Maria Mak-Professional Real Estate Services - serving her clients in Metro Vancouver for over 25 years

Contact Maria Mak and her elite team @ Sutton Centre Realty for all your premium real estate services @ 604.839.6368 or visit her website @ www.mariamak.com, you'll be smiling too.

Professional Real Estate Services guaranteed!

Maria Mak - Burnaby REALTOR® - Protecting yourself in an assignment agreement

People buy and sell real estate in BC with a document called the Contract of Purchase and Sale. It describes the rights and obligations of the buyer and seller.

A contracting party can sell those rights to someone else unless the contract states otherwise. This type of transaction is known as an assignment agreement.

In simple terms, someone can buy the right to step into the original buyer's shoes to complete the contract.

The person selling the contractual rights is the assignor. The person buying the rights is the assignee. The money the assignee pays for the contract is the assignment fee.   

Here are 10 steps to take before you enter into an assignment deal.  

You should ensure that:

1. you work with a REALTOR®. Your REALTOR® will help protect your interests and bring knowledge of the provincial legislation that governs real estate transactions.
2. the person assigning the contract has the right to do so;
3. the original contract permits assignments;
4. the original seller is aware of the assignment;
5. the property is or was listed for sale;
6. the identity of every individual involved in the transaction has been verified;
7. all money already paid and owed is accounted for and dealt with in the assignment contract;
8. you seek legal advice before agreeing to pay the assignment fee;
9. you understand the additional risk associated with paying the assignment fee before the original contract is finalized; and
10. you consult an accountant to understand the tax implications.

House prices continue to surge in Greater Vancouver

METRO VANCOUVER - House prices continue to surge in the greater Vancouver area, where the price of a typical single-family home has risen by 20 per cent in the last year, hitting $1.2 million in October.

The latest housing price index from the Canadian Real Estate Association shows a 15.33-per-cent jump in the prices of all real estate types in the region between October 2014 and last month. The average sale price of a detached home in Vancouver nearly doubled the national index price of $585,800.

Price gains were slightly more modest for condos, but greater Vancouver still saw the largest jump in prices in the country at 11.39 per cent. A typical apartment sold for $425,800 last month.

Gregory Klump, the CREA’s chief economist, predicts that prices for single-family homes in urban B.C. and Ontario will continue to rise more steeply than those of condos for the foreseeable future.

“The balance between supply and demand is generally tighter for single detached homes than it is for condo apartments, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon,” he said in a press release.

Sale prices in the Toronto and Vancouver real estate markets continue to outpace those in the rest of the country, pushing the national average sale price to an 8.3-per-cent increase in the last year. Prices in the remainder of Canada rose by just 2.5 per cent in the year leading up to October.

BMO chief economist Doug Porter said the housing market has split into three groups, with Toronto and Vancouver too hot for comfort, the Prairies hit by the sliding price of oil and a middle ground which includes places like Ottawa and Montreal.

Porter described Vancouver’s 19.3-per-cent year-over-year gain in the number of sales out of this world.

"If anything, October saw an even greater divergence of Vancouver from the rest of the country (and perhaps planet Earth)," he wrote.

Across the country, the number of home sales rose by 1.8 per cent from September to October of this year, hitting the second-highest monthly level in close to six years, according to the CREA.

Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Regina all posted double-digit sales declines in October. Calgary's housing sales are down 36.4 per cent from a year earlier.

"The renewed sag in oil in recent months looks to have triggered a renewed weakening in housing markets across much of Alberta and Saskatchewan," Porter said.

Copyright (c) Vancouver Sun

Maria Mak - Burnaby REALTOR®

Maria Mak. Burnaby REALTOR^®. Metro Vancouver Real Estate Agent

 

My name is Maria Mak 麥福玲, a Burnaby REALTOR® / Metro Vancouver Real Estate Agent with Sutton Centre Realty. 

  

I approach real estate the same way I approach my art...with passion! When it comes to serving my clients, I always come with a big smile and, most importantly, a big heart!

Contact Maria Mak and her elite team @ Sutton Centre Realty or visit her website @ www.mariamak.com. Thank you!