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4 Tips to Make the Home Buying Experience Easier

4 Tips to Make the Home Buying Experience Easier
4 Tips to Make the Home Buying Experience EasierThis post is in partnership with the Real Estate Council of Ontario. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

Whether you are looking to buy your first home or have just grown out of your current home and need more space, you need to be prepared for the process. Keep stress to a minimum by reading up on our 4 tips to make the home buying experience easier.

It Moves So Fast

One thing we were not prepared for when we bought our home was just how fast everything would happen once we decided to buy. Just like the nearly 57 percent of people who were surveyed by the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO), we purchased our property within 3 months of when we actively started to look. In the same survey, 67% of sellers claimed that they sold their properties in under 3 months. So if you’re on the fence about whether selling and buying is a possibility for you, it is!

Fast forward to today. We’ve added two kids to the mix, all four of the kids have grown, and we are literally bursting at the seams of our current set-up. Sound familiar?

Looking to move? 4 Tips to Make the Home Buying Experience Easier

Unless you purchased a home that was large enough for your family to grow into, you’re either looking to renovate or upgrade at some point. Since you can only do so much with space you have, buying a new home that meets your needs is a great way to step into the next chapter of your life.

With a new chapter comes lots of new adventures and educating yourself before you even start the process will lead to fewer hassles and heartaches later on. By being informed right from the start, you’ll have confidence in the decisions you are making, even if they do happen quickly.

Follow these 4 tips to make the home buying experience easier.

Shop around before you shop around for a home

When it comes to buying a home, finding a salesperson or brokerage to help you on your journey is an important step. Be honest about your expectations and make sure you shop around for someone who will meet them. Meet with your potential representatives and get them to answer the following questions, as the answers may make your decision-making process an easy one.

  • Walk me through your real estate experience.
  • Describe your general approach to buying and selling, and how your approach will best suit my needs.
  • Tell me about the fees and commissions I’ll have to pay.
  • Which services does your brokerage provide, and are any of them included in our agreement?
  • How often will you provide me with progress updates, and how will we communicate?
  • Could you please provide me with some references?

You can also get your free downloadable question sheet here.

Look them up

Before you meet with any salespeople or brokers, be sure to look them up using the “Look up a real estate salesperson, broker or brokerage” search tool on RECO’s website. It will tell you if they’re registered and in good standing, and if they have faced any disciplinary action.

Read and understand everything

 You will be presented with lots of opportunities to sign on the dotted line and you can request that your representative clarifies anything you don’t quite understand, even if it means going through the contract line-by-line. You don’t get to pull out of a contract once you’ve signed so I would really pay attention to all those tiny details and not be embarrassed to ask all of the questions until you fully understand. If you’re not savvy in the language of legal contracts, I would highly recommend you hire a lawyer to go over it with you and explain everything.

Be an active participant in the process

Buying a house will most likely be the biggest purchase most of us will make in our lifetime. It is not the time to be quiet and settle. Listen to your representative as they are a knowledgeable resource but remember that you are ultimately the one who is in control. You will have to live with your decision, literally.

Be an active participant in the process. That means being open and candid with your representative about what’s important to you in a home, which services you expect from him or her, and if your wish list changes halfway through the process to include new items or disregard previously important ones.

And it means you have a responsibility to perform your own due diligence: asking questions, understanding any required paperwork, conducting your own research (when necessary), and being an active participant through every step.

Remember, you own the process.

More Information on Buying and Selling a Home in Ontario

Ladies and gentlemen, if you’re thinking of buying or selling your home make sure you do your research. You can check out our friends at the Real Estate Council of Ontario for more information.

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4 Tips to Make the Home Buying Experience EasierThis post is in partnership with the Real Estate Council of Ontario. All thoughts and opinions are our own.
Aneta Alaei
Aneta Alaei

Aneta is a Toronto-based mom of four that loves a good meal, great company, and learning something new. In her free time, you can find her trying to keep yet another plant alive.

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17 Comments

  1. October 15, 2018 / 5:47 pm

    My home buying process was a nightmare! Since I’m self-employed, my bank Chase gave me a hard time, plus the 3rd party company they use for their mortgages kept losing my paperwork and adding wrong things to the contract delaying the process.

    Great tips!

  2. kristen visser
    October 16, 2018 / 11:46 am

    my husband and I have been in our current home for 3 years and are just starting to outgrow it since bringing baby leah into our family. it is duable now but in the next few years things will get rather difficult. we have a 3 year plan so in the meantime we have been doing some renos and i am constantly shopping around just to see what is out there and getting an idea of what the houses are going for as well in our neighborhood

  3. Calvin
    October 16, 2018 / 1:17 pm

    Lots of research and stress definitely take your time to do all work like inspections etc

  4. Lynda Cook
    October 18, 2018 / 2:28 am

    All great tips! with my house it was supposed to be rent to own, pay rent for the first year and that would be the down payment or leave after the year, well somehow my realtor hid a lot and it ended up being my house purchased right out, I wasn’t happy, but then I have been here since 97 I don’t want to go through the same bullcrap

  5. Carole
    October 18, 2018 / 11:14 am

    My son is looking to buy a home right now and these are all great tips!

  6. kathy downey
    October 18, 2018 / 3:02 pm

    We built our own home in the late 90’s,kids have left the nest not it;s time to think about downsizing

  7. Debbie White-Beattie
    October 19, 2018 / 2:52 am

    We bought our house in the late 90’s and renovated it but now it’s time for some updates but buying was not fun for us.

  8. Tammi L.
    October 22, 2018 / 2:03 pm

    I read this because my daughter and her family are in the process of trying to sell their house so they can buy a different one they want… oh my gosh, are they sorry they didn’t check out their realtor better. He’s awful, no communication, hardly did anything, etc etc etc.

  9. Holly Daniels
    December 7, 2018 / 5:17 pm

    This is great advice, especially for first time buyers. Something that should feel amazing could really turn into a nightmare!

  10. Janet M
    January 17, 2019 / 2:39 pm

    Thanks for the Home Buying tips. It is indeed an important experience.

  11. Jenifer V
    January 23, 2019 / 12:30 am

    Very useful post! Thank you for the list of sample questions I could ask!

  12. January 27, 2019 / 9:33 am

    Thanks for the tip about the RECO website; I didn’t know about this before.

  13. AD
    January 31, 2019 / 11:06 pm

    I’m lucky; my Dad is a realtor, so he has always facilitated the process for me.

  14. March 4, 2019 / 2:44 pm

    Great read and really helpful tips! I bought my first home at a young age and I had no idea how stressful it would be! It is great to be informed and do your research. Thank you!

  15. Leanne
    March 10, 2019 / 12:24 pm

    These are great tips . Me and my fiancé almost have the down payment to buy our first house . I would have never thought of looking up the broker but it’s a good idea .

  16. Elizabeth Matthiesen
    March 11, 2019 / 1:43 pm

    Great tips for those selling/buying a house.

  17. kathy downey
    December 12, 2019 / 11:24 am

    We built our own home but I have heard of buying horrors,you are so correct you need to follow these tips to making buying easier and safe.