House Hunting Tip

Looking for a house is very similar to looking for a girlfriend. Look them up on the internet and find out more information. You want to creep the house before you call it yours. JK. Seriously though, when it comes to buying houses, you do not want to make any mistakes. Any mistake can cost you tens of thousands of dollars. A girlfriend can cost you more :P

When purchasing the first home, I kept a close eye to properties in the Fringewood area in order to gauge the value. Luckily for me, current prices on the cheapest home in the area is now listed at $37,500 more than what I paid for my home. I'm hoping that the house I purchased is worth at least that amount, and could realize those profits if I decide to sell.

As a regular visitor to mls.ca, I gathered information on my existing home and gathered information about an area that I was interested in moving to. I wanted to live downtown, so I regularly tried to look up properties in downtown Ottawa or Ottawa-West.

There were a couple of properties that I had seen that looked like they would be solid investments from a first glance. They were listed as a couple of bedrooms at about $180,000. I was certainly interested, but also cautious about the listing price. There had to be something wrong. I called my real estate agent and tried to get some more information. He was able to send me some extra information including the exact address of the property.

My hopes were quickly quashed. The property was listed on Bell Street. Bell Street homes are probably the dumpiest places in the city. It is located in an area of the city with a few old warehouses and a poor reputation. If I bought this home, it would not matter how much money I would put into the home because nobody would want to buy it.

A couple of weeks later, after reviewing some properties that I knew I could not afford, there was a house listed back in my price range. Not overly optimistic about my prospects after the Bell Street situation, I hesistantly asked my real estate agent the address of this new listing. To my surprise, he told me Kent and Arlington. More alarms started to ring as I was very skeptical.

I decided to schedule an appointment to see the place. I wanted to get a better feel for what the place was like. When I stepped through the door, I noticed why the place was going for cheap. The students that lived inside had beer bottles and bongs all over the place. There would be nobody that would be looking for something to call their new home be wanting this place. The place needed some TLC.

In terms of location, I knew I could not beat the price. There are condos in downtown Ottawa that would be in the same price range, but they did not offer any extra bedrooms to rent out to offset the costs of a mortgage. The condos also come with condo fees which could end up being essentially paying rent to someone else. I knew that this place would be good for me.

My advice is this. Do your homework. Find out what you want in a home. For me, it was location. I knew what I wanted to pay and where I wanted to live. I was able to find the place I wanted by taking the time to find it. Ultimately, the house you buy will likely be your home and you should be happy with it from the start. In fact, you should almost love it from the start. If it is not for you, you should not buy it and wait until you find something to your satisfaction. If that means paying a little bit of a premium right now, it may mean savings in the future. You might be able to save on renovations cause you do not like something in a house that you are not 100% satisfied with.

I hope this helps.