We know that buying a house can be crazy stressful and there are so many moving parts that it can feel like you're spinning! We put together a few of our top tips to making the house-buying process a little less stressful.
1. Find a good mortgage broker and get pre-approved
Find a good mortgage broker and get pre approved prior to looking for a house so you know how much you can afford.
Go through your new monthly cash flow "with house" and make sure you feel comfortable and are aware of your new monthly expenses like mortgage payment, life insurance for your mortgage, property taxes, hydro, strata, house insurance, house maintenance, water bill, rsp home buyers repayment plan, etc.
2. Find a great realtor with experience
Find a great realtor that will help you find what you are looking for and then taking you through the emotional rollercoaster of making an offer for the house you love.
You make an offer, a counter offer is made, you accept or counter the seller's counter. A lot of back and forth. Finally you and the seller agree on a price and conditions.
Once there is an agreement in place for a price--now the work begins.
You have only so many days to provide a deposit down for the house, need to schedule a house inspector-- make sure the house has good bones, need to get details on the house so you can get a house insurance quote, if there is a wood stove-does it have to be inspected for house insurance purposes?
If there is septic-does it have to be pumped out and inspected?
Do you have financing in place?
Have you looked into life insurance for your mortgage amount?
Have you picked a lawyer to sign the final mortgage papers?
3. Understand the REAL costs
Understand what the closing the costs are/will be. Prepaid property taxes or utilities, whether or not there will be property transfer tax, legal fees, inspection fee, house insurance, moving costs and on top of that you need your down payment.