Ready to buy a home? Be prepared: With inventory tight and prices rising, this is a tricky time to be entering the market.

Your biggest challenge is that you’re probably bringing less cash to the table, which makes it harder to compete with more seasoned buyers.

What you do have, however, is flexibility—you’re not counting on selling your current place to fund the deal. That means you can play nice guy with sellers who want to stay put until they land their next place.

Here are the best moves for you to make as you begin to enter the housing market.

1. Lock Up Your Financials

Before you start shopping, clean up your credit and save for a bigger down payment so that you’ll qualify for a better mortgage rate and avoid costly fees. Step one:

You may have heard of the incentive programs that the federal government has created to try to entice first time home buyers into the real estate market, but how much do you really understand? Is this something for you?

The government of Canada has a couple of programs that are designed to get first time buyers on the property ladder. Read on to see if they are right for you.

1) The Home Buyers' Plan (HBP). This is a program that allows you to withdraw funds from your Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) to buy or build a qualifying home for yourself or for a related person with a disability. The HBP allows you to pay back the withdrawn funds within a 15-year period. So what are the rules?

• Permits two first-time buyers in the same

If you have questions about the coronavirus and how the current situation might impact your finances, you’re not alone.

We’ve all heard the words “unprecedented times” more than ever over the last month. While we deal with so much uncertainty around us, it’s important to recognize that there are still actions we can take to help protect ourselves.

With financial markets crashing and the loss of a number of jobs, Canadians are questioning their financial future. It is yet to be determined the real economic impact of the coronavirus as data is changing quickly with limited time to analyze. There are indications that joblessness will increase in the short term, which can be scary; however, the government and lenders are stepping up to aid households in

Your credit scores are an important aspect of your financial profile.

They may be used to determine some of the most important financial factors in your life, such as whether you’ll be able to lease a vehicle, qualify for a mortgage or even land that cool new job.

And considering 71 percent of Canadian families carry debt in some form (think mortgages, car loans, lines of credit, personal loans or student debt), good credit health should be a part of your current and future plans.  High, low, positive, negative – there’s more to your scores than you might think. And depending on where your numbers fall, your lending and credit options will vary. So what is a good credit score? What about a great one? Let’s take a look at the numbers.

In a

Sharp drop in B.C. home sales should be followed by steady recovery: BCREA

Ban on open houses foreshadows short- to mid-term trouble for property sales, as COVID-19 infects all aspects of the market

As COVID-19 makes its way around the globe, it is also bulldozing its way through the economy.  While airlines and event venues were the first to be infected, many are anxious about how the virus will affect other parts of the economy, including the real estate market – which made up 17.4 per cent of B.C.’s GDP in 2018.

Earlier this month, B.C. real estate brokers cancelled all open houses. When houses aren’t shown they become more difficult to sell, and when houses aren’t selling the broader market suffers. While the outlook doesn’t look good, it is

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It's a safe way to get the info you need now and be ready to sell or list your Kamloops Real Estate when the time is right. If you register today you can save searches and get the information you need delivered to your email.

So how does everything effect the real estate market?

The B.C. government’s 2020-2021 budget envisioned about $1.6 billion in revenue from the property transfer tax, and the real estate sector, which employs tens of thousands of people, is worth more than $22 billion annually to the province’s GDP, according to the industry

COVID-19 has hit 2020 like a wrecking ball, slowly making its way across borders.

Social distancing has us all pressing pause, letting go of priorities in favour of time spent indoors, connected only though our screens. Alas, in the real estate market, even amid a global pandemic, there are still sellers who need to sell, and buyers who need to buy. Lucky for us, in this age of technological glory, real estate agents have access to some great solutions to ensure that processes remain safe, and transactions can continue to take place. This too will pass, and in the meantime, we can all use a little creativity to ensure that our brief pauses don’t turn into a full stop.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver is "strongly recommending" against its

So you’re looking to buy a new house – and pouring over all of the great real estate offerings in the Kamloops Area.

Each property slideshow conjures images of a new era of domestic bliss in your mind. It’s an exciting time, full of possibilities. But while you’re envisioning yourself in that new place, don’t forget to consider the big picture. You’ll be calling a new neighbourhood “home” too.

Read on to determine what information you need to know about choosing your new neighbourhood.

It’s not merely a question of “good neighbourhoods” and “bad neighbourhoods”. What you want, ideally, is a neighbourhood that offers the specific qualities required to enrich your life (both now and during the years to come). Those requirements will vary greatly

Home inspections are a huge part of buying and selling a home.

While in most cases a home inspection is optional, it’s highly recommended by experts so you can be aware of the home’s condition and potential problems. One of the most common pitfalls new home buyers experience are issues with the home they didn’t know about but could have been fixed prior to closing. Remember, if you have an inspection before purchasing a house, the issues are the seller’s, but if not, the buyer, you are responsible.

One of the most common subjects to a real estate transaction is the home inspection. An inspector’s report is often the deciding factor to move forward with a purchase and can be used to renegotiate the sale price or allow sellers to make repairs. It can

If you are in the market to sell or buy a property, you may have some incorrect misconceptions.

We decided to debunk some real estate myths that may be impacting your search. Consider these as guidelines for buying and selling.

Myth One: Listing your home for more than what you expect to receive will net you the price you want.

This is often considered room to negotiate. But it’s a mistake you don’t want to make. Listing too high may actually net you a lower price. Why? Because buyers and agents often won’t even look at homes priced above market value. You always have the option to reduce the price after a few weeks, but that’s not a situation you want to be caught in. A price reduction can signal to buyers that there are problems. Even in a low