Buying a Home

I'm pretty sure it's ok to start posting about this... considering most of the people that read this blog already know. But...

WE'RE BUYING A HOME!!!!

Buying a home is no easy feat. In fact, there is much more thought that needs to go into home buying than I initially thought. (It's not just about whether it looks pretty!).

Here are some of the questions we had to ask ourselves:

• What are our deal breakers (i.e. fence, big backyard, close to parks, open green space, garage?)
• What can we live without (i.e. ensuites, finished basements, 4 bedrooms?)
• What can we realistically afford? How much can we put down? What will our CMHC fees be? What is our interest rate? When do we want our payments t0 be? (fyi - we're doing accelerated bi-weekly). Do we want fixed or variable rate?

{this required many trips to the bank, many budgets plans (one for each potential house)

and many re-calculations of mortgage payments, taxes, etc.}

{Mortgage calculators became our friends... }

• Where do we want to live? Are we close to family? Close to good (key word!) schools? What are the property taxes there?
• How long do we want to live there? If we have to move, how long will that be? What are the additional costs of moving soon?
• How much are renovations (new bathrooms, paint, finishing basements, etc.) gonna cost? What's a realistic timeframe for that?
• Do we need to save money for other things? (i.e. trips, babies, weddings...)

We're not buying our dream home just yet (that will come many years down the road when we can afford an acreage), but we want to buy a home that we will be happy and comfortable in. It's a very exciting time, but there are a lot of variables to consider.

I've done some research on my own, and luckily my man has been through all this before (this is his second home). He was really great at explaining things to me, and helping me figure out budgets, etc.

It's a fun and exciting time, but also a huge learning curve! I'll share some more later :)