House Hunting
Let me start with saying that there are 3 things that I find to be rather stressing and not all that enjoyable. Those would be ~ in no particular order ~ job hunting, car hunting and house hunting. Perhaps it is because my experience with all 3 of these tasks has always had a time element associated with it. Must find a job, as we only have $X dollars in the bank and we need to pay bills. Must find a house as I am surfing someone's couch and need to give them back their space. Must find a car, as there is a transit strike and I'm in the middle of nowhere ~ OK it was New West but that felt pretty much like the middle of nowhere.
That said, with my probation under my belt, the mortgage pre-approved, Akis and I have set out on the daunting task of looking at real estate in Vancouver. Now there is something surreal about real estate here in Vancouver. The cost of a one bedroom condo is about what my sister or Dad would pay for their WHOLE house ~ which means that Akis' dream of having a house on grass is very unlikely to happen while we are here. However, I do feel a strong desire to get into the market and at least turn these large rental amounts into something that will help grow our equity.
My friend Aislynn has moved into real estate a few years back and has been great to work with. Despite my reluctance to want to move out of Vancouver proper, she does her best to locate what we can afford, with some of the required elements such as in-suite laundry, patio space, and 2 bedrooms. As with anything, you try to get the most bang for your buck, but as we are discovering that is a lot more difficult than we previously thought.
The housing market here seems to have rebounded quite well and we are once again back into multiple offer situations with bids on houses. Akis and I haven't found any where that strikes a cord enough that we would be thinking about putting in an offer, so for the time being we continue to look. A co-worker has just purchased with her fiance and feels in hind-sight that they did over pay simply because they wanted to get it done and had the heartbreak of losing a few other offers.
We are planning on taking our time, so hopefully I won't feel the pressure to make a snap decision. In the meantime, weekend time when Akis doesn't work seems to be filled with Open Houses and appointments with Aislynn to see what is out there. Here's to having faith that we'll find our right home and it will be somethign that we can afford!
That said, with my probation under my belt, the mortgage pre-approved, Akis and I have set out on the daunting task of looking at real estate in Vancouver. Now there is something surreal about real estate here in Vancouver. The cost of a one bedroom condo is about what my sister or Dad would pay for their WHOLE house ~ which means that Akis' dream of having a house on grass is very unlikely to happen while we are here. However, I do feel a strong desire to get into the market and at least turn these large rental amounts into something that will help grow our equity.
My friend Aislynn has moved into real estate a few years back and has been great to work with. Despite my reluctance to want to move out of Vancouver proper, she does her best to locate what we can afford, with some of the required elements such as in-suite laundry, patio space, and 2 bedrooms. As with anything, you try to get the most bang for your buck, but as we are discovering that is a lot more difficult than we previously thought.
The housing market here seems to have rebounded quite well and we are once again back into multiple offer situations with bids on houses. Akis and I haven't found any where that strikes a cord enough that we would be thinking about putting in an offer, so for the time being we continue to look. A co-worker has just purchased with her fiance and feels in hind-sight that they did over pay simply because they wanted to get it done and had the heartbreak of losing a few other offers.
We are planning on taking our time, so hopefully I won't feel the pressure to make a snap decision. In the meantime, weekend time when Akis doesn't work seems to be filled with Open Houses and appointments with Aislynn to see what is out there. Here's to having faith that we'll find our right home and it will be somethign that we can afford!
posted by Carrie @ 9:15 AM
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