If you are thinking about
buying your first home… this is the blog for you!
Let me start by
introducing myself. I am Alyssa and I live with my parents, my 3 siblings and
two cats. Life is crazy and I never seem to have a minute for myself! I
graduated from college almost 4 years ago and like most college grads found
myself living back with my parents. After experiencing what it’s like to be on
my own, I have known for a long time that I had no long terms plans for
continuing to live with my parents. However, as the money cautious person that
I am, renting seemed to be the worst idea in the world. I just couldn’t imagine
giving my hard earned money away to a landlord when I could be saving it to get
myself further ahead. This is where I landed on the idea of buying a house!
I have been saving for
probably about three years and said that I wouldn’t start looking until I had
reached my set goal. I had almost reached that goal this past fall and decided
it was time to start looking to see what I could afford and start thinking
about what I wanted in my first home.
As a single girl looking
to buy her first home, I knew I wouldn’t be very handy. I knew I didn’t want to
be spending every waking hour working on my house, not to mention I wanted to
know that I had a few dollars to eat or maybe go out once and awhile. The more
I thought about it, an older home just wasn’t really going to work for me. Here
are the conclusions I came to:
·
I didn’t want
to be changing my roof in two years
·
I didn’t want
to update my windows in three years
·
I didn’t want
to run the risk of bad electrical
·
I didn’t want
to have questionable plumbing
·
I didn’t want
to be living with someone else’s version of a DIY home renovation
·
I DEFINITELY
didn’t want to be living a life of constant renovations
So after really thinking
about want I really didn’t want in my first home, I landed on the idea of a new
townhome. I don’t have a lot of money to play with but I was willing to push my
budget by a very minimal amount to get what I wanted.
This is where I must
reveal that I have the advantage of knowing more about new homes than most; I
have been working for Parkview Homes for the past two years. I know A LOT about
new homes, I know many plans inside and out, the advantages and disadvantages
of buying new and I have the knowledge of the new home industry that a regular
first time homebuyer wouldn’t normally be exposed to.
Even though I know a lot
about new homes I still did a lot of research and thinking to make sure that it
was the best choice for me. Here are some of the conclusions I came to as to
why I was leaning towards a new townhome:
·
Personalized
floorplan – I will explain more about this in a later blog.
·
Long closing
date – I wanted extra time to save!
·
Little to no
updating
·
Great community/location
– I get to be in the West End of Peterborough without paying West End prices or
being in an older home
·
I get to
choose my own interior selections – I don’t have to live with anyone else’s
taste, until I have the money to change them
·
Everything was
new! – new electrical, new plumbing, new flooring, new windows, new roof, new
appliances, new kitchen, new toilets NEW EVERYTHING!
·
Fantastic
resale value
After comparing my list of
what I didn’t want in an older home to what I could get in a new townhome it
was a no brainer for me, I had to go with the new home. It is what made the
most sense for me.
So on November 17, 2013,
after many, many, many loooong nights of estimating all my possible costs,
budgeting every cent I have and many conversations and discussions with family
and friends about what they thought of my plan, I signed an agreement to
purchase my new townhome in Jackson Creek Meadows!
My house won’t be ready
until Fall of 2014, but that is exactly how I wanted it. It gives me plenty of
extra time to save, stock up on all the necessities and really get excited!
My plan is to make this
blog a series so that you can follow along the new home buying process with me!
In my next blogs I will talk about the fun process of personalizing my
floorplan, my Design Studio Selection Process and anything else exciting that
happens!
Talk to you soon,
Here are a few resources
if you are thinking about buying your first home or a new home:
Jackson Creek Meadows –
Townhomes
Jackson Creek Meadows –
Community
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