Shirlyn Antonio

Sherlyn Antonio, a real estate agent with Royal LePage Real Estate Services, shares her insights on the real estate market. She emphasizes the importance of research and self-evaluation before buying a home, including assessing one's credit history, income stability, and available incentives for first-time homebuyers. She advises seeking guidance from a mortgage broker or financial advisor to determine affordability and explore financing options. Antonio acknowledges the high prices in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and suggests considering locations outside the GTA for more affordable options. She also discusses the benefits of partnering with family members or using their equity to assist with down payments. Antonio stresses the value of having a real estate agent to navigate the complex process, ensure client protection, and negotiate for the best value and safety in a property purchase. Welcome to the Canadian Business Women Podcast. My name is Esther. Today I have the honor of speaking to Sherlyn and getting some very important real estate advice in this crazy market. Thank you for being here, Sherlyn. How are you today? Thank you so much, I'm great. Thanks for having me. It's my pleasure and really is my pleasure because I've been looking into real estate and it seems to change every minute. So let's start with just getting to know you better and finding out what led you to become a real estate agent. Well, first of all, my name is Sherlyn Antonio and I'm with Royal LePage Real Estate Services in Oakville. I've been doing this for over six years now. Very passionate about homes. I've always loved it as a child, like decorating and prepping my house. I like design, I like layout. So I'm a business consultant by nature, but always had a passion of wanting to go into real estate and just fall in love with just the whole dynamics of real estate on a whole. And so going on six years now, I've been successful in the market in helping individuals find their first home and just love just being able to provide that insight as well as giving everybody that space that they need and helping them along in, I guess, the process in getting from the beginning to end. So that has been very rewarding for me, just seeing the looks as well as just seeing how fascinated they are with the process and the end result. Yeah, I mean, buying a home is most people's biggest expense lifetime, right? So what are the mistakes that you usually see people making when they come to you? Well, first of all, individuals think, yeah, it's expensive, it's not such a hard process, but I always try to advise that research is key. We're in the world of digital and internet, so everything is available for us to just do the research. It's not like back in those days where it was kind of like get an encyclopedia or find out from people, everything's online. Even in the news and stuff, you hear what's happening with the market. And so my first advice is to tell people, do some research, find the first of all, do a self-evaluation of yourself and ask yourself, if I'm looking to buy a home, can I afford it? What are my liabilities are? What's my credit score? Is there anything that's infringing me from being able to get, say, a home once I pull that report and see that I ran a bankruptcy back in how many years, or I was with somebody and I have a really bad score because I didn't pay bills off. So it's key to actually know what your credit history looks like, again, and to make sure that you have been working for a while, at least for two years, for us to see that you have had a steady income. And of course that income should be sufficient enough to sustain a home. So all of these things, again, are available for you to do a really good in-depth analysis of yourself first. And then you can go online and you can ask yourself, what incentives are available? What's out there right now that I can qualify for as a first-time home buyer, that if I want to do this, can I use some of my RSPs? Can I actually find out if the government's gonna match whatever I put down the safe, or can I do something where I can use a gift from my parents if they were to go and take money from their reverse mortgage? So these are things that's available, again, for you to find out. And I would say to individuals, after doing your analysis and having some of this information written down, get in front of a mortgage broker or your financial advisor and find out exactly what's my status right now, and give me something to work on that I can start preparing for now to get into the market. And so these are things that you do. It's just like shopping for a car. You're not gonna go and buy the first car, right? You're gonna go and you're gonna shop and you're gonna find out which one is actually more energy efficient or which one actually fits my budget and which one can I afford? So it's the same thing as a home, but just on a bigger scale. What should we expect spending on a house these days? The rates are crazy. It seems, if I was growing up, the GTA was already expensive to begin with. So what should people expect? Well, as you can see in the news the other day, it was funny when they're showing us what one million can get you. And as you can see, it was literally nothing. And it's a crisis in a sense. But what a lot of people are doing, and I mean, even for myself, I find myself driving outside of the GTA just to get that home value for my first time home buyer. You gotta do what you gotta do. So if you're looking for a home, again, it all depends on what you want. If it's a condo, if it's a detached home, a semi-detached or a townhome, a condo, townhome, it all depends. And the prices range. And I see that people just expect to spend from 500 to up to, I mean, the first time I'd