Navratri & Real Estate: Nine Home-Buying Lessons

Nine nights, nine lessons

Navratri runs nine nights, which is a convenient number, because there are about nine things an Ontario first-time buyer has to get right and most of them are decided before the search starts.

Lesson 1: Know your budget

Start with what you can carry every month, not with the maximum a lender will approve. The lender’s number is built from your income and your existing debts. It does not know about the property taxes on that particular house, the condo fee, or the car you were planning to replace next year.

Lesson 2: Get financially prepared

Understand mortgage qualification, the down payment and the closing costs before you shop. The closing-cost line first-time buyers most often miss in Ontario is land transfer tax, which is due in cash on closing day rather than financed into the mortgage — and inside the City of Toronto there are two of them, provincial and municipal, each with its own first-time buyer rebate.

Lesson 3: Choose location carefully

Brampton, Mississauga, Kitchener-Waterloo, Milton, Hamilton and Toronto offer different combinations of price, commute, property type and lifestyle.

Do not select a city because everyone else is buying there.

Lesson 4: Separate wants from needs

Create three categories: Must Have, Would Like, and Can Compromise. That simple exercise can make property searches considerably more focused.

Lesson 5: Look beyond staging

Beautiful furniture does not come with the house. The inclusions and exclusions clause in the agreement is the only place that says what actually stays — the appliances, the light fixtures, the shed — and a staged room is not a promise about any of them.

Lesson 6: Understand the property

Consider age, condition, layout and past renovations, and ask whether the work was done with permits. An unpermitted finished basement or a converted garage is a real problem at resale, and the municipality’s building department can tell you what was ever pulled on that address.

Lesson 7: Have an offer strategy

Before offering, look at what comparable properties actually sold for rather than what they were listed at, and write down the number you will not go past while you are still calm enough to mean it.

Lesson 8: Negotiate with discipline

Negotiation is not only about price. The deposit, the conditions, the inclusions and the closing date are all negotiable, and a closing date that lines up with your own sale is sometimes worth more to you than a few thousand dollars off the price.

Lesson 9: Think beyond closing day

Ask yourself: will this home continue to work for my family several years from now?

Your first property does not have to be your forever home, but it should make sense beyond possession day.

Robin Patel’s Navratri message

Garba works because there is rhythm, timing, movement and awareness of everyone around you. Real estate is not very different.

The market moves, rates move, inventory changes and buyers react to all three. You cannot control any of that. You can control your preparation.