Realestate, Mortgage and Home owners discussion

[Duncan]

well, i suppose that works if you have such a huge house to roam around in with relatively absent in-laws, but that's not the case for us haha... our basement suite isn't even a suite... plus it also goes back to the sanity thing. 4 years with alicia's mom is driving me insane... i can't understand how she did the past 28 years!

i have a feeling i'll be biting the bullet this summer and buying a place. Hopefully i can find a place nearby so i can host poker lols

[nature boy]

i'm just saying that you should weigh your options. buying a house isn't as simple as choosing a place and paying for it. there's much more involved than that (which is another reason why renting is optimal for some people). i'm not saying that your mother-in-law isn't driving you crazy, i'm just saying that there could be worse situations than living with difficult people.

basically, owning a home isn't going to solve problems. rather, it's going to create a whole bunch of new ones (especially if you're buying an old beater house).

[nature boy]

i probably should qualify what i just said. i'm not saying don't buy. in fact, what i'm saying is buy, BUT only if you are sure you can afford it. i don't know how much you and alicia make, but i do know what some of my friends make (a lot more than me) and i know that they're struggling. why? because life is expensive and a mortgage is a huge burden. and like i said, owning a house isn't just a monthly mortgage payment of a couple grand or something, but there are bills up the wazoo on top of that.

what i would suggest (fwiw since i'm not even a home owner) is that you get a detached home and rent out the basement. that extra income will definitely help if not take care of the entire payment. but if you're planning on just getting a house/townhouse/condo for yourself, then i'd seriously consider how much you make and how much you can go without a month.

i learned this the hard way when i bought my first gti. at the time working at shoppers i was bringing home roughly just under $2k a month. i figured i'd be able to afford the $600/mo payments easily since i'll have almost $1400 left for whatever. well, add the $500 a month for insurance (b/c icbc owned me), the $200/mo for gas, at least $200/mo for food (i wasn't living at home), $50 for my phone, $60 for cable/internet, $200 for student loans, $whatever dealer charged me for maintenance, $minimum credit card payments, $spending money, i was coming up short every month... by a LOT. i had to go to my parents for help, which of course i wasn't going to hear the end of.

now, i'm not saying that you haven't made all these calculations yet, but it's something that's easily overlooked especially when presented with the excitement of buying a new home. there could be unexpected costs that you didn't factor in (like if your pipes burst or your roof starts leaking), which could leave you in big trouble. i was lucky that it was just a car that could be sold (at a huge loss) and i had parents who were willing to bail me out.

so again, if you can afford it, then buy now, don't wait. but just make sure you can, i wouldn't want to see you get into huge financial trouble just because you can't wait to get out from under alicia's parents.

[geForce]

[Wetundies]

buy a bunch of presales, resell them when they are done, should of made a few dollars for u to put towards ur own house.

[Duncan]

[nature boy]

don't think man, be absolutely sure. it'll be hard to correct a wrong decision. rather, it'll cost you a lot.

[Duncan]

i'm not saying i think i can afford it, i'm saying that i think IF i can afford it... and at this point, i'm quite sure i can (i'm not absolutely sure as you're saying because i obviously haven't gone to a mortgage adviser to get approved), but i'm gonna have scale down a few things when it happens... maybe poker... NoOoo

[geForce]

[Duncan]

that's my biggest dilemma lol

[se7entse7en]

You're gonna host, but not play? Good luck with that.

[Duncan]

host's courtesy buy in credit?

[geForce]

If there was such a thing, I would host more often, lol

[joel]

here's my take on your situation.

try not to consider the equity change of your future home. the market can swing in either direction for any reason. You are purchasing a home for use so equity change will not impact you unless you are planning on moving to a considerably different market in the near future.

first, go see a mortgage broker or go to the bank and get pre-approved for a loan. once they factor in your income and assets, you'll know what your upper limit for your mortgage is. your borrowing limit and your down-payment (and CHMC premium, if needed) will tell you how much you can spend on a home. With that knowledge, go ahead and start looking at homes, and decide whether there is a home out there that you can afford and are willing to purchase for that price and that you want to live in.

the point of avoiding chmc is about trying to saving as much money possible when stepping into home ownership. you get no actual return on your cmhc but if you find a home that seems worth it's price+cmhc costs, then I would say go ahead and do it. Just consider the cmhc as the part of the price of the home, since in terms of your mortgage that is exactly how it is applied.

right now treat buying a home as if you hold the cards, you have a stable living situation so there is no need for you to rush into any situation that doesn't seem a good fit for you.

spending up to your maximum borrowing limit increases your mortgage payments and increases your risk to market changes (increases in interest rates, etc..) so those are consideration for the sustainability of your loan.

in the end, do what you can afford. if you can afford the home, and the cmhc go ahead.

[joel]

Dunc, i saw this article and thought it may interest you:
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/cmhc-p ... 09409.html

like any forecasting or projecting, take with a grain of salt. no one knows exactly what the future will bring.