be realistic about 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, right? If you have gotten yourself, like say, some sort of idea of what you can afford, then of course it narrows down because we have access to everything that's in the GTA, right, whether or not it's exclusive or if it's listed on the MLS. We see all that information. So once they come with us and tell us we have already been pay approved and we know exactly what we can afford, then we're able to go and say, unfortunately, we cannot look in Toronto. We cannot look in Mississauga. We may have to go as far as with the AJAX, but even with those areas, you find the prices be jacked up because the thing is the GO Transit or transportation is now out on that side. So everybody's actually thinking, I can just hop on the train and get into Toronto. So it just all depends on budget. And because of the interest rates, we've seen some prices have gone down, which have allowed some people who have been saving to get into the market. And so they've been lucky. But the only thing again is with the high interest rate, can they qualify? Because let's just say maybe two, three years ago when the rates were really down and people can say, oh yeah, I can qualify. With the rates going back up now, some of these people have to be revaluated again to see if they can really, that stress test that they're going to go through, if you really can afford with that high interest rate. So again, to answer your question, it all depends. I mean, look between the 500 to at least the 1.1 range. And I mean, if they can't do it alone, I mean, you've got a partner, then your brother or sister, you guys can pull together. I've seen people even do it with a mom or dad who still have a couple of years left before they retire. And they've been successful because at the end of the day, you know what? You're going to be looking after your parents. And if it's something where you think that, I know they're going to move in with me, why not start the process now? So if your parents have a home and they have already paid it for, and at the end of the day, this is going to be yours, but you're like, I don't want to live there. Then you can always look at, again, you know, using some of that income or equity as a down payment from your parents to help you get started. So there's a lot of different advantages you can look into, a lot of different instances. So I just say to people, rather than say, I'm not ready now. Yeah, you're not ready now, but get the process started. Start researching, start knowing exactly what you got to do or what's available to you. The time comes, you just want to crunch numbers. Then you at least know what it is that you have or what is it that you need to do in order to get to this stage. I like that advice because I think people have to kind of lower their expectations now that it's so expensive to get into the market. So that dream that we used to have of, I'm going to go out on my own and buy a house and it's like kind of the status symbol, it's not realistic anymore. And you need to adjust to that and realize that, okay, maybe you need to stay with your family and there's nothing wrong with that if you're all chipping in and it reduces the expenses for everybody. Exactly, exactly, exactly, exactly. You just said there's so many places that we can go now to get information about housing. And you've been hearing about the lawsuit that was going on in the US against the real estate, different real estate boards and real estate agents about the commissioning, commission prices and all that. So why do we need, do we still need a real estate agent and why do we need one to help us with our housing? Oh my gosh, very, very, very important. I mean, a lot of people look at it and say, oh my God, they're making so much. And that's one thing that I always really, it kind of like stayed to me, it doesn't really put a value on us because, I mean, when you go to a mortgage broker or whatever, you don't really see the commission, you don't see, but it's so visual for us that people know what we make. But on the flip side, they don't see the liabilities that come with it, right? The things that can go wrong that we really need to make sure that we cover our clients to the best of our ability. And so the answer to your question, you do need a real estate agent because, I mean, that's what we went to school for. We had to go through all these different steps and procedures of how to protect your client because you go into a home, you don't know nothing about the home. You want to put in an offer, like what are the steps? I mean, technically you think you can do it by yourself, but in the end, do you want to buy something that has a lot of deficiencies to it? Do you want to like, say, be blindsided by the other agent because you're not represented and they're representing their client? So it's always due diligence to make sure that you're represented as well as possible and to make sure that what it is that you're hoping to get is good value for the money as well as safe. I mean, there's also things as in, you know, you might purchase a property, not know that there was a crime that was committed there, or, you know, someone passed away. So again, these are things that, you know, you think you didn't know, but then how are you going to get the reassurance? So we have things that we've got to do. We've got to put conditions in there to protect you when it comes to finances. You put an offer in and you think you have the money, but then when the time comes to closing, your bank is telling you no. So we've got to put conditions in there to safeguard, to make sure that at the end of the day, we have a finance condition, we've got an inspection condition, we have all these different conditions to make sure