My Experience of buying a house in Ottawa

Home In Ottawa!

I moved to Ottawa, from Brampton, in November 2019, due to job relocation, with a lot of ambitions and dreams. I owned a house in Brampton, which I had to rent out to tenants, before leaving. In Ottawa, I, along with my wife, rented a 2 bedroom apartment, close to downtown. We were paying $1705/month for the unit, including utilities. Life was going very smoothly with my loving wife beside me, and the permanent work from home opportunity, due to the COVID19 pandemic. I read a lot about the predictions of the pandemic financial crisis and its impacts on everyday living. I was regularly monitoring the Brampton real estate trends over the web, along with deep discussions with my realtor cousins Rajvir Deol and Ketan Sharma. I trust both Ketan and Rajvir, who are highly knowledgeable in the real estate field, with enriched experiences! Pandemic predictions and high rent triggered us to sell our Brampton property in mid-June, 2020, and to simultaneously start searching for a house in Ottawa.

I started my search on realtor.ca, zolo.ca, and findottawarealestate.ca, as I find them to be more user friendly. Though I was not actively looking for a new house in June, I started engaging with people who had bought new houses in Ottawa in the last one year. I also spoke to a realtor who started sending me MLS listings. I remember I had specifically asked her to send me listings of a house that was listed less than $600,000, but she did not put any filter and all I got was listings that ranged between $300,000 to $5 Million. I did not like the realtor's approach as she could not fulfill my single criteria - "budget". I asked the realtor to stop the MLS listings and interviewed another realtor, Elisabeth Hamilton, who was recommended by one of my workplace friends. I liked her approach. She sent us a greeting email with a link to google forms, which had diverse questions to carve out our house expectations. This was followed by a zoom meeting, explaining the buying process and then, a formal in-person meeting. We asked to put the filters for a single-family detached house in Kanata or Stittsville, built after the year 2000. She started sending MLS listings to us, well within our budget.

We went to see 3 houses, all less than 6 years of age, in Stittsville and Kanata on 19 July. Out of these, one was completely ruled out as it was quite small and it did not meet our requirement. This was the house that we were looking forward for as we really liked the pictures and the listing description. The house looked very spacious In photos but we found out that it was not when actually visited the property. I would like to share a tip - that do not trust the MLS listing pictures, indeed visit the property to have the vibe. Though we somewhat liked the second house in Stittsville, my wife had reservations about the neighborhood which was dusty and muddy, as it was still in the construction zone. We liked the third one in Kanata (Emerald Meadows) but our Brampton house was not sold yet and we were not in a position to put an offer. These houses were sold for $600,000,  $655,000 and $656,000 respectively. The high selling prices shocked us, as our budget was way less. My Brampton house was ultimately sold at the end of July, at an unexpectedly high price! We got some confidence and increased our budget to $620,000 for a house in Kanata (Beaverbrook). We already knew that it had a very small kitchen, 7.8 x 8.9, and it was sold for $650,000. We were quite sad with the Ottawa market trends as in June, a similar house was selling between $610,00 - 630,000. However, we stayed positive and put an offer for another house with a finished basement, which was on one of the last streets of Stittsville urban area. Considering the geographical location, we put an offer at the asking price of $600,000, with 4 hours of time for the seller to decide. We did not hear anything from the selling agent and when we called after the given time, we were advised to give 24 hours of time to the seller to decide and we submitted another offer with $10,000 more and the new timings. We again did not hear anything from the selling agent even after 24 hours, we were hoping for some communication to negotiate the deal as we raised our offer by another $10,000, an indication that we were willing to negotiate. The next day, we got to know that the house was sold for $638,000. We were quite depressed, as we were willing to increase the amount but the selling agent did not give us any chance to negotiate. Two days later, we put an offer at a closeby property at $625,000 considering its unfinished basement. We lost this bid as well, by a minor margin of $6,000. We were sad about missing this house but we were happy as by now, we knew that we were on the right track. Another tip - Do not attach your heart with any property, else you would feel sad and depressed if you loose the house bid. The same day, in the evening, we looked at two houses in Kanata North and Stittsville South and liked both. The Kanata one was accepting offers later, so we decided to try our luck at the Stittsville South house. We really liked the neighborhood. People here were very cheerful and multi-cultural. Moreover, it was close to express bus-stops, trails, and parks. Plus, the neighborhood looked quite posh, as all the houses were single-family detached units. The house was one of the finest we had explored to date, with 4 Bedrooms. It was a 2009 built unit of hardwood and ceramic on the main floor, with separate family, living and dining rooms, eat-in kitchen with desk area, island with wine rack, and a marvelous backyard! We got to know, that a similar house of 2015 build was sold at a whopping amount of $700,000. Our agent advised us to put a very competitive offer considering the new real estate trends, we put a firm offer with no conditions and crossed our fingers. The joyful moment came as we got the house at a great price! 

Our search for a dream house had come to a beautiful end, with a lot of knowledge gained en route! In this quest, I would like to thank the following for their great contribution in guiding me towards getting my cherished abode! 

• My wonderful wife, Jasleen
• Elisabeth Hamilton, the wonderful realtor
• My Mom, Dad, and Mom-in-law
• My Brother, sister-in-law and my nephew
• My sister-in-law
• My cousins, Rajvir Deol and Ketan Sharma, the best Realtors in Brampton

Best Regards

Armaan Singh Sekhon