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Kobayashi posted:I feel kind of stupid for not knowing this, but if the rule of thumb is not more than ~1/3rd of one's income total toward debt, what is the other 2/3rd supposed to be used for? Maybe I'm missing something, but with that much extra income every month, shouldn't you pay double toward the mortgage or something? Those calculators are usually talking about gross income, so some of it would certainly go to income taxes. I would expect the rest to be expected to go to food, utilities, insurance, home repairs, retirement savings, clothes, entertainment, travel, etc.
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May 6, 2009 18:22
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jhoc posted:Mortgage: $197,000 Out of curiosity, who is your mortgage with? I'm Canadian too, and I haven't seen a rate this low on any of the bank websites I've looked at (though I haven't actually gone through a pre-approval process yet).
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May 11, 2009 17:35
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Why do so many people insist that a (buyer's) realtor is necessary? I'm looking for a lawyer and a home inspector, and several people have said "Ask your realtor" and when I say we're not working with one (other than the seller's realtor), they go into this giant rant.
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May 21, 2009 18:10
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Wreckus posted:Because a Realtor would know a lawyer, home inspector and WDO inspector. They could also schedule everything for you and handle the paper work. Also, I'm pretty sure they're 'free' in that they split commission with the selling agent... so why wouldn't you have one? So, you find a realtor (somehow), and put 100% of your trust in them picking out your other real estate professionals. Then you let them act as a middleman between you and your other professionals, calling you to find out suitable times for appointments, instead of you having contact with the other professionals directly. Also, my experience when dealing with a realtor who was (apparently not) trying to sell one property we wanted to view is that a "buyer's agent" will constantly try to push properties on you that are completely the opposite of what you've expressed interest in. And by the way, anything that is part of the price you pay to purchase something isn't free. If the seller's not having to fork out part of the money you give them for one more person's commission, that (should) lower the price they're willing to accept. So, tell me again, why would you have one? Before you make the argument about them finding houses for you, in my particular situation, there's no reason for that. We're not in a desperate hurry to buy, we tend to like houses that are not what the majority are looking for, and we're willing to wait until the right one comes along. The people who've gone into this big rant about having a buyer's agent all know this.
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May 22, 2009 04:07
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Another thing to consider is maintenance. In a townhouse, you would presumably have to get your neighbours on board if you decide that your roof or siding or whatever needs to be replaced. In a condo, the roof isn't your concern. This is one of many reasons we went for a single family detached house.
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Jul 6, 2009 13:26
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dreesemonkey posted:I close in 49 hours. Holy crap. Me too! We signed paperwork this morning, and get the keys when the title registration has taken place on Wednesday.
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Jul 13, 2009 18:49
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dreesemonkey posted:Unrelated note: I closed yesterday and I'm now a home owner! The closing was the most anti-climactic thing yet, it was like "sign these bunch of papers, here's a key ok see ya!" Me too! I was searching for the words to describe how I felt to my husband the other day. Anti-climactic is perfect. We signed paperwork Monday, and were just waiting for the phone call from the lawyer saying the transaction was properly registered and we could pick up our key. I told him, it wasn't really a let down, but it was certainly anti-climactic. There's been so many other steps along the way where I've been able to say "Woohoo, we bought a house! ... but not really". In our case, it still doesn't feel like ours quite yet, because we won't be moving until close to the end of August -- want to get some work done first.
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Jul 16, 2009 16:54
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Here is the table of information on Mortgage loan insurance in Canada: http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/co/moloin/moloin_005.cfm With a 95% downpayment on (let's say) a $315,000 house, you're looking at insuring a $299,250 loan, which at 2.75% of the loan = 8,229.38. Our CMHC premium was rolled into the total loan amount up-front, so you'd likely be looking at a total mortgage for 307,479.38. You pay it off over the course of the mortgage. Your mistake is that you're looking at it as if it's an annual premium, which it's not.
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Nov 17, 2009 19:54
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Ophelia's Ashes posted:OH. So it's approx $9K in total?! Yup. At least that's certainly what we were led to believe, based on our mortgage paperwork.
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Nov 17, 2009 20:48
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Ophelia's Ashes posted:That's amazing! Thanks so much, it makes things a lot easier now! I think, if it comes to refinancing (after your first 5 year term or whatever you end up getting) and you still have less than x% equity, you may be forced to pay the insurance again. I'm not 100% clear on how that works yet. That table mentions something about loan mobility and refinance, but it's in reference to an increase in loan amount, and I'm not planning on increasing my loan amount... so I don't think you/we should be paying again.
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Nov 18, 2009 03:17
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Leperflesh posted:But that's a good point; it's not just a dollar cost to re-fi, it's an opportunity cost, and that must be accounted for. Speaking of opportunity costs, would it be worth calculating what the saved interest (at the existing rate) would be, if you just put the money that you would pay in closing costs to refinance straight into paying off a chunk of principal?
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Oct 8, 2010 20:10
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