things are working properly. And we give you that self-assurance or the feeling that I'm in good hands. So when it comes to buyer or client, you don't pay us actually, that comes from the seller side. So normally the seller has to come up with 5% for both buyer and seller agents. So if you're first on home buyer, you don't really have to worry about that. The only thing I would say to you is that if we sign you as a client, you got to make sure all the respect that when the time comes and you're being guided and you have signed a contract with us, you cannot go with another agent. It's a conflict of interest. You have to actually ask for mutual release based upon good sound. Maybe you're not really happy with the person, you will really find that they're really doing you justice. Then there's a mutual release. Because I mean, even real estate, one of the things we have to ask, are you working with another agent? Because that's something that we cannot do on our end. So it is important for you to get that representation. It's just like when you go to court, they always advise you to try and get a lawyer to represent because they have studied the rules. They know how to protect you. You might think you know as much as they do, but technically, you didn't go to school for that. So try and get the professionalism that you need in any sort of like big transaction, especially the ones that are as big as a home purchase. Yeah, great advice. Well, also things like, what neighborhoods are the best ones to invest in where there might be a deal that you can get? If we are trying to make a deal, does it matter what time of the year we buy? Are there things that could help you if you're not too picky or if you have more time to kind of decide when you want to buy? Yeah, yeah, of course. I mean, everything has a time. You know, high peak season starts, you know, literally from what, March all the way down to July, you know, because people really want to get there in there when, you know, it's summertime, kids are out of school. So these are peak times. So you're going to see homes going to be listed now. The weather's better. You know, for us, as I said, we have a big snapshot of a system that we can see everything that's been listed. We can tell how long a property has been on the market. Might be a good time to go and put an offer in because this guy, I don't know, maybe the seller's hoping to get an offer anywhere. So we can see these things. We can kind of like say, you know what, good homes been on the market for a while. Let's put an offer in, maybe you might be lucky. We can see homes in which areas and, you know, if they go quickly, we'll say, look, if you have a tight budget, you've got to be realistic. The chances are there might be a lot of bids on this property. So I would say, let's try somewhere else just to make sure the process a lot easier to deter you from actually putting all these different offers. And at the end of the day, you're not going to get it because the demand for these areas are really high, right? So yeah, to answer your question, there are peak season, there are areas where I would suggest like, you know what, if there's a certain area and the price is low, these are just incentives to get a lot of bids in. So we're just trying to tell people, you know, just be a little bit more aware of, you know, what's happening out there. And we can guide you through that process. Again, we will be very clear and transparent because just like how you want a home, we also want to be able to sell that home to you. So we will definitely work the extra mileage agent to make sure that we're all happy on the spectrum. And what is your prediction? Because you were saying that the prices have come down a little bit because of interest rates. What do you see happening in the coming year? Do you think the prices are going to come down? Do you know, do you have a feeling of how the interest rates might go? Well, everybody, yeah, yeah. Everyone's actually, you know, we were all skeptical. I mean, we were looking at analysts and we were trying to get information as they come in. As soon as we get something, you know, what's happening with the federal banks and whomever, we try to shoot it out there as much as possible to let everybody be aware. But there is talk that interest rates will come down gradually. We see that there's been a little bit of spike in homes being on the market. So we're thinking again, you know, it's affordability. You know, it's coming down to people now thinking, I want to get in now because what if it goes back up? So there's that sense of urgency that we've seen happening again. And I would say literally that if you're thinking of doing it, please, by all means, just try and get all the information you can right now and sit with your advisors. And if they have to say to you, you know what, I suggest you wait a little bit more, take a little bit more, or, you know, we think that this is going to happen. Just start that conversation now for ease. You have everything that, you know, all the marbles in your pocket. So when the time comes, you can roll them out and do what you got to do. If we are looking for an agent and we're not in the GTA, so we can't work with you, where do you find a good agent? What questions should we be asking? Well, the thing is, I mean, if, for example, you reach out to me and you want to get somebody in Ottawa or somebody outside, I mean, we, you know, we are brokerage. We do have, you know, links and brokerages all over. So we can direct you and refer you to someone that will be able to assist you if you're not looking here. And to tell the truth, as agents here in the GTA, believe it or not, you know, my sales are now as far as Peterborough, you know, I mean, in London, because we do travel extensively to