Surrey Real Estate Blog | Jashan Grewal

Buying a home is an exhilarating, exciting process even though there are many steps and factors to consider. Knowing what to expect, can make this journey easy. Here are some steps that can help you to prepare for home ownership.  1. Cut unnecessary spending Four-dollar lattes can quickly add up. Get serious about reducing expenses on carry-out food, restaurant meals, entertainment and new clothes. Make a realistic budget of how much you can afford to spend on costs that add up, such as eating out or shopping.  When I bought my first home, I had to cut lot of extra spending to make my budget work out 2. Build a savings account This is very important if you just started to think about buying your first home. Set up an automatic transfer to your savings account from each paycheck. You'll need money for your down payment, and you may be responsible for closing costs on the loan. In addition to your mortgage payment, there will always be unexpected expenses and main

I have been a resident of Newton Surrey for 14 years since I moved to Canada when i was 21 years old  and Realtor in Surrey for 7 years. Newton is named after settler E.J. Newton who settled in the area in 1886. Today, Newton is home to a variety of educational, recreational and cultural facilities, including the Bell Centre for Performing Arts and the Newton Cultural Centre which hosts lot of cultural shows and events. Newton is a culturally diverse community that plays host to one of the largest Vaisakhi Parades outside India with gathering of approximately close to 500,000+ people. Newton has Khalsa School, Sikh temple, mosque and churches for its diverse residents.   Newton has everything to offer to its resident from parks to trails, recreational centre to seniors centre and Outdoor pools open all summer long. To name a few of those parks recreational centre and outdoor pools are Newton Recreation Centre, Newton Seniors Centre, Newton Arena Bear Creek Outdoor Pool and Unwin Out

We frequently talk about why it makes sense to buy a home financially, but more often  the emotional reasons are the more powerful or compelling ones. When i bought my first home it was emotional reason for me and my wife. As we were expecting our second child and my parents just moved in with us. No matter what shape or size your home is, the feeling of a home can mean different things to different people. Whether it’s a patio or recreational room, the emotional reasons are typically more important to us than the financial ones when we choose to buy our own home. 1. Owning your home offers stability to start and raise a family From the best neighborhoods to the best school districts, even those without children at the time of purchase may have this in the back of their minds as a major reason for choosing the location of the home that they purchase. This was the reason when i bought my first home and i`m glad we choose a great neighborhood. 2. There’s no place li

What is speculation tax? Lets understand what speculation tax is. Its a tax introduced by government to bring revenue from homes that are sitting vacant. And to bring more homes in market for rent that are vacant. So, the home owner of vacant property has only two options only either rent it out or pay tax. Tax revenue generated from speculation tax will be used for more affordable housing. Most of British Colombians are expected to be exempt from tax.  Anyone who doesn’t apply for the exemption will be declared a speculator and will be hit with the tax. And people will have to make this declaration year a fter year after year.  British Colombians  will be exempt if they either live in their home as their principal residence or rent out their property for at least three months of the year. Short-term rentals for periods of less than one month do not count towards the three-month total. Please check if your property comes under speculation tax as not all of BC comes under specula

I wrote a Blog couple weeks ago about interest rate hikes this year. Well Bank Of Canada has not done anything about rate cut but it did not increase interest in last meeting. As i mentioned in the blog that there are chance of interest rate cut, yesterday RBC did reduce there fixed interest rate by 0.15 point basis, which means you can have little less monthly payments. What that means to current real estate market? it wont affect the real estate market. In my opinion, if Bank Of Canada cuts its interest rate and gets rid of stress test that might affect real estate market. Reason behind that is lot of  buyers and first time buyers are not qualifying for mortgages. With stress test gone, more buyers will qualify and there borrowing limit will be more than what they can borrow as of now. Lot of buyers are holding back as they can`t afford the dream home they want cause of borrowing limit. Lot of Apartment and Townhouse owners who bought before the recent boom has lot of equity built

The Best Time to List Your House? TODAY! You may have heard that the housing market is softening. There is no doubt that buyer traffic has decreased. There are fewer purchasers in the market than there were at this time last year. However, still there are active and qualified buyer`s out there in market. When we look at available inventory numbers and sales numbers released by the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board,  we see that the actual number of homes sold has decreased and inventory has built up in  last five months. But there are lot of sellers waiting for spring season market to list there home. What that means is more inventory and more competition in spring months. What does this mean to you as a seller? The best time to sell is when there is less competition. That guarantees you a better price, more exposure to buyers and fewer hassles in the transaction. If you are thinking of selling your house this year, the best time to put it on the market might be righ

