Boy oh boy. Where do we start? August, September, and October have been a blur for us.<\/span><\/p>\n

We love where we live. But we’ve been dreaming about moving in the future. Turns out the future came way sooner than we anticipated! Let’s dig in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who What When Where Why<\/span><\/h2>\n

To help provide some context, here are some of the frequent conversations Nic and I have had over the past year:<\/span><\/p>\n

When did we want to move? Not sure. Our thought was that we’d move in 3-5 years. We’re very happy with my current part-time work set up where I work downtown Calgary 73 days a year (and am off 292 days a year). We might as well stay put while I keep this job and I might as well keep this gig while it’s an enjoyable experience. We also wanted to be cognizant of when Finn would be starting elementary school and hopefully make the move before she started kindergarten with a hard stop before entering into Grade 2 (for no real reason other than I remember moving heading into 4th grade and it’s never fun to say bye to friends you’ve made).<\/span><\/p>\n

Where would we move to? Not sure, again. Somewhere in British Columbia? Invermere, BC? Nelson, BC? Somewhere on Vancouver Island? However, every time we would visit, research, and chat about various BC locations, we’d somehow circle back to our current town. Why our town? It’s just outside Calgary so we are an easy drive to an international airport, zoo, science center, Costco, IKEA, etc. Our friends and family live nearby in AB or SK so moving further west means being further away from them (and more time in a clown car to get to them). Nic’s family cabin is also in SK so moving west means further away from there too. We’re not expecting this to be around forever, but while we have access to it, we try to get out there as much as possible in the summer. Our town is a short 40-minute drive to the beautiful Canadian Rockies which provides endless hiking and skiing opportunities. Our town and the surrounding towns have some great day hikes as well. It’s pretty affordable compared to other BC towns we are interested in. It’s full of young families and a great place to raise kids and we love the various programs offered around town, especially for kids. It’s a growing “up and coming” community versus some of the rundown towns out there. There are tons of green spaces, an awesome path system, lots of trees, and the Bow River runs right through our town. And of course, we’ve started to build up our community of friends here.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why were we considering moving away from our town? Winters a longgg here. By March I am so over winter. I had my heart set on Vancouver Island where all the retired Canadians go for the mild winters. And being a native Floridian, I miss the ocean. But we’d likely be looking at a house in the $500’s for what we want (at a minimum, the real estate markets seems to keep going up there likely due to people from insanely priced Vancouver selling their homes and heading to the island instead) whereas we could likely find a similar home here in the $400’s. We could use that “extra” money to escape Canada in March on a warm holiday to say Florida, Mexico, Hawaii, Australia, Ecuador, etc. for a few weeks. We both agreed we liked that idea better. We also are a bit wary of the idea of depressing grey dreary rainy winters out west vs the crazy amount of blue sky days we get here (333 a year) and the potential feeling of being “stranded” on an island (granted it a very large island and there are many ferries to get to the mainland but it’s still a time and money drag).<\/span><\/p>\n

Why move? We absolutely love overlooking a conservation area, seeing deer out of our window, watching bald eagles soar above us, and being steps from a pretty sweet playground for Finn. But our long term dream home would be a single-story bungalow, single-family detached home (vs a townhouse), with a fireplace and a larger private yard with mature trees. And it wouldn’t be located at the top of a large hill rather it would be more central and walkable to many of the services we access weekly. I have been SO discouraged from biking around town because I know there is a monster climb at the end to get back home which mentally plays tricks with me.<\/span><\/p>\n

