SCOTT MCGILLIVRAY

Buying a home is a very emotional process. It's important to remain rational and stick with your price limit while buying.

If it is a rental property, we'll typically keep it fairly neutral. If it's a vacation property, we have a lot more fun and do things a little more edgy and exciting. When we're flipping, we obviously want to make smart decisions and do things that produce great returns.

So if the wall's cracked or you've got leaky faucets, or you've got mold issues, or some sort of damage to your home, selling a home that's got that kind of distress to it is the biggest mistake you will make, because immediately people who are fearful will walk away.

Before purchasing a fixer-upper property, make sure to look at the numbers. It is easy to become emotionally attached to a house, and buyers can lose sight of the true costs of the renovation work.

It isn't always easy to stay within budget when committing to a renovation, but one place you can cut costs is on the demolition.

I try to work on houses not cars. If I was as good at working on cars as I was on houses maybe I would. But I'm not.

Whatever you put in your listing, make sure that it's a true representation of the property and it's not dishonest.

I think a lot of people try to time the market when it comes to buying or selling a property or investing in real estate, but the real secret to real estate is not timing the market, but time in the market.

No means maybe in real estate.

Trial and error does not work in real estate. It's way too expensive to learn from your own mistakes, you need to learn from others' mistakes.

Buying a house that needs work can be one of the best ways to stretch your budget. Why pay for someone else's upgrade?

I didn't come from a real estate background originally. I was going to school for business and was struggling to find a place to live because there weren't enough rental properties available to students.

The door hardware in kitchens is super simple to update. It's essentially a few screws, standard spacing. It's a few bucks a piece and it can make a huge impact.

I think the speed limit should be increased by 20 km/h on every single road - that would save me so much money.

I'm in a BMW rut. My last three cars have been BMW 3-Series.

One thing that has saved my bacon many times is talking to the neighbor about the property. Neighbors are so transparent and honest, they will give you the entire down-low on the property.

The biggest mistake that I see homeowners make all too often is not doing a proper inspection of the home and falling into a project that is a lot bigger than they probably anticipated or budgeted for.

The kitchen is the most valuable room in the home, so a smart kitchen reno will bring great return on investment.

If you're struggling to get on the same page as your partner and you're not able to agree when it comes to renovations, my suggestion would be to consider hiring a designer. The introduction of a third party moderator with expertise can help break the tie and offer a voice of reason.

I fell in love with real estate, renovations, and became a licensed contractor when I was 26.

You have to care about the transactional cost. You have to care about the future value. You have to care about maintaining value in your home through repair and maintenance.

One of the biggest challenges is that once somebody realizes that they're ready to buy a home, then they realize that they haven't prepared properly, and it takes a while.

A lot of times people get caught up in bidding wars, and will go way over what their price needs to be because they love the house so much.

On average, you will pay less for a home on a Monday than you will on a Saturday and a Sunday.

I was one of those late bloomers when it comes to motorcycles. I didn't get my motorcycle license until I was 25.