Ontheboatout

I'm no expert at all, quite the reverse, but I thought I would share my property experiences from top to bottom for anyone looking at property in Nova Scotia. I am not sure if what happens in Nova Scotia (or just here in the North Shore) is true of other areas but probably.

Our first discovery in the property hunt was that you get to choose which Real Estate agent you want to use. This is not necessarily the one that comes with the property listing. Unlike the UK, your chosen agent can show any properties belonging to any other agent. We came across good and bad ones, so if possible go by recommendation. The agent who lists the property has a vested interest in selling it - they get a whopping 6% commission but only about half that if it is sold through another agent.

If possible take a camcorder to the viewing and record the house - it is really useful thing to do. If you are the spontaneous type, and you instantly know it is the right property then it is good to make an offer there and then, as another viewer could come along an hour later and you may be shut out of the deal (unless it falls through). If you like to ponder then be aware of that risk. There is no bidding war, playing one buyer against another, as in the UK. There is no gazumping - once an offer goes in the agreed price is binding.

An agent will word an offer with "conditions" that will allow you to withdraw if necessary. We offered a sum less than the asking price and asked for several conditions to be met, - subject to a satisfactory building inspection report, subject to water test report, subject to septic being emptied (some more conditions were added after the inspection report).

Do not risk offering too low unless you are aware a property is far too expensive or has been on the market a long time (mls listings photos are a good clue to time on market) - remember if your offer is rejected there may be someone else ready to leap in, and you may be shut out of the deal.

Once you sign the agents "conditional offer" papers the sale is legally binding on you too - you can't change my mind and pull out without a reason.

The seller is given a time limit to respond to your offer and conditions, say 24 hours, and they may have counter conditions which you must then accept or reject, again within a set time limit of say 24 hours. And so it progresses to agreement. Just a day or so - it seems an eternity but at least you are in control. It is a very effective process with everyone being clear of what is going on.

Then the lawyers do the rest and very quickly so make sure you have the funds ready in time (don't forget cash transfer time).

The whole process took us 6 weeks from offer to keys in hand.

JonboyE

I would say NEVER use the same real estate agent as the seller. There is too big a conflict of interest. How are they going to help you negotiate the best terms and price if they also have to act in the seller's best interests?

If you have your own realtor they can tell you if a house you are looking at is not good value, or is in a problem street, because they know they will still earn their commission when you buy another house.

TiggyP

Yes, from our experience the house buying process is so much easier than the UK. A good realter will listen to what you want (not just show you the most expensive houses 'cause it suits them) and should accompany you to all viewings, pointing out the good and bad points of the house.

We were living in Toronto when we bought ours so I guess it was not much better than doing it from the UK - we did a lot of communication via the internet (thank goodness for MLS!) and our realtor would sometimes view properties on our behalf and report back to us if he thought it was worth a look.

Once the offer was accepted, that is pretty much it! The realtor does most of the hard work (and don't forget, his commission comes from the sellers, you pay nothing at all).

We had the survey the same day, signed a few papers via fax and hardly spoke to the lawyers at all - it took about 4 weeks overall, cost under $1000 for lawyer fees, although it was a very straightforward sale. On top of your house $ and lawyers fees, there is also a property tax (1.5% of your house purchase price), plus several hundred dollars in land fees or whatever they are called. The balance of the year's property tax may also need paying, there may be a few other smaller fees etc, every purchase is different.


If anyone thinking about buying in the Halifax/Dartmouth/Fall River area needs a highly-recommended realtor, just PM me for details. He was an absolute star, went above and beyond the call of duty to help us find our house! And how often can you say that about estate agents?

JonboyE

There is a wiki article about buying a house here.

Ontheboatout - you have written a lot of good stuff about buying your house in NS. A lot of this will be useful information for other readers. However, the threads you have started will just disappear down the boards in time. Why not add them to the wiki, or even start a new one?

Jay Bird

Sound advice.....except....we bought a house in a very small town with only one realtor. In hindsight we should have gone up the road a few miles and got another realtor. The system here is so different from back home; I actually found it less stressful because of the way everything is put on paper as soon as you make an offer.


The following link might be useful

http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/

MB-Realtor

This is one of the Major problems of an "outsider" coming to small town Canada and buying a house. Coming from the UK it is difficult to realise how small and isolated a small town can be in Canada. The nearest equivalent would be moving to an isolated Scottish village.

You really do need to get some independent advice, and that may be very difficult in a community that has one Realtor, one Lawyer and its the local builder who does home inspections. I have heard some real horror stories and as the law is "buyer beware" there is little come back after you have been sold a real lemon.

In those situations I would really advise that at the very least you bring in a lawyer from another town to write your offer and look after your interests.