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Whether you are buying your first home in Toronto or your second; or whether you are selling your home and looking to get the best price, working with a professional and knowledgeable real estate agent can make all the difference. There is no question about it – the Toronto real estate market is hot. Properties move quickly. And this makes it extremely difficult for anyone to participate if they do not have the right real estate agent as part of their team.  Working with the right real estate agent will give you a definitive advantage over others in the market. So what should you look for when you are looking to hire the best real estate agent in Toronto?  In this article, I will explore some of the top attributes that you’ll want your agent to have. 

If a homeowner fails to make their mortgage payments, the most common solution for the lender is Power of Sale.  If you have a client who is in this situation – or if you are selling a Power of Sale home for a lender, it is important to understand the various aspects of Power of Sale and how you can best serve your client.  

What is Power of Sale?

In this process, the lender notifies the homeowner that their mortgage is in default and outlines what must be paid and by when. If the homeowner fails in this regard, the lender will have the right to evict the owner and place the home on the market. 

If you are in the process of selling your home and buying another one, one of the obstacles that you may face is that you are ready to purchase a home but don’t have the 5% deposit required to put down on the new property that you are looking to buy. Most buyers would go to their bank to apply for a line of credit which can take weeks if not months, by this time the home you may have dreamt of buying will probably be sold. A deposit for purchasing your new home acts as a token of good faith and provides security for the seller that you will close on the purchase so it is highly important and common to have a 5% deposit available within 24 hours of an accepted offer to purchase by bank draft or certified cheque. 

This can be a problem whether you are upsizing, downsizing, or moving for work or some other reason. The unfortunate reality is that in real estate, the timing of when you sell your existing property and when you buy your new one doesn’t always synch the way that you would like it to. And in today’s competitive market, if you find the property of your dreams, you can’t afford to wait for your existing property to sell. If you do, there is a very good chance that you will miss out. 

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and others have gotten a lot of press lately. And across North America, there are cases popping up of real estate being listed for sale and asking for cryptocurrency as payment. Recently, there was a home in the Toronto area that was listed for 34.62 bitcoin (a value of about $490,000 at the time of publishing).  But buyers have been reluctant to purchase using cryptocurrency. 

Some of the hesitancy no doubt comes from the comfort level (or lack thereof) that people have with cryptocurrency in general. There is also the volatility to consider. Bitcoin reached a high of US$19,511 per coin in December of last year and by March, it was down to US$10,852 per coin. 

So what should you know before selling property for or purchasing property with cryptocurrency? Here are a few things you need to know. 

It is legal