The first step in any home purchasing initiative is to understand what you can afford. It is much easier for a consultant to sit down with a client and to step them through the process of needs, wants, and wishes, while educating them on the potential price impact of the wish list items. There are strict limits for a mortgage lender to consider your family income, existing debts, and ability to carry the mortgage. If you are a marginal prospect you may need to use a mortgage broker (you may want to use a broker in any case to get a good rate on the mortgage) with access to more liberal funding. Make sure you have a mortgage agreement reviewed by your lawyer as well, because there could be clauses in the agreement that can bite you if things do not pan out as they ideally should. Consider getting pre-approved for financing as well.

As far as qualification is concerned think in terms of a future sale should that be necessary, and how the value of the home limits the prospective buyers to people in certain income groups depending on mortgage interest rates and, of course, basic qualification standards. Realtors often advise people to buy the most home they can afford, but afford might put you neck-deep in debt. The advice is self-serving because there are fewer buying prospects for such higher-priced properties, a challenge you face should you ever have to sell. In addition, if you are not mortgaged to the gills you have more wiggle-room so you are less likely to find yourself in a position of having to sell.

Mortgages are potentially scary documents that represent a contract that binds a lender and a borrower into a particular financing deal for usually a 5 year term. The mortgage is typically amortized over 25 years. In fact, none of this is cast in stone, and the default contract may not be the best option to consider depending on the buyer’s circumstances. It is important to take the time to educate buyers and to help them become pre-qualified for mortgage financing. Note that the bank can still reject a property even if its price falls well below the preapproved amount: there are many factors that play a role in the final decision to approve the mortgage (which may be for less than the maximum amount that is pre-approved).

Financing arrangements must be handled in trust with a lawyer. Brokers are not good substitutes for managing trust-funds – deposits have mysteriously disappeared while sellers had no recourse to recover that money. Lawyers have to provide a detailed accounting of funds received and disbursed, which adds another layer of protection. If a real-estate broker holds a deposit make sure those funds are committed in writing (a formal receipt) so the lawyer is able to manage those funds accordingly, and don’t rely on the deposit that is noted on the agreement of purchase and sale that is not worth the paper it is written on because it is not an attestation of the realtor holding the money!

Treat your future home as a long-term investment, the concept of a “starter home” is a realtor’s way of selling you multiple houses over the years and so making more commission than if they sold you the right home off the bat. If you pay a commission of 5% each time you “move up” then you end up with a series of sales as illustrated in the following example:

$100,000 & $180,000 & $250,000 = $5,000 + $9,000 + $12,500 = $26,500

Note that even if you are a high wage earner $26,500 is a lot of money to pay for essentially swapping houses, and that does not include land transfer tax and other closing costs, lawyers’ fees, moving costs, and redecorating (if not renovation). Keep that in mind while you look for a property that meets the needs of the buyers and their future family. Also keep in mind that prices in big cities may be 4 times the example amounts above: no wonder realtors are doing quite well in general.

The way our Excel™ model minimizes this risk is by creating a property profile that represents ideally what you want, but also the relative priority of what you actually need. Needs are non-negotiable, wants can be prioritized to the level of desirability (if you can get what you want for the same price then that is a bonus). There are also needs that may not be so obvious, like proximity to schools, shopping, transit, and other criteria that may seem petty at first, but that can grow into major long-term irritants if not satisfied. In our course we cover this in great depth, including the general characteristics of the area and specific neighborhoods you might advise buyers against considering.

Look carefully at the home you are planning to buy before you even get to a point of making an offer. Especially consider your furniture in the property to see what fits, and how. Realtors may talk about a cozy home, while you think the dog has luxurious facilities but you cannot quite find a home that is big enough to house people and their furniture. They may talk about a “starter” but you need to think what would happen if you found out you are expecting a child – your first concern should not be to move for more space. Renovated homes can be fire-traps, or they may feature attic suites that you can barely furnish with IKEA pieces assembled in place (let alone solid furniture). While the layout of any home can present challenges, it is important to have a clear vision of how the home works for its future occupants, the buyers that may simply be too smitten to objectively look at the show-stoppers in the house.

