Oh one more thing...try and pay off the student loan as soon as possible b/c it will affect your TGDS ratios and limit the amount available for your payments...talk to your broker about debt consolidation to reduce those payments.

 

You sound like a professional islandphile. [img]smile.gif[/img]

 

Whatever gave u that idea?? [img]graemlins/dunno.gif[/img]

 

i'm not sure how it works around there, but here if you are buying a property for rental purposes, you require a 25% down payment instead of 0-5% if you are just buying it to live in... so i don't know if bringing in the letters from friends with intent to rent will really help unless you have a bunch of cash saved up..

 

As long as the property is your principal residence you will not need to put down as much money as you would for a pure investment revenue property. In certain sections of Victoria people are buying homes with suites with 5% down everyday as long as they intend on living in the home. (Some intend to and move in for a while, later renting it out instead) A good mortgage broker will be gold here...I have seen many people purchase investment revenue houses with a suite for 10-15% down on a purchase where they are not intending to move in, depending on where it is located in Canada...local economy & rental conditions play a role.

PGChris you're right in one respect....If the property has 4 or more units, weather you live in one unit or not, it is considered commercial property in which case you will pay commercial rates of interest and it is difficult to find financing unless you have 25-35% down depending on where the property is located and some other factors such as is it purpose built or a conversion etc.

 

If you have the money to drop for a down payment do it! (I don't know about downpayments, one guy said 25% I thought it was 15% but that could be dependant on where you live). You buy the house, and everyone pays YOU rent to cover the mortgage. Then you can take the money you would normally have to pay for rent and put it towards paying off more of the principle.

But I agree with above, don't do co-ownership. If you're going to buy, you buy it all yourself.

 

If he's first time buyer he only needs 5% down which is nice, and if credit is really good like perfect some places will do the $0 down as well.

 

hmmm well went to the bank today. She did a whole buncha stuff...not totally sure of it all. Consolidation loan and yada yada....somehow came up with the idea that i was worth about $4000 of a downpayment (not sure where that came from) and that if i could come up with a grand on my own, that'd generally be 5% of something which would make me good for about $120,000.

Told me i'm best off to get my bro in on it, and if he's good for a bit, shouldn't be tough to get up into $150,000 where you can actually get a somewhat decent house.

So i dunno how good the above is or not, the lady at the bank that did this all for me was pretty stoked about it all...she was more excited then i was. Just gotta try n get my bro down there.

 

Ya it's nice owning a house, I bought one back in August. Remember though when something does break or go wrong, you have to foot the bill cause you're the landlord.
To put it simply in my situation, I've had to deal with this n that, which has costed me a bucket load of dough. Plus some renovations of a few rooms, stuff here n there etc.. etc... it never ends being a home owner.
My buying of new car audio gear has suffered, my other luxury items have suffered as well but at least I own my own house.
A guy has to remember these sad but true points.
It's a huge step to take, I wish you all the best. Merry Christmas [img]smile.gif[/img]