help everyone. And I mean, our, I should say, professionalism takes us in a broad spectrum, and we are willing to go the extra mile. So a lot of people think, oh, no, because she's from Oakwood, she's out in Oakwood. It doesn't matter. If you need representation, we definitely can go the extra mile and go outside of the city itself. But when it comes to places like Ottawa or Nova Scotia, even Montreal or Calgary, we can definitely do referrals for some of our oral page agents on that side, and to give you some insights as to who will be able to be the best fit to give you some help on that side. I didn't realize you were still connected. So that's good to know. Is there anything else that you wanted to share that I haven't asked you? Well, as I said, you know what? I think it's key that individuals who are especially any diverse group, there's always this fear that, you know, they think home ownership is not something that can be, is tangible. And I think that's something that we need to kind of like say to ourselves, that's definitely not true. Just the same way how you can go to the young individual and you were able to go and get your master's and your PhD, that drive and that aggression, or even to say buy your first car because you just wanna move around. You just have to put your mindset that, you know what, this is not our parents or grandparents. This is the era where things are possible and there are so many different programs and stuff available. And I just think it's key for people to educate themselves rather than alienate and say, I just wanna rent. Renting is good, but in a nutshell, you are actually paying someone's mortgage, right? You're making that person sit down and feeling that they have secured their investment or their future. Meanwhile, you're struggling, you know, paycheck to paycheck because at the end of the day, you're not saving. And as you said, I mean, a lot of young people can't wait to come out of their parents' home. You know, I'm originally from Antigua and I'm telling you right now, it's one of those things where I remember us staying at home and saving as much as we possibly can. And we were able to have good clothes and all these different things. And there wasn't any big rush. And I think I understand the mentality now. And I think here in North America, the big rush is that once you finish high school and you go to university, you can't wait to be on your own. And it's a struggle. It's just, it doesn't make sense. If you can afford to, even two, three years to sit and raise that money and put that money away and start the procedure of just educating yourself and even put it in mutual funds or whatever to let that income grow or that funds grow, then of course you can become a homeowner. You don't have to wait till when you're married and when the time comes, you're both hitting your heads and, oh my God, how are we gonna make this work? So my suggestion is, get out there. That's just how we came to get our first car. Be keen to think, the first thing I want is a home. And then the other things can follow. And that's just pretty much what I would say, learning about real estate that I would love to see young people do more of. I agree. People love to spend money on cars, but if you live downtown, at least close enough to Toronto, it's not the best transportation, but it's good enough. It'll get you where you need to go. Real estate is such a better investment. That's my goal. I wanna put my money where it's actually gonna grow and not just go down in value as soon as you drive off a lot. So it's, yeah. Depreciation, that's correct, correct. And just to answer, just to say your statement, driving a car off a lot depreciates, but when you get a home, the value goes up. It appreciates, so it's the opposite. You know what I mean? Yes, I guess the security or the advantage of having a car, you can go from A to B, but then again, it depreciates. Think about the effort you can get in a house. So it's just the mindset of educating individuals from early, and that's one of my goals, and I'm so happy that you invited me here today because I'm thinking just getting out there in front of young people, especially when we see where the economy's going and how expensive it is, I'm so scared for my kids because I'm like, what can they afford? I mean, is it my job now as a parent to put aside money too so when they're ready to give them funds to help them? So that is good information to know and to start the process, and even as parents, to start putting away some things for our kids to help them, not just for our ESPs for education, but maybe something on the side as a gift that when the time comes, they can at least get into a home to call their own. Yes, thank you so much for being here today. If somebody needs- Thank you. And we all need more information about housing, but if somebody needs them, what is the best place to reach you? You can definitely call me, 647-241-7106. You can email me, Shirleyn, which is S-H-I-R-L-Y-N-A, homes at gmail.com, or you can call Royal LePage Real Estate Services in Oakville, 905-257-3633. I'm here sometimes just in my office getting some work done, but I'll be happy to answer any questions, email, text, even follow me on my Instagram, shirlyn__homes, and I'll be happy to guide you and to even get a mortgage broker to sit with you. All of these are free, and we can talk and get you started and getting some questions answered pertaining to what you'd like to see for yourself when it comes to real estate. That's great, and we'll make sure to include all that information in the show notes, so it'll be as possible for them to reach out to you. Thank you so much for your time today and for sharing all your knowledge. Have a great day. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Bye-bye.