New Home
 

We are buying a new home. Closing end of April.
everything is ready Mortgage, lawyer etc...
What are the things that i should be aware of at closing time. tell me everything is going to be ok...:confused:

Re: New Home
 

Of course it's going to be OK! If you used a realtor he/she will (should) nurse you through the process. You will have to go into the lawyer's office a few days before closing with certified cheque for costs, which they will have already given you. New home construction is a bit different, and I imagine you have a very specific contract. Congratulations on the purchase and good luck in your new home!

Re: New Home
 

No I dont have a realtor. we just walked into a new home builder office and liked the house they had on the inventory and decided to buy it.

Re: New Home
 

OK, well your lawyer should be explaining everything in fine detail (or rather his conveyancing secretary, the lawyer will just meet with you on final signing). Just be sure to walk through before signing, and do your list of deficiencies, if applicable. Then the builder has to sign and commit to fixing anything that isn't right. The lawyer may hold back some of the funds for a certain amount of time to ensure the builder does his job. Depending on which province you are in there will be additional purchase taxes, GST and lawyer's fee and disbursements, on top of the purchase price. It will all be itemized on your Statement of Adjustments, which you go over before closing. Good luck.

Re: New Home
 

We bought a new home in Ontario last year. Some of this may be different in other provinces.

About a week before the closing date, our lawyers got the final statement of adjustments from the builders. This included the agreed purchase price, plus any additional items that we'd agreed to pay for: upgrades, additional development taxes, utility connection and so on. Since you bought from inventory, maybe you know these amounts already. We bought off plan, so we didn't know exactly how much we were paying until the statement came through.

You need to come up with a certified cheque for the difference between the final total and your mortgage amount (if any). Unless you're absolutely sure you know what the adjustments will be, set aside some extra money for any unexpected items.

We inspected the home a couple days before closing; this was the first time we'd been inside. There are a few web sites that have home inspection checklists; you may want to print one of those off and take it with you. It's exciting to be in your new house and you might overlook something important otherwise.

You can still claim for defects after you move in, but in some cases it may be hard to prove that you're not responsible once you're in the house. Chipped countertops, broken glass, etc.

On the closing day itself, we were both working; I had a phone call from the lawyers to tell us the deed was done, and the house keys were waiting for us at the builders' office when I came home from work.

There's another thread on here about utilities. Electricity, natural gas, and water were all set up for us. Your lawyer should know whether you need to do anything. The builder had a deal with the local cable company, so we'd already made an appointment to get that put in. For some unearthly reason, we wanted a Bell phone, so we needed to order that one ourselves.

Re: New Home
 

No problems. The builder should have no difficulty in delivering your house at the end of April 2008.

Just kidding.

You're not heading for Calgary, are you? If you were, you hopefully would not have been naive enough to post such a message. :wink_smile:

Re: New Home
 

Is the house complete, 100% done, as-is, including appliances, finish/trim, landscaping, etc.? If you decided to buy a house that is not 100% done in every way and ready for you to move in tomorrow, you have more work to do with the legal contract and you should not assume everything is going to be ok. You should assume, if it is not complete, that they may try to deliver poor quality work or materials in a not-at-all timely fashion on the remaining items to be completed unless you hold their feet to the fire in nice, binding legalese.

Re: New Home
 

Thanks for all your inputs.
The house is 100% done. internal is not done which is promised to be done before we move in. i will talk to my lawyer to see what else i need to do...
im in the GTA area.