My husband and I are interested in buying a property in Nova Scotia, with the intention of visiting/renting it in the short term while hopefully trying to move over there permanently in the long term. We're hoping to go over for a recce in late October but we could really do with some 'insider' advice on; characteristics of each area of NS (if they vary) and which area's best to look at/avoid. We'd prefer not to be in a city but equally not too isolated - worried about getting snowed in! We've only got about £80,000-£90,000 to spend - is this a realistic amount? Also any recommendations on Realtors would be appreciated. Don't know whether there are specialist ones that deal with UK. Sorry so many questions, just such a newbie and trying to find where to start!
Any advice gratefully received.
Suzannah

Hi

Welcome to BE,

There are lots of lovely area's in NS, and you will be able to find something for your budget.

It will depend on whereabouts you want to live, the area's closer to Halifax tend to be more expensive and you will get more for your money, perhaps with a bit of land if you are further out.

I have sent you a PM

Hi Suzannah,

Try having a look on www.mls.ca

Question for Nikki... Are there are other real estate websites that are worth looking at ? We too are currently looking at the cost of property in NS.

Cheers All

Glassy

A lot of properties for sale are done privately, another website which is good for giving you an idea of what's out there is www.propertyguys.com

Cheers Nikki, I'll have a gander.
Where did you say that you guys were hoping to move to in NS?

Wer'e looking at the Colchester region, we are going via the CI stream fingers x

Just had a look on that website you sent through. Got some lovely houses on there (and the price's aren't too bad either). Don't think I can wait until next year to do our Recce

Assist2sell is another website worth looking at, as many of their properties aren't on MLS
http://www.homeworksrealty.ca/propview.php

There are a few sites which advertise "for sale by owner" properties. If you google "for sale by owner+nova scotia" you will come up with a list.

Cheers for your responses guys..

...but the vast majority of homes for sale generally are on MLS though. Personally I find that a lot of homnes "for sale by owner" in NS are quite overpriced. Presumably the owner gets a realtor in to appraise the value, isnt happy with the number they come up with and decided to list it privately in the hope of getting the number they really wanted.

If you need a realtor to help (well if you dont know the areas then you definitely need help from a realtor really) try contacting Carla MacNeil at A&H GMAC (email [email protected]; phone +1 902-830-9677) - Carla would be happy to help and covers pretty much all of Nova Scotia (whereas other agents tend to specialise in particular areas).

If you are planning to rent the property out first stop and think about your rental market. There are two types generally:

1) Long-term rentals - people who are renting instead of buying their own home. Generally this market is around Halifax - people who work in the city. Most of them are condos (apartments) and most are unfurnished. The market is strongest in areas like Bedford, Dartmouth and Halifax rathern than suburbs. Of course these are all city areas and as you say when you visit you dont really want to be in the middle of a city. Also, if you have tenants for a year then that really rules out the possibility of you being able to pop over a couple of times a year and use it when its empty. For your budget (say $160k) you would really be looking at an apartment rather than a whole house in these areas.

2) Holiday Rentals - people who are renting a "cottage" for a week or two at a time. They dont want to be in the city - people here like to get away from it all. Popular areas for cottage rentals are the South Shore (between Chester and Shelburne) the North Shore (around Wallace etc) or Cape Breton. People generally want to be on the beach or on a lake if they can. Possible exceptions might be in towns that are very popular with tourists like Mahone Bay. You would need to have furnished it. You would inevitably get the occassional week when you had no bookings and so could obviously use it yourself during those times. Dont expect much of a rental income in the winter though - if you did get bookings you would have to consider those a bonus.

A lot of people here are seasonal residents and have homes that they dont rent out. If you arent bothered about have a reasonably secure rental income and really just plan to use it for yourselves that does give you a lot more flexibility in terms of areas and types of property you could look at. Somebody like Carla would probably be able to give you much better advice though.

Think it all depends on what you want. I live just outside Amherst and although very rural we live near a main road so doubt will get stuck as it is used a lot due to the salt mines at Pugwash. Our house came with 15 acres and within your budget you mentioned and is more than big enough for us and our 4 dogs.

[QUOTE=NSpaul;6594523]...but the vast majority of homes for sale generally are on MLS though. Personally I find that a lot of homnes "for sale by owner" in NS are quite overpriced. Presumably the owner gets a realtor in to appraise the value, isnt happy with the number they come up with and decided to list it privately in the hope of getting the number they really wanted.



We bought our condo in Halifax from someone using Assist2Sell - paid $20 000 less than going rate as they only had to pay 2% commission so were much more negotiable on the price. You can get overpriced houses with agents too - I see some are still on the market after 6 months here in Bedford. I'm sure a lot depends on the sellers circumstances.
Was talking to someone who lives in Bear River on Saturday. He bought a 4 bedroomed house with 46 acres for under $50 000. The asking price was three times that - he said people in that area usually inflate prices hoping someone "from away" will buy it

We live on the North Shore and it is an area with lots of both holiday rentals and all year round rentals. Strangely enough just trying to make my mind up on which of these to do with a property I have. Just getting some figures from some recently settled people from the UK who have gone into property rental/holiday home management.

The attraction for holiday rentals in this area is the warm waters of the Northumberland Strait and no fog. Lots of golf courses to choose from eg.
http://www.northumberlandlinks.com/
http://www.oceanlinks.ca/default.htm
A winery http://www.jostwine.com/ and being close to the ski slope http://www.skiwentworth.ca/ so all year round rental potential. It's proximity to NB, PEI and America works well too.

My partner is a Realtor and covers all the north of the Province from the airport and up to New Brunswick and Cape Breton borders. I think the topic of FSBO versus going with a Realtor has been covered many times on BE. My partner became a Realtor due to some friends going through a bad purchase with a FSBO property. Fortunately they took our advise and pulled out of the deal. It is still up for sale now FSBO even though the owners daughter is a Realtor. There are lots of pitfalls out there and many more things that can go wrong compared to buying property in the UK. There is also an attitude that the english/europeans can pay more. I know of one property that is priced for that market and the owner was annoyed when the agents started to market the property locally instead of only abroad. No locals will go near it anyway knowing how inflated the price is. There are also those sellers that under price their property and miss the market they should be in and therefore they end up not selling, because people think there is a problem with it. So there are some bargains and some less so, that's what makes it so much fun for me, having been in property speculation for years.

We have lived for 3 yrs 15 miles out into the Northumberland Strait and have never been snowed in, even this last winter (which was the worse) on New Year's Eve when it was very bad everyone still managed to get to and from our party.

Silverdragon your place sounds lovely, glad to see you found somewhere you like.