“Mum, Dad, I am tired of living with roommates. I’ve been doing that since I was a student. I am a grown-ass woman now and want to live like a career woman and not a student. Mikey and I are planning to move in together and rent a place that we can afford on our salaries.”
Said our daughter who is now living and working in Vancouver, BC.
Then we uttered the words we could never take back (nor did we want to), “Rent? How about funneling your salaries to paying off a mortgage. That would be the smarter financial move. We can help with the deposit.”
And that is how it began. The journey to helping our daughter own a house.
When we had uttered that now-infamous line, our daughter replied with “Well, you know, I’ve always set myself a goal of owning my own house before I turn 30!?”
And so it began. The grand plan to help our daughter and her boyfriend, Mike, purchase their own house in Vancouver, BC.
As none of us had any idea on how to go about buying a property in Canada, the first thing our daughter Liyana was tasked with was to find out what needed to be done and what incentives were there for first-time home buyers.
Luckily Mike had friends into property and they were the first people Mike and Liyana turned to. The friends introduced them to their property agent and more information was obtained. Then it was time to ask the banks about what kind of loans were available and what incentives there were.
A couple of months after the “utterance” it was our time to take action. Liyana had been advised that one step she and Mike could take was to show that they had enough money in their retirement funds, to put down a deposit. (I am not too clear on what it was but suffice to say, they needed to show they had enough money to be taken seriously by property agents and owners. No Money, No Talk, I suppose).
Since we were the ones that had made the “utterance”, we could not be the ones that started to dilly dally and delay the inevitable. It was now time to “put our money where our mouth was”.
We weighed various options and the time it would take to liquidate certain assets and finally came to the conclusion that my crypto holdings would be the best option.
I will be honest, it was not an easy decision. To let go of Bitcoins I had held since the time it was USD 1,000 plus range, (at the time of this happening, August 2021, Bitcoin was trading around USD 45,000 plus).
Yet it was not a difficult decision either. To be able to help our daughter own an asset and achieve a goal. It was a financial decision that made logical and emotional sense. And there was no way I would be able to take my crypto with me into the afterlife.
After Liyana checked with her crypto exchange and got the green light, the transfer was made. Some Bitcoin and some Ethereum. And I thought, OK Liyana, quickly cash that out now in case the prices fall. But Liyana had other ideas and some documentation to clear. It would be close to a month later when she cashed the coins.
If I recall correctly, Liyana converted the crypto into Canadian around end Sept or October when the prices were HIGHER than when I had sent it. What a windfall!
Then we waited for Liyana to get the green light that the funds had been in their retirement fund accounts long enough to be eligible to be put against a mortgage.
We thought it would be plain sailing from then on. Go to open houses, check out the places, the neighborhood and then put in a bid, if they liked the place. I could not have been more wrong.
Since the pandemic was still lingering, all properties were viewed online AND the time Liyana and Mike chose to purchase an apartment in Vancouver was also the time when house prices went crazy. Listings at CAD$ 450,000 would close at CAD$650,000 or more. Bids that Liyana and Mike put in on some places were not even close to the final price.
Liyana and Mike were getting despondent and frustrated as well. Some calls with Liyana ended up with us encouraging her to keep at it, “The place that is meant for you and Mike will appear.” But when we realized that it was a bidding war, we offered to send additional funds to them to help them build a stronger war chest. This time, it was via the conventional bank wire transfer.
Not too long after that, Liyana and Mike put a bid on a property they had visited before. A different unit in the same development. There was still a bit of back and forth on price and terms and conditions, but finally, they secured the winning bid.
In less than a year from the “utterance”, Liyana and Mike became Homeowners.
So how do you Own a House before you turn 30?
– Get parents to make financial utterances like “its better to put your salaries to a mortgage rather than rent. At least you will own the property down the road.”
– Make sure crypto is at the high end
– Have a strong war chest. If not strong enough, find a way to supplement it
– Chill. Coz the apartment, house that is meant for you will end up in your hands.
