NoreenC

We came over to New Glasgow last Sept and were in the process of buying a house, but decided against it after having a House Inspection. We built up a good relationship with a realtor there who understands what type of property we would like, and what we can afford. We plan to come over to NS next year and, in the meantime, look regularly at mls.ca. Has anybody bought a house this way? We are in contact with the realtor who will look at properties for us, or would it be better to come over and rent a property before buying? We've had two attempts and each time the House Inspection has thrown up some things which have made us think again. I think we're afraid that this could keep happening and we'll never be able to get a place of our own. At present we rent in the UK. My husband is Canadian and wants to return/retire there with the hope of getting a place of our own. Any advice would be appreciated

thedignans

Hi there,

Personally I would rent for a while but thats just my opinion. However there are several of us Ex Pats live in or around the New Glasgow area so if you let us know where and what house you are looking at maybe we could drive past or go in with your Realtor and give you an honest opinion before you go to the expense of getting an inspection done.

Julie

NoreenC

Hi Julie,

thanks very much for that offer. I'll bear it in mind and will probably take you up on it. You'll have an idea of what the area is like. Thanks again

thedignans

No problem,

New Glasgow is really nice. There is not really any "Bad Areas" just different degrees of good. If that makes any sense.

Julie

ESarge

Don't. Far too much risk and not enough reward.

It's a buyers market (in general) and it will be difficult to see if you're getting crap or if you simply don't like it.

For the amount of money you'll spend in interest on it you may as well spend a bit on a flight so you can take a look. If you're worried you might get gazzumped on something good then you can always attempt to buy an option or make an offer conditional of viewing it.

By buy an option I mean offer to give them an amount of money merely for the right to be the only offer they consider for a short period of time. i.e. "I'll give you $1000 right now if you promise not to see to anyone else for 2 weeks."

Pvt Chuff

Hi Noreen, We did! The first time we set foot inside our house we had just come from signing at the lawyers office!

Like you we met a realtor while we were over here on a visit, he showed us around the area and got a feel for what we were looking for. When we finally sold our house in the UK he handled the purchase and arranged inspections, contracts, mortgage - he was even happy to come and meet us from the seaplane! He did everything and it was an excellent service!

I have to say, although we are really pleased with our house and the area, my advice would be to wait until you get here. We have been here for 5 months now and if I could have my time again, I really don't think I would have bought this particular one.

I realise now that I would like to live somewhere more rural as getting around is not as hard as I imagined, I worried that I might have to rely on public transport if we were only able to afford to run one car! I also never realised how near to the beach I would like to live. These are things you can only really discover once you are here. I thought being near to shops was important to me - it isn't!!

I would also have liked to gone round looking at all the available properties and explored all the neighbourhoods maybe even those that didn't exactly fit our criteria.

Good luck with your move, whichever way you decide to go. I have to say its a good story for the folks back home, they couldn't believe we bought a house without having seen it!

We used Robinsons for our move, I would also recommend them.

All the best!

Piff Poff

Hi Noreen, I would wait until your here if I were you. The market isn't as swift as it once was so you will have time to look and not have to buy the 1st thing that you think 'oh well, this'll do' which is what we did when we 1st got here. Yeah, it did, but not for long, I think we stayed there for 9 months before we found our fab house we are in now. The other thing is, once you have found your house, it doesn't take long for the legal stuff to be sorted out. Less than a month in a lot of cases.

agr

We surfed MLS to death before my solo recce last Nov, when I looked at some of the properties in the flesh. In most cases MLS had given us completely the wrong impression. But I did find one that was very nice, and with the help of a good realtor, had a lowball offer accepted. We did the legal stuff and mortgage on arrival in Jan and moved in within 10 days. Easy! We had thought of renting first, but it was a buyers' market and we saved a second lot of removals.
Amazing that quality varies so much between similar houses at similar prices - variation that you just can't spot on MLS.

MB-Realtor

The MLS is never a good representation of the property, no sensible person takes pictures of the bad bits.

What you think you want in Canada before you get here, and what you want after being here for a while can change.

Come over, rent, get to know the neighborhoods, and the type and styles of homes available (very different from the UK).

Get a feel for the market.

Then when YOU are ready go out and buy your Home.


We rented for 2 years before we bought.

Silverdragon102

We bought straight away as we knew we would have 3 dogs and more than likely have problems finding somewhere to rent. I came over and looked at houses for 5 days in 3 areas and was brain dead before I finished and we put offers on 2 other houses before going ahead with the one we live in now and dh hadn't seen it apart from pictures i had taken and even when back in the UK couldn't remember it properly cos I had seen that many.

If just yourselves I would say probably better to rent first and get feel of the place but if you have a good relationship with realtor and also BE members can answer/check stuff out for you may be worth it. I know our realtor was great and she tells us on a few that have done it this way and then wish they had bought something else (the people wanted something more rural but didn't realise until moved here)

agr

Same here, my wife didn't see inside until the day we took possession. Luckily she likes it! (Vendors were mean, not allowing us any access during the 10 days prior when we were in a local hotel).

Silverdragon102

We didn't do too bad as we signed for house day after we arrived with dogs following us 4 days later. We too was lucky that we both love this house and where we are

BristolUK

We were in Quebec knowing we'd be moving to Moncton. We contacted a few realtors by email and settled on one based on the helpfulness and insight of the responses.

I made up a spreadsheet of the places that interested us, showing a pic, description, price and a map. That was emailed to him. He gave his opinion on ones he knew and he made other suggestions, having seen what we were looking for.

In the weeks leading up to our visit we removed any that had sold, updated price changes, added new listings etc.

When we came to town we had around 12 places to look at; one was the overwhelming favourite. The realtor also had a file made up for us of those places with more info.

Coming from out of town, the realtor set aside 3 days exclusively for us and took us to the ones we wanted to see plus a couple he'd found. We saw a few on the afternoon we arrived and then a full day.

The favourite was extremely disappointing.

We had it narrowed down to a couple and happened to notice a sign across the street from one we really liked. It had just come on the market. He arranged a viewing that afternoon. We loved it and bought it after the inspection on the third day - leaving the fourth day to look around.

It was a really enjoyable experience. Preparation helped but actually being here meant we discovered how bad the one we wanted was and also meant we found the one that was really for us.

no.6 witch

We considered it, then decided to book a couple of flights and take a look ourselves (thanx to amazing grandparents who took our kids on for 5 days at short notice!) We landed June 08 and have been back in U.K. selling our house and renting until we return to our lovely new house in stouffville Ontario on June 13th 09. We had our eye on many properties that we'd seen on the internet so we e-mailed a Realtor local to the areas that we were favouring, we asked if it was possible for us to arrive in a weeks time with the prospect of finding a house and beginning the purchasing process then going back to the U.K. to finish the process. The answer was yes and she dedicated 4 full days to helping us search (almost 60 properties) Nothing was too much trouble, she truly went above and beyond for us and we found our perfect house! I know it's not possible for everyone to jump on a plane and go look but well worth the effort. Anyone moving to the Stouffville/ Markham Ont. and surrounding areas PM me for (a wonder woman type) Realtor details.

NoreenC

Thanks everyone for your helpful responses. it's certainly given us something to think about.