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maverickstruth · 06-12-2008, 09:22 AM

Also a prospective first-time home buyer here -- we're basically in a not very good rental situation right now (concerns about major mould problems, among other things) which has us looking to move. Figured that since we can afford it, and so as to not just have to pick up and move again in a year or two anyway, we'd start looking at getting ourselves into some condos, especially with the prices having dropped as much as they have. Unfortunately, our lease is up at the end of August, which doesn't give us a lot of time to watch the market to see if it will bottom out further. But it's better than living in an unhealthy environment

I'll jump in with a couple of things I've found out, and then ask a question or two of my own

Someone mentioned the RRSP First-Time Home Buyer's Plan. My rough understanding of how this works is that you can (one-time only, and only if you haven't owned a home in the last 5? years) withdraw from your RRSP an amount of up to 20k per person (so two co-signers on the loan could have a total withdrawal of 40k) to be used toward a new home purchase. It's basically a way to minimize the amount of loan you have to take by borrowing from your RRSP rather than the bank. And, of course, the repayment terms are nicer when you're paying yourself back rather than the bank

The benefit of this is that repaying that 'loan' doesn't count against your contribution room for your RRSP. -- Note that this is all my understanding from what my research has told me, our resident financial advisors can probably clarify some points and correct me if I'm wrong

That said, now it's time for my question. As a first-time home buyer, I'm pretty much in the dark about what to do. I mean, I know the basic steps (get pre-approved, find a realtor you trust, set your criteria, start looking, find something, yada yada yada) but don't really know where to begin. Figured that the almighty brainpower of CP might be able to help me out in that regard. We've got a realtor lined up (haven't yet given them the word 'go', but will be doing that in the next week or so), but other than that and looking through MLS listings, we're in a standstill. We know our budget, and the online calculators have said that we'd most likely get preapproved for far more than we're looking to take as a mortgage, but don't know what to do next. Is it best to do the mortgage searching ourselves? Or go to a mortgage broker (if so, recommendations welcome!)?

We're in a situation where we really don't have many connections in our network in Calgary (having just been students and starting into the workforce, most everyone we know is still renting and quite happy to remain so), and we're not in a position to be asking family for advice, so any words of wisdom or recommendations or the like would be more than welcome!

06-12-2008, 09:22 AM	#8
maverickstruth Backup Goalie Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Calgary Exp:	Also a prospective first-time home buyer here -- we're basically in a not very good rental situation right now (concerns about major mould problems, among other things) which has us looking to move. Figured that since we can afford it, and so as to not just have to pick up and move again in a year or two anyway, we'd start looking at getting ourselves into some condos, especially with the prices having dropped as much as they have. Unfortunately, our lease is up at the end of August, which doesn't give us a lot of time to watch the market to see if it will bottom out further. But it's better than living in an unhealthy environment I'll jump in with a couple of things I've found out, and then ask a question or two of my own Someone mentioned the RRSP First-Time Home Buyer's Plan. My rough understanding of how this works is that you can (one-time only, and only if you haven't owned a home in the last 5? years) withdraw from your RRSP an amount of up to 20k per person (so two co-signers on the loan could have a total withdrawal of 40k) to be used toward a new home purchase. It's basically a way to minimize the amount of loan you have to take by borrowing from your RRSP rather than the bank. And, of course, the repayment terms are nicer when you're paying yourself back rather than the bank The benefit of this is that repaying that 'loan' doesn't count against your contribution room for your RRSP. -- Note that this is all my understanding from what my research has told me, our resident financial advisors can probably clarify some points and correct me if I'm wrong That said, now it's time for my question. As a first-time home buyer, I'm pretty much in the dark about what to do. I mean, I know the basic steps (get pre-approved, find a realtor you trust, set your criteria, start looking, find something, yada yada yada) but don't really know where to begin. Figured that the almighty brainpower of CP might be able to help me out in that regard. We've got a realtor lined up (haven't yet given them the word 'go', but will be doing that in the next week or so), but other than that and looking through MLS listings, we're in a standstill. We know our budget, and the online calculators have said that we'd most likely get preapproved for far more than we're looking to take as a mortgage, but don't know what to do next. Is it best to do the mortgage searching ourselves? Or go to a mortgage broker (if so, recommendations welcome!)? We're in a situation where we really don't have many connections in our network in Calgary (having just been students and starting into the workforce, most everyone we know is still renting and quite happy to remain so), and we're not in a position to be asking family for advice, so any words of wisdom or recommendations or the like would be more than welcome!