<< BACK >>     Finding The Perfect Home and Mortgage    

Many people consider buying a home one of the most important decisions they make in their life but actually, buying a home is relatively easy. There are several hundred good books on the library shelves on the topic of home buying, how to select a home, what to look for and so on.

Further, there are numerous professional Real Estate salespeople, Associate Brokers and Brokers across Canada that belong to both provincial and national real estate associations. The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) represents real estate board members from across Canada.

There are various real estate ''experts'' who can be called upon and mountains of information to be viewed to cover the topics of home prices, trends and statistics as they relate to the art of buying a home.

But looking at a home purchase as being important is only a small part of the real reason why buying a home is such a monumentous decision. The fact is, buying a home is a big decision because we go so deeply in debt to finance the house of our dreams!

Canadians have now borrowed several times their annual Gross National Product (the value of all goods and services produced in the country in a given year) and many more times the Gross National Income (the total wages and salaries paid to Canadians in a given year) in the form of mortgages.

The consequences of non-payment of this debt creates a great deal of personal financial problems, which some contend are part and parcel of many other social problems in our society.

In other words, it is not the purchase itself, but the debt incurred to purchase a home and our level of comfort with incurring that amount of debt that is the really important factor in buying a home. Debt deserves our understanding and respect.

· Older versus newer homes

When considering the purchase of a home, one of the questions that may arise is whether to look at new homes or older (resale) homes. There are many considerations that go into this decision, including each person's preference and opinion of both. However, beyond this is the matter of the various mortgage financing options available today.

Financial institutions may be more inclined to finance the purchase of a newly built home for two reasons. First of all, a new home is covered by the New Home Warranty Program, which provides some measure of security. Secondly, building a new home will often keep any unanticipated drastic expenses to a minimum, making the purchase of the house and repayment of the mortgage more predictable.

Also, institutions generally look at the state of repair of the property they are considering for financing. They are concerned that their investment will be secure for the full term. With a new home, there is a higher level of confidence that the property will sustain its value throughout the term and, in the worst case, that if the institution has to dispose of the property to recoup their funds, prices will be more stable.

Zee (Zdravko) Dimov, RRS
RE/MAX Ultimate Realty Inc.
416-569-5396
zdimov@trebnet.com