Property 1 Hunt: Week 1-2

I have been on the hunt for the perfect property to invest in for the last couple of weeks now.

If you are new to my blog, the goal of my property 1 hunt would be to find a suitable piece of real estate to rent to my aunt.

It turns out that the search for prime real estate may be harder than I have thought and it is definitely time consuming as well. In the last couple of weeks, I had been meeting up with my real estate agent nearly every other day in search of my perfect property.

In fact, just yesterday I had put in a bid for a condo unit that I liked but it turns out that the seller did not like my offer. Here is what went down:

The bidding war

I had found what I thought to be a suitable condo unit earlier this week and it was listed at a very attractive price.

Unfortunately, unlike most other condo units, it had turned out that the seller purposely had set a low price on the listing to trigger a bidding war.

The price that it listed for was $290,000 and that was what I had offered. Apparently, this low price was to get more bidders to come into this and start fighting each other for a higher price.

I did not want to play into this game and that’s why I had decided to pass. Ironically, after my agent inquired about the unit today, it turns out that the price the seller had in mind was not met and no offers were accepted.

The location

The location of where I want to purchase an investment property has already been set. Not only is that neighbourhood a fast approaching area, it is also near my aunt’s workplace. My aunt had told me that she will be a long term tenant, so ideally the location should be convenient for her as well.

As for other amenities, the area I am looking to invest in has malls, good public transit and a soon to built University campus where I can rent out to students should my aunt decide to move out.

Lower floors vs high floors

I had notice that there are more condos on the lower floor for sale in this area and that has gotten me thinking whether the higher floors are better.

Although my real estate agent had assured me that there isn’t and it is entirely based on preference, I would like to look into this issue myself before rushing into the purchase.

One thing for sure is that the lower floors are listed at a lower price than the higher floor units. What are your thoughts?

The next step

In terms of what to do next, I am going to look into these lower floor units even further and see if I can negotiate a dirt-cheap price for them. I believe that it should not matter as long as the location is right for the buyers that may be interested in the future

That’s it for now! I will provide another update shortly.

Any advice for a first time home buyer? I would love to hear from you.