Yikes, suddenly it’s Wednesday?! With that holiday weekend I got all confuzzled and didn’t end up posting yesterday like I should have. Some exciting things are happening over here for us, one of them being potential (very potential) house shopping. I love our little apartment but I’m ready for a house to call our own. I’d love a little vegetable garden in the back yard and to paint the walls. (We could paint here we just don’t have the energy when we’re potentially moving so soon.) So, any advice for first time home buyers? This isn’t something we’re rushing out to do, but we’ve decided we’d start keeping our eyes peeled. It’s also made me realize I must take a million photos of our little apartment before we move. Of course I have to remember everything, it is our very first apartment, after all. I never want to forget that. Perhaps I will post photos and things of the apartment if you will all forgive me the terrible decoration, or lack there of. I hope my North American readers had a very fabulous, fun and safe holiday weekend.
Oops, I almost forgot! My favorite photo in this batch is the one of Bronwyn making a ridiculous face in her new bathroom, even though it’s blurry. Initially I wanted to get her and I in the bathroom but I liked this one of her making a face best. My least favorite would be “parallel”, even so much so that it wasn’t in my set, I had to go and find it. And, the trivia is not related to photo taking, but that my guitar “Binn”, is Irish Gaelic for “melodious sound”. (Or melodious.) I brought him home when I was fifteen. When I could bring only a car load of things up to Canada, there was no question that he was coming with. (My electric guitar, and 12-string Fender, however, did not make the cut.)
“Bathroom” (April 30th)
“Cut” (May 1st)
Bruno. I had to cut off some old dead leaves but otherwise he looks really healthy. I’m pretty excited.
“Parallel” (May 2nd)
Making asparagus quiche with tomato and tarragon.
“Borrowed” (May 3rd)
Free seven day rentals from the library!
“Rest” (May 4th)
“Muted” (May 5th)
“Song” (May 6th)
“Candid” (May 7th)
15 Comments
Kim
10 Sep 2011 at 1:31 amOh yes! I totes don’t blame you for sticking to Canada – I was only joking about the Portland thingy. The combination of the shitty job market + ridiculously priced close-in homes makes Portland an odd place to lay your roots down (much as I love it here). The only people I know around here who are buying houses are doing it in the outskirts of town, where houses are still nice but a little on the cheaper end, but for me, that defeats the whole purpose of living in a city – a city I moved to so I didn’t have to commute, etc. All the ones in my area (or the areas I’d like to live in) are between 450 and 800k. Seriously. I walk by it on my way to the market every other day, staring wistfully at it. SIGH! A house for under 400k in my neighborhood is considered CHEAP AS FREE. -____-
All this talk of dream homes reminds me of what my TRUE dream home is – a cobb/strawbale house! Part of me still keeps the faith alive that SOMEDAY it WILL happen but I honestly don’t know. Like I said – I like living in a city, not needing a car and whatnot … a Cobb/SB home just isn’t conducive to that lifestyle. Maybe when I get older. I feel like I have so much life ambition built up I have no idea when the hell I’m going to accomplish it all!
Oh yeah… Speaking of what we want in a home… There’s that one house in my ‘hood that I’m in love with, mostly because it has THEE most mature and majestic apple tree in the backyard. A friend of mine (who is a seasoned home owner, heh!) commented and said “Remember, apple trees can always be planted!” So true. I have NEVER had a yard – my childhood was spent living in trailer parks and apartment complexes, so having a garden and trees and things is a MUST for me, too. I try to remember that advice while looking around, though. Just because it isn’t the instant gratification of everything we’ve ever wanted in a home EVER, doesn’t mean it can’t eventually be. My MIL is a prime example, she works so hard on her yard, always planting trees and building fences and creating little nooks and crannies to relax in.
And yes x one million about the inspections! I don’t know a lot about Chris’s boss’s situation but it makes me wonder how often people do get them done before setting it in stone. Seems like such a common sense thing to have done!
I’m so excited now! Can one of us please hurry up and buy a house? And then the other one can come visit. PLEASE!
Fay
8 Sep 2011 at 10:54 pmMy boyfriend and I are working on fixing up his house to put it on the market early next spring, in hopes we can rent a place together (that’s if we can sell his place!). So we’re in the opposite boat of you and Tom, looking to rent instead of own for the time being. We live in the Washington DC metro area (me in Maryland and he in Virginia) and apartment/condo rent is crazy expensive here, but people are desperate to cover their mortages since they can’t sell their places and are renting out homes that they wouldn’t have rented out in the past. We do hope to own again in the future, but with us not sure where the next 5 years will take us jobwise we figured it would be the safer financial decision. Best of luck to you and Tom in your house search across the northern border!
