house sale plan

Leveraging, renting vs owning, making an investment or buying a home?
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tedster
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house sale plan

Post by tedster »

I used to know all about this years ago. A young friend has told me he is being transferred to Toronto from Mtl. He has to sell his house and then buy or rent in Tronno. IIRC there used to be a plan where the employer would arrange to have the house sold at a certain price )or the owner could sell it himself) but the rest I do not recall.
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AltaRed
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Re: house sale plan

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Corporate transfers, and perhaps mostly major corporations, typically have a 'relocation package' that includes a 'home buying service' in event the transferee cannot sell before s/he needs too (in order to close on a house at a new location for example). The buying service can operate in a number of ways but the company I was employed by hired the relocation division of a realty company which in turn supplied me with a list of appraisers from which I selected 3 of my choosing. The appraisals would come in and be averaged, unless one was an outlier by over 10% in which it was discarded and the other 2 would be averaged.

I would still continue to market my own house and obviously if I got an offer above the averaged appraisal price, I'd take it. But when it came time to physically move, I could then default to that averaged appraised price, and move on. The realty company would then continue to market the house and get what they could for the employer.
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tedster
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Re: house sale plan

Post by tedster »

Thanks AltaRed, this is essentially what I remembered. Is there any obligation to the employer for this?
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Re: house sale plan

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tedster wrote:Thanks AltaRed, this is essentially what I remembered. Is there any obligation to the employer for this?
None whatsoever other than for competitive, i.e. employee retention, reasons.
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tedster
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Re: house sale plan

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:thumbsup:
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kcowan
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Re: house sale plan

Post by kcowan »

AltaRed wrote: The appraisals would come in and be averaged, unless one was an outlier by over 10% in which it was discarded and the other 2 would be averaged.
and then you would have a fixed time to accept the offer, often 3 or 6 months. After that, you are on your own.
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Re: house sale plan

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tedster wrote:Thanks AltaRed, this is essentially what I remembered. Is there any obligation to the employer for this?
There certainly is.
The employer pays a fee for this service and in some cases any losses and costs on the house sale.
There is no free lunch. The employer also may have to fund other portions of the transaction.

You don't really think some real estate company is going to ante up cash to buy the unsold house at full market value, then try to sell it and absorb all real estate fees and legal fees and carrying costs. They may get lucky and sell for a profit but more often than not they will sell for pretty close to the appraised value.
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Re: house sale plan

Post by AltaRed »

I think you may have misinterpreted what Tedster was asking. There is no obligation for an employer to offer a 'home buying service' as an employee benefit. However, once an employer does offer such a service, I agree with your comments there is a cost to the employer who then takes the responsibility for all incurred costs.
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Re: house sale plan

Post by twa2w »

AR you are probably right about how ted meant it but I guess he can take whichever answer fits his question :D

To be clear, there is no obligation for an employer to offer any compensation or reimbursement for relocation.

If they do, they can offer to pay a portion, a fixed amount or full bore including guaranteed home sale

Of course the young fellow can write off any non reimbursed costs on his taxes.

Cheers.
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Re: house sale plan

Post by tedster »

I simply meant to ask if after the employer offers the house purchase option, is the employee financially obliged to the employer. I can recall finding candidates who were moved from one country to Canada, and given a hefty advance. However, if they did not work for a certain period of time, they had to repay it proportionally. What arrangement the employer has with the Real Estate company is a different issue.
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Re: house sale plan

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Tedster, the benefit plan can be whatever the employer chooses to offer, including the conditions the employer attaches to it. Like anything, the employee has to read the fine print in what the employer may offer, or get it in writing if it is not clear.
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Re: house sale plan

Post by twa2w »

Ted, two thoughts to add to AR comment.

Of course an employee is under no obligation to accept a house purchase option but he takes the risk it won't sell.
Second most employers if they offer an option like this usually have condition that the employee cannot apply for another job within the company for a period of X months and if the employee leaves the company within y months, tney may have to repay a portion of the relocation. In reality I am not sure if many big employers enforce this providing, you don't leave immediately after the move.
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Re: house sale plan

Post by tedster »

twa2a wrote
Of course an employee is under no obligation to accept a house purchase option but he takes the risk it won't sell.
Second most employers if they offer an option like this usually have condition that the employee cannot apply for another job within the company for a period of X months and if the employee leaves the company within y months, tney may have to repay a portion of the relocation. In reality I am not sure if many big employers enforce this providing, you don't leave immediately after the move.
Yes I recognise this as a condition.
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