[just staying on it, i guess, as long as she can]

[tellitslant]

In the new year, pending jobs and stuff, one of the things on my to-do list is to start looking into the type of home I want to buy. I suspect I'll rent for another year or so in a different area of the city, but I'd like to be on the lookout, you know? However, I am so not up on the latest in house financing - or, well, condo financing. *g*

Those of you who are property owners, particularly of a condo or a flat or some such, or particularly in Canada: if you have any resources that have been useful to you, would you let me know? If you've had or heard of any experiences that could be informative? Thanks. :)

Comments

[jae]

I suspect you won't like this answer, but here goes: get yourself a good real estate agent. Specifically one who specializes in the neighbourhood or neighbourhoods you're interested in buying in (ours had sold stuff there and lived there). Yes, it adds somewhat to the cost, but it's really worth it to find places you won't be able to find on your own, and to anticipate pitfalls you might not figure out until it's too late. Hell, we knew exactly which condo we wanted, but we still found our real estate agent helpful on the buying end (he was more than helpful on the selling end).

-J

[hobbitbabe]

All the advice was to go through a mortgage broker who can figure out a good deal with a bank or other lender. We did that on the Kingston house, and I think it's good advice in general. But when I bought my apartment, I found the whole thing super intimidating so I just got a mortgage through my bank and I didn't spend very much time thinking about all the choices (because it's a thing where there's more THIS IS THE BEST WAY advice out there than cell phone plans, even, so it just freaked me out.) When I renew the thing, though, I'm going to get it changed to paying on the same schedule as my paycheques because it's hard for me to manage a huge monthly bill and a biweekly paycheque.

Also, I did that thing where there's a little tax advantage for first time home buyers to put money into an RRSP and then take it out again.

As for resources, nothing sticks in my head right now.

[zulu]

It's good to interview realtors! We interviewed three before we picked one. Also, as a buyer you don't have to pay your realtor, which is nice, since you have to pay EVERYONE ELSE. For condos, in addition to the home inspection, there's also the condo documents inspection, which is when a financial person looks at the condo board's budgets etc. to see if they're fiscally responsible and so on. Condos can ask for special levies at basically any time, so if you know they have a good track record, you know they're less likely to suddenly demand more cash (above and beyond your condo fees). Hm, what else. Well, it's scary because even when you do your due diligence, it's impossible to understand everything as it's happening, especially since it's happening so fast. From our offer to our finished paperwork was a week and a half, and I have to say I didn't understand half of what I was signing. The lawyer says "sign" and you do and then you give them money and...hopefully it works out? Which it did, for us! But man, you can't really sit back and think things through, once things are in motion.

It's good to look at places well in advance of actually going and looking at them. We were looking on realty sites for months before we actually hired a realtor and physically went to houses. That way we already knew what the market was like and what features/layouts we were interested in, which meant far less actual house-hunting. I think you're in luck because prices are going down, so probably it's much more of a buyer's market at the moment.

Anyway, I hope that helps! Good luck, I hope you find somewhere awesome!