Most realtors attempt to get prospects through a house in about 20 minutes but that is not sufficient to take a good look at what is going on. We employ a series of checklists that you can complete while you walk through a home, with the right tools to confirm the facts subtly but accurately. We encode all information to apply a value analysis that ranks each property relative to all the other properties being considered. You can keep the client informed of the objective elements of the purchasing process – that does not mean they may not apply emotional elements that influence the reasoning, but at least they are aware of when to go against their expressed goals and objectives. We do not complete a true home-inspection, but any deficiency that we see will be noted and is then accounted for in the purchase ranking.

Realtors typically use a standard agreement for purchase and sale of property but there are many clauses you want included for your protection. There is truth to the fact that fewer clauses make vendors more likely to accept your offer, but from our perspective we want to see the purchaser protected all the way. The standard agreement ensures that the most important clauses are included, but many realtors now print an agreement directly from their PC and so you have no guarantee that the protection is included. We have an Excel™ tool that lets you enter all the key elements you want included, so you can make a solid offer with automated date calculations that avoid weekends and that have all amounts properly reflected.

Usually we cannot represent the client in a realtor’s office, but what we can do is prepare an “offer template” for each property we evaluate in a selection process. In fact, this is part of how the Excel™ software ranks properties that the client is considering. Realtors often want to create a sense of urgency to buy, but we should advise clients not to get drawn into the excitement since the goal is to get the right property for the long-haul. Many realtors actually do the opposite and suggest that buyers think about a property before they make an offer – here is where we can do the number crunching and equip a buyer with the information to ensure the offer protects their interest: this is a standard offer form that illustrates how clauses should be written, as well as a checklist they can take to their realtor when they review the offer that was prepared for them, to make sure valid clauses represent their interests.

Look carefully at the home you are planning to buy before you make an offer to purchase, so that the “obvious” issues can be addressed. If you have major reservations, don’t even think about putting in an offer, but if you are unsure you can (and should) insist on a home inspection. Although there are reports of unqualified inspectors reality is that they get a much better opportunity to look over the home than when you are “rushed” through the home while the realtor might draw your attention away from potential problem areas. This is a selling point for a consultant to join the home tour to look for things that a buyer may not pay attention to, simply because the consultant is not invested to imagine living in the home – they can be much more objective or critical.

It is the same story after the purchase is made conditional on an inspection; as well the inspector adds credibility to what is observed. These tend to be the major issues, ones that cannot be hidden behind drywall, but certainly there is no way the inspector removes drywall to see if the basement wall leaks. A home inspector may provide an opinion on the roof, the furnace, appliances, and the like, but everyone knows that these are opinions and not guarantees that a 10-year old furnace might not die while a suspect 30-year old furnace could very well chug away for another decade. If you want to get involved as a home inspector keep in mind that you do not want to play a dual role with a specific client: be observant before the sale, but leave it to another inspector to handle the formal post-sale inspection.

Other than to remind the client of critical dates in the closing process you will not be playing a notable role in the transaction from that point forward. That is where the lawyers for both parties get involved to make sure there are no outstanding liens or attachments, that there are no encroachments, and that there is valid title to the property. These kinds of issues are to protect lender interests, more than the buyer interests. The buyer must make sure they get insurance protection – recommend they go through an insurance broker and not the mortgage company, because usually they can get a bundled deal that includes car insurance and general liability much cheaper overall. If you can see yourself doing these different things then it makes sense to add the skills to your repertoire of services you have to offer. This is a stand-alone program of study, so there is simply one (major) course to complete.

Learning Formats       SECC_REP

This course is currently available in a classroom setting (public or company private) with approximately 60 contact hours.

PDF – Certificate Of Completion

Each course offers a certificate of completion that identifies the course, the student, and a brief description of the course. To receive a certificate the student must have attended at least 80% of the course sessions. This personalized certificate is forwarded to the student by Email.

PDF – Course Notebook

Each course includes a notebook in PDF format that provides the minimum knowledge the student must master in order to obtain the certificate. In the notebook you will find references to other study materials. Students receive the notebook by Email when their registration is confirmed.

PDF – Program Overview

An overview of this study program can be downloaded from the website by right-clicking on the program link on the enquiry page.

PDF – Current Training Schedule

A list of upcoming training sessions can be downloaded from the website by right-clicking on the schedule link on the enquiry page.

Registration – Service Providers

To register for any training course please look on the enquiry link page of your service provider (from where you accessed this website). On the page you will find a registration request form where you can order the course that you are interested in. The availability dates will be provided to you, along with payment instructions if you decide to go ahead.