The Real Estate and Mortgage Show - January 26
Steve and Frank are joined by Erin Peck and Sara Orr from the Paul Rushforth Team. They take your real estate, mortgage and staging questions.
On this week's Real Estate and Mortgage Show, Erin Peck (Sales Representative Selling Partner) and Sara Orr (Closing Manager) from the Paul Rushforth team join Steve and Frank for another information-packed hour.
January is normally not seen as a particularly busy real estate season, but with mortgage rates still at record lows, many home owners are breaking with convention and placing their homes on the market early. Erin and Sara remind sellers of the extra steps that should be taken when listing a home in the winter - such as ensuring the driveways and walkways are properly shoveled and salted, and re-setting your thermostat so the home is comfortable and warm to prospective buyers.
Another hot topic this week is the rise in popularity of purchasing property to invest. With Ottawa's low apartment vacancy rates and higher-level incomes, more and more investors are turning to purchasing rental properties as an alternative to traditional investing.
More than one caller on this week's show dealt with mortgage terms. Many home owners who are looking to move in a couple of years, or who have very little time left on their mortgage will tend to take a mortgage term that exactly matches the time they will spend in that particular property. Frank lets listeners know that with mortgage rates sitting as low as they are, it may be a good idea to take at least a 5 year term, regardless how long you may stay in that particular property. The majority of traditional mortgages are portable, and taking the longer term will ensure you have access to today's low mortgage rates for at least 5 more years. If there is very little left to pay on a particular mortgage, it is worthwhile to calculate the interest savings of taking a 5 year rate and the possible penalty to pay it off early, versus the higher interest rate of a 1 or 2 year mortgage. For more information, talk to an Ottawa Mortgage Broker.