Sara
9 Sep 2011 at 10:45 amThanks so much, Fay. I know what you mean, it seems stupid to be house shopping when I know a few people (one with an MBA) who’ve been out of work for two years and can’t get work and are close to losing their homes. But I don’t want to miss out, either. We seem pretty confident that we’d be able to make it, but I know it’s a hundred times worse in the States right now. Thanks for you’re encouragement and good luck to you and your boyfriend as well. =)
Kim
7 Sep 2011 at 11:47 pmOh wow, are you SURE you don’t want to move to Portland? Houses here are just as expensive as you’ve mentioned (the nice ones that I’ll never afford, anyway!), but a lot of them tend to stay on the market FOREVER and then drop in price because no one is buying houses here right now. It’s why I’m keeping the dream alive for my slightly-over-our-budget apple-tree-in-the-backyard dream house down the street, haha. 😉 The problem with Puddletown, though, is that property taxes here are reeee-DICULOUS. Most likely to make up for our lack of sales tax (which we also make up for in our unbelievable income taxes! Someone remind me why I moved to Oregon to start a small business?!).
I find it so funny how Chris and I’s relationship so often parallels you and Tom’s! As you know we’ve been looking too. Part of me is excited, another part of me is scared. I have all kinds of feelings all squished up inside.
It’s like you said – renting feels like throwing money down a hole, but on the other hand, say you buy a house and then a year or two later the roof starts leaking? (This is actually exactly what happened to one of the owner’s of Chris’s bookstore… She bought a house that turned out to be nothing but a money hole as it has slowly fallen apart). I certainly will miss the luxury of calling up our free-of-charge apt. maintenance man every time something goes wrong in the apartment!
And then there goes financial security. I don’t know you and Tom’s $ituation (thought I might venture to guess it’s more-or-less exactly like mine and Chris’s ;)) but if we bought a house, we would be trading off all the financial security we’ve had cushioning us the last few years. It’s been nice knowing that if worse came to worse, we’d have the money to make it work.
And THEN there goes the freedom to travel, too! A lot of people mentioned being geographically “stuck” when you buy a house (remember guys, people sell houses! It’s like, a thing that people do sometimes when they want to go do something else for a while! And if they think they might want to live in that house again they rent it! Crazy, I know.) – for me the problem is being financially stuck. There goes the money that I had one day thought would take me – quite literally – around the world and back. It would be quite a long time before we built the World Travel Fund back up. :\
I feel like a dog with a full bladder standing between eight different fire hydrants, hah.
Pretty sure this comment shouldn’t’ve been this long. Pretty sure it should’ve been an email. 😉
Anyway, what I mean to say is… Keep us all updated on your journey! I am especially eager to hear any enlightening thoughts you may come across in regards to the great house debate. Chris is much more knowledgeable about these sort of things than I am but his mantra as of late seems to be “Save! Save! Save!” After you’ve found THE house, the down payment is the pretty much most important part of the equation.
Sara
9 Sep 2011 at 10:42 amI think so! I mean, if anyone gets taxed it’s Ontario. =( So I’m sure moving to Portland would be cheaper in that regard, but Tom is really happy at his new job and we get free health care and I guess I see a move to Portland or Cali as happening when I am making enough to support us both and we can move and Tom can just write.
And I feel the same way! (About the relationship/life parallels and the scared/excited bit.) Buying can be scary, and it certainly costs a bit of money, but we will never ever buy without having the house we’re looking at inspected, for that very reason. Tom’s sister just bought a house (after living in a condo for ten years) and the first one they saw seemed perfect, until the inspection revealed MOLD IN THE WALLS. There’s no way they would have known and I’m so glad they had it inspected.
The only thing about buying over renting is that property value almost always goes up, if you’re smart about shopping and careful. Especially in this area. Tom’s sister’s condo sold for 150k over what they paid for it. It seems silly not to buy even a condo if we can afford it because, like you said, people sell houses and at least that money will go back into helping us buy a dream house. Jim’s house now has a value over double what he paid for it ten years ago.
