Residential Real Estate
Our primary focus is on residential real estate. Whether you want to purchase, sell, or refinance your property, we are ready to help you complete the process. Our fees are as follows (as of May 1, 2022):
– Purchase with a Mortgage/Loan *OR* Refinance: $625.00 + disbursements + GST [$1250 – $1350 standard average]
– Purchase with Cash: $525.00 + disbursements + GST [$900 – $1000 standard average]
– Sale: $525.00 + disbursements + GST [$800 – $900 average for house sales, $1000 – $1100 average for condo sales]
– Purchase with a Mortgage & CMHC Incentive *OR* Draw Mortgage (whether purchase or refinance): $775+ disbursements + GST
Please note that for purchases, the final total is dependent on your mortgage amount and purchase price. The Land Titles registration fees use a formula that takes these amounts into account. If your purchase price is above $400,000.00, please call our office for a more accurate fee quote.
Disbursements include registry searches, printing & photocopying costs, fax charges, courier fees, and the Land Titles fees. For sale transactions, disbursements will be higher if you are selling a condominium as we must order specific condominium documents ($200 higher on average). Higher disbursements may also apply if you are missing a current Real Property Report with Compliance for a house sale. For purchase files, disbursements will be affected mainly by your purchase price, but the location of the property and your lender choice will also affect charges. Should you require more information, please contact our office directly.
We request a minimum of 5 business days to process your file, and it is recommended that our office has all required paperwork (finalized contract and/or mortgage instructions) at least two weeks before the closing date (possession). While we can work with less than five days’ notice, we will charge a rush fee of $100 to process such transactions.
For files with a CMHC First-Time Homebuyers’ Incentive, we wish to let you know that on our side, it is set up as a second mortgage on your property, and we have additional paperwork that we must review and process. This is why the base fee is increased. For such files, the average fee total that we are seeing is $1350 – $1450.
Please note that for Draw Mortgages (whether you are buying a house and land from a builder or just having a house built on land you already own), disbursements will vary widely. Our range for Draw Mortgages is from $1100 to $1800, although total fees are generally around $1400. We require an up-front retainer for such transactions. Please contact our office to discuss your transaction, as our procedures will be affected by the nature of your transaction/construction.
Commercial Real Estate & Business Transactions
Our office may also be able to assist you with your business purchase or sale, whether it’s property or assets — or both. As we have limited our work in this regard, it is important that you speak to one of us at Highfield to confirm that we can assist you.
Estate Planning
We also assist with estate planning as well. You have the option of preparing your will only, or to have our full package which also includes the Power of Attorney and the Personal Directive. Our fees for this are as follows:
– Single Will: $150 + printing costs + GST
– Single Package (Will, Personal Directive, Power of Attorney): $275 + printing costs + GST
– Couples Will: $250 + printing costs + GST
– Couples Package: $375 + printing costs + GST
For estate documents, we require your instructions prior to setting up a meeting, as we must ensure that the documents are prepared properly; in other words, we cannot create such documents on the spot. Should there be an urgent need for a document (for example, if you are leaving on vacation, or if there’s an unexpected family emergency), please contact our office so that we may assist you further.
Notary Public Services
Should you require documents notarized — either signing documents in front of a notary public or having a notarized copy made of an existing document — we can certainly assist you with whatever you need done. We charge a flat fee of $20 / signature or document to a maximum of $200. Please contact our office to book a meeting for your notarization.
If you are looking for the parental consent letter for children travelling without both parents, please visit the Government of Canada Travel website.