I have been asked a lot of questions in the past few weeks about our recent home purchase.
People are curious how we got into this crazy housing market at a young age and what steps they need to take in order to join the homeowners club. I am no expert but I would love to share our experience with other young people hoping to become home owners.
Every Thursday I will write a new post about becoming a homeowner and what life as a homeowner is really all about.
Today I am sharing with you how we managed to get into this housing marking before the age of 25.
Our First Home
People are curious how we got into this crazy housing market at a young age and what steps they need to take in order to join the homeowners club. I am no expert but I would love to share our experience with other young people hoping to become home owners.
Every Thursday I will write a new post about becoming a homeowner and what life as a homeowner is really all about.
Today I am sharing with you how we managed to get into this housing marking before the age of 25.
Our First Home
When I was the young age of 20 and my husband three years my elder we purchased our first home.
A townhouse that I blogged about here.
When all my friends were making College and University plans in high school I was making plans to save money to buy a house.
I had a goal in mind - I would own a house by age 20.
I planned to work, avoid renting and save up a down payment.
Looking back now dreaming about College and University probably should`ve been my biggest priority but live and learn right?
I never quite understood why my friends were so eager to get out of their parents house and start renting.
Of course I wanted to finally feel like an adult and have my own space but
why would I give away my money to make someone else richer?
I did end up renting and going to College for about 6 months and I absolutely hated it.
There were bugs in my apartment, the halls smelt like cigarettes, I was terrified in the parking garage at night and I was spending money to live there and making someone else rich.
My rent (although split between a roommate and I) for a 2 bedroom apartment was actually more expensive than our first mortgage.
I quickly decided after my lease was up that I would never ever rent again.
Instead, Louis and I decided we would suck it up and live with family until we were able to save up a down payment for a house.
This was back in 2009.
We lived with my in-laws, then my grandma then my dad.
It wasn`t easy - we were also expecting our first baby and newlyweds.
Of course we wanted our own space but we knew that would come eventually if we just held out for a while longer.
I was constantly looking at the MLS and New Home Section in the local paper and keeping my eye on the market.
This was right around when the recession was going on in the US which made housing prices on new builds drop quite a bit in certain areas to appeal to nervous home buyers who were worried about a possible recession in Canada.
One day while reading through the paper I came across a builder about 20 minutes north of where we currently lived who was slashing their prices in order to bring in new buyers.
They were dropping house prices from the 240s to low 200s and on top of this they offered a 7,000 of the purchase price if you chose to opt out of upgrades.
The house was in a small(ish) town that didn't have the greatest reputation but I knew this would be a great move for us investment wise.
It was in the newest subdivision in the area, with a park and a school and a plan for the highway to extend right up to the neighbourhood.
We made a call to a mortgage broker and let him know that we were hoping to put an offer in on a house for 200,000 we gave him our info and he gave us a pre approval.
We went in that weekend and put a deposit on the house.
This was 5 years ago and looking back now, our financial situation was a joke.
I was on maternity leave when we put the deposit down and my income was under 15,000.
Louis was only making $16 an hour.
There was no problem getting a pre-approval then and our deposit was only 5% down.
That was then and this is now because my oh my have things changed.
It is not this easy to buy a house now and it takes a lot more hard work and money to get into the housing market 5 years later.
I am so thankful we got into the housing market when we did because I fear that if we didn`t we would be renters right now but I will talk about this in another post.
Next week I will blog about all the steps we had to take the first time around to get our house, get the mortgage, all the associated costs etc.
When all my friends were making College and University plans in high school I was making plans to save money to buy a house.
I had a goal in mind - I would own a house by age 20.
I planned to work, avoid renting and save up a down payment.
Looking back now dreaming about College and University probably should`ve been my biggest priority but live and learn right?
I never quite understood why my friends were so eager to get out of their parents house and start renting.
Of course I wanted to finally feel like an adult and have my own space but
why would I give away my money to make someone else richer?
I did end up renting and going to College for about 6 months and I absolutely hated it.
There were bugs in my apartment, the halls smelt like cigarettes, I was terrified in the parking garage at night and I was spending money to live there and making someone else rich.
My rent (although split between a roommate and I) for a 2 bedroom apartment was actually more expensive than our first mortgage.
I quickly decided after my lease was up that I would never ever rent again.
Instead, Louis and I decided we would suck it up and live with family until we were able to save up a down payment for a house.
This was back in 2009.
We lived with my in-laws, then my grandma then my dad.
It wasn`t easy - we were also expecting our first baby and newlyweds.
Of course we wanted our own space but we knew that would come eventually if we just held out for a while longer.
I was constantly looking at the MLS and New Home Section in the local paper and keeping my eye on the market.
This was right around when the recession was going on in the US which made housing prices on new builds drop quite a bit in certain areas to appeal to nervous home buyers who were worried about a possible recession in Canada.
One day while reading through the paper I came across a builder about 20 minutes north of where we currently lived who was slashing their prices in order to bring in new buyers.
They were dropping house prices from the 240s to low 200s and on top of this they offered a 7,000 of the purchase price if you chose to opt out of upgrades.
The house was in a small(ish) town that didn't have the greatest reputation but I knew this would be a great move for us investment wise.
It was in the newest subdivision in the area, with a park and a school and a plan for the highway to extend right up to the neighbourhood.
We made a call to a mortgage broker and let him know that we were hoping to put an offer in on a house for 200,000 we gave him our info and he gave us a pre approval.
We went in that weekend and put a deposit on the house.
This was 5 years ago and looking back now, our financial situation was a joke.
I was on maternity leave when we put the deposit down and my income was under 15,000.
Louis was only making $16 an hour.
There was no problem getting a pre-approval then and our deposit was only 5% down.
That was then and this is now because my oh my have things changed.
It is not this easy to buy a house now and it takes a lot more hard work and money to get into the housing market 5 years later.
I am so thankful we got into the housing market when we did because I fear that if we didn`t we would be renters right now but I will talk about this in another post.
Next week I will blog about all the steps we had to take the first time around to get our house, get the mortgage, all the associated costs etc.
WOW that is an awesome story! I did not know all of that. And what a great price!! You seriously got in at the very best time your not even kidding!! Your house is worth almost double now, if not more!!
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