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!

Urban or Suburban?

This?

Or This?

As I mentioned before, HGTV has taken over our house. I watch it constantly whether it be shows about real estate or decor and design. One show in particular that it playing out in our own home is Urban Suburban. This show takes a couple or a family and gives them housing options in the city, and the suburbs. It is a hard decision of course, because we need to take into account what our needs are now, as well as anticipate what they are going to be in the future.

J and I have lived just east of downtown for awhile now, and we love living where we are. We are close to everything and can get downtown in 10 minutes via transit which is right at our doorstep - it is pretty amazing. Every week we can check out the latest restaurant or check out the newest event going on - we love city living...just not city prices!

Our agency has an amazing blog called Move Smartly which keeps up with the Canadian real estate market, but focuses on Toronto. According to a recent post, the average cost for a detached home in Toronto is $705,509, compared with $521,345 in the suburbs. That is a difference of over $184,000! Sadly, our budget means we have to compromise if we choose to live in the city, possibly a semi or a townhome and even a place that may require some major renovations.

Looking at listings in the 905, our money can definitely go further, but there are drawbacks - having to drive everywhere, longer commute to work (for me, but less for J) - but we could end up with our dream home. We have decided to look at homes in the city (South Etobicoke - Mimico, Long Branch, and Alderwood) and in the western suburbs (South Mississauga). I am rooting for the city, but J wants the suburbs - the real question is what are we willing to compromise on? Stay tuned...

Announcing our realtor (Drumroll please......)

First off, sorry for being awol (to all 10 of you who read this), after the holidays things have been crazy at work for both J and I and they involved lots of overtime and 6 day work weeks, but I wanted to update with some important information - we signed with a realtor!

I have a lot of experience in the service industry, given that I have worked in the industry (on the education side) for 6 years, I have a good idea how important good service is. When we were shopping around initially, I was blown away by how pushy realtors are - they all want you to sign agreements immediately, even if we told them we weren't looking at selling for over a year. Not only that, but one realtor (who will remain nameless) actually said "I'm sorry, but I only give information to registered clients".

Really? You are supposed to show us your expertise and make us WANT to sign with you, not make it seem like you're doing us a favour by taking us on as clients.

Then, we met Andrew Dybenko from Realosophy. We initially met way back in August to ask some questions about the buying process. We are home owners, but bought in a new development and pre-construction, so the process was radically different. Andrew sat down with us and explained the whole process and also sent us e-mails of listings in our desired neighborhoods for the last 5 months all without signing a single piece of paper - that is amazing service.

We sat down with him again recently, and it confirmed in our minds that we would be signing with him. After all, buying property is the biggest and most important investment you can make, and we want to make sure someone is not only knowledgeable, but has our interests at heart. Although we have not officially gone through the buying or selling process yet, I have been really impressed so far. Now that this is taken care of, bring on the open houses!

Happy Holidays! (and re-evaluating what we need in home)

Happy Holidays to all of you! There is nothing like this time of year to remind you of what is most important - family, friends, and of course time spent together breaking bread. I find that hosting a dinner party to be one of the most intimate things that you can do for the people you love. I really truly believe that everything from the setting, to the dishes, and meal itself all play a part. Many people think I am crazy, but I love hosting dinner parties, and grew up around some pretty epic ones hosted by my mother (the quintessential hostess always). I would much rather host friends and family in my home then go out to a restaurant any time. Love is always the secret ingredient!

My husband J and I hosted Christmas Eve this year, and had both sets of parents and siblings over for a great meal. However, it is difficult to have 8 people in an 823 sq. ft, apartment and have all of them sit at on table. We did the best we could, and had our parents sit at our round dining room table, while the four  "kids" sat on the couch. Less than ideal, but you have to make do with what you have. Our new house definitely needs to have a dinging room big enough to accommodate a table of 8-10 people so our parties can be a little more intimate.

