We purchased our first brand new three-story, three-bedroom, 1300 sq feet townhouse for $260 000 in east Toronto area (a little far from Toronto downtown area). We signed all the paper documents, and the expected move-in date is on December 01, 2014 😀 .
We were with our real-estate agent for four months, looked at a dozen homes and never found anything we liked, or we can afford to pay. After a long house hunting, our real estate agent advised us to look for new homes a little far from the Toronto area. His advice worked well for us but did not work for him as he can get only 1% commission from builders :D.
The home was purchased by someone else from the builders, and the buyer did some upgrades with the design center, but later, he withdrew his purchase agreement with a penalty for some reason. So, builders decided to resale the home for a little lower price with some conditions. The main condition is we cannot do any upgrades or changes and have to go with whatever the previous buyer preferred to do because they already started to build the house.
The price was a little lower than the other closes area. We tentatively reserved the house with a $5000 deposit, and we were given two days to decide.
We were nervous and worried about buying our first home without seeing it. We spent a full day stressful discussion that involved looking at budgets and weighing the pros and cons about the house and found more pros, but the biggest con was the location as it is a bit far from my work.
We looked at the floor plan, and it looks O.K for us. It was like a sweet deal for the price. Thus, we decided to buy our first home.
Today, we went back to the builders and signed all the paper works. And, we are asked to deposit another $10000 in the next eight weeks.
I know there are many benefits from the government for first-time homeowners and will discuss later once I learn more about them.
We are proud homeowners and planning to put in a 20% down payment to avoid the mortgage insurance cost. We need around $55000 for the down payment and closing costs. Right now, we have only $20000 in cash. We still have a little more than seven months to save $35 000.
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We went to the construction area without permission and took some pictures of our first tiny home 😀
S Anun,
Congratulations on the townhouse. I hope you really enjoy living there!! 🙂
Man, real estate up in Canada is crazy right now! However, you got a brand new place for a decent price there. That’s not too far off from what a brand new place might cost in a bigger city here in Michigan.
Wish you the best of luck!
Cheers.
Thank you DM,
Yes, real estate in Canada is crazy. Many people are expecting a crash for more than 3 years, but it didn’t happen until today. I guess I bought it for a decent price. I hope you are having great time with your families and more time for writing.
Best Regards,
Best regards,
Grats on the future new home man. I have reviewed your portfolio and net worth. I am a little bit concerned on how many credit cards you hold and their balances. Those low rates will expire very soon and you should really work first at paying those off. I wouldnt dip into any of your stock equity margin until all those credit cards are paid off in my opinion. Your Canadian portfolio is quite strong but very heavily weighted in energy with not much telecom exposure. Not much US market exposure or International exposure. I was wondering what your plans are there. Also would be interested to know what holdings you have in your rrsp.
Sorry to dissect you point for point but I am just trying to understand your goals as far as equity allocation and strategy.
Good luck with your goals and great job so far!
Hi Asset-Grinder,
Thank you for stopping by,
Actually, my portfolio is heavily weighted in Canadian utilities companies. I know my portfolio is not well diversified. My plan is to diversify my portfolio by adding new stocks without old positions.
To avoid taxes, I keep all my U.S holdings in my RRSP. I will add more U.S and international stocks next year.
Best regards,
So, you expect to “save” an additional 35K in 7 months? That doesn’t sound realistic unless you are talking about using your normal savings as part of that 35K. Did you factor in the land transfer fees and lawyer fees? Any “rebate” you get is only AFTER you have paid the fees. Did you factor in the additional costs for transportation (since you are in Oshawa)? What about property taxes, connection fees, hydro, heating, maintenance, etc??? Location is the #1 important factor in real estate and you threw it away to move to the “Sh-wa”? I will give you a little bit of advice – Oshawa is NOT up and coming. And, when the real estate correction comes — and it’s coming – you will lose everything including your home. You have 20K of credit card debt – do you realize that it will affect your credit scores and make it near impossible to get the best mortgage rates. What will you do when the “introductory period” is over? I’m sorry but you are the last type of person who should be buying a home and the last person that should be using leveraged investment techniques.
Thank you PE for your advise, I always like to see these types of advise from readers.
I know it is little hard to save $35 000 in 7 months, but I can sell some of my investment and use them for 20% down payment. Since I am first time home buyer I will get rebate for the land transfer fees. The other closing cost will be around $3000.
I already estimated the other home related expenses such as utilities, property taxes, insurance, etc, and those will be less than what I am paying for the one bedroom apartment that I am currently living on.
Regarding the transportation – I am still buying buss pass even I’m little close to my work place. I don’t need to spend extra dollar for the transportation if I move to Oshawa, but I know it will take more time to get to the work.
My credit cards rates are not “introductory rates”, I always get new offer when one gets expires. I am getting these offers almost 6 years now. First three years, I used them to spend other unnecessary expenses, but now I am using them to build my portfolio. I checked my credit scores last week, and it is in ‘Good’ status.
Still, you made me think about my techniques. For sure, I will consider your valuable advises and adjust my investment strategies for better return.
Thank you once again for your advise. I hope your advise will also help other readers who are in similar situation.
Best Regards,
First of all, I would like to congratulate for your big move in your life. It is really good price townhouse. Is it Freehold or condo townhouse?
My opinion, buying new house is always better than old homes. It always comes with warranty for almost all the items including the core building structure. I am telling you this because we had a hard time with a old home that we purchased 5 years ago. We spent a ton of money to renovate and fix some major issues.
Thank you Selviya,
I hope I made the right decision. Lets see!
Cheers
Congrats on the purchase! Being a home owner is awesome 🙂 That sounds like a nice bargain for a three-story home. My place is also worth about $260K according to this year’s government assessment. Best of luck with the rest of your downpayment. Saving $5K a month on average does not sound easy, but I’m sure you can do it 😀
Thank you Liquid,
I guess my new place is little more than $260K, but not sure. I am in the beginning stages of the finance journey. I will speed up my journey after moved into the new home :D.
I may consider selling some stocks for down payment. I still have 7 months to decide. Lets see!
Best regards,
Congrats! It is a great deal. Buying house is a good investment rather renting.
Thank you Chris,
Yes, it looks like great deal in GTA area, but I have to wait until Dec to see my first home 🙁 .
Cheers,
Congrats! Talk about timing…we just signed our papers recently (last week) and I just posted about it yesterday on my blog.
That seems to be a great price for a good sized home in Toronto. Is the construction site in the city or one of the satellite towns like Pickering/Ajax?
I hope you get your home ready for move in by Dec 1. I was not comfortable on buying something that did not exist where I couldnt see the quality of finishing, so we decided to stay away from unconstructed houses. We went with an old house (about 60 years old) and needs some upgrades…so theres work to be done.
Anyway, best wishes with your closing and move-in.
R2R
Thank you R2R,
Our home will be little outside of the city noise (Oshawa area). It is in a newly developing area.
I was looking to buy a old house too because we like to see the finishing as well, but in Toronto it wasn’t possible because of the price.
All the best to you too.
Cheers,