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!
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