Find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions, about buying a home in the Peterborough area.
It is dependent on what your offer contract states. If it states “upon acceptance” (which is most typical for our market) this means that you will need to submit your deposit within 24 hours of your offer being accepted. You can submit the deposit either in person or electronically through wire transfer. If your offer contract states “herewith” this means that you will have to have your deposit ready to provide upon the submission of your offer.
Land transfer tax is a tax imposed by the provincial government that is required to be paid by the buyer of a property upon closing date. This tax is calculated based upon the purchase price of a property, and first time homebuyers could be eligible for a refund for a portion or even all of the land transfer tax. For more information about calculating the land transfer tax within your budget, and about vacant land, please see the following link: https://www.ontario.ca/document/land-transfer-tax/calculating-land-transfer-tax#section-2
The Seller of the property you have submitted an offer for will have a designated irrevocable time period to make the decision of whether to accept, decline, or sign back/counter your offer. If your offer is rejected, it does not mean that negotiations are over. It is not uncommon for Buyers to come back to that offer and try again with improved price or different terms. If the offer you submitted was your best offer and there is no room for improvement, don’t worry! Our Team will keep up our search to find you the perfect home with the right terms for you.
There is a portion of the Agreement of Purchase and Sale called the “irrevocable”, where the Buyer places a date and time that their offer is valid until. During this time, the Buyer can not revoke the offer they have submitted, and Seller has the ability to accept, sign back, or decline the offer. This irrevocable period is determined by the Buyer and their Realtor with strategic significance, and can be allotted for any amount of time. In competitive situations, Buyers tend to choose shorter irrevocable periods in an attempt to avoid further competition with others. There could be situations where a Buyer is offering on a property where there are multiple parties involved as Sellers, such as an estate sale, and it is not uncommon for 24h or 48h to be requested as an irrevocable to ensure all selling parties are able to be contacted to go over the offer.
You can put 5% of the purchase price down for a home valued at $500,000 or less, any amount above $500,000 requires 10%, and homes valued at $1,000,000+ require a 20% down payment. These values can be combined, see example:
Most people are really surprised by this answer. The good news for buyers is that you are not obligated to pay any fee amount to your Realtor. There are fees such as land transfer tax, legal fees, and moving costs associated with purchasing a house that do need to be considered and budgeted for.