Saving Your Client Money in a Real Estate Transaction

This weeks blog post is definitely not legal advice, however growing up in the Real Estate industry for the past 34 years, there are definitely a few ways I have discovered that both Realtors and Lawyers can add value to their clients transaction:

Negotiate from a position of strength – in short, ensure that your client has done everything they can do to help a deal move forward. This includes obvious things like obtaining a pre-approval and limiting subject conditions only to “bare essential items” (like title review, strata docs, home inspection, financing). However, taking this to the next level means having this discussion with your client:

1. What is the BEST outcome if the deal does NOT go through? And
2. What is the WORST outcome if the deal does NOT go through?

These two questions very quickly get to the heart of your client’s motivation.

Setting good dates – everyone wants to close at the end of the month, this means that you client is just one of many people needing services from lawyers, movers, strata companies. The best advice here is to remove subject conditions at least 30 days prior to closing, and have closing occur on the "off-weeks" during a month (ie; those weeks that do not contain the 15^th or 30^th).

Knowing the Local Area – there are many areas in the Central Okanagan where housing costs will be dramatically different for a number of reasons that are not immediately apparent from the listing, for example:

1. Are you too far from a fire hydrant/ protection area to obtain cost effective fire insurance (Some parts of the Upper Mission)?
2. Does the area you are in have such poor water quality which will necessitate you bringing in outside sources (ie; Glenmore – Ellison Irrigation District)?
3. Does the smaller municipality mean that you property taxes are going to be markedly higher (ie; Lake Country, Peachland)

Search out Hidden Costs

1. Get a good home inspection, but then get a follow-up expert inspection if anything substantive arises (ie; roof, foundation, building envelope/ water, electrical, plumbing).
2. Get to know your strata council – everyone reads strata docs, this is standard. However don’t be afraid to take the extra step of calling the Strata Council President, you’d be surprised what doesn’t make it into the minutes.