What Happened?<\/span><\/h2>\n

One of Nic’s favorite hobbies is to scan realtor.ca for houses for sale. Instead of Facebook, she goes on the Realtor.ca app each morning to check out new listings. I swear, she would make an awesome realtor. The price range we’d be looking to move to at some point would be in the $350,000-$400,000 range. She’s constantly sending me links for homes and\/or land all over the place in AB and BC and we’d nitpick them all. Not the best location for us. Weird layout. Too much wood. Not enough wood. Hardly any yard. No view. Sweet outdoor hot tub. Awesome garden. Funky bathroom. Scary basement. Would we buy land and build a\u00a0<\/span>Knotty Pine cabin<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on it instead? Tiny home? Out in the country or within a town? Yada, yada, yada. It’s really helped us figure out what we are really looking for in a home. While I love the idea of living in a tiny home, realistically this would be more of a play down the road once it’s just Nic and I and no kid(s).<\/span><\/p>\n

Nic found a single-story home in our town in one of the older more mature neighborhoods that was move-in ready but definitely needed some work\/upgrades. The yard was large but bare. The front yard was even starker. The basement was stuck in the 70’s… really, the whole house was. But it checked off the boxes of what we were looking for and would look pretty good down the road after putting in some money and sweat equity. We drove by it and everything looked good from the outside. We contacted the listing realtor to go check it out but by day 2 is was conditionally sold. The realtor asked if we wanted to be added to their “coming soon” email distribution list to see homes online a day or two before they would be posted on the general MLS. Sure.<\/span><\/p>\n

A few weeks later, Nic was on her phone at supper. I barked at her to get off while eating and her response was “I think I found our home”. I was used to this line by now so she sent me the link and put down her phone. A few hours later once Finn was asleep, I finally took a look at the link. Hot damn, I think she actually was right this time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Single-family detached home – check. Single story bungalow style – check. 3 bedrooms on the main floor – check. Fireplace – check (2 of ’em). Open concept – check. Finished basement – check (with another living room area with fireplace, full bath, laundry, storage, and 2 more rooms – one will likely be a guest room and the other a home gym). Nice yard – check. Outdoor fit pit – check. Mature trees – check. Private yard \/fencing – check. Nice deck – check. Not massive – check (1,039 sq ft above ground). Move-in ready – check (everything including kitchen and bathrooms was renovated in 2014). Newer roof – check (roof, windows, water heater, and furnace were replaced in 2014). Hardwood floors- check. Good neighborhood – check (central part of our town, less than 1 km to Finn’s future elementary school, 3 playgrounds in walking distance, treed path system down to the river, no hill & a short bike-able commute to get to the grocery store, library, etc.). The only two downsides we could think of was no garage and closer to the train tracks. The driveway has room for 3 cars and there is ample free street parking out front. Many towns across Canada were built around the train system going east to west. Being close to the tracks means we are close to the core part of town. And there are not stops in our town so there wouldn’t be any horns or beeps from the trains during normal operations.<\/span><\/p>\n

We reached out to the realtor to see if we could go check it out tomorrow, day 1 that it would be listed on the MLS.<\/span><\/p>\n

As soon as we got there I headed right out back to the yard. Yep, I was sold. This is where we are supposed to live. We discussed right then and there with our realtor the next steps for putting in an offer. Later that evening we submitted our offer. It was listed for $400,000 and we put in an offer of $375,000 that was valid until noon the next day. It was priced to sell and could have easily been listed in the $420,000-430,000 range. We heard from them in the morning with their counter of $395,000. Clearly, they weren’t looking to move much on price. We decided $395,000 was still a good price for it and accepted. Later that day after accepting our offer they received 3 more interested buyers. Meaning if we would have waited to put in our offer the next day it would have gone to a bidding war and we would have been out.<\/span><\/p>\n

What The Hell Did We Just Do<\/span><\/h2>\n

Wait, what did we just do…? Did we really just look at a house online on Friday and then subsequently buy that house on Sunday?! Just like that?? What!\u00a0<\/span>We went and saw one single house and boom we bought it<\/span><\/strong>. Nic honestly couldn’t believe her type-A planner wife just agreed to that. What do we do with our current townhouse? Who do we contact for an inspection? How do we get approved for a mortgage?<\/span><\/p>\n

