Congratulations on your decision to buy a new house or condo in Toronto! There is a lot to know about the purchase process, but don’t worry I will make it simple for you!

Step 1: Determine your Budget

Unless you are planning to buy a house or condo cash, I would definitely recommend to speak with a mortgage specialist as a first step and get pre-approved for mortgage! When pre-qualifying you for mortgage, your mortgage specialist will look at your income, debts, and down payment and inform you on how much mortgage you can get, how much your monthly payments are going to be, the interest rate and help you make informed decisions. You are welcome to approach your bank or your network of people to find a reliable mortgage specialist. If you need my help, I can always refer you to good mortgage specialists as well!

Step 2: House Hunting

After determining your budget, you are ready to start looking for your dream house or condo! As a first step of house hunting, I usually like to share a list of recently sold properties within your price limit to help you shape up the expectations. Afterwards, based on the criteria you are looking for, by using a real time search tool, I start sharing listings matching your criteria with you, and together we go out seeing properties!

Step 3: Making an Offer

Offer date is could be very exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. Your realtor will take you through all the details of offer process, and will prepare your offer with the price you are offering, your ideal closing date and the conditions you may have. Once your offer is submitted, there are 3 possible scenarios: it could be accepted, rejected or signed back with a counter offer by the seller. At this stage, you can rest assured that I will negotiate the best price possible for you! If you offer is accepted; congratulations, you can move on to the next step. If is rejected, don’t worry; we can continue our search until we find the one for you! 

Step 4: Prepare for Closing

Closing date is the date when the ownership of the property gets transferred over to you from the seller. Once you have a signed, firm agreement of purchase and sale, you have to be in close contact with your lender and lawyer as the rest of the paperwork and the money transfer will be handled by them. I will coordinate all the information transfer at this stage and make sure everyone is up to date with all the details!

Here is a quick summary of the closing costs when buying a home in Toronto:

• Deposit: usually 5% of the purchase price, paid within 24 hours of your offer being accepted
• Balance of Purchase Price: the remaining amount after the initial deposit. If you are getting mortgage, this amount will come from the lender.
• Lawyer fees: varies, $1,500 - $2,000
• Mortgage Broker Commission: if applicable
• Land transfer tax: see Land Transfer Tax Calculator
• Tarion Warranty Fees: not applicable to resale properties. Applies to new construction condos and houses only