Yeah, the down payment part is definitely scary. And I think it’s safe to say we’re about the same as you in the $$ department. I like looking at our bank account and going, gee- we’re good to go. But don’t forget that $$ is still yours, you’re just putting it into something. We can’t see it in our account, but it’s still doing something for us. If we really wanted to travel the world, we could sell our house in a few years and take all that money around the world. =)
And Chris is right, save save save. But we’re definitely going to start looking- that way when we see what we want (and when we even know what that is) we will have the ability to jump on it. I want a house with a yard and tree and things but I just don’t know if that’s going to happen for us in this first house. But again, I’d rather live somewhere smaller and have it’s value increase and then save save save all over again so that I can live in my dream house. =)
Bronwyn
7 Sep 2011 at 5:45 pmThis seems to be the hot topic among people our age – rent or buy? And people are so gosh darn set on their opinions on it, it’s funny (as I’m not stamping my foot down in one camp). I know a bunch of Torontonians who have bought condos/houses but as a result can’t do a whole lot else such as take vacations. Rent isn’t that horrendous. 😉
Sara
7 Sep 2011 at 6:34 pmI personally don’t see owning a house as putting a halt on any of our travel plans (but maybe that’s just us)- our mortgage + utilities would be maybe a hundred or two hundred dollars more, which we can definitely afford without it changing our travel plans. We definitely wouldn’t pick a house that was within our price range, but didn’t allow us breathing room. Rent isn’t horrendous, but I’d rather be putting that money towards something that will eventually pay me back. An investment if you will rather than just putting money in some landlord’s pocket.
Dani
7 Sep 2011 at 5:40 pmMy first advice is to be careful. I’ve seen friends buy houses at age 25 or younger and then regret it majorly when they discover a year later that they want to move away. Maybe you weren’t too serious, but you’ve mentioned wanting to live in a place like Portland before; I just don’t want you to buy a house in your area, visit us, then wish you had waited. 🙂 As for advice on buying a house…I have none because that’s way off for us. Haha.
I love the pictures, though. You may not like Parallel, but I think it’s one of my favorites in this set! Right after the guitar shot. 🙂
Sara
7 Sep 2011 at 6:30 pmAs much as I’d love to live in a place like Portland, I don’t know if Tom and I would ever move back to the States, at least not at this juncture with the economy the way it is. Tom has a really nice job right now that he loves and we definitely can see ourselves staying in this general area for the next five years at least, so I think looking is a good idea.
Meagan
7 Sep 2011 at 2:46 pmWe just went through buying a house (moreso my boyfriend bought it and I helped pick it) and it is not easy, let me tell you! We looked for a house that needed a little bit of work but not so much that we would be overwhelmed by the cost of renos. Also important (and probably obvious) is the layout. You can change any of the decor, but you can’t change the floor plan or walls (unless you have lots of money to throw around, of course). We looked for a place with decent sized bedrooms, a workable basement, backyard and carpet that we could live with, in case we couldn’t afford to replace it for a few years. Last but not least, if you see a place you like on the MLS, go see it asap because we found the sooner we got in to see a house, the better our chances at actually getting an offer in. We got our current house by being the first and only people to see it. Hopefully the market has slowed down quite a bit now and you won’t have that problem! As tough as it is, it’s very exciting!! Just be prepared for some disappointments, as all the good houses tend to go before you’ve had the chance to think it over for 5 minutes.
Sara
7 Sep 2011 at 6:35 pmThe few houses I’ve seen and liked were gone within four days, and we’re definitely not ready to buy this-very-second-asap, so I’ve been prepping for the pounce by just checking to see what kind of houses are going fast, and the price ranges, that way I’ll know the super good deal when I see it.
I appreciate you taking the time to comment with this, I will definitely take your words to heart.
Genevieve
7 Sep 2011 at 2:17 pmOh I am so excited for you! Buying a house is an amazing feeling for sure!
Sara
7 Sep 2011 at 6:36 pmThanks, we certainly aren’t buying yet but we’re getting ready! I’m hopeful.
Ashlae
7 Sep 2011 at 1:01 pmYay for house buying! I don’t know how it is in Canada, but for house buyers in the US, now is the perfect time to buy. Thom and I have been keeping our eyes peeled for a few months, but real estate in the city is so ridiculously expensive that we won’t be able to afford a stand alone house – just a little condo. But, once you get your little house and garden, I’ll be living vicariously through you 🙂
PS – great shots. I especially love “Muted.”
Sara
7 Sep 2011 at 2:06 pmIt’s a good time, but I know it’s nothing like the US. My mother tells me there are houses that would normally go for 250 in my old neighborhood that are listed at 30k! Unbelievable! Real estate here is also really expensive, if you want a stand alone house you’re going to be paying 500k or more. =(
Semi’s are pretty popular, but they are tiny and tend not to get as much light or have a very big backyard. But again, those are 450 on up, 250 if you’re really lucky. We’re looking at moving further out and away from the city to hopefully bring our prices down. We did find a condo within our price range in a super fancy building with a gym and indoor pool that made me go “oooooh”. To be honest, we may have to go for a condo before we can get a house, but anything is better than throwing our money away on rent.
(And thank you!)