1) Save for the down payment!
I say this all the time, but I am aware this isn’t easy. I always give the advice to move home, live with your family for as long as possible and save every penny. I joke about this because I do love my family, however I couldn’t last one weekend moving back home! What I want to make clear here is you do not need 20% of the purchase price to buy. I REPEAT, you DO NOT need 20% down. People hear this all the time and it is false. As a first time buyer, you can get away with as little as 5% of the purchase price down plus closing costs. The longer you wait, you will continue to lose the opportunity to get into the market. My favourite quote is “ You will never out save the Toronto real estate market”.
2) Get pre-approved
This is more for you than us, I promise. This sets your expectations off right. If you don’t know what you can afford and start looking at multi-million dollar properties. Only later find out you are pre-approved for $800,000, it will ruin the experience for you right off the hop.
3) Find a Realtor
See my previous guide about how to properly choose a realtor. This is extremely important.
4) Start your search
This is the fun part! Of course, this is a brief guide. For a more detailed explanation, call me and will start the process and go over all of this in much more detail.
