Personal Finance

House Downpayment. How did you get yours?

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  • Apr 6th, 2012 1:40 am
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Deal Addict
May 14, 2010
1065 posts
111 upvotes
Halifax

House Downpayment. How did you get yours?

Anyone willing to share experiances on how they came up with a down payment?

Was it a gift from a family memeber?

Did you save it on your own? with a spouse?

Did it take months? years? decades?

Was there anything special that allowed you to save? Lived at home? went to school while living at home?

Or did you work 2 or 3 jobs and save like crazy?

Provide as much or little detail as you see fit.
57 replies
Jr. Member
Feb 23, 2011
180 posts
36 upvotes
I just bought my frist condo, at 22 years old. I'm single.

Started working at 19 years old as a IT technician, and at that time I was living at my parents place. I had my room in the basement, so it was ok.

Stayed there for about 4 more years, I was not spending too much, thus I bought everyting I wanted ( sportbike, comptuer, decent TV set ... )

I was able to save enough to pay 20% of the condo. Now I pay my mortage and I count every dollars that commes into my wallet! :razz: Thus, this is why im here, at redflagdeals ;)
Deal Expert
User avatar
Nov 2, 2003
17117 posts
3872 upvotes
GTA
there are two answers to your question, depending on whether the house you're purchasing is your primary residence or an investment property.

for investment property, the downpayment should be debt financed for greatest leverage, tax writeoff. the easiest is from your HELOC on your primary residence.

for primary residence, you should save up and put down the money. for me, it was savings.
Deal Fanatic
Mar 24, 2008
6278 posts
2753 upvotes
Toronto
Tips on saving for a downpayment:

- Keep living on a student budget even after you get a "proper" job.
- If you're married, live on single person's salary.
Deal Guru
Dec 11, 2008
13064 posts
3754 upvotes
I had a job coming out of university and had some money saved up, paid off OSAP first while I was still at home. Took me about 2.5 yrs to save up 20% of the downpayment while living at home. Expenses were really just sharing some utilities, telecom and some meals/food along with my own auto insurance etc.

And I did it on my own.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Sep 30, 2003
3906 posts
130 upvotes
Toronto
Bought a condo a few yrs ago with a 10% DP. That DP was based on crazy savings after working for a few years etc. We aggressively paid down the mortgage on the condo and when we sold to buy our house, the equity paid for the DP on the house. It helped big time that the condo value appreciated >50% in ~4 yrs.
--
There is no happy ending
Member
May 18, 2006
407 posts
29 upvotes
Etobicoke
Hard work and counting pennies.
Only asked parents for a small amount to get to the 20%...

From $0 to 20% downpayment in less than 3 years...
Deal Addict
User avatar
Jan 20, 2009
3698 posts
119 upvotes
With spouse. We were close to having our down payment, when our landlord decided to sell the house we were renting at the time. So a friend of ours was nice enough to lend us a bedroom for 4 months! :lol: We threw everything in storage and lived out of 200 sq ft for 4 months...it was tough, but it would have taken 12-18 months to save the amount of money we did in 4 basically living for free...
Deal Fanatic
Apr 20, 2011
7747 posts
2750 upvotes
ON
Lived with parents, no rent. Saved up a good chunk of it myself and they topped up so I could get 20% and avoid CMHC fees.
I'll pay them back over time, though :p
Sr. Member
User avatar
Dec 19, 2007
582 posts
31 upvotes
Markham
Had coop in university, lived at home during all coop terms. The coop term paid all my tuition/living expenses for the next study term. I only had 9k osap when I graduated. Once I learned the interest rate was like 6%, I borrowed 9k from my parents to pay it off right away; then pay them back in 3 month.
Lived with my parents for 4 years after graduation, helped them with house expenses, and also save up DP for myself. Previous company was sold, and got about 20k from stock options, that's when I had enough DP for a small house 3.5 yrs ago.
Now looking back, I am glad I bought that small house 3.5 yrs ago. :razz:
Deal Expert
User avatar
Oct 28, 2004
24666 posts
8737 upvotes
Toronto
Saved, saved and saved after going to grad school (and paying for my grad degree which took most of my life savings)...

Took about 4 yrs to save 20% downpayment...I didn't live too frugally but didn't spend like a drunken sailor either during the 4yrs.

I was very disciplined in my spending...only paying to go on once-a-year-trips, buying clothes when needed (mainly for work), not spending too much money on gadgets (i.e. I had a phone, 5-6yr old computer etc) while also giving my parents monthly money (I was living at home and even though the money wasn't enough to cover food & utilities, it wasn't a small amount either)...

Same approach now that I have my condo....I don't spend on toys, don't spend crazy amounts on clothes etc...

Saving for the wedding and paying off the mortgage...though the wedding cost is crazy high....

Gluck!
Jr. Member
Oct 18, 2006
115 posts
74 upvotes
i never understood either going into debt for a wedding, or not using the money that would have gone for a crazy expensive wedding as a house downpayment or something of the like. my wife & i, after getting money from our wedding as gifts paid our student loans off, we kept our wedding costs to the bare minimum, didnt invite a million people we never see, and got married in an off season. then we saved for a few years, and bought our 1st place with 25% down.
Member
User avatar
Mar 1, 2012
376 posts
39 upvotes
Lucky people had parents to help them out with their down payment.. Either living with them or had them giving u the money to help out...




Newbie
Mar 26, 2012
3 posts
1 upvote
SAINT-JEAN-CHRYSOSTO…
I bought my first house using a little trick with HBP from canadian government:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs ... u-eng.html

I took a loan 25 000$ from a bank and invest that in RRSP.
I got a tax return of 9000$ -> House Downpayment
90 days after the investment, I used HBP to get the 25000$ RRSP back and reimbursed the loan to the bank.

Then you have 15 years to put 25000$ back into RRSP. :)

If you already have RRSP, you can get them out without paying taxes if you "reimburse yourself" in less then 15 years.
Deal Addict
May 14, 2010
1065 posts
111 upvotes
Halifax
thanks for the replies so far.

Interesting to hear the different stories. Keep them coming.
Newbie
Mar 6, 2006
93 posts
3 upvotes
Toronto
Have you guys considered moving out of Toronto/Vancouver? Sure, the restaurants won't be as good, but you would save a ton on downpayment and mortgage. I moved to a mid sized city in US, saved up while sharing a 2 bdrm with a roommate, bought a condo with 25% down, funded 6 months of emergency expenses, maxed out retirement savings all in the first year. The US housing bust helped a lot, as I paid about half of what the 1st buyer paid in 2007 when the condo was new.
Also, I'm surprised you only need 20% down to buy a condo in Canada. In US, you need 20% for house and 25% for condo to get the best mortgage rate (probably because when the bubble burst, condos fell a lot harder than houses).
Banned
User avatar
Dec 1, 2011
2427 posts
342 upvotes
Winnipeg
ji2o0k wrote: though the wedding cost is crazy high....

you think that's expensive, wait til you divorce, better start saving for that too :D

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