Our First Home!
Over the past three weeks, we have found and purchased a house in Regina. To buy your first home online, without ever seeing it in person, is strange! Luckily we had a great realtor, Cortné, and wonderful new friends, Kevin and Dauminique, who all went over the place with a fine toothed comb. We also had a lucky break finding Glen, an amazing broker who was able to help us American citizens with no job prospects get a Canadian mortgage. And as it turns out, that is NOT an easy thing to do.
The house was on the market for $85,000 Canadian (about $76,000 U.S.), but unlike the Bay Area, apparently in Regina you always offer less than the list price. We ended up getting it for $76,000 Canadian ($68,000 U.S.), and our mortgage is going to be about $260 a month. Canadian. That's $233 U.S. If you want to have fun with currency exchange rates, here's a link for you:
http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html
The neighborhood is nice, with lots of big trees, and our place is just a couple of blocks from a big park and the main bike path that runs through town along the creek; in fact, the path goes all the way to the University, about four miles away. About five blocks from our front door is the open prairie, with nothing but fields and big skies for miles and miles and miles. Here is a satellite image from Google Earth where you can see the creek and the bike path (click on image to see it bigger):
The house is about 1100 square feet, plus a full basement, a garage and a front and back yard. Here it is nestled in the trees. It's the little yellow one peeking out from behind the foliage (thanks for the pic, Kevin):
Cortné took all of these next pictures. They're pretty nice.
Here is the gingerbread house. It's so yellow.
Nice front yard. We'll have to invest in a leaf rake. And hedge trimmers.
Back yard with barbecue pit and garage.
The back of the house. You can see the edge of the deck.
The front entrance from the living room.
Dining room.
From the front entrance.
The Den! This is where the men can hang out and smoke cigars and drink brandy. The sliding doors go to the deck.
Kitchen. It's small but we like the way it looks. See the sunflowers?
The house is known as a "war-time" house, and a "one-and-a-half" story house. The two little bedrooms are on the second floor, with those cozy slanted ceilings that are right under the roof.
In addition to the 1100 square feet upstairs, there is a full basement to run around in.
We're super excited and can't wait to pull up out front, walk up to the front door, and step inside our first home for the first time! We take possession on August 10th, but the sale was final on June 28th.
Woohoo!
If you're interested in buying a house in Regina, get in touch with the wonderful Cortné Copeland at Adam Niesner Realty.
And if you need help with your Canadian mortgage, here's our magical broker, Glen Kelleway.
Yes, the winters are brutal. But the air is clean, the cost of living is low, and the people are friendly. And you can get a house for under $70,000.
The house was on the market for $85,000 Canadian (about $76,000 U.S.), but unlike the Bay Area, apparently in Regina you always offer less than the list price. We ended up getting it for $76,000 Canadian ($68,000 U.S.), and our mortgage is going to be about $260 a month. Canadian. That's $233 U.S. If you want to have fun with currency exchange rates, here's a link for you:
http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html
The neighborhood is nice, with lots of big trees, and our place is just a couple of blocks from a big park and the main bike path that runs through town along the creek; in fact, the path goes all the way to the University, about four miles away. About five blocks from our front door is the open prairie, with nothing but fields and big skies for miles and miles and miles. Here is a satellite image from Google Earth where you can see the creek and the bike path (click on image to see it bigger):
The house is about 1100 square feet, plus a full basement, a garage and a front and back yard. Here it is nestled in the trees. It's the little yellow one peeking out from behind the foliage (thanks for the pic, Kevin):
Cortné took all of these next pictures. They're pretty nice.
Here is the gingerbread house. It's so yellow.
Nice front yard. We'll have to invest in a leaf rake. And hedge trimmers.
Back yard with barbecue pit and garage.
The back of the house. You can see the edge of the deck.
The front entrance from the living room.
Dining room.
From the front entrance.
The Den! This is where the men can hang out and smoke cigars and drink brandy. The sliding doors go to the deck.
Kitchen. It's small but we like the way it looks. See the sunflowers?
The house is known as a "war-time" house, and a "one-and-a-half" story house. The two little bedrooms are on the second floor, with those cozy slanted ceilings that are right under the roof.
In addition to the 1100 square feet upstairs, there is a full basement to run around in.
We're super excited and can't wait to pull up out front, walk up to the front door, and step inside our first home for the first time! We take possession on August 10th, but the sale was final on June 28th.
Woohoo!
If you're interested in buying a house in Regina, get in touch with the wonderful Cortné Copeland at Adam Niesner Realty.
And if you need help with your Canadian mortgage, here's our magical broker, Glen Kelleway.
Yes, the winters are brutal. But the air is clean, the cost of living is low, and the people are friendly. And you can get a house for under $70,000.
posted by Chrystene at 11:46 AM
3 Comments:
Woo Hoo! you 2!!
I'm already looking forward to the many adventurous stories. From the looks of it, Mighty Mother Nature is going to be an exciting pivotal character. Congrats again. Can't wait for poker under the prairie skies...
That's a really nice house! I like the hardwood flooring and crown moulding. If you want those things in the SF Bay Area, it's, oh... about 90,000 Canadian Dollars!
Raul, raking leaves sucks. Be strong, bro.
I'll bring Noah up and we can shoot some hoops, eh!
Does the house come with all that darling furniture?
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