THIS ISSUE: Mortgage Tax-Break / CMHC Resources / It’s A Competition ARCHIVES: www.privatelist.com/newsletter.htm Do you have any stock-market investments as well as a mortgage on your house? A recent online column by financial consultant Garth Turner points out that under current tax legislation, when you borrow money to invest in income-producing instruments like mutual funds and stocks, the interest on the loan can be used to reduce your taxable income. His suggestion: sell your investments and use the proceeds to pay off your mortgage. Now take out a new mortgage and use the funds to get back into the stocks or other eligible investment. Voilà: you've made the interest on your mortgage tax-deductible! Of course the devil is in the details, so check with your friendly accountant or financial adviser. But, depending on your circumstances, the benefits may far outweigh any transaction costs. From the "help your buyers buy" dept: the recently re-vamped CMHC web-site provides a number of tools for homebuyers (and by extension, homesellers). Here are two that you should definitely be ready to refer prospects to:
And who knows? You may even learn a thing or two yourself! I’d hate to count the number of times I’ve had home-sellers assure me: “We know were asking a bit much, but we’re willing to negotiate down.” No, no, NO! BAD home-seller! Take this approach to pricing your property, and the odds are you’ll never get a chance to negotiate! To be successful, you have to assume that your buyers are familiar with the market, have viewed up to a dozen properties, and are interested in at least one other in addition to your own. That means you’re in a competition. If you price your property too high relative to the homes you’re competing against, you’re simply helping sell one of those other properties: buyers will offer on what they perceive as their best overall deal, and you’ll never know you’ve missed them. Let the situation continue long enough, and you may end up throwing in the towel and listing with an agent - at an asking price well below your previous attempt. And now you’ll have to deduct a hefty realtor’s fee from the proceeds! Your best bet by far is to do your homework and determine the actual recent sales prices (minus realtor’s fees) of properties similar to your own. Somewhere between the average figure that sellers of comparable homes have been netting and the average asking price of your current competition, you set your price - keeping in mind that private buyers will expect to share in the saved real estate commission. Give them what they want from the start, by way of a competitive asking price, and laugh all the way to the bank. Remember, every $1000 you save by selling privately may be worth up to four times as much over the life of your next mortgage (or invested, over a similar term, at a safe rate of return). FRIENDLY REMINDERS . . . Are the thousands of dollars you'll save by selling privately worth, say, an hour each week-end, spent reviewing your progress to date and mapping out your continuing campaign? It's important to maintain an active marketing focus until your property is sold. Therefore, each e-mail version of this newsletter links to a series of reminders, tips and tools that lead to a sale! To access these resources, press here.
|
