It was off to Halifax. We hit the road the second week of November, 2011. The first stop was with my parents in New Brunswick who were cautiously thrilled with the news. We knew we had to maximize our searching over a short period of two to three days, while we finished the journey to Halifax and stayed in a hotel. It was a very different mood that settled on us. From the moment we entered the city, we felt the familiarity and it encouraged us that we’d made the right choice.

We could also afford to be a bit choosier with what we wanted, although our budget was now scaled back to account for any eventualities here. With the local economy being that much behind Toronto’s, we didn’t want to bite off more than we could chew should our situation change over the longterm. While houses were cheaper, salaries are lower (should I ever need to switch jobs) and the cost of living is generally higher. ( Once everything was settled, our first couple of grocery bills would give us pause.) The other big problem for us is that 90% of the homes here are oil heated and I detest oil heat. Not only are fuel prices at a four-year high, but I’ve heard too many horror stories of the oil deliveryman sticking the pump in and not getting it firmly in the tank. Basements get ruined and if it leaks outside you’re on the hook for environmental clean up. It’s just not worth it. We liked the natural gas in Ontario but very few houses here have it implemented yet. The only one I saw that offered natural gas was a fifty-year-old home that had undergone the upgrade.

Having spent so many years here I have a bit of a network already. I tracked down my old banker for a new, local pre-approval. She’d moved on but referred me to a good mortgage agent at her new branch. They in turn referred us to a local realtor who went around with us for the two days we were in town. He’d prepared some listings at first but since we were well-versed with the MLS website, left it up to us after that. It may have been the case, but travelling with a small infant sometimes means that while you have the skills, you don’t have the time.

We looked at about a dozen houses, I suppose. Our price range and the neighbourhoods we were open to caused us to look first at Timberlea, which was a little far out and the newer constructions didn’t seem too solid from the examples we saw. We saw a couple of listings in Bedford in our price range but they were oddities, perched high up on rock faces. Normally Bedford would be the go-to place for a middle class family like us, but I didn’t want to be on the hook for the extra $30-40k it would likely cost us above budget. I liked the thought of living near the ocean in Eastern Passage but it’s a bit removed from city services and some of the area has a bad reputation. We were about to look at Sackville, but while driving with friends we ended up going through the newer part of Colby Village and quite liked it. We decided to focus on that part of Dartmouth.

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We’ve passed all the major hurdles now, and I’m happy to report that we are enjoying this Sunday evening, sitting back as homeowners now — well, so much as being mortgagers constitutes ownership.

It’s been a real wild ride, especially over the last week, and I’d like to recount a lot of what happened. It’s suitable for several posts and I plan to look at the issues of househunting and homebuying from our persective and recent experience.  I don’t think we are the only ones with buyers’ anxiety these days.  There is a lot of talk of the Canadian real estate bubble bursting, and I’d certainly preached of it happening for the past few years, but we lept in regardless. 

We did it in ways that a Chicken Little like me felt reasonably comfortable.   We saved for a number of years and managed a significant downpayment – so even a “worst case” downgrade in property values wouldn’t put us in an underwater mortage.  We bought through a private sale, and went through a lawyer friend of mine, so we saved significantly on the middleman fees.  We set a strict budget and came in under it for the purchase (which is good because various other spending to get things ready came out higher than we’d budgeted.)  We also picked up stakes to move back east, feeling much more comfort once we focused on finding a house closer to family, and living in a city that both my wife and I had found to be friendly and beautiful from our own experiences.  Sure the economy is rough in the Maritimes – but it’s even rough in Ontario these days – and a real important element was that I am able to continue work for my Mississauga-based company via a home office.

That work resumes tomorrow, so I’ll end this post here and will be off to get some sleep soon.   Over the next short while, I’ll make a point to elaborate on those parts of the story I rhymed off above, so check back in.