This is a tale about first-time home buyers. It's complete with frustration, excitement, heated negotiations and ultimately a happy ending. Ok so I guess I already gave it away. We bought a house!
During the last several weeks we've been through the ringer and back, more than once. But this part starts just under 3 weeks ago...
On Father's day we had our usual open home plan for the early afternoon. There were 4 houses on the agenda this particular day. The first two were rather uninspiring but the third gave us pause as we walked into the backyard and heard birds singing and a babbling brook. The house itself is old with some updates made in the 90's/00's but overall not an amazing interior. This isn't too different to most houses in our price range though. So began our veiled infatuation...
We returned the next day after work for Dustin to crawl around under the house and in the attic. We had another visit with a plumber to double check some things. Then after lots of thinking we decided to go for it and put in an offer. We started $25K apart but managed to come to a deal. We had already set our limit so basically went as far as we planned to and had to walk away. Luckily the offer was open for 24 hours so they slept on it and then came back to us the next day to accept!
We didn't have a lot of conditions to the sale - for one reason because there hasn't been a lot of stock on the market so the price range we've been shopping at is very competitive for first timers like us and investors for rental properties. But there also wasn't that much that brought up any red flags for us. The bank required that we get a registered valuation to confirm it was worth what we'd be borrowing against so that was done last weekend and this week was the bank. We had been pre-approved but between then and now the lending laws have changed with a crackdown on loans to people with less than 20% down - which is us because we want to keep funds available for renos.
So today was finally the day where things were finalized.
However all of this was going on with the backdrop of me starting a new job and with Dustin being laid off from his. Yep. We signed the sales and purchase agreement on a Friday evening and the following Monday he was told the local branch of the company he works for was closing down. Luckily there had been rumours of this happening so he had started talking to a friend about getting a job with the company the friend works for. So he is a-ok, starting up new this coming Monday. But we were sure wondering how that would pan our. The timing!!
Anyways, I know this isn't the part most people care about, you want to hear about the house!
So it's a four-bedroom, one bathroom house. All for the price of an old house in Abbotsford. The backyard is large and it backs onto a creek/ravine area so no back neighbours! We're walking distance for the rugby stadium as well as a handful of shops like a post shop, a pub and several takeaway shops. The kitchen has lots of space to do some renovations to make it amazing and the master bedroom is spacious too. I guess I don't have all the superlatives right now because we haven't decided what changes to make and what we like most as it is. But heading into summer with a beautiful covered patio sounds damn good to us. The big move date is 5 weeks away but I guess with the packing now looming, the time will fly.
So now we're going to be boring a just talk about mortgages. haha. We're not completely sold on owning a home given the shocking total dollars spent when you account for the lifetime of interest, but we were just plain tried of spaces that weren't our own. We've lived in 8 places over the last 7 years - as well as over a year all up of time where we were effectively living out of a car while travelling. So I think it's about time to have a place of our own. We're definitely planning to make some changes to the house and possibly turn it around within a couple years but maybe we'll just plain love living there and stick around for a while...
Now that we've gotten through some of the more tedious parts (checking out house after house, arranging to transfer our deposit from Canada, filling out mortgage application forms, etc) I might have time and energy to start providing more updates to you all! Just think of all the renovation stories you've got in store. And those will include pictures for sure!
For now it's bedtime after another long week. We've got a rugby game to attend this weekend (thanks to my new job providing now only free tickets but food and drinks as well!) and I think I will be getting crafty because even though spring has sprung, it's actually been chilly all week and it's forecast to be wet and rainy all weekend. Perfect for hunkering down in the house! Or even for packing...
During the last several weeks we've been through the ringer and back, more than once. But this part starts just under 3 weeks ago...
On Father's day we had our usual open home plan for the early afternoon. There were 4 houses on the agenda this particular day. The first two were rather uninspiring but the third gave us pause as we walked into the backyard and heard birds singing and a babbling brook. The house itself is old with some updates made in the 90's/00's but overall not an amazing interior. This isn't too different to most houses in our price range though. So began our veiled infatuation...
We returned the next day after work for Dustin to crawl around under the house and in the attic. We had another visit with a plumber to double check some things. Then after lots of thinking we decided to go for it and put in an offer. We started $25K apart but managed to come to a deal. We had already set our limit so basically went as far as we planned to and had to walk away. Luckily the offer was open for 24 hours so they slept on it and then came back to us the next day to accept!
We didn't have a lot of conditions to the sale - for one reason because there hasn't been a lot of stock on the market so the price range we've been shopping at is very competitive for first timers like us and investors for rental properties. But there also wasn't that much that brought up any red flags for us. The bank required that we get a registered valuation to confirm it was worth what we'd be borrowing against so that was done last weekend and this week was the bank. We had been pre-approved but between then and now the lending laws have changed with a crackdown on loans to people with less than 20% down - which is us because we want to keep funds available for renos.
So today was finally the day where things were finalized.
However all of this was going on with the backdrop of me starting a new job and with Dustin being laid off from his. Yep. We signed the sales and purchase agreement on a Friday evening and the following Monday he was told the local branch of the company he works for was closing down. Luckily there had been rumours of this happening so he had started talking to a friend about getting a job with the company the friend works for. So he is a-ok, starting up new this coming Monday. But we were sure wondering how that would pan our. The timing!!
Anyways, I know this isn't the part most people care about, you want to hear about the house!
So it's a four-bedroom, one bathroom house. All for the price of an old house in Abbotsford. The backyard is large and it backs onto a creek/ravine area so no back neighbours! We're walking distance for the rugby stadium as well as a handful of shops like a post shop, a pub and several takeaway shops. The kitchen has lots of space to do some renovations to make it amazing and the master bedroom is spacious too. I guess I don't have all the superlatives right now because we haven't decided what changes to make and what we like most as it is. But heading into summer with a beautiful covered patio sounds damn good to us. The big move date is 5 weeks away but I guess with the packing now looming, the time will fly.
So now we're going to be boring a just talk about mortgages. haha. We're not completely sold on owning a home given the shocking total dollars spent when you account for the lifetime of interest, but we were just plain tried of spaces that weren't our own. We've lived in 8 places over the last 7 years - as well as over a year all up of time where we were effectively living out of a car while travelling. So I think it's about time to have a place of our own. We're definitely planning to make some changes to the house and possibly turn it around within a couple years but maybe we'll just plain love living there and stick around for a while...
Now that we've gotten through some of the more tedious parts (checking out house after house, arranging to transfer our deposit from Canada, filling out mortgage application forms, etc) I might have time and energy to start providing more updates to you all! Just think of all the renovation stories you've got in store. And those will include pictures for sure!
For now it's bedtime after another long week. We've got a rugby game to attend this weekend (thanks to my new job providing now only free tickets but food and drinks as well!) and I think I will be getting crafty because even though spring has sprung, it's actually been chilly all week and it's forecast to be wet and rainy all weekend. Perfect for hunkering down in the house! Or even for packing...
such wonderful news!! And now with these free rugby tickets, in 5 weeks you guys can walk back home since you had too many free drinks!! I'm very excited for you guys and I can't wait to hear all about the reno's and move in stories. I wish I were closer to help remove wall paper or help paint :-)
ReplyDeleteLove you guys!!