Quote:
Originally Posted by ken0042
Great post IHH. I would also echo what has been said, if you have to do it sell your current place before buying the new one. Might mean storage for your stuff and an apartment (or even a $2500 rental house) but better than losing it all by having 2 mortgages.
I will also throw in my standard reminder about the dump and it's proximity to New Brighton. I've been throwing stuff out a few hundred metres from new homes. And if the builder tells you "they are closing the dump within 18 months", they have been "about to close the dump" for about 5 or 6 years now.
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Best advice so far in this thread, especially about the dump.
Like what is said above, make sure you have a firm sale on your current house with a good deposit before even thinking about buying. Always, always, always sell before you buy in a slow market, I cannot stress that enough to any of my clients.
Before you list, get an appraisal on your house by an accredited appraiser (CRA or AACI), this will cost you around $350 but it will be money well spent. List it a couple grand under and you should be in good shape.
If you don't want to do this, get at least 5 detailed CMAs (not those joke average one-page'rs printed off MLX by some lazy Realtors) from 5 different Realtors then take the median, that should be you list price. Take 5-6% off and that should be your sale price range. Clean up & stage it to the nines (a good Realtor will do this for you or hire someone to do it for you), live like you are in a showhome for the next 3 months, and expect to wait at least 45-50 days minimum before an offer comes in. Keep in mind only about 1 in 8 houses listed will sell right now.
Once you've sold, you can get started on shopping around again, from what you've said so far I would expect a better price than the one you've quoted for your dream home. You probably had to budge on your selling price, so get them to budge too, they will. This game works both ways (that $2500 fee is BS btw). If they won't budge, walk away and either lowball a smoking deal on a spec/resale or get your Realtor to take you to another builder, let him do all the low-balling. Get some comps on the recent solds and you will have a pretty good idea what to settle for. Again, this is your Realtor's job, it won't cost you any more to get him to do all the dirty work vs. just walking into a builder and signing whatever they tell you to.
Everyone has different needs when it comes to the roof over our families' heads, what you need to evaluate is whether you really have to build vs. buying whats available right now that's closest to what you want. Given the amount of stuff out there, I really think you will find one close enough if you bother to look for a bit. Renting and moving again in a year as some have suggested doesn't sound like a good fit for you given your situation IMO, but you probably already knew that.
Anyways that's my 2 cents, good luck!