[wooohooo]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Is the new house the actual sale price, or does it not include things like GST? That can add a lot. New houses can also have added expenses, like fences and landscaping. If it were me I'd be on the border between old house and renting...

The price includes GST. Yeah those are some costs we haven't really calculated in.

Originally Posted by tvp2003

How are you with repairs and home maintenance?

Just my experience -- we bought a new townhouse as our "first home" and it was nice because we didn't have to worry about maintenance, etc. (being a townhouse) nor did we have to worry about repairs (as a new build).

We since moved into an older house (with a bigger yard, better location), which worked out well because now I have some basic tools and experience to deal with little maintenance and repair issues that old houses have.

Anything less than 5 years and I would suggest renting (especially given the current market); those realtor fees can eat up a lot of equity if the market stays flat. Do the math and see what you can stomach. Obviously this probably won't be your "forever house" so use the flexibility to your advantage if you can.

P.S. Congrats!

Thanks! It is pretty nerve wracking having a little one on the way. I am fairly handy - I've done my share of flooring, drywalling - nothing too extensive. But I'm also not sure I have the time to do it.

Originally Posted by bc-chris

whooohooo... is this your first child?

this amazing thing called 'spare time' quickly evaporates with the emergence of a child.

my wife and i have 2 kids (our girl is 4 in a couple weeks and our boy is 1yr/7months). we often joke about all these people that told us before we had kids, 'oh... you won't even remember what life was like before kids!'

i call b.s. on that - it's a lie... total lie. we very much DO remember what life was like before kids... we had tons of spare time to go and do stuff... like dates, road trips, work around the house, yard work, play on sports teams as a couple, etc.

don't get me wrong, i love my kids and wouldn't trade them for anything, but they eat up every last bit of time you have!

buying an older house that requires renos and then lots of yard work is a big time commitment and your life is about to take a drastic change of direction (for the good... but no spare time!)

Yeah man, this is our first! But That's a big thing I'm worried about - the time it takes to do the renos. All the decent looking houses seem way over budget in terms of older homes.

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I guess it depends what "old home" means, too. How old? And it's upkeep. Does it need a roof, furnace, etc? Or mostly a coat of paint and be good for 5 years?

Yeah, there's not many 'old homes' out there that are inside our budget. The few I'm eyeing looks fine to live in just very dated. The roof and furnace seem to be in good condition. Just my wife prefers living in a new house and thinks the new house location isn't too bad. But of course we're worried about the selling price potentially in 5 years.

Originally Posted by REDVAN

We built with Pacesetter in Airdrie and are 90% satisfied after 2.5 years.

Any specific questions you have?

We're looking at getting a quick possession home so we can't make too many changes to it but we do love the house layout. How are they with warranty/build quality. Would you go with them again seeing how satisfied you were?

Originally Posted by Bankai

Which part of Edmonton are you looking to potentially build in? I went through a similar situation as well and ended up going the "new" route.

We're looking at Cavanagh and Glenridding/Chapelle. We prefer Cavanagh as the location seems better to everything. But Chapelle is closer to our in-laws.

Thanks everyone for their replies, definitely lots to consider. The new houses are bigger, cheaper by $40 000, and they're priced really well. The house we're considering is around 1500-1600 sq ft, and it's priced around $330-350000 which was the incentive for us to buy. It's priced at the cost of a duplex and we love the house. The old homes we're looking is the Greenfield/Royal gardens area but they're upwards of the $400 000. With my wife going on mat leave and not sure if she will return, and the higher price for the older homes + renovations I'm still trying to justify the extra expense/if we can afford it.

We are trying to factor in selling in 5 years so we don't want this to depreciate too much, but we are okay holding and renting it out as well. The issue with us continuing to rent right now is we will need to leave in 2-3 months as the owners are taking back their property and feel a house might be good value for us long term. Especially with the price of the house to be around that of a duplex .