Buying a House in Hamilton – part 1

As promised, a post about buying a House in Hamilton.

The discussion to move had been happening for quite a few months. There was back and forth about location and type of housing: Guelph or Hamilton? Apartment or House? For S, the important thing was that it wasn't a 1-bedroom, and not a condo. Oh, preferably two bathrooms. Beyond that, almost anything goes.

Economically, it made much more sense to live in Hamilton. The homes are more affordable, and since I have to do most of the daily commuting, there would be a savings on gas, as well. We were sad to leave Guelph, but on our meager salaries/stipends, it was very difficult to justify that cost.

So, we started gradually, on our own, just browsing the MLS.  We figured we were limited to the low $200K range, so that's where we focused our search.

Unfortunately, that also limits where in Hamilton we could live. Ideally, we would look in Westdale or Dundas, nice areas near the University. But the reality is that houses in those areas don't go on the market in that range. So, while we crossed our fingers, hoping that something would magically appear, we turned our eyes to different areas. There's the mountain, which isn't really a mountain, but the top part of hill. Reasonably affordable. There's also downtown and the surrounding area. Also fairly cheap and plentiful.

But! and this is a big But! The houses we starting look at in those areas (in our range) were just disasters. Particularly the basements. Ugh, just thinking about them makes me cringe. Basements always hide the dirty laundry, so to speak. Water damage, cracked floors, dirt, and other manner of bad things. I have to admit, I wasn't really taken with the area on the mountain we drove through, either. Kind of drab and sprawling.

It became clear that we needed an agent. But how to choose? Well, we took an easy way out, and contacted Aeromove - Aeroplan's service for hooking you up with an agent. You use one of theirs, and they give you a few thousand Aeroplan points. Fair deal.

<to be continued>