Water Heater

Click photos to enlarge them:

house beside mine up for sale

At $179,000.

http://royallepage.ca/jumplisting/listingJumpBack.do?RLPf=0&language=en&brandId=rlp&source=2&feed=3&listingId=126895

Did I mention I paid $160,000?

Yikes

Three months ago I was on a gay cruise. I was talking to my roommate, who mentioned he got a $30,000 settlement once when he left a job and he said he spent it gradually over the course of a year. I couldn't fathom how he didn't use it as a down payment and buy property.

This got me thinking about my own dreams of owning and how pie in the sky they were. I was traveling all the time, my ability to save is non-existent, and where was I going to get $10,000 from? That's a lot of work on the street corner.

Fast forward 3 months. Labour contract was settled and a huge income tax refund, coupled with overtime from working 60 hours a week and voila! Holy crap, my mortgage was approved. I'm moving June 1st.

There's still a part of me that doesn't believe it, that won't believe it until I move in and the current owner gets the money. I'm signing the waiver tomorrow saying I remove any finance conditions on the sale, that I am on the hook for $153,500.

Can this be real?

Crazy

So the other agent said "I have another offer. Ask your client if he wants to improve his offer." No counter offer, no explanation of if she wants more money or less closing days, nothing. Just improve. Is she expecting me to walk in and offer asking price off the bat?

Two things.

I don't even know for sure she has another offer, the property doesn't even have one registered offer and I know I made one. And if someone did make another offer, they would have made an offer after the fact, after I made mine, and I don't think it's as high as mine.

The other thing is how would I improve it? I offered so close to asking I have no where to go. Is she prepared to reject my offer over a thousand dollars without even countering?

Games. Everyone playing games. And so I sit back and wait. The offer expires at noon tomorrow. Sleeping tonight should be easy.

Condo Two - Make me an offer

I made an offer on a condo/townhouse!

Yahoo!

The location couldn't be better, Jarvis and Carlton, and it's all pluses. Central air, washing machine, laundry, central air, huge patio with BBQ, low maintenance fees, in love with it.

Keep in mind it's decorated badly right now (RED!), but here it is!

Condo One

Some photos.
I went to see my first ever condo today. The agent was really nice and helpful which is good. There were positives and negatives. Also I wasn't technically allowed to take photos so there aren't many.

Kitchen with built in table:

View of the Gardner

Bedroom area with no light

Huge bathroom

Strangely large space beside the toilet


Positives

• I would own it!
• Close to the lake and baseball games
  
• Nice bright pool and hot tub
  
• Outdoor communal terrace with a view of the lake
• Huge gym
• Nice kitchen
• Laundry in unit!
  

Negatives

• The building was HUGE, 32 floors, two towers
  
• Kind of out of the way location
• Little light, none in bedroom
  

I'm concerned as I can't afford much. Like there literally is not another available condo in the downtown area in my price range right now. The agent said they add $5000 for every floor up. This one is priced at $150k, one on the 17th floor sold for $205k!

Sheesh

So somehow I still don't have enough for a down payment but I'm getting ever closer. Hopefully by the end of the month.
There are only a couple places I would be interested in, possibly this one http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=8070118 so I have to take something off track, wait for something to come up, or save another $35,000. Ugh. I was in a nice building today at 15 Maitland Place, prices start at $215,000. They had a pool and a hot tub and it was awesome. D'oh. See this is what they don't tell you. You can buy for 5% down, but what you can actually get.... that's a different story. I kind of want to stop thinking about it but at the same time I kind of want to spend all my free time searching listings. It's push and pull.

Going to the Children's Museum in Kitchener on Saturday to see the Warhol exhibit.

Flip Out

So today, concerned friends and family advised me not to work overtime. Things are sliding by, like my health and clean clothes.
I arrived at work just after 8 am, and when I tried to leave at 7:45 pm, I was told to wait and help with something.
I kind of freaked out today. Not only do I have piles of work but at one point I had 6 separate people standing at my desk asking for something RIGHT NOW. My first thought was "Can't these people see each other?" Maybe they had all turned visible only to me. Then I said "You all have to go away" which caused them all to still look at me and not move. So I said, loudly, "GO!" and then had to spend the next 3 hours apologizing. Good day.

