Advice for first time homebuyers

A year ago, almost exactly, I bought my first car and found that there was so much information to consider when buying a used car that I was inspired to blog about it. Now my fiancé and I just bought our first house. Yeah, you could say it's been a busy year (did I mention we're getting married in Sept too? Yikes!). 

Now, a house is a bit more of an investment than a car, indeed it's probably the biggest investment you'll ever make. So while I hope you find this list of resources helpful, it is by no means exhaustive. Hopefully it will help you as you meander through the highs and lows of becoming a home owner.

 

1) Educating and orienting yourself:

What are REALTORS, brokers, and agents and how are they different from one another? This site has a pretty good explanation.

Learn about the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS) on the Toronto Real Estate Board's website. Their site in general has a lot of information and is definitely something you will want to check out, especially information on the current housing market and the B.R.A. There is similar, less Toronto-specific, information on the Canadian Real Estate Association website

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is the place to go for information on buying a home, mortgage loan insurance, renting a home, maintaining a home, and renovating a home, as well as available programs and financial assistance. The most helpful page I found was their step-by-step guide to buying a home.

 

Sometimes the library also hosts programs, like the information session for first-time home buyers at Downsview Branch on Oct 9 at 7:00 p.m.

 

 

 

 

There are of course also a plethora of books, databases, recommended websites, and magazines on the topic.

 

        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2) The fun part: finding houses to view! 

In addition to classifieds and other ads, there are two websites that allow consumers to access most listings on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS):

Realtor.ca and Zoocasa

 

3) Figuring out your financing and putting in offers to purchase.

This real estate blog has a great outline of the steps involved in submitting an offer.

It's always a good idea to keep on top of real estate related news. You can find older articles not available on newspaper homepages through the library online here.

Remember that there are many closings costs that you might not have considered. I know I didn't!  

 

Happy hunting!