Buying a house includes many intricacies and it’s important to understand the steps, timelines and different details about the process & neighbourhoods. Although we cover how to buy a house in Lorne Park, Oakville and Port Credit, this information can be applied to other neighbourhoods as well. The first and foremost item that needs to be considered when looking to buy a house in Lorne Park, Oakville, Port Credit, Clarkson or other areas is Price Range. The entire process and applied strategy starts with this single guiding item. Below you’ll first find an introduction and How To list covering the process followed by in-depth descriptions for each step.
How To Buy a House
How to buy a house in Lorne Park, Oakville, Port Credit, Clarkson and other areas follows several guiding principles and a structured approach. This allows for an efficient process with successful results and securing the dream home! We’ll explore the differences between Price Range, Geographic Area and all the steps you can expect when looking to buy a home.
1. Establish Price Range
First a Price Range must be established by speaking to a financial professional. Connect with your bank or a mortgage broker. A mortgage broker is a great option as they can compare mortgage rates and offers from various lenders allowing you to choose what works best. By establishing a price range, we now know exactly which properties we can look at when wanting to buy a house.
2. Explore Geographic Area
Next we focus on Geographic Area. Composing a list of location criteria is the best way to approach this. Proximity to schools, commuting access, public transportation, parks, specific area style, work, and many other variables that are important for your lifestyle are used to create a list of focus locations. The importance of having price range first allows us to filter locations based on affordability. Neighbourhoods such as Lorne Park, Port Credit, Oakville, Clarkson and others are just the starting point, we then further filter down which specific area within these neighbourhoods is most suitable.
3. Choose Home Features
Home Features are the DNA of real estate properties. Everyone’s requirements will be different and deciding between needs and wants allows for further filtering of homes. Think of basics such as number of bedrooms, bathrooms, parking spaces, but also more detailed features such as architecture, roof style, natural light flow, basement finish status and more. The reason for diving into such detail is that the right property might not be available on the market at the time we first connect. However, if we have price range, location and features established, it’s easy to identify a good candidate home when it hits the market! This allows us to also potentially explore off market properties.
4. Start Looking At Homes
Now that the core guiding principles have been outlined and a succinct strategy is in place, we can start to look at homes. This step is typically called “going on showings”. In today’s world, we conduct these showings both in-person, but also virtually through video calls. Going on showings allows you to explore the home and get a sense of the atmosphere and layout. When looking to buy a house in Oakville or other areas, the feeling you get within the space is one of the most important aspects of the entire process. Exploring the neighbourhood and getting a deep understanding of the location is the goal of the showing step.
5. Offer & Conditional Period
Once a home has been selected the actual step of buying starts. Preparing an offer involves many variables depending on the specific home. We must consider the closing timeframe, offer price, the deposit amount, which conditions to include (financing, home inspection, and more), which clauses to insert that protect your purchase. Many of these items will be crucial as part of the negotiation strategy and will impact the final purchase price.
Having proper help with navigating the offer process is critical and that is why working with real estate professionals is recommended. Once an offer has been successfully accepted, we enter the conditional period during which we conduct the home inspection and verify financing approval (if those conditions were included). Because there is so much variety with the offer step, specific information would have to be provided on a case by case basis and will differ for each client.
6. Final Closing
Once conditions have been satisfied and the offer “firms up” we enter the period leading up to the final closing date. During this period, one of the most important items to not do is make large scale purchases which could skew your debt ratios and impact your mortgage approval status. During this final stage of the process, you’ll be in contact with your lawyer and mortgage representative to complete any additional paperwork and organize all the items for the closing process. Coordinating a moving service or renting an appropriate sized vehicle is another item to take note of. A few days before the actual closing date, you’ll sign the final paperwork via the lawyer.
On the final closing date, the keys will be released once the lawyer confirms the process is complete. Typically we conduct a walk-through of the property several days before final closing and on the actual closing date to ensure all aspects of the home are still in proper condition. Congratulations! You’ve successfully learned how to buy a house in Lorne Park, Port Credit, Oakville and other areas.
Everything In More Detail
Price Range [ 1 ]
Establishing Price Range allows for the creation of upper and lower limit lines which we then compare and contrast all the other variables against. Having the Price Range allows for evaluation of which Geographic Area to focus on. By contrasting Price Range against Geographic area, we can further compare against the Features you’d like in a home. This cascading list of comparison variables extends into the offer process when deciding how to approach offer conditions and ideal structuring of the package to secure your dream house in Lorne Park, Oakville, Port Credit, Clarkson and other Areas/Neighbourhoods. Let’s step back and look at each step of the process individually to better understand what to expect. We’ll explore these items chronologically.
