With the latest interest rate hike, people are worried about their upcoming home buying/selling experience. While all of these rate hikes that we’ve been seeing are supposed to help balance out the rising housing prices, they’re not very comforting for buyers and sellers. While housing prices have gone down, people are looking for ways to save money in all areas of life.

We’ve come up with five ways for you to save money when buying or selling right now! Check them out.

Use The Locorum Platform

Locorum is the easiest way on this list to save money when you’re buying or selling. Locorum rewards you for hiring local service providers in your area, including real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and moving companies!

Here’s how it works. You head to the Locorum platform and search through vetted small businesses. You’ll be able to see verified reviews from other locals, information about the business, as well as the rewards that you can earn for hiring them.

At Locorum we know that points suck, which is why our rewards are real dollars that you can earn by hiring local service providers. Those dollars will get loaded onto a physical Locorum Rewards Mastercard, which you can use online or in-store anywhere that accepts Mastercard.

If you’re buying or selling, you’re going to need to hire a real estate agent, mortgage broker, and maybe even movers anyway, so why not get rewarded for doing it? You’ll be saving money while you buy and sell!

Claim Your Moving Expenses

If you’ve moved to be closer to work you can claim your expenses on your income tax, giving you a better return. Those expenses can be transportation, storage, fuel, and accommodations. There are a few stipulations, such as that your new home has to be at least 40kms closer than your previous home. You can learn more about it here.

Rent Out Part Of Your Home

As you’re looking for homes, consider layouts that can make renting out a room or space convenient. Renting out a room in your home will not only bring in extra income, but you can also deduct rental expenses, such as property taxes, utilities, and legal fees, on your income tax!

If you’ve heard nightmare stories about being a landlord, the good news is that if you rent out a room in a house that is your primary residence, you actually have a LOT more rights and more control over the situation than if you were renting out a building that you don’t actually live in. So you don’t have to worry about nightmare tenants as much when you’re just renting out a room.

Get the GST/HST Rebate

If you’ve bought a newly built house or a home that has been substantially renovated, you might be entitled to a rebate of the GST/HST that you paid on the home! You can learn more here. You’ll need to fill out a form and do some math, but if it means saving on those dollar dollar bills then it’s worth it!

Increase Your Credit Score 

This one might take a little more time than the others, but can be so worth it. The better your credit is, the better rates your mortgage lender will be able to offer you. By increasing your credit score to an “excellent” score, you’re opening yourself up to the lowest rates available.

For example, taking a look at a mortgage for a $750,000 home with a 10% down payment and a mortgage rate of 4.34% over 25 years and comparing the same situation with a mortgage rate of 4.49% that tiny 0.15% makes a difference of paying $696 more each year. Over the entirety of your mortgage payments, that is a LOT of money.