I am selling my home on my own and have many friends that have also done this sucessfully. I have worked as a Real Estate sales person from 1986 through to early 1990 so have a good appreciation from both perspectives. That being said, I am more then willing to work with Real Estate sales people to help accomodate the sale of my home.
Things to consider before you start looking for a new home.
Get pre-approved by your bank.
Keep in mind when you are looking for a mortgage that they are not all created equally. Things you want are portablility, assumability, a once a year payment with no penalty and an increase in your monthly payment with no penalty. ING Directs allows a once a year payment of 25% of priciple owing and an increase of your monthly payments by 25% without penalty.
A good Mortgage Broker is another source of getting a mortgage with a good interest rate. I was helped by a woman named Laurie Wilson who was excellent and very helpful during the process. If you use the services of a Mortgage Broker, when you do make an offer to purchase go to them first for your financing, don't go to the company they may have you pre-approved with directly. The Mortage Broker will work hard for you and does not get paid unless they bring in the Mortgage to whichever company you may ultimately use. They usually get paid a finders fee with no cost involved for you.
You can also use up to $20,000 of your RRSPs as part of your down payment. Look here for more information on the Home Buyers' Plan (HBP).
Get a lawyer up front as well so you are ready if you find a place to put in an Offer to Purchase. If you start looking for a lawyer after putting an offer in remember that there is usually a time frame for certain conditions to be met for the offer to go through. The last thing you need is to be scrambling around looking for a lawyer at the last minute.
When looking for a house using a Real Estate Sales person can be useful. They will help qualify your needs and be able to offer you places to see and make arrangments to get in to see them and are helpful in many other ways to help you along the way. They will be able to explain and help you with all aspects of Real Estate from Offers to Purchase to Mortgage details, etc.
If you are working with a Real Estate sales person I will work with them to help accommodate the sale. I will meet with them if they would like to view the house before showing it to you. I will pay a 2.5% commission to the sales person upon successful completion of the sale. When an offer is presented by the Real Estate sales person on your behalf, a contract for this one offer is agreed upon and signed by myself and the person you are working with. This assures that the Real Estate person is paid for the work they have done. This is fair.
I am motivated to sell and will do everything possible to work with Real Estate.
You should make sure that you have a lawyer ready for when you will need one.
Get pre-approved by your bank, possibly by a Mortgage Broker.
If you wish to assume the existing mortgage you will have to be pre-approved by the ING Direct Broker Team which is another branch of ING Direct which will handle the approval process for the existing mortgage.
When you first start looking for a house spend some time to realistially determine what is within your budget (if this is your first home). You don't want to be house poor with other aspects of your life put on hold because a high percentage of your resources are tied up in Mortgage payments.
Determine where you would like to live. Look at availibilty of schools, shopping, bus service etc. Barrhaven is a very nice place to live with much more house, for the money.
9 Weybridge Drive is in move in condition.
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More Mortgage considerations.
If you would like to take advantage of the savings of assuming the exisitng ING Direct mortgage at 4.39% there are a number of things to consider. This process can be a bit intimidating but is actually very straight forward. The amount remaining includes the CMHC Insurance premium for the life of the mortgage at a 15% down payment rate.
You will have to be pre-approved by the ING Direct Broker Team to have the option of assuming the present mortgage. If this is a possibility this is the series of steps that would be required. Upon an agreement of price and a signed Offer to Purchase there would be a clause protecting you, if you are not approved for financing allowing the Purchaser to cancel the Offer, with a specific time frame to allow approval for assumption of the exisiting mortgage. Keep in mind that the Offer to Purchase is a legally binding document and all parties must agree to try and fulfill all aspects of it. Your lawyer can explain this to you. At that time you would contact the ING Direct Broker Team personally and they would then start the approval process for you "The Purchaser" to assume the mortgage. They are a good company to deal with but all these processes do take time. Once this has been handled and approved then this clause will be removed from the Offer to Purchase. On the closing day, my lawyer will send documents to ING Direct requesting removal of myself from any legal obligation for the mortgage and then you "The Purchaser" would sign the mortgage papers with ING Direct Broker Team taking over the mortgage on your new home. ING can explain what will happen, more thoroughly, when you apply for the assumption of the mortgage.
The mortgage amount is not static and how much of it will still be remaining will be determined by the closing date. On that agreed upon closing date, the mortgage will be worth a specific amount. If you need less of it than what is available I will pay it down to that level with my option right now of paying 25% of the existing mortgage to match that number as long as it is not more than that amount. If you need even less than 75% of it on that date I would then have to discharge part of the mortgage amount to match it on top of the 25% I can pay off.
If you need more than the amount remaining on the closing date, then things get a bit more complicated. ING Direct has told me it is not possible for them to create a blended, refinanced, mortage until the new owner actually closes the sale and takes posession of the property. What this means is, if you needed more then the approximate amount of $158,000 on June 1, 2006, we'll say $170,000 as an example, you would still be in the 15% bracket for the CMHC to be matched up but would need an extra $12,000 on closing that was not mortgage. In this situation, you may be able to get a temporary Line of Credit from ING Direct or use a present Line of Credit, if you have one, and then refinance it as soon as you take posesssion, assuming they will, given your financial situation. This would have to be arranged by the Purchaser with ING Direct previous to closing. ING Direct has told me it could take upwards of 4-5 business days for pre-approval and upwards of two weeks to go through the refinancing process once you have legal possession of the property. You will pay interest on that Line of Credit during that period. You should be able to determine this in advance by speaking to an ING Direct representative. They have no offices in Ottawa and do everything over the phone and fax.
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