It dawned on me one day, why am I renting? For years, people have been telling me it's silly to rent and that I am throwing my money away. It took until the breach of my 30th year to get this. Suddenly the thought made complete sense, like "ohhhhh, that's why people buy homes!" I always thought it was to tie people down and take away all their freedom. Granted, this may be the truth, but I realized it could be a great investment (and the light bulb goes off!). Now I am coming at it with a different angle; a potential way to start earning some extra, and very necessary cash!
Being the naive future homeowner I was, I had no idea where to start or what to do! If this sounds familiar to how you're feeling, here are the first few, simple steps to get you started...
1) Find a mortgage broker.
This is step number one because you need to know if you even have the cashola to purchase a house. The mortgage broker will help you figure out all the details on this one. Essentially, you will need to bring a pay stub, RRSP statements and any other money that you have to help you buy the house. Really, this is just to make sure that you are actually able to not only buy the house, but to maintain it!
2) Find a real estate broker.
Now I know that MLS is the best new thing to hit the real estate market, but truly, having an agent I trusted was far better than searching all day, everyday! MLS became as obsessive as Facebook! I wanted to know every house that was listed and the moment it went up for sale! Luckily, you can learn from my mistake because your relator generally knows before you do. They are the first to be notified what goes on the market and what fits your criteria! And in fact, the seller has to pay the agent, not the buyer, so it's in your favour to find an agent and let them do the shopping for you!
I heard on Oprah, her gal Suze Orman stated this:
“Do not consider buying a house unless you have 20% for the down payment and 8 months emergency fund.”
I thought, Well shoot! I hope she isn’t right cause I didn’t have either of those! I tried not to panic. Either way, it’s a done deal….and I hope not to be another stat for Suze!