This is a great question and one that we hear a lot in the real estate industry, mostly from first time home buyers or clients that are relocating from another country. The answer is simple, YOU DON’T PAY US! Right now you might be saying “but Mardy, what do you mean? How do you get paid?!” – The way that a “typical” transaction works when purchasing a home, is that the sellers cover the commission for the agents on both sides of the deal. This is great for you as a home buyer because it costs you nothing to hire me! In the strange and rarely seen circumstance that a seller is not paying the full commission to a buyers agent, most times it can be negotiated as part of the deal or other in most cases the buyer’s agent will accept what is being offered by the seller. I hope that this has answered your question in full detail and now that you don’t have the fear of paying a Realtor to buy a home, I look forward to hearing from you! 

The simple answer to this question is YES! The main reason you should get pre-approved and know your budget before you go house shopping in Calgary is a simple acronym; FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). You may be thinking “what do you mean by that?!” and it’s actually a very simple answer that most people don’t think about before starting the process. So let’s say you estimate that your approval will be around $500,00 so you start searching for homes in that price range. After you view a few properties and fall in love with one of them, you decide it’s “The One!”. The next day you call a mortgage broker who helps you start the pre-approval process. After a few days of anxiously hoping that the house you love is still on the market, you get a call back from the mortgage broker. 

He has bad news. He tells you that you only qualify for $425,000 and the house you love is out of your price range. Now that you have viewed homes in a higher price range and fallen in love with one of them, everything else in your mind is going to be compared to the house you “missed out on” (FOMO) and make it very hard to be excited and happy while choosing a new home in that lower price range. While shopping for a new home and viewing properties can be very exciting, it can also be time-consuming and a lot of work for everyone involved.

 To make sure that you are using your time efficiently, protecting your best interests and not ending up with “FOMO” then getting pre-approved before you go shopping is a vital aspect to the home buying process. If you have any further questions or needs regarding pre-approval in Calgary and how to get started, please reach out and I would be happy to point you in the right direction 

Residential real estate prices fluctuate up and down based on supply and demand. A buyer’s market means there is a lot of inventory to choose from so you can shop around to find a home you really love, often for a good price. Historically prices have always trended upwards and prices today are, on average, 300% higher than they were only two decades ago. Owning your home and paying down your own mortgage is always preferable to renting and paying off someone else’s mortgage. The sooner you become a homeowner the sooner you will start gaining equity.

Moving up in the real estate market as you gain equity is always something to celebrate, and there is no cause to delay. There is another consideration for anyone thinking of relocating to a larger home or downsizing to a smaller one. While you may not fetch top dollar on the sale of your existing home right now, you can purchase your next home at a great price. You will be purchasing in the same market that you sell in and enjoy all the advantages of a buyer’s market.