My mortgage is being reviewed by an underwriter. What if it goes through? Yikes.

So now it's 8:30. I just got home. I have to do laundry, clean my place and have a bath. I haven't had time to eat anything today so I might do that too. Up at 6:30 tomorrow and out by 7 for a very special, very stressful, all day meeting.

Will being in the funny farm effect my mortgage application?

Are you ready?

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has a site where you can figure out all about your mortgage with various quizes here. Fun!

While preparing to do this quiz, I decided to go to Macs for a Slushee. People who work at 9 pm on Saturday nights, there's usually a reason:
- the man was 3 days older than kerosene
- he spoke no English
- his face had 1,000 boils
- he watched me as if I was on fire, never diverting his eyes
- when I paid in cash for my $2 purchase he got confused

Anyway, back to my new stressor. If I think about it, I suppose I'm most worried about getting in trouble for past financial digressions and not having enough money. It's irrational, but there's a part of me that feels like I'll be saving for this thing until I can pay in cash outright, then they'll say "We'll think about it." There's secondary worries that I'll never get to travel again or that I'll hate my neighbours or they'll hate me and the condo board will throw me out. Interestingly, the fact that I won't be able to make the payments causes me no stress whatsoever.

OK, the quiz.

Well, the quiz was stupid. I went on my bank's website and actually applied for the mortgage in the time it took to do the quiz. I really want to see what they say, if they say no what advice they have. Save more money? Pay off your credit card? Trying moving to Guatemala? Actually that last one is advice friends and family have given me.

So I applied for a bi weekly non-accelerated mortgage with $10k down, $145,000 and payments of $414 every two weeks. We'll see what happens.

I'm stressed. Maybe I can go shopping.

Home buying

I've always thought it's important to get an idea and focus on it. I find if you start putting the plan into motion, it develops and you can have your goal. I remember when I was unemployed for a year and then started back making $13 an hour. I just wouldn't accept it so I kept working and trying and here I am.
I booked my vacation to Poland and Germany. I'm going to have to do another blog later with an itinerary. Right now I have like $40 in the bank but if I book and it research and put it together, I know it will happen. I'm thinking I might buy my plane ticket next Friday, I found one for $918. I'm planning on going May 13-23, 2007.
I also started looking into buying a condo. Checking out the mortgage calculator through my bank, I need 5% down. I assumed things I shouldn't, I thought you'd have to have closing costs on top of the 5% down, you don't. I thought 33% maximum of your salary for housing payments was net, it's gross. All things working in my favour.
Working though, if I have:
$7,500 down
I can get a $150,000 condo
for $452.65 every 2 weeks.
That's only $300 more a month than I'm paying now and I'd own the place. Where the Hell do I sign up for that. There's also a small issue that my credit isn't great right now so I ordered my credit report but I figure if I have the down payment they'll be more likely to say yes anyhow.
So what kind of place can I get for $150,000? I don't want to end up in Buttfuck, Idaho like some of my friends.
Checking the Metro Listing Service:
It turns out there's about 10 condos in Toronto for under $150,000. I figure that's ok as I only need 1. The negative is anything in the downtown core has high maintenance fees.
This place is at 30 GLOUCESTER ST. The taxes are included in the maintenance fees which is great. The maintenance fee is $370.84 a month! That would push my monthly housing fee to $1,276.14 which is still less than 40% of my salary so we're all still good, but less so. It would be a 30 minute walk to work and right downtown in the heart of the gay village. If I had $7,500 I'd move in tomorrow.
**** EXTRAS **** Fridge, Stove, A/C Unit In Window, Love Seat, Murphy Bed!! Shelves, Mirrors, All Elfs, All Window Coverings, Everything You See, You Get! Workout Room, Laundry In Building, Library, Party Room! Free Parking And Locker!
Living room : 16 ft ,1 in x 10 ft ,11 in
Kitchen : 8 ft ,9 in x 4 ft ,11 in
Foyer : 7 ft ,4 in x 3 ft ,6 in
My cat and I did some measuring (she mainly ate the tape) and the living room alone is 6 feet longer than I have now.
Finally here's some pictures. Sign me up!



All for $139,900. What's an elf? Why are they included? Can you ask them to leave?