Buying a home in Halifax - Process

Buying a new home is a big decision. We were home-owners in the States and we wanted to buy a house if we liked the place in Canada. We are now close to a year in Halifax in 2019, Canada and recently began our hunt. Now, there are a lot of similarities in the process if you bought a house in the States but if you didn't then this is a blog for you!

Learn more about different house types 

Owning a house isn't a one-time deal. You gotta nurture it because should you decide to sell it down the line, all the missteps will haunt you. (Trust me, buyers get that microscopic vision to detect every tiny thing.). The process outlined below will give you an idea of what to expect when selling as well. So think of what you would go thru. Bottom line is that you need to go with the house that you will enjoy and maintain. Go thru the links below for single family and condo homes (will also write about townhomesand semi-detached houses in future) so that you can learn about the pros and cons of different house types.

Find a good realtor/real-estate agent

Couple of reasons why you would want to do this -

1. Tons of paper work when you buy a house. The agent will guide you thru the same.
2. It takes a village to get to the point where you are an actual home owner. A good agent has a network - mortgage company, lawyer, accountant, inspection agents, other agents, handymen and a lot more.
3. S/he educates you in the process. You look at multiple houses before you zero in on one. If you are especially not from the civil engineering type of background, you probably wouldn't notice or even know about structural deficits in the house. For example, the roof of a house has a life span of about 15 years. It is important to know how old the roof is!
4. Since the agents are part of a network, your realtor has better access to listings even before they are online. A really good agent would be privy to such listings.
5. They know the laws and it is useful during negotiations! 

Our advice is to really invest time to find a good agent. Preferably recommended to you by family, friends, co-workers because then you could trust them. Conversely, if you get stuck with a bad agent, you would be stuck and have a bad experience. So, research the agent properly before you go with them. Privately going about this might not be a good idea if you are purchasing a home for the 1st time.

Find out what you can afford

You will save yourself a lot of time, money & perhaps even some heartbreak if you know what you can afford. If you have an agent they would have a mortgage company associate who can guide you here. We recommend that you wait a few months after coming to Canada before you buy a house. Now, we had over a decade in US and so they can request for your US credit report to give you the best rate. Initially even before you begin the process, the agent will ask your source of income (salary/self-employed) and then based on the same determine the price you can afford. They come up with a number and typically also tell you the estimated mortgage payment for that amount. Based on your life goals, your family can decide the maximum price you want to spend on the house. For example, the agent could tell you that you can afford a $500K house but you decide to spend at most $250K because you might want to invest in say mutual funds. That is your personal decision. Make it after factoring in everything.

House hunt

This is the fun and anxiety filled part. Now you have your max limit you want to spend, you can search houses in that range. Sites like viewPoint, remax, thinkHalifax etc. have listings. Your agent will also get also suggest different listings. Typically you would be able to get all the information online about the specifications such as number of rooms, bathrooms, yard, square footage and much more. You would also find information about the area such as schools, neighborhood. This will help you compare and contrast listings in the journey. Enjoy this process but don't compromise. Personally, I get ideas when I see houses and use them in mine.

Place an offer

Once you have zeroed down a home, you place an offer. Based on your assessment, you can decide on the price you are willing to pay and the terms. Your realtor should help with this. You also need to put in the closing date. This is the last day for the sellers and you will own the house from the next day. If you are renting then consider your lease end date before deciding the closing date. Usually it is within 3 months from the time you decide to place the offer. You might have to pay the mortgage as well as the rent for few months if you don't pay attention on this. Having an approval from the mortgage company makes it a strong case. You also send the token amount of about 1000-2000 CAD typically (varies on the price of the house) to signal the seller agent/seller that you are truly interested.

The seller would also have other offers and so they would revert back to you if they are interested. Once they express their interest, both parties sign a document stating that they are ready for the next stage i.e. inspection.

Inspection & Due-diligence process

Once you sign the document the next 10 days constitute the due-diligence period. This is the time when inspection is conducted. In this period you could decide to renegotiate the price or if the inspection bought out serious defects then you could back out. 

Exterior inspection

They review the roof, yard, the walls from the outside, patio (as applicable to your type of house). They look for leakages, cracks, structural deficits. They also inspect the sewer and do a radon test. They would tell you all the big and small findings.

Interior inspection 

Every inch of the house is inspected. All rooms, attics are checked for cracks, infestation and such. The house in the US didn't come with appliances.  But here they do - they inspect the stove (all burners), dishwasher,  washer and dryer. Most important of all they inspect the heating.

They prepare the report listing all the findings and send it to both parties.  You review it with your agent and even some of your experienced friends. You would then decide if you want to keep your offer as is, change it or worst case back out of it. So look thru it carefully. 

Closing

The closing date is the last day when the seller owns the home. You can move in after that AND your mortgage begins typically latest within a month. If you are renting in Canada then look at the lease agreement. You might land up paying mortgage and rent for a month or two depending on your leasing situation.

If you plan on doing some renovation or finishing before you move in, then you might want to make arrangements of your stay (i.e. make sure you have your apartment or arrange an AirBnB until you can move into your home).

Final thoughts

For us, it took less than 2 months to visit about 12-15 houses and visit several online before we zeroed down on our house. We were able to negotiate a date so that we just have a month where we were paying mortgage and rent. We had a similar experience in the US in terms of timeline. A lot depends on your requirements and your flexibility. So estimate accordingly so that you can plan on buying and moving in your home.

Hope the blog gives you various considerations before buying your home. Good luck!!!

Useful links 

• Learn more about Condo
• Learn more about Single family home