How to buy a house in Edmonton

As you know, the economy of Edmonton has been becoming better and better since the oil sands were found. Some experts forecast that the house's price will still rise in later 3 years, though it is double to 2006. So a house is not only a place where you can live in, but also a good investment.

Before you buy a house, the first thing you should do is to determine how much money you can afford. If you have enough money to pay off your house, it is perfect. But most of people besides me need banks’ help. So you have to talk to the bank to pre-qualify your mortgage. That is how much money you can borrow. The bank will need some information from you: the down payment, debt load, and your credit history to decide whether or how much money they willing to lend you.

The Down Payment for a new comer is at least 30% and the bank will not ask you any further questions if you have that kind of money. For people who have great full-time jobs, the down payment can be 0% to 20%.And the bank will ask next is “what is your monthly debt load?” If you owe too much money, the bank will not lend you anything to avoid their adventures. The credit is determined by the Beacon Score. Good credit will get you good rate.

The next thing you need to know for yourself is the interest rate. The current prime rate is 4.85%. There are two interest rate options: Variable Rate Open and Fixed Rate Close. The variable interest rate open is based on the prime rate, it equals to Prime Rate minus 0.40. And the Fixed Rate is now about 5.99% for five years. The mortgage term always ranges from 6 months to 40 years. The shorter term，the less interest you have to pay. For example，if you borrow 2 hundred thousand dollars ($200,000), rate is: 5.99% fixed, payment term is 25 years, your monthly payment is 12 hundred and seventy-eight dollars ($1,278) and you need about 52 thousand dollars($52,000) annual income to qualify.

Now you know how much money you can borrow. You just start looking at houses. There are three kinds of houses: Single house, Town-house and Apartment. Single houses and town-houses'styles are 2 storey, Bi-level, Bungalow and Duplex. The apartment,on the other hand, can be high rise or low rise and has Bachelor, Studio, one bedroom, two bedrooms, or even three bedrooms suite.

Location is very important. Your house will be appreciated faster if it is a good location. The North-east corner houses in Edmonton are usually the Cheapest. The South and West houses are more expensive, especially nearby the University of Alberta and the West Edmonton Mall.

You can buy a house from Owner directly such as Comfree or through a realtor for example ReMax. It's up to you! But the purchasing prices of the two ways are almost the same. The realtor will give lots of professional advice to save your money and trouble.

You have selected a house, now is the time to write up an offer, and sign the purchase contract which is prepared by the realtor. The realtor will help you to determine the price by checking sold properties in the same area, and also help you to write down the possession date, financing schedule, home inspection condition and the Condo documents review condition. By the way, the Condo Fee includes Insurance, Parking lot assignment, Management Fee. Most of houses have condo fee except single houses.

As soon as the contract is accepted by the seller, you will go ahead to ask bank to approve mortgage, ask inspector to inspect your house, and ask lawyer to review all the documents for you. After that, you have already bought your house.
Enjoy your house with your new life!