A Rant

Ok, I think I need to vent. I understand that we haven't been looking that long but I am beginning to get very frustrated with the home buying process. Every real estate story in the media seems to be hinting at a housing bubble that it about to burst - however I can tell you that our experience over the last few weeks tells otherwise.

I tend to agree that the condo market in Toronto is heading towards some price correction, but the freehold home market is another story. I just wish realtors would list houses at their true market value rather than deliberately pricing them below to encourage bidding wars. We went to 6 open houses this past weekend - and every single house was holding back offers - meaning they would not even entertain any offers until a certain date, thus encouraging multiple offers. You would think this is limited to Toronto, but even the houses we were looking at in Mississauga are doing the same thing. It is frustrating when speaking with listing agents as they all tell you the house is expected to go significantly over list price. I understand they are trying to get people to put in higher offers (and doing a job for their clients), but it means we are visiting houses that we more than likely will lose out on because someone has a bigger budget. I realize I might be a hypocrite when we turn out to be the seller - but for now I am venting.

An another note - I completely understand why realtors tell you to clear the clutter and remove personal items for an open house. Would you believe we actually saw a bear rug in a house? I mean an actual dead bear carcass, with its head baring teeth displayed proudly in the house - perhaps you could have put that particular item away? We don't own any animal accessories, but I now see how important it is to make the house feel as impersonal as possible.

We will see how the search goes - for now it still continues. We are trying to see houses within a day or two of them coming on the market on the off chance that someone is not holding offers. Our house is out there - but I guess we need to earn it!

You Win Some...and You Lose Some.

Well, it has been almost a week since offer night - and it was an eye opening experience to say the least. We didn't get the house, but I don't think it was a complete loss, and learned a lot from going through the motions.

Andrew our realtor knew that it would go far above the under-valued list price - but it was difficult to know how much. After speaking with our realtor and assessing the house, our offer was significantly above list price, but a price that we were comfortable paying and not more than market value for the area. As each day came and went, Andrew kept telling us information that was making our hearts sink - more offers registered, the fact that 5 home inspections were to be done before offer date, etc.

We decided to do a home inspection to make our offer firm and without conditions, so we knew that it was a possibility that we could lose the house and be out $300 - but it was a risk we were willing to take. We called our mortgage broker and made sure our finances were in order so we could take the financing condition out of our offer. These steps are quite commonplace when trying to compete in the Toronto housing market.

All in all, there were 18 offers on the property, and the house went for $112K over asking - way over what we were comfortable spending. For a short time, we were upset, but we are now armed with a whole new set of real estate weapons - knowledge to help us in our next offer.

We are now open to doing some of our own renovations, buying a fixer upper under our budget, and putting some money into a house to make it our home. After all, this is the biggest investment that we will likely make in our lifetime, and we have a long time to make improvements. Stay tuned for more showings, offers, and eventually - moving day!

So.....Ignore my last post

It's amazing how things can change in a few days. On Thursday night we met Andrew our realtor to go to some showings. J and I had been to a few open houses in South Mississauga, but this past week our realtor sent us some listings that looked promising, so we arranged to see the houses on Thursday evening with him.

All the houses that we were looking at were in our prime location - Mimico. The first two houses were semi-detached and in our price range - they were finished nicely but in each of them there were pretty big red flags. The first house had a postage stamp sized kitchen and the second house had a chopped up floor plan and was located in a pretty industrial area.

Then, we drove to the the third house. We weren't expecting to like it because it was a town house - thinking that it would not be enough space. We decided to give it a try anyway. We walked in...and it was over.

The main floor was completely renovated, an open concept living/dining room and modern kitchen with tons of cabinet and counter space, and lots of natural light. The kitchen had extra space to be eat-in, and attached to the kitchen was a family room. I could not believe how much space it was. The backyard backed out onto a park - it was amazing.

Upstairs had three good size renovated bedrooms and a very modern renovated bathroom with a soaker tub. We loved this house and it was under budget - WAY under budget. It was too good to be true. Not only that - but the property is walking distance to public transit.

The basement definitely needs to be gutted because the best part about it is 70's wood panelling - but with it being so under budget we would have the money to renovate. In short, we loved the house.

Now, the seller is holding off offers until Wednesday night - which only means one thing - a bidding war. Our realtor told us the house was listed under-value, so there will be a lot of interest. However, in spite of all of this, we are going to put an offer in. J and I are terrified - but we know our limit financially, and what the property is worth and are comfortable with the amount of money we will be offering.

We are trying not to get our hopes up incase we don't get it, but it is hard not to talk about the house like we don't already own it. We are heading into a bidding war - I just hope the gun we bring will be big enough.

Navigating the Ridiculous Toronto Market

Sigh...it seems every single media article about the real estate market in the GTA says the same thing - lots of interest, but not enough listings - in other words, it is a seller's market. I thought that looking in our prime Toronto area seemed reasonable - the listings that were in our price range were totally workable, recently updated, but not over done. That is until I saw this.  A house that sold over $200,00 over asking with a 31 person bidding war! This is the exact situation that we do NOT want. J and I are totally terrified of bidding wars - we just don't want to fall in love with a house and have it slip through our fingers.

Most people would assume that this is limited to the city of Toronto proper - however some of the suburban areas in the GTA have the same issues. Houses in a certain price range sell very quickly in prime areas - location is always the primary factor. J and I are going to start heading for showings soon (can't wait!), but as every article seems to say, we're going to have to make a move very quickly. Not exactly easy when it is the biggest investment of your life! Hopefully there will be a lot of listings coming up, and we can beat the pack!