Again, we were spoiled this year and got some great new pieces of furniture: a new desk for the office, and a fantastic coffee table size storage ottoman which can be used as seating or a small table with trays. We are heading to Ikea tomorrow to get some items to spruce up the apartment and make it a little more functional. My to-do lists for the next few days before heading back to work is to set up and clean out the office, and de-cluttering the living area (especially the bookshelf).

I have had a few restful days after the busyness of the holidays, so I think I need to get my hands a little dirty to feel more productive. I am definitely looking forward to all 2012 has to offer, especially the beginning of our house search!!! Happy New Year to all of you!!!

Location, Location, Location!!

How priorities change in a matter of months!!! Just a few months ago I was deep in wedding planning TV shows, blogs, and websites and lo and behold, now I can't seem to get enough information about real estate! HGTV is on constant rotation on our TV at home. My husband J, was not surprised by this of course and has said to me as long as I am not watching shows about babies, I can watch whatever I want.

Choosing a neighbourhood in Toronto wasn't all that hard really. J works in a suburb in the west end of the GTA whereas I work in the heart of downtown. His commute is an hour and a half one way, whereas mine is 12 minutes. Not exactly equitable! Obviously, our decision is to move west - but where and how far west?  Things that are important to us are access to public transit, easy access to highways, while still having easy access to the city  - I don't think we're being too demanding are we?

We have settled on south Etobicoke (Mimico, New Toronto, Long Branch, and Alderwood) as these were close to the GO train, with access to the TTC and Gardiner.

I have been on the Realtor website on a daily basis (they even have a fabulous app for Blackberry and iPhone users) going through houses in our price range, and seeing what we can get in our target neighbourhoods. We have decided to wait until the new year to start actively searching, but I have to say that it is pretty fun to look and make changes in our heads to things to make it our own. I cannot wait to start going to open houses and actually seeing the houses, but the app will have to do in the meantime!

What is it worth?

There I was, furiously cleaning our condo, making sure the bed was made with all the sheets tucked in with none hanging out from under the duvet, sweeping the floor for dust bunnies, vacuuming, and making our kitchen sparkle. No, my mother was not coming over (that would also involve dusting the top of every shelf) but we were having a real estate agent appraise our condo.

It is the most unnerving thing to watch someone walk around your house, and write little notes on a pad secretly judging that avocado green accent wall, furniture placement, and the little details that make your house a home. I realized while he was walking around that I forgot to do a sink full of dishes wondering if that was going to affect the condo's list price. (I know, crazy right?) We finally sat down at our dining room table, and my husband J and I were holding our breath like we were about to get some really bad news. 

Finally, the agent said that we are in a pretty high demand area and told us what he thought our condo is worth based on recent sales and the general value of the neighbourhood. Thankfully, it was more than we were anticipating which made us relieved. Given the insanity of the Toronto housing market, you can never really know until you see some comparable properties - we were pleasantly surprised. 

This was a pretty important meeting for us, as the price of the condo would help us dictate the price of a house that we could afford, and subsequently the down payment on a new home. Thankfully, we got a second opinion from another real estate agent, and it was a similar quote on list price. 

Now with the price on the table, the agent mentions the little things that are on our to do list before the condo goes on the market in the spring. It's a long one.....

1) De-clutter - go through everything and pare down to only the essentials

2) Paint the bathrooms (we painted the rest of the condo ourselves (with the help of some amazing friends!) and when it came time to the bathrooms, we decided they could wait. Well, it's been 2 years and they are still builder's white.

3) Paint touch ups - another thing that has been on our to-do list

4) Make the 2nd bedroom seem more like a bedroom and less like a storage room, this probably ties into the first point

5) Replace all personal photos with "non-threatening art" - What exactly is threatening art?

We have not signed a listing agreement quite yet as it is still early, but this gives us a chance to "shop around" for realtors until we find someone we click with. We have met with two so far, and they have both gone well and both have their pros and cons. Maybe I should start a speed dating session for realtors and homebuyers/sellers? Any takers?