But wait. Time to DEEP CLEAN our house and get it ready to list. WAY easier said than done with a toddler. Wednesday the photographer was coming to take pictures of our home. And by Friday it was listed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Within a\u00a0<\/span>week<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0we viewed a house, put in an offer, had our offer accepted, cleaned our house, staged our house (best we could), had pictures taken, had it listed on the MLS, and shipped out to Nic’s family cabin to keep the place clean from the little monster for showings. Holy. Shitballs. No really… what the hell did we just do?!?<\/span><\/p>\n

Next Steps<\/span><\/h2>\n

We got the inspection completed and nothing major came up. A few minor things that will cost somewhere around $1,000-$2,000 when all is said and done. Clean the vents and furnace. Sand, stain and seal the deck. Things like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wish the mortgage approval was as simple of a story. We had a little over a week to get our mortgage approval sorted out. Not a ton of time but doable. Again, we didn’t get pre-approved as we didn’t think we’d actually be buying something anytime soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

We contacted the mortgage broker we used for our townhouse who requested a whole bunch of info including a letter from my current employer, my T4 (like a W-2 in the States) for 2019 & 2018, and screenshots of all of our account balances. We also contacted another highly reviewed mortgage broker in our town to compare rates. We also reached out to Tangerine but got denied due to our low income (sigh that this is the main thing taken into consideration). Within a few days, we heard back from our original broker that we were approved for a 5 year fixed mortgage at 2.19%. Sweet. We know it’s not the best rate out there but we’re in a rush and that’s better than our current interest of 2.59% of our townhouse thanks to record low-interest rates. Just need the letter to send over. We let the other broker know and she said that’s the same lender who was showing her the best rate and she will hold off as we were approved and good to go. The following day, no letter. The day we needed everything finalized, still no letter. We called that morning, left a voice mail, and emailed our mortgage broker as we needed this sorted asap. Got a voicemail that afternoon stating she’s having to talk to upper management at the lending bank to get approval. Excuse me what? What happened between now and last week when we were told we were approved? Apparently, thanks to COVID, lenders are really taking a much deeper dive into their approval process. I totally get it and respect it. But don’t tell us we were approved and then crickets until the day we need it in our hands with still no sign of it. When our finances show that we have the funds to buy this place outright 4 times over, why are we struggling to get financing? Thanks to the power of FI, I willingly chose to reduce my income to a part-time role at the end of 2019. So my earnings for 2020 are lower compared to my T4 from 2019 and 2018. The lenders assumed this was due to a COVID related job loss and didn’t want to lend to us. Thankfully we were able to clear up the mixup last minute and we received the letter the afternoon of the last day to secure it or else we’d lose the house.<\/span><\/p>\n

So let this serve as a note to anyone pursuing the RE part of FIRE – realize that it will be MUCH harder to secure a mortgage when your income drops!<\/span><\/p>\n

The rate came down before closing so we were able to lock in at 2.04%. While this is a very low rate and are grateful for it, we are aware there are even lower rates out there but we didn’t have the luxury of time to properly shop around. We are still very happy with this rate but if you are in the market these days, you may be able to get a rate closer to 1.50% which is just crazy. Just be aware that some of these financial institutions come with hefty fees if you try to pay off the mortgage early, refinance elsewhere, and may not come with many pre-payment options.<\/span><\/p>\n

What Can You Buy Just Outside Calgary for $400,000<\/span><\/h2>\n

Alright, we got the house! Wanna see it? These pictures are meant to show you what you can realistically purchase just outside Calgary for just under $400,000. The main floor is 1,039 square feet with 3 beds and 1.5 baths. Downstairs is another 1,039 square feet of finished living space with another bedroom, office, full bath, laundry\/storage, and living space. There’s a 455 square foot deck in the back. It was built in the late 1970s and was upgraded throughout in 2014. I guess it would be rude to have all this house talk without actually showing pictures. Here it is!<\/span><\/p>\n