Establishing price range will be primarily handled via a bank representative, or preferably a mortgage broker. The benefits of using a mortgage broker, as previously mentioned include their ability to browse multiple lenders. Whereas a bank representative works with the specific bank, an independent mortgage broker compares and contrasts the available mortgage packages from various lenders to find the best solution. Things that go into evaluating the price range when looking to buy a house in Clarkson, Etobicoke, Lorne Park, Port Credit or other areas include a few different items. If you currently own a property, the appraisal value and equity in the property will play a significant role. Income levels, debts, credit score and many other variables are all evaluated to present a final Price Range. Once we have this figure, we move on to the next step. Additionally, we can always recommend some mortgage brokers.
Explore Geographic Area [ 2 ]
Using a price range as the guiding principle for the Geographic Area selection is the most efficient way to approach the process. If you compare prices of South East Oakville and South West Oakville, there is significant difference, especially when you layer Home Features on top. Then you look at North Oakville and notice the price points are much lower there, but all three areas are within the same town. By establishing price range first, we use that to select specific sections of a city/neighbourhood that fall within the affordability range. Exploring geographic areas when looking to buy a house is where we look at the neighbourhood atmosphere.
Do you want proximity to the lake? Is public transit access such as the Hurontario LRT important? Many other common criteria points include distance to schools, commuter routes, workplace and lifestyle amenities. We also explore more intricate geographic variables like preference for mature trees, streets with/without sidewalks, architectural area styles and more.
As example of how price range and geographic area blend within Lorne Park is by comparing two areas within. White Oaks of Jalna is located just South West of Lorne Park Secondary School and offers a section where streets don’t have sidewalks, the properties contain beautiful, towering mature trees and lot sizes are generally larger with many custom built homes.
You can then contrast this area to Watercolours, a planned subdivision by Mattamy which sits South of Indian Rd and just West of Mississauga Rd. The Watercolours neighbourhood has younger tree vegetation and the entire streetscape is different. The area has a much more community oriented feeling to it and the homes share similar aesthetic themes.
Both areas provide excellent locations close to Port Credit and Clarkson Village as well as top quality schools in the Lorne Park neighbourhood. So when we have a price range outlined, we can filter which specific pockets in Lorne Park to focus on where we can attain the requirements and at a price which works!
Choose Home Features [ 3 ]
Selecting the features of a home is basically defining the DNA of the property. When looking to buy a house, selecting the criteria is a key component and is typically what most people do before Step 1 and 2. You can consider the home features simultaneously while we work through Steps 1 and 2, however it’s important to note that as the search progresses, different weights will need to be applied to each component of the requirements based on individual importance. Thinking about what home features you like extends beyond just number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Thinking about wanting lakefront access? You might need riparian rights for your property.
The type of backyard needed, whether you want to back onto a ravine or need a pool? Going inside, yes, number of bedrooms and bathrooms is key to consider, but also think about the kitchen/living space layout, number of parking spaces, ceiling height preference, architectural style. These detailed Home Features craft the property DNA and allow us to really focus on specific areas and in some cases, a specific street based on how fine tuned the home feature parameters are.
Start Looking At Homes [ 4 ]
Viewing homes and properties is an obviously important step when looking to buy a house. Whether it’s handled virtually through video chats and our professionals or we schedule times to view in-person, the same detail is always applied. Once a list of ideal homes for sale is crafted, we take care of coordinating the viewing appointments. When touring properties, we focus on experiencing the atmosphere and understanding the functional logic of the layout. Comparing the ceilings, paint colour selection, material finishes, appliance types, and all of the other home features we defined in the property DNA. Getting a sense of the surrounding area is also tied in to this stage of the process. This is the chance to experience the house and finalize a decision for the next step.
Offer, Conditional Period, Final Closing [ 5 + 6 ]
This part of the process when buying a house in Oakville, Lorne Park, Port Credit or other areas is very specific to each client and property. This part of the process to buy a home will be reviewed in detail with our professionals with each person to understand all of the intricate details. An offer is composed of many different Offer Settings such as offer price, deposit amount, conditions, offer clauses, closing date timeframe and more.
These different offer settings are dialed in to provide the best offer position for a successful buying result. The offer settings will vary greatly based on how the property is being sold (offer presentation, typical market negotiation, bank sale, and more), where and when it’s being sold and how each person’s individual situation dictates the best course of action. Because of the sheer amount of information and amount of different scenarios, we typically try to start the process with someone looking to buy a home by going through Steps 1 – 4 and simultaneously covering details related to Steps 5 and 6 as we approach the relevant part of the buying process.
