Things to Know Before Buying Your First Home

Buying a piece of Toronto real estate can be one of the biggest investments you're ever going to make. But for first-time homebuyers, the process can be overwhelming.

How does one even get started? There's so much that goes into a search but your keyword should be “family”. So if you have a family, the most important part of your search is the school district. There are plenty of very good school districts all throughout every state. What you want to do is you narrow that down to three or four great school districts.

The second thing is the price.  It is a very important topic so after being pre-approved for a mortgage, limit your search based on your budget. You obviously don’t like wasting your time and effort looking for a $23,000,000 house when you are only pre-approved for $500,000, right?

Finding the right home is so much more than just purchasing a house. You have to make sure that the street, the neighborhood, the community are all part of something you want to be living in. You have to investigate about the neighborhood- how far is it from the highways, how are the basic conveniences, how are the neighbors like? If you are tucked away in the hills and you have to drive 30 minutes for a gallon of milk, is that really the neighborhood you want to live?

Do not be blinded by the light. You feel in love to all the bells and whistles and then find out that the foundation itself is rumbling. Hiring the right home inspector to investigate the home is so important. They will help you check if the structure and the foundation of the house are just as good as the façade. Get a home inspector to come and check the house.

A common mistake people make is when they walk through a house; they fall in love with the decorations not realizing that when they buy the house, all that is gone. Don’t focus much on the decors and the furniture. These things will be gone even before you moved in. Instead, check for the spaces of the house. 

Lastly, do not bring in too many outside influences. There are times where the buyer comes in with mom, dad, uncle, sister, cousin, brother, co-worker, whoever it may be and now their decision is clouded. Do not ask for too many different opinions. Because at the end of the day, when it's all said and done, it's only you and your family who is going to be living there anyway. When you do decide to invest in real estate make sure you hire a trusted Toronto real estate agent.