My First Time Home Buying Experience
Let's go back 2 and a half years to September 2007. Myself and my,
soon to be husband, started looking for a house in Saskatoon. We were
both in our early 20's and had little knowledge about the process of buying a
house, the fees associated with it, or about all of the paperwork!
We had perused a bit on Point2Homes, looking for a place that we liked
within our price range and something that would be suitable for a couple of
first time home-buyers. We ended up finding a place online, and decided
we should go and take a look. I called the Agent that was listed on the
home and he said we could come and take a look that night.
Well, turns out the place we went to look at wasn't really what we were
looking for, but we did find something there that we needed, an Agent.
His name was Larry.
When we first arrived at the place, he was very inviting and a genuinely
nice guy. He showed us around, answered any questions that we had and
more (Larry likes to talk, lol.).
When he asked who our real estate agent was, my (soon to be) husband and I
looked at each other, and back at Larry, and said "well we don't have one
yet". He was quite delighted to hear that we hadn't yet really
started looking for houses, and that we didn't even have an Agent. So he
eagerly offered his services, and we quickly accepted.
After that day, we spoke with Larry on a daily basis, while he called to
tell us about properties that he found; we also found properties online that he
could get us in to take a look at. He was very prompt in always returning
calls, and always eager to hear about the places that we had found on our own.
At this point, in Saskatoon the housing market was crazy busy. Every
place that we looked at we had to either make an offer that day, or in the next
few days it was sold! This was tough for us, being first time home buyers
to put an offer on each place that we looked at, so we continued to look for
the best place that would be suitable for our new and soon to be growing
family.
I think we ended up physically looking at about 3 or 4 different places
(most of the others were online) before finding our home. I had no idea
that some people look at hundreds of homes before they make their final
decision. Well we were first timers, and really had no idea what we
wanted, or needed at that time, we really only thought about what we figured we
could afford and something that would put a roof over our heads.
We were pre-approved for a $200, 000 mortgage, which, in Saskatoon these
days, doesn't really get you a whole lot with the price of houses increasing on
a regular basis (especially at this time). It was great because the place
that we had decided we would make a bid on was priced at $189, 900. So we
did it. We put an offer on a house for the first time, and guess what,
they accepted!
We were ecstatic to find out that they were going to accept our offer, and
this could be our new home! Our very own, no landlords, no more
apartments, our own house including a decent sized back yard and a garage!
After ALL the paperwork was filled out and signed, it was ours. Now to
find out, there were fees...lawyer fees, hookups for the utilities and property
taxes... Yikes!
After all was said and done, we ended up with a possession date of October
5, 2007. We moved in. Larry was there with us on the possession
date, and happily welcomed us to our new home! OUR NEW HOME!!!
After that we heard from Larry a time or two, and then never heard from him
again...until the other night. My husband and I were at home watching a
movie, when who pulls up in front of the house, but Larry!
He came in and chatted for about 10 minutes, he was excited to hear that we
were now married, and also have a baby on the way! He gave us a couple of
his cards, and some notepads so that we would remember him when talking to our
friends, or anyone else who was looking for a new home. I was glad to see
him, and he seemed genuinely glad to see us. I was quite pleased that he
stopped by, and still knew where I worked, o
ur phone number and that we had not
yet been married at the time we bought our house. He congratulated us on
our new growing family, and then he was off.
I was glad Larry stopped by, I had thought about him on occasion, and
wondered if he remembered or ever thought of us...which turns out he did.
A few months ago, we had a different Realtor in Saskatoon contact us out of
the blue, he had some buyers that were looking to buy in our area. We had
thought about selling our house and moving to a bigger place, somewhere outside
of the city. This Realtor was very persistent; he contacted us on a
weekly basis to see if we had decided whether or not we were going to sell, and
if we were looking for another place. We seriously considered allowing
him to help us sell our house, but now that Larry stopped by, I would love to
have him help us sell our house, should we decide we need to move.
All of this being said I had a great home-buying experience, but would have
liked to keep in contact with Larry over the last 2 years. He did almost
lose our business to another Realtor in Saskatoon, but now there's no
chance. Even though we have decided against selling our house right now,
since we have a baby on the way, I would definitely call Larry when we do
decide it's time.
Mandy Morrison
Education Specialist