of the parties and does not necessarily require a signed document.
I then move on to the next piece of paperwork.
Individual Identification Information Record
This identification form is also referred to as FINTRAC - The Financial Transactions and Report Analysis Centre of Canada. I explain it to you and have you complete the form. This too has been described in the earlier part of this book.
Mortgage Pre-Approval
Now that I have established the kind of home you would like and we have dispensed with the initial paperwork, my focus is on price range. To establish the price range, you need to be pre-approved for a mortgage.
If you have been truly pre-approved, that means that you have provided your financial institution or a mortgage broker with your employment history, pay stubs, tax assessments, any credit card debt and other financial obligations. In turn, the lender has assessed all this information, did a credit check and you have received a letter, from your financial institution or mortgage broker, stipulating the amount of mortgage for which you qualify. The net result of being pre-approved is that the only missing ingredient in this process is the actual home. Once you have selected the home, the mortgage process can proceed.
However, if you have gone to a financial institution or mortgage broker, and you have not provided any of your personal financial data but simply talked about it, then you probably do not have anything in writing. Any verbal price range that has been given to you is at best tentative and cannot be relied upon. There is always a chance that some financial element has been overlooked or not all debts have been incorporated. There also may be other factors such as job stability, past bankruptcy or credit history that has not been addressed and could have mortgage implications. To avoid disappointment, I would suggest that you go back to your financial institution or mortgage broker and obtain proper mortgage pre-approval.
I have included a chapter entitled ‘Financing Options’ that will provide you with some factors you will need to consider when ‘shopping’ for a mortgage.
Internet Search
Now that we have examined some of the financial factors you may encounter, we are finally ready to check the MLS® System for appropriate properties.
Many real estate boards have specific programmes for REALTORS® that enables them to do detailed searches and also enables the REALTOR® to actually email such results to their clients. Some programmes are quite elaborate whereby the client, having received listings fitting his criteria, can mark his ‘favourites’, or ‘possibilities’ or place them in a ‘discard’ category if they are not of interest. Then, on a daily basis, if properties come on to the market place meeting his criteria, they are emailed to him. In this way the client continues to stay up to date with new entries.
I now know the kind of home you are seeking so I input some specific criteria, including an approximate price range, and do a search. A fair number of properties come up but I don’t wish to fine tune the criteria any further because, at this point, it is in your best interest to see a broader spectrum of properties from which to choose the ones you wish to view.
I do two things with this search. First, I email it to you so that when at home, you can browse through and categorize them and or delete the ones that are not of interest. I also print out the search.
Concluding First REALTOR® Meeting
At this point, you have been with me for about an hour and probably are in information overload! There is still more information to share but this is a good place to stop for now.
I have a ‘Buyer’s Information Package’ for you. It covers some aspects of what we discussed and also has new material. The package contains a copy of the ‘Contract of Purchase and Sale’ and Addendums that you will encounter when you have found the right home. It is a good idea to become familiar with these documents.
I also provide you with copies of all the documents you have signed.
If you have not been pre-approved for a mortgage, it is best to schedule an appointment so that we can verify the price range and avoid any disappointments at a later time.
You also have a broad selection of properties that you can review.
You may wish to do some drive-bys and/or select some you wish to see. Once you have made your choices, let me know and I will set up the appointments so that we can start the selection process.
Making Appointments for Showings
Once you have selected the properties you wish to see and call me, I then arrange for the appointments. Depending on local customs and/or arrangements the listing REALTOR® may have made with his seller, I either call the listing REALTOR® or the seller to arrange an appointment to show the property. There is usually a window of approximately two hours to attend the property during which time the seller is gone. Potential buyers are much more comfortable viewing homes when the owners are absent.
I have worked in cities where the use of lock boxes was not the norm so this meant picking up keys from real estate offices -- a much longer process. But in many areas, lock boxes are used and this makes the showing process far more convenient.
In order to be able to work within the required time frames, I have to plan my route in a logical fashion and also anticipate how long my clients will take to look through a home.
If the properties are within adjacent municipalities, I may be able to show between 6-8 homes if they are on lock boxes. I usually verify to see if my client is comfortable with that range. When I have an out of town buyer who has time constraints, I have often shown double this number of homes. This requires an early start and late finish with lunch on the run!
If my clients consist of 1 or 2 people, I prefer to take them in my car so that I can get some feedback on what they have seen -- what they like and dislike. This helps me to better understand the kind of home that might be suitable. Otherwise, they simply follow me in their own vehicle since meaningful discussions become difficult in a group setting.
‘Shopping’
On the appointed day, you meet me at my office and I hand you a clip board and pen as well as a ‘tour’ sheet of properties where you can record key elements of the properties you see to help you remember them later. I have already programmed my GPS with all the addresses for the quickest routes from one property to the next and we are ready to ‘go shopping’!
When you first start to view homes, you have a vision of the new home in mind. In fact, you have described it to me at our first meeting. Most of the time, one single home does not have all these desirable elements. As you view one home after another, your vision begins to change and the focus becomes more realistic. By the end of one day’s viewing, you have gathered some good insight into what is important for you to have in a home.
I generally suggest that you do ‘plus and minus’ list for each home you have seen. This helps you sort out which home you may wish to see again and helps you to select other homes to view. I also check to see if any other properties have come onto the market place in the past couple of days that we need to put on our ‘shopping list’.
If during the first day’s viewings, a home doesn’t rise to the top of your list, I suggest that you select others you would like to see and give me a call so I can set up further