  Basing the asking price on needs or emotions rather than market value . Many times sellers base their pricing on what they think there house is worth. This can be an expensive mistake. If your home is not priced competitively, buyers will Look at other larger homes for the same price or other homes that are priced right. At the same time, the buyers who should be looking at your house will not see it because it is priced over their budget but in real value it fits their budget. The result is increased market time, and even when the price is eventually lowered, the buyers are wary because "nobody wants to buy real estate that nobody else wants". The result is low priced offers and an unwillingness to negotiate. Failing to "Showcase" the home . Sellers who fail to make necessary repairs, and fail to keep it clean and neat, chase away buyers as fast as Realtors can bring them. It is an indication that there may be hidden defects that will resu

      City of Parks, Surrey, has been home for me over 14 years and Realtor in Surrey for 7 years. Surrey has been a city to settle for lot of new immigrants, especially for South Asian community. Reason behind being a popular place for new immigrants to settle has been its affordability than Metro Vancouver area. Its expensive to live in surrey now after the real estate boom in 2015, but still its lot cheaper than Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond. Vancouver is only 25 Minutes ride on Skytrain and 40 Minutes to 1 hour on car depends on traffic. There is big price difference in housing between Surrey and Vancouver. Well there are lot of reasons behind the price difference, which will take hours of writing to differentiate. Lets look at the data available of population growth of Surrey and Its Neighbourhoods on City of Surrey official Website. Population Estimates (2007 to 2017) Year   Cloverdale        Fleetwood Guildford  Newton      South Surrey   Whalley        Surre

As we all know City of surrey is also known as The City of Parks, which translate City of Surrey as Green city. City of Surrey has over 200 Parks which consist of over 6,000 acres of land ( That's Huge Green Space for a City ). Even in the Urban Area of the city you are never far away from a park, trail or riverbank.  Get outdoors, and experience Surrey’s stunning natural beauty, Especially  the giant second growth forest at Green Timbers Urban Forest or  the running track, nature trails and gardens at Bear Creek Park   City of Surrey has lot of bike parks, and each of them have been carefully designed to offer a variety of tracks and trails to fit all ages. From the dirt jumps and pump track at South Surrey Bike Park offers  the dirt jumps and pump track, at Invergarry Mountain Bike Park you can experience technical downhill trails , you'll find a level and style that works for all ages. Go for a peaceful walk, explore our dog parks or take the kids to a nearby playgroun

As I wrote a Blog couple days ago about the Real Estate Market Surrey Bc In 2019 about having one interest rate hike in 2019 as economy is looming, cause the price of Canadian oil known as Western Canada Select briefly dipped below $15 a barrel last fall. Today CBC wrote an article Expecting higher rates in 2019? Don't bet on it just yet . It`s a must read for all to see what`s happening in 2019 with economy and interest rate hike`s. As of today it will be hard to predict which way Bank of Canada is heading but number`s don't lie and looks like with economy slowing down, there might be no interest rate hike in 2019 if not a cut in interest rate. Some economist were still predicting interest rate hikes in 2019 some weeks ago, But that scenario is changing which might move into a interest rate cut predicted by some economists. Some statements made are as follow :- "At present, there is not a single hike priced for 2019." Say`s Pollick. By Pollick's math, there&

The Bc assessment authority starts mailing property assessments to owners in January, based on market values as of July 1 of previous year, in 2019 Assessment values in Metro Vancouver  show declining values for the first time in about a decade but gains in assessment values in Fraser Valley. In  Fraser valley house values  average range is negative 10 per cent to plus 15 per cent compared to Metro Vancouver which is opposite negative 15 per cent to plus 10 per cent. According to the new numbers from Bc Assessment authority, The city of Vancouver, detached homes dropped an average of four per cent in value, while condo values rose six per cent as compared to Surrey, detached homes gained an average four per cent rise and 14 per cent for condos. City of Langley condo owners will see a 27 per cent average jump in valuation. Abbotsford, condo owners will see their assessed values jump on average 28 per cent while detached homeowners will see an average 9 per cent rise. Chilliwack valu

T oday, all we need is a rapid transit as communities around the Lower Mainland have population growing at a rapid pace, especially Surrey and Langley  as being an anchor for new high density development. If we take a look at Metrotown, Surrey Central and Marine Gateway in south Vancouver for high density development, its been a success. With the Real Estate prices rising and becoming unaffordable for a common household, we need high density developments to make housing affordable for everyone, which wont happen without rapid transit . Transit needs to go farther connecting communities as road infrastructure is not enough to hold the population growing at its current pace, We need to make our city smarter and connectable to communities.  City of Surrey website  describes City of Surrey as second largest city in the province, with a population of more than 500,000. Our population continues to grow and it is estimated to surpass Vancouver in population as the largest city in BC by 20