3 posts tagged “buying”
It's official. I'm a homeowner. This afternoon I wrote a big check, signed a stack of papers and shook many hands.
We bought a place. Our very own place.
The last two weeks have been the most stressful of my life! Seriously. Dealing with bankers, brokers, agents, owners, inspectors, appraisers, etc. etc. It's just been one headache after another. At one point, I was just about ready to give up (getting a mortgage when you're self-employed in this economy took patience and skill!).
But now it's done and we are very happy.
The place: built in 1919, it's a three-story triplex and we bought the second floor. It's two blocks away from where we live now which is what we've been holding out for since we love this neighborhood and didn't want to live anywhere else. It's very big for the Plateau and we got a great deal because it needs a bit of work (painting, floors redone, eventually more). But a great investment and, more importantly, our mortgage payment is low(ish) and we LOVE the place.
Ugh, we are going to be housepoor for sometime, but that's fine. Our savings are gone. Debt is now a friend and will be for some time. We have to buy appliances (we have nothing) and a lot more since we are moving from a small one bedroom apartment to a big 1200 square foot place with a lot of rooms! But we probably won't move until September 1st since I leave this weekend for three weeks to Shanghai.
A fun project that will take years to finalize, I expect. And we are very happy.
My first house! My goal was to buy a place before I turned 40 and I've still got two years to go!
I'll post more pics later but in the meantime. Our place is the open door on the left at the top of the stairs. The balcony leads to the living room.
yesterday, i was listening to this podcast of mavis gallant being interviewed on the cbc and she said something which i've been thinking about since. she was asked one reason why she left canada (she moved to paris in 1950 and has lived there since) and she said something to the effect of: all my peers were just scrimping and saving in order to buy property. i always thought that was so silly, owning property; i just wanted to be out traveling and experiencing while i was young. i didn't want to save my money during my youth to travel one day in the distant future. i've never owned any property but i've traveled and experienced.
this really struck a chord with me. why is owning your own place something so many of us want? it's almost like something we're indoctrinated into: own own own buy buy buy. so i've been questioning this assumption. we are living in this smaller apartment with the idea of saving as much as we can because we want to buy our own place at the end of this year or early next. but, unfortunately, we only want to live IN the city or way out in the country (and the latter is dubious, especially in winter). but in the city, the only thing we could afford is a condo (any decent detached house in the city of montreal would be at least $750,000 -- very few were built -- and that'd be scraping the barrel in terms of quality and neighborhood).
we could buy a big house in a new subdivision in the suburbs for $200,000, but there is just no way i could do that. we don't need that much space anyway, and we'd also need a car. additionally, yuck. driving to the market, surrounded by strip malls and spending all the time in the car. blech. so that means condos in the city. but you take so many chances: crazy neighbors, is the building in decent shape, what is the infrastructure like? not only that, but in the winter, these places burn and though you can minimize what you do, you can't control what your neighbors do.
so we buy a place, spend all our savings on a big downpayment, have a $1800 mortgage payment every month (plus taxes & utilities). often, too, there are condo fees in these buildings which can sometimes be as much as $400 or $500 a month! we could do it, but we'd be crippled in many ways: no more big two month trips for the near future. is it worth it? why not just take the money for the downpayment and invest it? why not just continue renting and save that extra money we don't spend on the mortgage and still have flexibility to take off if we want? this place is cheap enough that we can leave for three months and still pay rent here, even if we have to pay rent temporarily somewhere else. and the great thing about montreal is rent control: they are only allowed to raise the rent by like 2% each year and only then if they can prove that they are making modifications. so the rent would remain cheap if we stayed in one place...
blah blah blah. just something on my mind: buying is risky (case in point: US housing market generally right now). and i'm not averse to some risk, but what's the aim of it: to increase net worth? to have a place to live (one day, in like 30 years) without a monthly payment? this friend of mine who owns a place always says: "oh you're so lucky you don't have that burden and you just rent. it's so much less stress! it's so much easier! don't buy! just rent!" he, of course, owns a house in downtown vancouver, so easy for him to say! it's true that rent is "wasted money," but if you can take half of what you'd spend on a mortgage and invest it, it's not wasted really, is it. say your total every month for everything (mortgage, taxes, utilities, insurance, etc.) is $2,000 but renting (rent & utilities) totals $1,000 and you bank the other $1,000 : how is that wasting money?
mmmmmmm. the aim is, i guess, to not be strapped when you're old. but i don't ever imagine retiring (not for me, not healthy, a strange custom, i think) and my job is such that i can do it as long as my mind remains active...so what are the benefits of buying?
