This past January, my fiancé, Jason, and I decided to buy our first house. The apartment we live in is about 700 square feet and, given our lifestyle, we quickly outgrew the space.
I am a wedding florist and run my business out of our apartment. During peak season when I have multiple weddings in a weekend, our apartment is filled with flowers, vases and wedding decor. You can imagine how quickly we run out of space to walk.
One time the apartment was so full we had only a two-foot-wide path to walk from our bedroom to the kitchen and front door. Not to mention we are also looking to adopt a puppy in the near future.
All this combined made us realize we needed a change.
Interrupted plans
We started to ramp up our house hunting in February. We were supposed to take a trip to Spain at the end of March and wanted to hit the ground running when we got back. However, our plans changed quickly as COVID-19 started emerging in Canada.
We postponed our trip and got a head start on our search for our new home instead.
By this time, self-isolation was the new norm and in-person meetings were limited. Phone calls and Zoom were the easiest way to meet with prospective real estate agents.
Navigating a competitive market, COVID-19 restrictions, and guiding new buyers through the entire process takes patience and talent.
The agent we eventually chose — Doug Herbert of Royal LePage Team Realty — was incredibly helpful throughout our whole experience. He took the time to explain the entire home buying process to us, what would happen due to physical distancing precautions, and he explained how it would work in normal market conditions as well, which was great knowledge to have since we likely won’t be buying our next house during a pandemic (fingers crossed!).
Buying your first house is an intimidating and challenging endeavour to start with. Adding a pandemic into the mix only makes it more difficult.
This is where your real estate agent really makes a difference. Navigating a competitive market, COVID-19 restrictions, and guiding new buyers through the entire process takes patience and talent.
The financial upheaval
Next, we lined up our finances. Pre-pandemic we had met with our bank’s financial adviser to go over their mortgage options. We also met with a mortgage broker and decided to go the mortgage broker route.
Up to this point, the whole financial aspect was straight forward. We had a good idea, based on our income, of what we would be approved for, so there were no surprises there. Jason is an aerospace engineer and I have a day job as a sales representative for a local floral distributor.
We have been able to live comfortably off our combined income and were confident in our ability to get a mortgage — that is, until I was temporarily laid off. Because floral wholesalers are non-essential businesses, we shut down. Plus, my booked weddings began to get postponed.
Jason and I were worried we might lose our pre-approval, but after discussing it with our mortgage broker, she was confident that this wouldn’t be an issue.
Why now?
Then began the search. Pre-pandemic we knew it was going to be a challenge to purchase a home. Our parents are fairly tuned into the housing market, my mom working right in the thick of it (she runs All Things Home), and Jason’s parents having recently purchased a house.
Given the market, we knew we would have to compete for a house, waiving conditions and maybe even going well over list price. Based on the market and our budget of $470,000, we knew we would have to look for a house around $450,000 so we would stand a chance at competing with other buyers.
We wanted to take advantage of the market during the pandemic. We noticed as quarantine conditions persisted that fewer houses were going up for sale. But there was an upside. As the pandemic continued, the sale prices of homes were much closer to and even below the list price.
Virtual visits
Because of the pandemic, we had to be super selective of which homes we actually went to view. We dissected the listing photos online and listed the pros and cons for each property we were interested in to make sure it was worth going to see.
We used Google Maps to street view the homes and the neighbourhoods to make sure we liked the area beforehand. We googled builder site plans to check what any undeveloped land was designated for.
Before going into each home, we had to sign forms that confirmed:
- we didn’t have any symptoms
- we hadn’t been out of the country in the last 14 days
- and we hadn’t been in contact with anyone who had been out of the country in the last 14 days.
We were not allowed to touch anything in the homes. The sellers were asked to leave all doors open and all lights on. Some asked that we wash our hands upon entering their home. Some asked that we use hand sanitizer upon or before entering.
Our agent Doug would wear one glove so he could open doors for us. His other hand was used to manage his notebook, something that was a sight to see and required some good hand-eye co-ordination.
Making an offer
After viewing 15 homes online and three in person, we put in our first offer. It was an end unit townhome in the Avalon neighbourhood of Orléans. The sellers weren’t holding off offers (meaning offers had to wait until a specific date) and they had not yet received any other offers.
Because of the less competitive market, our first offer was a little more aggressive and we submitted an offer under the list price. But then another offer came in and we were in a bidding war. We revised our offer to go above the asking price but, in the end, we lost the house to another buyer who waived all conditions. Even during this pandemic, buyers were still waiving conditions like a house inspection.
However, we were not discouraged. We went to see a couple more homes and put in another offer on the house we ended up purchasing. It is another end unit townhome in the Cardinal Creek area of Orléans. Again, the sellers weren’t holding off offers, so we were able to get the house for less than the list price and we didn’t have to waive conditions.
Looking back, we think we got lucky.
If we had started looking for a home back in February or early March, the homes we were looking at would have been out of our budget. They would have received multiple offers and the price would have been driven way up.
While buying our first home during a pandemic was definitely a unique buying experience, we’re happy with how everything worked out and we’re excited to move in July!
————
From Realtor Doug Herbert:
It’s a whole new experience for all of us to be working during a global pandemic. True, the government has deemed the real estate industry as an essential service, but we all knew that this would not be “business as usual.” And it most certainly hasn’t been.
Filtering house showings for buyers has taken on a whole new air of responsibility and diligence. The industry expectation is that viewings only be conducted when all other forms of filtering out properties have taken place; and only the most absolutely interesting houses are booked for live viewings.
Pre-pandemic, it was not uncommon for buyer agents to spend the day shuttling clients around from house to house, tweaking the list of needs and wants, and seeing possibly half a dozen houses or more in a single outing. This luxury of time and availability has been temporarily hampered by serious concerns brought about by COVID-19.
The workload for agents has increased, to say the least, with stringent safety procedures being enforced, waivers and disclosures signed, and even a whole new list of suggested COVID-19 clauses written into agreements of purchase and sale to address possible legal issues.
It is important for us to assess client needs case by case to determine if they are a good candidate during this challenging time. Equally important is that we can trust our clients to have an understanding and respect for the restrictions we are all working under.
Allycia and Jason were fantastic to work with. They were savvy with utilizing the numerous online resources available to gather information, aiding greatly in their house search. They were very resourceful in managing their prospective shortlist and they showed the highest degree of respect for following safety protocols during live viewings and helped ease concerns for everyone.
I truly believe they were able to manage during these unusual times to find the perfect house that will fit their needs for many years to come.
