Crime rates in Waterloo Region and Guelph have gone up, but only slightly. And don’t fret, our crime rate is still among the lowest in Canada.
The bad news is the severity index and the violent crime severity indexes are both up seven percent for Kitchener. Yet, we are still well below the national average for break and enter, vehicle theft, robbery and homocide.
http://www.570news.com/news/local/article/79677–local-crime-rates-rise
Kitchener Waterloo Cambridge comprises the 11th largest metropolitan area in Canada and the 5th largest in Ontario. The population is about 450,000.
Herbert Kitchener was the UK’s Secretary of State of War. Kitchener was known as Berlin until 1916.
Weber Street and King Street run parallel streets that cross four times
Waterloo was named the Top Intelligent Community in 2007
Kitchener is the largest city within the Grand River watershed.
Kitchener was the first city to launch the “blue box” recycling program. That was in 1981.
Kitchener is one of the few places in Ontario where settlers arrived before government surveyors. That explains why our roads aren’t exactly grid pattern.
Uptown is Waterloo. Downtown is Kitchener. This is a relatively new distinction.
The University of Waterloo was founded in 1957. There are about 30,000 students. Wilfred Laurier University was founded as Waterloo Lutheran Seminary in 1911. About 12,000 students attend.
Beaver University was among the proposed names for Wilfred Laurier University when it changed its name in 1973 (from Waterloo Lutheran University)
There are a lot more than 365 things to do in Kichener Waterloo.
Most people that choose to sell their property by themselves do so in order to save the commission. That makes sense. Who wants to pay a Realtor several thousand dollars if they don’t have to?
What many people fail to realize is that the commission is split four ways between listing and selling agents and their brokerages; they are not giving listing agent 6% of $350,000 ($21,000) to put a sign on the lawn and hold an open house. That would be a sweet deal for me!
Many people also do not understand that commissions are negotiable, especially with higher priced homes. And with the way prices have been going up over the past few years, many of us are living in “higher priced homes” now.
There is a lot to selling property, it’s not rocket science but it is complex and emotionally charged and if something goes wrong it could cost a lot of money, not to mention emotional stress.
But maybe you want to give it a try. Maybe you want to sell your home yourself.
There are companies out there, posing as real estate experts. They are not licensed to trade in real estate, have not been through any training whatsoever, carry no legal responsibility yet have the gall to refer to licensed realtors as “some Joe Shmoe agent” http://WWW.PROPERTYGUYS.COM/. Sorry, but that’s not very professional. They promise to save you thousands of dollars by giving you the material you need to sell your home.
Here’s something you might not know. Statistics show that “For Sale By Owner” homes typically sell for 10-15% less than comparable properties listed on the market with a Realtor. Lets do the math. (10% of $350,000 = $35,000 vs. $350,000 x 6% = $21,000). My accountant would refer to that as a negative gain.
There’s more.
80-85% of those listing on those sites end up giving up and listing with a Realtor anyway. I wonder why that is.
“House prices always go up in the long run”.
It used to be said that the only exceptions to that rule was if your house was in a one-industry town and the industry closed down or if it was hit by a nuclear bomb. However both Elliot Lake and Hiroshima are doing quiet well, thank you very much. (I guess there is hope for Windsor.)
I was talking with my dad the other day. Naturally I asked him about the houses we owned over the last 60 years and their values. He told me something we all already know; house prices and values always go up in the long run.
Mom and Dad bought their first house for $6000 and their current one for about $430,000. They remembered the buying and selling prices for all of their houses (seven so far), and the difference between the buying price and the selling price was always a gain.
It’s impossible to know how much you’ll make when you sell your house. But the past is often a good guide to the future so here’s a chart that may be useful.
Sorry there is no Kitchener – Waterloo data on the chart. In KW, prices were averaging gains of roughly 6%/year over eight of the past ten years then they slowed last year and rose by 10% in the first half of this year.
This Third Avenue house is conveniently located near Fairview Park Mall, with easy access to the 401. It is a 2+1 bedroom bungalow on an oversized lot.
All of the important stuff has been recently done. It has a new roof, new windows, new furnace with air conditioner and new floors in the kitchen and bathroom. Best of all, it can be duplexed!
Become a landlord. Have someone help you with your mortgage.
