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Sometimes, when you’re appraising a property – especially an older one – you’ll come across something that doesn’t seem to fit in with the typical zoning for the area: Maybe it’s a large commercial sign in a street of single-family homes, a quadruplex that was built in the 1960s that now sits beside luxury homes, or even a small barn with a pony in the backyard of a house in an otherwise residential neighbourhood. Typically, these are ‘grandfathered’ exemptions: That…...

A few simple tips to help your appraisal go more smoothly "We're refinancing our mortgage and they're sending out an appraiser this week. What should we do to ensure that our appraisal goes smoothly?" As we've discussed before, professional appraisers are trained to see beyond a few dirty dishes in the sink and even that fucshia accent wall in the living room that you painted to celebrate the Barbie movie, so you don't have to 'prepare' for your appraisal by…...

If you're like many Canadians, you've grown up thinking that one day, you'd be buying your own home. It seems like a pretty normal thing to do - until you're actually doing it for the first time, yourself. When you find yourself actually signing paperwork committing you to hundreds of thousands of dollars over a couple of decades - well, it can suddenly seem like a very big deal. But the more you know, the less stressful it can be.…...

Well, it's that time of year again: The time when experts and pundits everywhere look back at the year that was and try to make sense of it - and figure out what we can expect in the year to come. With that in mind, we wanted to share a couple of infographics we came across this week. Canadian house prices by major cities Zoocasa produced an interesting graphic based on CREA house price information on a month-by-month basis over…...