reducing as much debt as possible. Take the time to get educated about your options before you even think about applying.

When it comes to buying a home on your own, you’re not alone! More and more Canadians (both male and female) are beginning to buy homes all by themselves – bucking the trend of buyers only buying a home after marriage or with family. A little over 20% of Canadian home purchases last year were made by solo homebuyers; this might not seem like a big deal, but we’ve come a long way! People are going to start buying homes on their own, and if you look at the Baby Boomers you’d be surprised how many of them are buying their second home or forever home on their own.

With the changing priorities of today’s homeowners over those in the past, there’s a lot to be optimistic about when it comes to the homes of the future. Here were going to go over some features that will be common within the next 10 to 20 years if not sooner – and if you can expect to see some of these improvements in the next home you buy. Everything from kitchens, sliding glass doors, and even electrical outlets are set for a big change. Let’s see what’s in store.