Hi guys I have been living in a condo ever since I moved out of my parents house over ten years ago but I am looking at buying my first house in Ottawa. I am really clueless when it comes to real estate and was wondering if you had any advice for me(buy used or new?) looking at this as an investment also so maybe only going to be their for a few years.
Looking for a house
- Thread starter Jiffy Pop
- Start date
Unless there is some wonky upsuge you should never expect major gains in just two years on real estate.
in the short term the selling and closing costs chew that up.
in the short term the selling and closing costs chew that up.
Jiff
you have to decide how much you can spend and how long you will live there. Are you close to retirement?
you have to decide how much you can spend and how long you will live there. Are you close to retirement?
Best advice I can give you is to really take your time finding a home inspector that you can trust, they are more important then your real estate agent.
What you need to do is:
1. Determine what you need (size, # of rooms, Garage, detatched or semi, etc)
2. determine price range (get pre-approved for a mortgage, also find out what your current place is worth)
3. determine area (consider distance from work, if the area fits your lifestyle, if it's close to things you want). Do an initial search on www.mls.ca for places that fit criteria 1 & 2, mapquest the addresses, and drive around those areas and start eliminating. Once you have your list down, call up your agent and have thorough look at the inside and outside of the leading contenders.
Also, you may want to sell your existing place first. I know of 4 people who had trouble selling their existing place after buy a place. In one of the cases, he had to resort to renting his old place. Luckily he had enough equity built up to pull that off. Because of that, when I moved last year, I chose to sell first. The worst that could have happened then is that I can't find a suitable place so I would just have to temporarily store my stuff and live in an apartment for a month or two.
Once you've picked a place, put in a conditional offer... the condition being the home inspection.
1. Determine what you need (size, # of rooms, Garage, detatched or semi, etc)
2. determine price range (get pre-approved for a mortgage, also find out what your current place is worth)
3. determine area (consider distance from work, if the area fits your lifestyle, if it's close to things you want). Do an initial search on www.mls.ca for places that fit criteria 1 & 2, mapquest the addresses, and drive around those areas and start eliminating. Once you have your list down, call up your agent and have thorough look at the inside and outside of the leading contenders.
Also, you may want to sell your existing place first. I know of 4 people who had trouble selling their existing place after buy a place. In one of the cases, he had to resort to renting his old place. Luckily he had enough equity built up to pull that off. Because of that, when I moved last year, I chose to sell first. The worst that could have happened then is that I can't find a suitable place so I would just have to temporarily store my stuff and live in an apartment for a month or two.
Once you've picked a place, put in a conditional offer... the condition being the home inspection.
Best advice is get a good real estate agent. Ask your friends and co-workers for recommendations, hopefully you'll find someone who can help you determine what's best for you, help you find it, then help with all the buying steps, offers, home inspection, etc. etc. A good, experienced agent is worth their weight in gold, and best of all, the vendor pays them for you!
A consideration for the "investment" aspect is "How handy are you?" If you're willing and able to buy a house that's in less than ideal condition, fix it up over a couple of years then sell it, you should make more money than buying a house in good condition. Of course if you have to hire someone to do most of the work, forget this idea.
A consideration for the "investment" aspect is "How handy are you?" If you're willing and able to buy a house that's in less than ideal condition, fix it up over a couple of years then sell it, you should make more money than buying a house in good condition. Of course if you have to hire someone to do most of the work, forget this idea.
Good advice DSL but I have to disagree with your comment about hiring somoene to do the work for you. The value of having the job done right dramatically increases the value of those renovations.
Going along with your "fixer upper" advice is the old adage: buy the worst place in the best neighbourhood.
I couldn't agree more with the comment about finding a good R/E agent, when I was looking for my first place I went to a friend's parents. They told me I couldn't afford to buy and If I had listened to them I would still be renting. I went with someone else who listened to what I wanted and he showed me exactly what suited my needs perfectly the first time, and within my budget.
Going along with your "fixer upper" advice is the old adage: buy the worst place in the best neighbourhood.
I couldn't agree more with the comment about finding a good R/E agent, when I was looking for my first place I went to a friend's parents. They told me I couldn't afford to buy and If I had listened to them I would still be renting. I went with someone else who listened to what I wanted and he showed me exactly what suited my needs perfectly the first time, and within my budget.
